WEBVTT - Superintendent Series: Stephen Britton on Royal Melbourne and TPC Potomac 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:04.160 Welcome back to another edition of the Fried Egg Podcast. 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:07.920 Today's episode is brought to you by Toro. Top notch 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:11.600 custom fit technology helps tour pros feather and iron to 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.280 tight front pin Now. Using the technology on Toro's Noon 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.640 Greens Master Flex series walk Greens mower, superintendents can dial 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.280 in that same exceptional precise level of operator performance on 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.600 even the most contoured greens. The Greens Master's bail feathering 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.160 feature let the operator slow down or speed up by 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.760 putting more or less pressure on the bail and stay 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.640 hands on even through the tightest turns. 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Really he is a golf tragic. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:28.320 He came over from Australia. Really interesting story. So without 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.319 further ado, here is Stephen Britton. I miss a green, 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.080 for example, I'm already upset. 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.480 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.080 And when I find my ball in arid egg Friday 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.680 egg the dread and Frida egg Frida egg Frida egg 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:44.800 bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:45.240 the hump. 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:58.040 Was Royal Bubber, the first of the great Australian courses. 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:05.480 You played grown up, No so I grew up. 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.120 I actually grew up about a mile from the front 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.480 gates of Pinsula Kingswood. You know when I back then 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.400 it was called Peninsula Country Club. It was always a 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:21.040 good golf course, thirty six holes there and it's amazing 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.920 now Mike Cocking redid both the golf courses. 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:24.600 It's really good. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.480 But I grew up about a mile from that golf course. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.920 I used to pick balls there on the range after 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:36.200 high school and we would get to play there as 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:36.880 an employee. 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:37.240 I would. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.240 I used to pick balls in the range and clean 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.840 clubs in the backroom, and worked in the pro shop 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.080 every now and then, and so you would. We were 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.360 allowed to play and practice there, So that was probably 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.840 the first. That was probably the first good golf course 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:55.000 I played. I grew up playing golf at at a 0:02:55.040 --> 0:03:00.440 public golf course down the street from Peninsula, right next 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.639 to the city dump. If the wind blew, the whole 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.120 golf course smelt like rubbish. The whole day was covered 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.400 in seeing goals. All you'd ever hear is the reverse 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.160 buzzers of the dozers. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.360 Pushing the rubbish over. But it was great. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.919 It was three hundred dollars for unlimited golf for twelve months. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:21.280 And so I used to play there. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:24.720 And then when I was working at Peninsula, you know 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.280 I could as an employee, you get to play there 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.760 a little bit. So that would have been the first 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.120 good golf course that I that I played. And then 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.080 as I got a little as I got a little 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.040 bit better, we joined a private club which is on 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.960 the same road but next door to Peninsula, caught Long Island, 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:50.000 and that's a good standbout golf course. It was really good. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.600 So they was those kind of those courses in that 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.680 Frankston area. They would have been the first ones I saw. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:03.280 That's it sounds like my growing up in goth Our 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.400 Junior membership I think was three hundred bucks and play 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.800 all I wanted, except for like Saturday Sunday mornings, like 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.640 the restrictions, and then you know, I'd play it Norwood 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.240 when I had playing privileges just from working it, and 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.840 it was that was the way to do it. But 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:21.839 it was so nice the days you get to play 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.239 the country Club, you know, versus the Muni. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.200 Oh yeah, Like I remember, so the Muni had polar 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.520 greens and the country Club had bent grass greens then, 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:39.080 and I remember going and playing Peninsula and like made 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.280 of mind that was working there. That kind of got 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.080 me the job on the range. I remember them telling 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.679 me like, hey, these are bent grass growing. It's really 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.039 different than what we've been putting on. And they were 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.960 firmer and faster and smoother. I remember thinking, like, I 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.160 feel like I can hold every puddle on these, like 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.920 I never That was the first time I kind of 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.800 ever knew the difference between poe and bank grass. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.200 I just figured they were all greens before then. 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.720 I feel like when you're a kid too, when you 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.800 know you're learning the game, when you switch to those 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.320 fast greens and then you go to the it's such 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.800 a huge adjustment when you're a kid, Like you can't 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.839 get your bearing straight on the on the speed of butts. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.480 That's stuff that I just remember, Like when I played 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.800 fast screens, I'd have so much trouble. Then i'd go 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.120 back to the media. I'd have trouble getting them to 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:26.480 the hole. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.480 Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. They were the best days though. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.320 That The Communich course that I grew up at had 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.240 tons of kids my age and. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:38.960 We just spent every day there. 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.200 Would we play every day after school and we'd play 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.440 skins games and like after school it was quiet, like 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.040 seven of us were playing like a group of seven 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.720 and play skins for balls and stuff like that, and 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.000 it was they were the best days playing golf back then. