Technology is popping up more and more in the world of golf course maintenance — even on Superintendent Radio Network. Three of our five podcast episodes this month either focus on new tech or discuss it at some length. But there’s plenty more: Desert courses, restaurant recommendations, how to make the move from equipment manager to regional sales, golf in China …
Jan Bel Jan is a champion for golf. She is also a champion for golf course architecture — and sensible golf course architecture at that. The daughter of a golf professional and course manager, and the niece of three PGA professionals, Bel Jan is a veteran architect and past president of the ASGCA who focuses her work on sustainability and accessibility. She even trademarked the term Scoring Tees, eschewing older terms like, say, Ladies Tees. “So often, what was the traditional yardage from the most forward set of tees?” she told Rick Woelfel on the most recent episode of the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast. “The forward set might be around 5,600 yards. The next set might be around 6,000 or 6,200 and the and long set might be 6,700.” At one of her designs, the Scoring Tees measure 4,062 yards on a 7,050-yard layout. “Everybody wants to learn to score better,” she says, “from the elite to the most novice.”
Miss the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show? Editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano and I have you covered thanks to Episode 56 of Greens with Envy, which recaps our week in the desert and on the convention center floor. The most prominent trend: Tech was bigger this year than … maybe ever? “The only way you’re going to produce the product your members and customers want, at the level they want, with the available labor resources you have, you’re going to have to lean on technology and find ways to do things more efficiently,” Cipriano said. Even if you did make it to Phoenix, check out our conversation about golf in the Valley — we played at Palo Verde Golf Course, Grand Canyon University Golf Course, and, with a handful of magazine friends, Popstroke — and food. (Hat tip to Darius Lane for recommending Cocina Madrigal Tacos + Tequila.)
What do turf pros Michael Campbell of Montclair Golf Club, Dan Meersman of Philadelphia Cricket Club and Heather Schapals of Seascape Golf Course have in common? All are working with autonomous mowers on their courses, and all of them talked with Rick Woelfel for his recent feature about that technology. I talked with Woelfel about Trend? Fad? Or TBD? on Episode 52 of Beyond the Page. “All of them see what the technology is doing now and they have visions — different visions — of what it’s going to do going forward,” he said. “It’s going to be the hallmark of a fundamental change in the industry in the years to come.”
Tyler Barrett cannot remember life before he started wandering around golf courses. He started driving golf cars during his dad’s rounds when he was still in kindergarten, applied for a bag-drop job the day he turned 16 and eventually worked as an equipment technician or equipment manager for almost a dozen years at Duran Golf Club, Floridian National Golf Club and Country Club of Orlando, all in Florida. Now a regional sales manager for Foley Company, Barrett made his podcast debut with Trent Manning on Reel Turf Techs — and some of his interests might surprise you. “At the risk of sounding like a softie,” he said, “I’ve started baking bread. A friend of mine started talking about sourdough and he has me hooked on sourdough. I have this little starter I feed once a day, and that led to pizza, and baking.” He talks about college football, too. (He's a Michigan fan. It was a good season.)
Early during his career, Patrick Burton carved out a niche in China, which he visited more than 40 times as a young associate with Smith-Curley Design before the country stopped golf development a decade ago. He discussed those early days and his domestic pivot with Guy Cipriano on Episode 92 of Tartan Talks. “I was getting great experience in terms of technical skills, but I wasn’t developing relationships in this country,” he said. “When I went off to do my own thing, I knew it would be a longer road because I didn’t have that 10, 15 years of networking in the United States, so I turned to technology.” Yep, more tech on the podcast. (I sense a theme.) “If all those Golden Age architects had all the technology we have available today, they would have for sure used it," Burton added. "Nobody was sitting around using a horse and plow because they thought that was the most efficient way.”
