The month opened with another fantastic episode of Wonderful Women of Golf — recorded live at the recent U.S. Women’s Open. Rick Woelfel talked with Raquel Schwartz, a microbiology major at Rutgers before Dr. Bruce Clarke helped persuade her to switch to turfgrass pathology. “He wasn’t my official advisor, but I always went to him with questions about what classes should I be taking, what should I be doing,” Schwartz said. “He’s pushed me to apply for scholarships. He’s had a very big impact on my career.” Today, she is thriving as an assistant superintendent at Stone Harbor Golf Club in Cape May Court House, New Jersey — where she herself is now teaching, showing new hires and interns how to properly spray.
I recorded the most recent episode of Beyond the Page with Kelsie Horner when she was 20 years old and still our summer editorial assistant. The very-soon-to-be Kent State graduate is 21 now — a happy summer birthday to her! — and will officially start in a couple weeks as our new assistant editor. Her work this summer has been fantastic and we’re excited to have her on the team for the foreseeable future. I hope you have a chance to talk with her soon. If you haven’t yet — or if you just want to learn more about her — we talked about her background in and growing love of golf on the podcast. “I feel like you can either just work in your environment or you can do your best to get involved and thrive in what you’re doing,” she said. “That’s kind of what I’ve tried to do, is get as involved in the game as much as I can.”
So many interesting people work in this industry. Haas Mengloi is definitely one of them. Mengloi was born and raised in Guam, studied to become a school teacher, later worked as a boat mechanic, and only landed in a maintenance building after a neighbor whose lawnmower he had helped fix mentioned that a newspaper classified ad (this was 1989) said that a local golf course was hiring a mechanic. The son of a cargo ship engineer and the brother of a car mechanic, Mengloi applied and was hired. He just didn’t know certain processes. “When I went to the golf course, I’d never seen anything that looks like a walk mower,” he told Trent Manning on the most recent episode of Reel Turf Techs. “I didn’t know what I was looking at or how to fix it.” His first Monday, he was supposed to check those mowers. “I put one of the table and I looked at it, and finally I called the equipment manager over and said, ‘I know how to fix this mower, but I know how to fix it my way. But since you’re my boss, I want to do it your way. Tell me how you fix it and from today forward, I’ll fix it exactly how you do.’” The next 35 years have been fantastic.
Longtime golf course architect Dave Heatwole spent early parts of his 40-year career in the industry as a draftsman — and that work was important for everything that followed. “One of the things about doing all that grading work is that it gets you to visual a two-dimensional plan in a three-dimensional way,” he told editor-in-chief + publisher Guy Cipriano on Episode 97 of Tartan Talks. “To a lot of people, it looks like a lot of lines on a page, but we’re visualizing it in three-dimension, even though it’s just a two-dimensional plan.” Heatwole worked 18 years with Nicklaus Design before launching Heatwole Golf Design in the early 2000s. Much of his work these days is shoulder-season enhancements. October, November and December are among his busiest months. “I think early on in the development of the master plan, you need to help a client, whether it’s a club or an owner, really determine and prioritize the difference between what you want and what you need.”
SOME OTHER RECENT FAVORITES: Longtime turf pro Zach LaPorte returns to the United States to become the superintendent at TPC Tampa Bay after decades in Spain. … Vanja Drasler also picks up and moves from Europe, leaving her home to advance her turf pro career. … After years as a superintendent, Bryan Tipton switches to a role as parks and rec director in Pierre, South Dakota, and oversees the opening of a water park. … Architect Jim Wagner is heading back to Asia, a continent that has provided him with no shortage of projects and memories. … Equipment manager Terry Appel charts his path from putting pencils on cart scorecards to becoming an equipment manager. … Talking perennials with Phil Bruner and Chester VanbenBerg. … Plus 100 holes with our own Jimmy Clark.
