Each season I give the opportunity to the turf interns on my staff to be "Superintendent for the Day". Over the years, the interns have really embraced this day, which gives them a little taste of what to expect if they wish to continue down this path.
Throughout the season, each intern is involved with all day-to-day maintenance responsibilities. Everything from mowing greens, fairways, setting the course, bunker raking and edging, to trimming, clean up detail and hand watering. Interns will also learn to calibrate fertilizers and pesticides for various applications. We also incorporate them into other jobs around the course such as drainage projects, tree trimming, pond maintenance and good old shop clean up.
After a couple of months learning the ropes around the course, we give them a week to schedule the staff for daily maintenance. The Thursday of that week, they are solely responsible for the day. Of course if there is something over their head, myself, Justin or Tony will step in to assist.
So this week, Dustin Wester of Hawkeye Community College will take a crack at running the staff today. He has been doing a great job all summer and we feel he is up for the challenge. So if you have any complaints, don't come to me!
What a nice surprise when I was reading your Blog this evening! My husband and I really enjoyed visiting your beautiful golf course! We do not have views like that here in Iowa! It was nice meeting you that day also! Thank you for giving Dustin this wonderful experience!
ReplyDeleteMike and Kris Wester