Attention equipment managers!

Anne’s father, Mark Pilger, is the owner of SIP Grinders, and after a 10-day trip along the East Coast, Rollins fell in love with the job and took the regional sales manager position in 2020. He made his way back to the shop, just in a different form.  

Rollins attended the Michigan GCSA Conference and Trade Show in 2020, just before COVID-19 hit. Over the next nine months, Rollins spent time training and building machines before being sent to visit John Patterson, the certified turf equipment manager at the Atlanta Athletic Club.  

“Mark sent me up there for four days just to see what equipment managers do, what they go through, how important they are,” Rollins says. “And it was right then and there that I realized a golf course doesn't exist without the equipment manager or someone to maintain equipment, to keep that equipment running, that golf c

ourse will not exist. And that's not even my opinion. That's just a fact.” 

While on his visit, Rollins also learned the importance of cutting units for both equipment managers and superintendents. In December 2021, he was asked to present at a Michigan Turfgrass Foundation show.  

“I said, ‘Dude, I don't have a presentation, but I have a ton of information I could try to put into one.’ So, for two weeks, I put a presentation together, and then that was the very first version, or iteration of “Cutline Is King,” and that was, like, 90 slides.”   

After working in the industry for many years, both Pilger and Patterson had created their own presentations on cutting information collected from experiences. Rollins asked permission to use their work, combined the two presentations, cut unwanted pieces, added his own touch and formed his own presentation. Through visiting equipment managers and golf courses every day for his work, Rollins was able to add his own experiences and knowledge to the presentation, “Cutline Is King.”  

“I go out to a different golf course every single day, and if I'm not on a different golf course every single day, I'm usually talking to someone who is on a different golf course in a different environment on a different part of the planet,” Rollins says. “And so, I quickly learned that one setup that works for this guy doesn't work for that guy on that golf course in that environment.” 

The information, tips, techniques and experiences were all given to Rollins for free, so it was only fair his collection of knowledge be shared freely for individuals. The presentation is now in book form, available for download in PDF form.  

“It’s all really good. It’s all really helpful,” he says. “It helps me help others. So let me put it all into one spot, and that’s basically what the book is, too. But it started out as a presentation, and the presentation has over 300 slides at this point.” 

Sharing knowledge has become an important priority in Rollins’ life. While in college, he took a class called “Viral Communications.” For a paper assignment, he wrote about song sampling and remixes, and how artists can take part of one person's work and create something new. That was his favorite paper, and he uses the concept of sampling as an example of his passions now.  

“When you share that information and share that knowledge, somebody might take one thing away from it, but it makes them better, and they can apply that,” he says. “That’s what’s going to grow this industry — any industry for that matter — is sharing that information and that knowledge, and that cheesy saying is a rising tide lifts all boats, it’s the same idea. Sharing that information is going to make us all better.”  

"Cutline Is King" can be summarized in three points:

• First, “In my experience on the road, there are two ways to keep a cutting unit sharp. It’s sharpen or lap it constantly, which wastes a lot of time and material, which both equal money. Or the second way to keep a cutting unit sharp is with geometry.” 
• Second, “Geometry equals measurable data.”  
• And third, “That data provides us with the opportunity to chase uniformity.” 

When Rollins presents, he does his best to not sound commercial, or like he is selling something. He enjoys building trust and relationships with the people he works with. “It's not about me, it's about getting information out there and pushing this whole industry forward.” 

“Cutline Is King” is available as a free download at sipgrinder.com. Since the book's official release November 17, it has been downloaded nearly 1,400 times. Getting a physical copy of the book is on Rollins’ to-do list and will be coming in the near future. 

Kelsie Horner is Golf Course Industry’s assistant editor.