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:58.920 It was tons of fun. 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.280 When did you start working grounds at Royal Melbourne? 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:10.480 Okay, So when I finished high school, I was I 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.200 loved golf. I was obsessed with golf. 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.520 Then I was playing golf a lot, and so I 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.600 knew I wanted to work in golf, but I wasn't 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:20.640 ever going to be good enough to do, you know, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.840 be a club pro or anything like that, or work 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.720 in a pro shop. And so I just kind of 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.760 decided I wanted to be I wanted to be a greenskeeper, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.559 and so that would have That was nineteen ninety four, 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.480 and so that was like before the. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.320 Internet and emails. I think people will probably email, and 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:46.320 then I wasn't, and I sent, I wrote letters. 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.799 I mailed them to the ten best clubs in Melbourne, 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:56.640 like I picked you know, Rural Melbourne, Victoria, Kingston Heath, Metropolitan, Woodlands, 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.960 yari Era, Huntingdale. 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.760 All those and I just wrote this letter. 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:03.760 I can't even remember what it said, but it said, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.880 you know, I'm a junior golfer and I want to 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:08.520 be a greenskeeper and I was. 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:09.680 Looking for an apprenticeship. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.640 So they do schooling really different in Melbourne than America. 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:14.840 There. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.360 You get hired as an apprentice after high school and 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.840 the club employs you as a full time employee, and 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.960 you kind of go to school one week every month, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.000 like so you'd work three weeks and then you go 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.520 to school for a week and you do that for 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.920 four years and then after that you're like a fully 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:37.280 qualified Greenskeeper. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:39.560 I kind of like that, Martyl. 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.880 It was the best system. Yeah, it was great. I 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.600 wish something like that was over here. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.720 Maybe there is, but it's really different here, Like why 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.880 guys at work for me who have gone to college here, 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.000 you know, greenskeeping is just like one class they take, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.640 they're taking all these other classes that they have to 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.640 do and then they just do a summer internship for 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.520 ninety days and that's kind of bit. But yeah, we 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.320 would work and go to school and it was it 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.160 was the best way to do it. And the club 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.960 pays for that. Like when you hired as an apprentice, 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.760 they pay your tuition to go to school, and so 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:20.200 you're make you're making money because you're you're working, but 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:26.400 the club covers your tuition. So as dumb luck would 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.640 have it, out of those ten letters. Royal Melbourne, Jim 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.720 Porter was the superintendent of Royal Melbourne. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:32.880 He was like the. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.480 Fourth superintendent of the club's history. And he got back 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.360 to me and said, hey, we're looking for an apprentice. 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:40.280 Do you want to come in? And he put me 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:45.800 on like a three month trial and that so just 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.600 it was just luck, right, Like that's just that was 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.240 just happened to be the right place at the right time, 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.240 and he put me on a trial and he hired 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:56.960 me as an apprentice. So they would so a lot 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.960 of clubs would hire like one apprentice every four years, right, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.040 like when you finish your apprenticeship, they'd start to look 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.280 for another one. And so I was that guy at 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.679 Royal Melbourne. I didn't even have a driver's license. My 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.040 mum drove me to the job interview, like I was. 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.160 I think I was seventeen but just finished high school. 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.720 And so I worked there for eight years. It was 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.360 it was great. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.360 It was So after you did the apprenticeship, you work 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:24.920 for four more years. 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.120 No, so you do your apprenticeship for four years and 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.360 then most clubs you stay on and you're a fully 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:35.640 qualified greenskeeper. So that's that's your full time job then, right. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.200 Yeah, so after the apprenticeship you did four more years there. 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:42.960 Oh, yes, you're right. Yeah, so I actually did. 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.200 I did an apprenticeship and then I did more schooling. 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.720 I did a diploma class. So the way to think 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:50.280 of that for. 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.080 In American terms is think of it as like a 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.440 two year degree or a four year degree. So the 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.960 apprenticeship would be thought of as probably a two year 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.400 degree and then if you do extra schooling the diploma 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.679 course that would be your bachelor's that would be before 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:05.240 year degree. 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:10.880 So I did. I did that after my apprenticeship, which 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:16.240 was one night a week for two I think it 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:17.960 was two or three years now, and it was. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.080 It was every Wednesday night from like three o'clock in 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.920 the afternoon till nine o'clock at night. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:25.960 So you're still working, but you would go and do 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:27.760 that class in the evenings. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.240 How are your role like when you started, I assume 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.080 you were doing all the grunt stuff, but by the 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.040 time you're at the end of the eight years, what 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.280 type of stuff were you doing for the club and 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:39.080 the grounds crew. