WEBVTT - Superintendent Series: Alex Beson-Crone on Blue Mound and Seth Raynor 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:09.399 Today's episode is brought to you by Toro. We are 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:13.160 really excited to announce our new partnership with Toro Golf. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:18.240 We share a mutual admiration of golf course superintendents. Superintendents 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.320 are among the most important and influential people on golf 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.680 and really our thought leaders. I mean, these guys are 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.840 scientists and they keep the golf courses in great playing conditions. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:34.040 And we're excited with Toro's support to create this monthly 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.920 superintendent podcast series. So it's going to be our goal 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.800 to deliver you a informative, thought provoking podcast that highlights 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.160 a lot of the greatest superintendent's and most interesting voices 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.839 in the industry. Today's episode is the first one, and 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.560 it's with Blue Mount Golf and Country Club's superintendent Alex 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.120 Beeson Crone. Thanks especially to Toro. They obviously are big 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.360 supporters of superintendents across the country and world and are 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.520 supporting us by helping us do this podcast, which we've 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.080 wanted to do for some time. So without further ado, 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.040 here is Alex Beeson Crone. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.280 I miss a green for example, I'm already upset when 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.400 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:17.360 And when I find my. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.199 Ball in a bright egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.360 egg Frida egg Frida egg egg Frida egg bride egg lie, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.560 I'm about ready to run off the golf course. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:54.960 How often do you play golf? 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.400 Not enough? If anyone, I would say, in average, try 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.240 to play like twenty times a year. I would play 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.760 more if I didn't work and I have a wife 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.720 and three kids. Yeah, that's hard, Yeah, it is. I mean, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.160 we spend a lot of time out working and by 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.040 the time I'm done, you know, the fruits of my 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.080 labor are probably best start just keeping a marriage together 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.359 and going home and hanging out with the kids. 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.320 One nice thing with being a superintendent is like you 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.160 not always, but you can be done earlier, so you 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.560 get more afternoon time with kids than like a guy 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.600 that say, commutes into the city and gets home at 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:38.720 six thirty or seven. 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.519 This year was well, I'm saying, sometime you can't be Yeah, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.200 and you got my friends, and there's there's other supers, 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.600 you know, and I get the the talk quite a 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:53.960 bit from buddies there in the industry. 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.600 It's like, oh, go home, you know, the golf course 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.639 would be there in the morning and that's you know 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.679 your two. Yeah, I'm gonna work on that. But yeah, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.080 you can you know, you can be out of you 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.760 can be in at four, be out at I mean 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.760 on a weekends. Some days Moan goes, we'll be done 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:11.239 at eight thirty. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:17.200 So this is her first year at Blue Mound. What uh, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.960 you were assistant at Aaron Hill's before. What what was 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:27.320 the toughest thing about becoming the boss versus like being 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.200 you know, an assistant where you probably did a ton 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.760 of the same stuff. But what was the hardest thing 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.560 about moving up into the you know, the head position. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:38.600 And of course. 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:49.920 Hm hmm. Honestly, the I mean the transition was Zach 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.160 you know, good friend Buddy h and my old boss 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.320 at Aaron gave us a lot of autonomy. And John 0:03:57.560 --> 0:03:59.520 and myself we we got to do a lot, we 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:01.520 got to take We do a lot of the morning 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:06.119 meetings and help with set up and you know, economic 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.320 plan so none of a lot of that was different. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.720 It's you know, checking my mailbox for invoices and like 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.160 for instance, and we just did this huge bunker project, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:20.360 pretty big and budgets due at the end of the month, 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.200 early order for chemicals is due. It's like, you know, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.640 I got a long week in the office, and that's 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.800 what's tough. You know, it's tough because I want to 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.040 be out there. I'm a working superintendent. All motis rag 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:37.159 bunkers do it all. Really, I don't really care for 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.600 spending time in the office too much, and I think 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:40.880 that's been the hardest transition. 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.160 Yeah, I see that too, Like with my business as 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.200 a gross like I have to do so much more 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:53.880 business stuff, and like I like making the content. It's like, right, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.880 that's the fun stuff, exactly the same thing you like 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:58.800 doing the golf course stuff. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.000 I mean, that's why you got into I assume, right. