This month on Superintendent Radio Network

November is a busy time. The Carolinas GCSA Conference and Show pulls so many people to Myrtle Beach, another season is wrapping up for many northern courses (and kicking into gear for many southern and western courses), and there’s Thanksgiving, the greatest holiday. So if you missed some podcast episodes on Superintendent Radio Network, we get it — and we have you covered. 

The month opened with a bonus episode we titled Turf Across America. Young turf pros Will Boland and Alex Loesch stopped at our offices early during a 13-day, 3,200-mile road trip from The Union League of Philadelphia, where they started a yearlong internship earlier this year, to PGA West, where that internship will continue through the spring. Traveling in separate pickups (they both need a vehicle in California and plan to return to different states after their internship), they visited a handful of top courses along the way. And, for some reason, they visited us, too. Outside of golf course insight, “It was cool to see the trees changing color,” said Boland, who earned a public health degree at Texas A&M and gravitated to the golf during the pandemic. “We don’t really have fall in Texas.” Loesch was supposed to work as a ski and snowboard instructor in Colorado last year, but a broken ankle sustained while skateboarding curtailed those plans. He too jumped into golf course maintenance with both feet. “I told myself I would never turn down something like this.” Good decision and a must-listen. 

Wonderful Women of Golf featured another turf pro who has been on the road and on the move: Heather Schapals, a Wisconsin native and Wisconsin-Parkside alumna who headed west to California in 2017 and today is the superintendent at Seascape Golf Club in Aptos near Monterey Bay. She talked with Rick Woelfel about working alongside her husband, Michael, who is her mechanic, volunteering at the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, and the importance of setting priorities with a small team. “There are so many things that are important that you want to put at the top of the list, but it changes,” she says. “I set a schedule for the week of what I hope I can get accomplished with the crew and we just see what we can get done each day, depending on play, depending on if somebody calls in sick. It’s a balancing act. It changes every day.” 

I returned this month to Greens with Envy to talk with Guy Cipriano about my recent road trip through Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia, asking superintendents and other turf pros what it takes to land a dream job. Even if you already have what you think is your dream job you can still learn plenty from Jason Stewart of Indianapolis Motor Speedway (which also features the 18-hole Brickyard Crossing), Chad Mark of Muirfield Village Golf Club, and Jason Hollen and Tony Kowalski of Pete Dye Golf Club. “Sometimes we think that everybody in this industry is career-hopping and looking to get to the highest level they possibly can and work at the biggest-name club,” Cipriano said. “But we can forget there are tens of thousands of people who are perfectly happy, satisfied and fulfilled with where they’re working.” 

Have you ever heard of Wapika Ranch? We’re guessing probably not. The golf course includes just nine holes — with nine more in development — and is part of a 6,000-acre cattle ranch in Big Piney, Wyoming — a town of 552 affectionately nicknamed, ahem, the Ice Box of the Nation. Justin Wilkerson knows all about Big Piney as the equipment manager at Wapika Ranch. He talked with Trent Manning on Episode 107 of Reel Turf Techs about his route to the industry — “I just kind of got tossed in the deep end, and I’m loving it” — the challenges of maintenance in a secluded (and often chilly) spot and lots more. 

Need even more darn good advice about how to interview, how to land the job you really want and, most important, how to stay there? John Reilly shares lessons from his journey to Longboat Key Club in Longboat Key, Florida, on the latest episode of Beyond the Page. “It’s a small business,” he said. “It’s important to develop relationships, and I was desperately trying to quicken my track because I felt like I had lost 10 or so years of my career. I certainly encourage people at my course to make connections through meetings, social media, anything. Talk with those people, wherever you are.”  

How many golf course architects own a golf course? At least one. Earlier this year, Jim Cervone purchased Venango Valley Inn & Golf Course in Venango, Pennsylvania — almost exactly 100 miles from both Cleveland and Pittsburgh — with his brother-in-law, Michael Pero, and Tony Passilla. Cervone, the founder of Cervone Golf Design, was more than a little familiar with the course: He grew up about 10 miles south and worked with previous owners Durbin and Kim Loreno throughout the last two decades to enhance it. “Being in the business you often think about, ‘What would I do if I owned the place?’” he told Cipriano on Episode 89 of Tartan Talks. “This golf course has always been very impressive to me, and in my line of work, I noticed from a public golf course standpoint this was one of the best.”

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.