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:44.040 Yeah, so when you start out, you're filanteed of its 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.440 and ranking bunkers and you don't really get to mow 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:48.680 a lot. And then but as time goes on, they 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:50.840 they'd say, hey, you know today we're going to teach 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.960 out a maul green, and you know we're going to 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.320 teach in a mo fairways, and then you'd work your 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.679 way all the way up until you were spraying, because 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.959 that's spraying is quite an important thing obviously, and it's 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.240 you kind of put your best guys on that. So yeah, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.640 by the end you're the one spraying greens, and especially 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.600 you're hosting tournaments, which we did at Royal Melbourne like that, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.120 when you're spraying greens kind of the week before the tournament, 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:19.680 that can be nerve wracking, right. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.920 Yeah, didn't Tiger play in that time frame down there? 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:27.800 Or was that at Kinkston Heath that he played in 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.400 that like maybe late nineties? 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.200 Why don't so that? 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.000 So when I worked there, we had the we had 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.880 the Greg Norman Holden Classic, that was a tournament that 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:46.760 Norman had on the Australasian PGA Tour, and then we 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.040 had the ninety eight President's Cup, which I was there for, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.480 and then we had a couple of Heinekens after that 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:57.199 which were kind of European to Australasian two events. So 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.520 it was an exciting time. There was an exciting time 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.599 to work there, especially with the President's Cup. That was 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.000 the first time the President's Cup had coming to Australia. 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.559 It's only one we've ever won righth. 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:10.920 So that was it was. It was an exciting time 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:12.959 to work at the club. It was great. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.560 What uh, what do you look back on I mean, 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:22.559 you were seventeen years old through twenty four. I assume 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.800 your interest in architecture probably peaked at a later age. 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.440 You might have been generally interested in it. But what 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.720 do you look back on and think about when now, 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.480 like I know, you go back to Australia and you've 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.120 been back to Royal Melbourne a bunch of times, but like, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.600 what are things that you overlooked about Royal Melbourne that 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.480 you now look at as you know, head superintendent, somebody 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.120 that's been in the industry for a couple of decades. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.520 If you grow up in Melbourne and you're playing those 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.040 courses and I know lots of the guys from Melbourne 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.679 and say this, and especially the good players that come 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.959 over America, like you kind of you kind of think. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.319 That that's how all the courses look, right. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.360 Because back then in the nineties on TV, like we 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.760 didn't have cable TV back then, and so you'd only 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.600 get to see the Masters and you wouldn't see week 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.200 to week PGA Tour events in America. So I just 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.480 remember thinking like, this is what all golf courses were, 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.200 and this is how they're all mown. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:32.080 And but it when you leave there, I think you realize. 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.520 That's when you realize how great it is right and 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:37.320 how everything we did there was great. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.560 The way we managed the water, we never overwarded and 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.439 we were always really lean with the water. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.720 And the way they mowed the golf course every like 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.559 I remember thinking like mowing everything to the. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.760 Bunkers and you know, mowing short grass all the way 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:53.760 to the bunkers around the greens. 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.280 I remember just thinking that was normal. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:57.439 And when I first came to and then when I 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.480 came to America, I mean, you see what bunkers in 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.880 the RAF and there's rough all the way around the greens, 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.400 and you start to realize, like, oh Jesus, we do 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.920 it really different in Melbourne than to everybody else. 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.440 How has Melbourne evolved since the since you worked on 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.000 it in early two thousands to like what we saw 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.680 in the President's Cup How how has it evolved in 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.280 its maintenance practices or is it pretty much the same 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.160 as the Has the course changed at all? 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.640 So like architectually it hasn't changed. I think they've done 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.120 some stuff right since I when I was there, they 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:38.600 really change anything it agronomically, I think it's changed quite 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.400 a bit, because so when I worked there. We had 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.760 on the fairways we would have what they called a 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:46.840 two grass system. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:52.000 So in the in the winter time, all this native 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:53.080 poer would come up in. 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.800 The fairways and the fairways would just turn into power fairways. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.400 And then at the end the winter, the poe would 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.560 fizzle out and die off. Sometimes we'd spray it out, 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.200 sometimes we just let it fizzle away, and then all 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.480 this native bermuda grass cooch grass would come up and 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.880 the fairways would be bermuda fairways in the summer. And 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.000 it was I think it was unique to Roll Melbourne. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.840 I can't remember if all the sand Belt clubs had 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.000 that years ago, but when I. 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:24.440 Was at Royal Melvin, that's how it was. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.360 You had power fairways in the winter and bermuda fairways 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.840 in the summer. And so that they got away from 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:35.760 that over time because I think, you know, that's a 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.520 tough transition to transition out from poer to bermuda and 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:40.600 you get some. 