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.599 Yeah, no exactly. And like when I if I just 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.919 had to do like the office side of it, you know, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.600 I know there's some superintendents or directors let's say that 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.760 literally were like sportcos to work. I could never do that. 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.640 I think I would. I would do something else that 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.760 just doesn't I mean, and I'm not saying maybe maybe 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.880 when you know I'm sixty, that might be appealing. 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.279 But hey, you gotta be careful. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.520 You can't, you know, shut off the potential, you know, 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.920 career progression. You know, the USGA calls and says, you're 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.040 you're running everything from an acronomic side, you'd probably have 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:38.320 to wear a suit and die. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.039 I don't know if that guy does that for these Yeah, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.560 I think he he rocks a polo polo. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:46.680 Yeah, that's what. 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.240 Uh you're you're from Madison? How you How did you 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.159 first get into the game of golf. 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:57.479 I got an older brother and dad that love the game. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.640 I mean every trip was golf trips. Literally every family 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.159 trip we took as kids was And at the time, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:07.480 architecture wasn't like a big thing, so it was like, 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.200 oh the golf that had just places to play. It 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.400 was like this place is four stars. We'd only you know, 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.359 my dad be like, you know, we're playing fifteen stars 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.520 this trip. You know, It's like and now I look 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.559 at some of these courses, I'm like, you know, maybe 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.599 not my cup of tea now. But that's how I 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.960 got into it. I grew up. I actually didn't grow 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.480 up next to the We belonged to a course Nakoma, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:33.200 which is a bendelo and fun, fun track. And my 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.760 brother was maybe not scratch, but he was a good golfer. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.800 My dad was a single digit golfer, and it was 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.760 you know, we would go play like eighteen and then 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.080 rush home for dinner and it was sweet. 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.960 Yeah. I always like my favorite growing up was playing 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.880 the nine after dinner. Oh the best night, best night 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:55.960 by far. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.280 So you're playing a ton of golf as a kid 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.719 to like turf enter your life. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.720 Kind of my accident. I never had a desire to 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.720 be a golf course superintendent growing up, not even like 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.400 an inkling. And I was taking some time off from 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:16.240 school at UW. I was originally going to school for 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:21.760 landscape architecture and just the original The super at Aaron 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:23.520 Hills at the time just kind of ran into him. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:25.920 He saw my hat. I don't I think I was 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.720 wearing like a black hole ron hat, and he was like, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:31.560 you know, we're building this golf course down the road. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.560 It's going to you know it's going to be it's 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.600 really it's something special, and looking for guys on the crew. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.200 So this was probably July of two thousand and five. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.120 I remember because my birthday was August fourth. I started 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.280 on my birthday two thousand and five at Aaron Hills 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.880 and they were doing construction. I mean, I think only 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.960 half the holes were seated, picked a lot of rocks, 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.880 broke a lot of equipment, and had a blast. I mean, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:00.920 it's just like the time of my life. We're working, like, 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:06.120 you know, seventy hours a week, rolling out stop blanket, 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.280 literally just having a blast and really haven't looked back 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:14.640 since I went back to school at UW. And you know, 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.040 Zach really mentored me throughout, even you know, I was 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.600 just a crew guy. He was involved me and stuff 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.320 that was I was like, this is fascinating. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.720 You went to school wanting to be an architect and 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.240 then you took that job and you're working on a 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:29.080 construction site. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.160 Originally when you took it, where you're. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.400 Thinking, hey, this is going to be my kind of 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.880 means into getting into architecture or where you're just kind 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:43.160 of taking it to figure this will be cool to do, kind. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.280 Of just this will be cool to do. You know me, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.920 I was a lot different at I guess twenty and 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.560 them at thirty six. It was just like, hey, you know, 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:59.360 can afford my own apartment. And I was happy. I 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.920 mean it truly, and it kind of his all had 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:07.199 I can't talk has always boiled down to happiness. If 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.000 I'm happy at work and I'm at work a lot, 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.600 right or at a minimum at work forty hours a week, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:17.040 and that means something. So yeah, I had no intention 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.920 really of even going back to school for that until 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.319 like probably three or four four years later. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.720 What was you know, the Aaron Hills built. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.840 There's obviously Gary Tomato wrote that huge thing about, you know, 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.360 kind of the story of Aaron Hills, and I think 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.720 everybody probably glanced at or heard a lot about it 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.000 when the US Open was happening. But what what was 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.520 it like the early days of Aaron Hills. 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.720 It was pretty well. I mean I lived on site 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.880 and Bob was heavily involved babbling the original owner. You know, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:55.920 there would be nights where he'd like come knocking on 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.800 the door and be like, you know, I tipped the 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.560 trailer in the marsh on three. You know, it's eight 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:05.160 o'clock on a Sunday night and it's sposally my day. Yeah, Yeah, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:06.560 he'd be out. He'd love to go out and like 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:13.040 moud holes and uh, you know, I was a much 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.320 better golfer then. It was kind of right after I 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:18.880 was close to scratch and he would be like, oh, 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.160 you know, you had like can you get out of 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.880 this bunker? And I'd be like barely, like all right, 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.600 let's go deeper. I was like, okay, Yeah, I was 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:31.760 just kind of oblivious to course. I mean I really was. 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.840 I was truly oblivious. I was it was cool to 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.480 be as a crew guy, be you know, involved in 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.320 that kind of stuff. But it was pretty wild. I 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:46.520 mean eating lunch. I remember going to lunch with like 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.440 Ron Whitten and you know, he was on site a lot, 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.439 going to the air and in and grabbing some two 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.760 dollars hamburgers. I have really fond memories of it. I 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.400 truly do, because it was fun. I mean it was 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.160 it was something I never thought i'd do, never thought 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.640 I'd be involved with the build portion of it. And 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.560 there was only like six of us two, so that, yeah, 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.160 I had to do all kinds of different stuff. I 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.840 guarantee you no one has ever wrapped a muffler around 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.040 a dumb truck like I have, like around the axle 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.760 of a dump truck tell us yeah, oh yeah. Well 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.480 so they were like they gave me this huge pile 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.000 and like a you know, a tractor with a bucket 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.800 front end, or around the front of this thing. Never 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.480 been really I'd sat on a tractor maybe like my 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.840 second cousin's farm, but like never operated a tractor. So 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.120 Zach gives me like a two minute tutorial and he says, 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.680 you know, like they had cleared out that huge bunker 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.640 behind thirteen. There was a huge pile of dirt there, 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.600 and he's like, this needs to go to do the 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:48.560 hall road by the pump house. I was like, okay, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.199 so what would now probably take me? Like I don't know, 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.439 five hours, took me like four days. And he's like, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:58.200 I'm dropping these you know what. He was like, they're 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.439 like chocolate, You're dropping like hershey kiss is like they 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.680 need in their like space, like these piles need to 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:04.640 be on top of one another. So Who's like back 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.680 into the pile. And so I'm just floring this dumb 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.960 truck that we got back into the pile. And soon enough, 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.560 like I hear this like clunk cluh, Like what was 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.520 that hop out? And the muffler has like been bent 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.000 like all the way like literally it was like figure eight, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.000 you know, curled around the axle and it snapped off. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.199 I mean the axle stop the truck from moving. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:30.760 Was it because you kept backing? 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.120 Yeah, like and it just kept bending the muffler further down. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:38.520 Probably wasn't your best moment. 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.000 No, but you know, and this is kind of and 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.040 this is how I operate as manager too. I mean 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.120 things break, yeah, right, Like guys will be like, oh, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.080 you know, something will happen, grass will die. Things break, 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.040 And it's not that I'm lax or it is that 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:55.600 I'm lax, but it's not that I'm like lack of 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.920 laxa daisical, like you know, I don't really care. But 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.760 it's like, I mean that was They were like, well, yeah, 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.000 you really screwed that up. Like we don't have a 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.800 dump truck now. I think we just sought off them 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:08.560 off LERD for like three years. It was like the 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.600 loudest dump truck in Washington Con. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:13.959 I mean, there wasn't a lot of stuff around there, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:20.240 so yeah, right, quiet aspect of it was so in 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:22.880 terms of the course that I mean, it opened and 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.000 it went through like a couple revisions and and you 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.600 had your public you know public and everybody was up 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.040 there and what was it What was it like watching 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:37.760 it mature and like the whole process of like obviously 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.360 it and Chambers Bay were these two courses that were 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:45.040 essentially built for us opense, Like, how how often were 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.720 you making tweaks? And and the USGA was coming in 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.720 and saying do this and that? And what was it 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.480 like being on the staff that through that period? 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.640 Yeah, I mean, yeah, there clearly there's been a lot 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.680 of tweaks there. It would be like, you know, we'd 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.000 make a tweak and then there'd be another tweak to 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:13.120 that tweak, just because we all, like we all John 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.440 Zach myself, we like doing it, like it was fun 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.800 because we always got we were closed for construction, right, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:20.960 so constructions in the spring and fall, and it was 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.720 just like, yeah, throw some tunes on and so I 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.760 don't think we ever It wasn't like we're irritated by it, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.160 but no, it was pretty wild. You didn't know what 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:38.240 to expect next, kind of. I think they're all for 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.480 the better. I think the golf course is so much 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:45.200 better than what it originally was. Personally. You know, some 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:50.960 people missed the berets or the Dell hole. I didn't. 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.920 I Yeah, I played it when I was young, and 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.360 I remember a couple of times being like what is 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.280 going on? Just uh it was why. I mean, it's 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.040 it's the topography out. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:04.960 There is just insane. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.000 I mean in terms of golf and it I mean 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:15.000 it's it's unbelievable that it's only like an hour from Milwaukee. 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.040 Right and it's you know, you drive in like you 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.440 would never expect over the hill that that's what the 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.680 topography was. And that was that was my you know, 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.560 August fourth, not even I guess I started August fourth, 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.480 but you know whatever, that week before I started in 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:28.920 two thousand and five, it was like, my god, you know, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.440 this golf course can't be that special. Yeah, this is 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.160 the Kettle Moraine. But and we like pulled up. It 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:38.560 used to be this gray house that the superintendent lived 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.280 at the time, and that's where like the offices were 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.240 and they moved all those but uh, pull in and 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.920 you're overlooking, like you know, it's basically where the clubhouses now. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.440 It's like, this is incredible, you know what this exists? 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:58.280 And I had never seen. I mean, yeah, now there's 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:03.040 Sand Valley and there's all there finding like really cool places, 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.440 but you know, i'd never been to some of I 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.720 never you know, we didn't go hiking as kids. You know, 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.440 I'd never seen some of the topography in Wisconsin. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:20.240 Yeah, you were busy going golf. We were so this moment. 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:26.080 Obviously you're part of this crew and you were somewhat 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.640 into architecture before. Yeah, this is where you know, you 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:34.240 kind of got the full on bug, right total. So 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.520 how did you start to think about it? Did you 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.440 start to think about golf? And obviously you're learning maintenance 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.920 along the way, but how golf courses are maintained? Like, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.600 did you start thinking differently because of the you know, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.080 architectural experience of building a golf course. 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.320 I'm not sure if I start thinking differently about. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.320 I mean, did you did your perspective of golf change? 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.560 Absolutely, I've kind of gone through like this, you know, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.960 peaks and valleys of how I view golf. You know, 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.000 I think for a while there I was only looking 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.240 at conditioning like well we do this, or I go 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.080 somewhere and be like we don't do this, we need 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.159 to do this, you know, and I couldn't just enjoy it, 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.320 like truthfully, like for probably five or six years, couldn't 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:30.680 enjoy golf the way I used to. I definitely at 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.359 that time, we probably in twenty I think John Morris 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:38.560 had started in twenty eleven at aaryone else as the 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.640 competition's director and his relationship with obviously golf. He introduced 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.880 me to a lot of stuff that I'd never heard before, 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:52.359 a lot of sites, you know, just books. And I 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.760 still like the more I kind of know about architecture, 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.720 it's almost like the less I know, right, Like it's 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.320 like I don't know exactly know what I like until 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:02.920 I see it. I used to, you know, I got 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:04.720 real into like, well, if it's not a core crunch 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.240 or a dough course, it has to be it's not, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.000 you know, it's not the best out there. 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.000 It's funny how that works, Like I read like my 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.919 old stuff now and I'm like so confident then and 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.680 now like I like, I'm like, I don't know if 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:22.200 that's right. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.040 It's funny how like your perspective kind of changes. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:30.160 And I mean there's so many different facets of architecture too, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.480 So it is a good point. 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:34.960 The more you know, the less you know. Almost I 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.040 don't know if that made any sense. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:36.960 I feel like I'm no. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.520 It does, but I'll never forget. 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.159 I had a buddy who was a superintendent and we 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:47.679 were we were out a course and we were talking 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.639 with somebody else and the guy walks away, and my 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.439 buddy goes, you know, now that's the guy. That's the 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.439 guy that knows just enough to screw everything up. 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:00.080 Yeah, and it's it. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.000 It's interesting because the more I feel like, the more 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.320 you get to know stuff, the softer you get on 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.120 opinions about stuff. 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.600 Yeah. My opinion now is might I might hate it 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.639 like a year from now, you know, like like we 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.280 just had Bruce Hepner here to do some really cool work, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:23.439 and my opinion is going into it were very different 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.400 than what I thought, you know, maybe not very different. Man, 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.320 we had the fourth hold the Alps in the short 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:30.720 the seventh we were going to do the mode and 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:32.120 I was like, you know, but I thought it should 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:36.840 look this way, and he was kind of like, let 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.199 me do it this and I was like, oh, you know, 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:45.439 but he was right. You know, it's incredible. I mean, like, 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.760 and that guy knows one hundred times more than I do. Yeah. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.560 It's kind of cool though, Like, you know, I enjoy 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.040 being I always, you know, in recent years more than ever, 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:57.600 I enjoyed like just being wrong. 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:04.480 I when I get tricked, especially if I've seen somewhere 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.399 the first time. If I'm playing and I'm like, oh, 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.080 this is where I definitely want to be and I 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.040 hit it there and then I realized, like, ah, this 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:15.879 is not what I thought it was going to be 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:16.280 at all. 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:19.680 It's like that those are the best moments. I think. 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.240 It's like when you just I don't know, when you're 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.440 wrong about what you think about something. 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.240 Or even like you know you're wrong about something, something 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.320 looks you know, like that's not going to look cool. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.600 That looks way better. You see it, You're like, oh, yeah, 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:34.880 that was right. I'm glad we did that. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.399 Yeah, this is it's like a preconceived notion thing where 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.600 you have like this like thought of hey, this is 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:44.600 this is the way it should be because I saw 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.560 this here. But you know, that's the beauty of the architects. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.320 It's like they're I mean, they're artists and I couldn't 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.520 imagine having like the way they think about things. They 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:56.720 can see it before they even move any earth. 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:57.040 Right. 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 Yeah, I think I don't know how good of an 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.440 architect I would have been had, you know, had it 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.600 panned out. Yeah, I just don't. 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:12.399 Yeah, what what you said? You read a bunch of books. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.880 What are some of your favorite books that you've read, they. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.760 Said, he introduced me to a bunch of No, No, 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:24.480 I've read a few and and uh, I mean early 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.600 on I read anatomy I'm a Golf Course by Tom 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:36.560 Doak and George Thomas. Yeah, that's a good one. I 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:38.560 actually read that recently. I read that right before I 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:40.400 got the job. Here. I ordered a bunch of before 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:45.440 I got the job. Here was like and as a 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:47.480 very early present, because I used to like kind of 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:52.119 doodle golf holes, I got Doctor Hurdson's and that was 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:54.080 actually kind of cool because it was like it shows 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.159 you like construction specs. I enjoyed that. 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.639 And there's so many good this there. Now for a 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.280 quick word from our sponsor. For one hundred years, Toro 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.000 has helped superintendents confidently display their skill and dedication to 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.080 maintaining golf course turf at the highest agronomic standard. In 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:17.119 nineteen nineteen, Toro built the first motorized faaraway moor, replacing 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.879 horse drawn equipment. No more hoof prints and all eighteen 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:25.560 pharaways cut in only eighteen hours. Pretty incredible feat. 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