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.320 Bare spots coming into the summer, and you know, it 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.000 doesn't get that cold in Melbourne. 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.240 You can have really you can have good and bermuda 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.160 fairways in the winter. So they got away from that 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.800 at some point, which is probably a good thing because 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.120 it means the fairways are better year round. 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.800 And so now the green. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.880 Surrounds now find fescue are around the greens, which when 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.040 I was there, they were actually mostly power around the 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.800 greens and some bank grass and the fine fescue that 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.520 Richard Foresight's is a superintendent there now that he's put 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.200 in and they're amazing. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:24.440 I mean they're firm and fast, Oh yeah, I mean 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.560 great to chip off of the best. 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.640 Lies, and and with the fine fescue he can spray 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.760 certain herbicides to keep the poe out, which will stop 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.400 the poe getting in the greens, which is really important there. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.040 Ah, that's interesting. So that fascue surround because of the 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.280 way you can spray it, actually it creates like almost 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:45.400 like a buffer for. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.360 The power right they have, so they'll have a program 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.480 where they'll they'll spray certain herbicides that it's that are 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.000 really the fine fescue is quite tolerant to some of 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:55.920 these herbicides that. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.400 Will help keep the poer out of that fine fescue. 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:00.760 So that helps out whereas when I was there, it 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:02.800 was power all around. 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.360 The greens, and so it's hard to keep poer from 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:06.680 getting into the greens. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.360 Would that work in like the Midwest, like say Chicago, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.639 because I know, like when the you know, Poe getting 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.960 into the greens is something common here and I just 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:18.680 you know, I don't know. 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.360 Like but I mean he's mowing everything. There's my own 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.600 low and so you'd have to do the same thing. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:26.480 And I don't know, I haven't really thought about that, 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.879 but it works there because there's no Poe on that 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:31.720 golf course at all. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:37.159 At run I think that might work at col Club too, right, 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:38.479 col Club does that. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.240 So yeah, that's really similar program. 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.840 Everything's fine fescue, right, fine fescue fairways at Cow Club, 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.560 everything around the greens is fine fescue. So they have 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.160 a really good program there to keep it out. So yeah, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.880 that's that's a good point. It's really similar to their 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:54.320 set up. 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.360 So and when I was there. When I was. 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.880 There, the greens on the non composite course, okay, they 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.639 were the original what they were called Sutton's greens that 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.720 Mick moorecamceded when they did the renovation with Aliston McKenzie 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.280 and Alex Russell. And then the composite course greens were 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.359 actually Pencross so American Bank grass that they had converted. 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.000 I think sometimes in the eighties, I'm not too sure. 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.960 And the superintendent that I worked for the club had 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.639 decided that they were going to try to put the 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.359 Sutton's greens back, which was hard to do because you 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.600 don't know, they don't know what grass that is. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:37.960 Right. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.200 Sutton's was a seed company in England that in the twenties, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.680 golf courses in America and around the world would buy 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.159 just greens, grass seed from this company in England, and 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.600 that's what you seeded your greens to. And you know, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:53.960 I don't think they never knew exactly what was. 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:59.159 In the mix. So those greens had segregated out to 0:18:59.200 --> 0:18:59.920 the parent plant. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.160 So those greens at certain times of the year would 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.760 have purple patches and. 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.520 Dark green patches and light green patches. And so they 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.280 took samples out of each one of those different patches 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.399 and a company in New Zealand grew the grass and 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.200 got them to set seed. I don't know that, I. 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:22.479 Don't really know the whole process, but they came up 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.720 with the closest thing they could imagine to the original 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:26.480 seed meeks. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.040 So they recreated it. 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:29.719 They recreated it. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.440 That's what gym started the superintendent that I worked for, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:38.399 and so in my first year, we side cut the 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.560 twelfth East green, which was the smallest green on the 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.760 golf course, and we seeded it to that seed meeks 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.399 and kind of replicated what that those greens were seeded 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.520 to in the twenties and so it was a. 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:51.440 Really exciting time. 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.440 We ended up doing the whole golf course to that 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.000 and that's what they have today. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.960 Yeah. You know last week we saw wingfoot and I 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.879 think one of the need things about that restoration was 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.359 how that they preserve the grass from the greens like 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.840 the Poea and they didn't go with that brand new 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.240 great like they you know, they basically used the same 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:16.680 grass and roll Melbourn's case, just figuring out a way 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.480 to recreate the seed to get that same grass. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:20.160 Right. 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.000 Yeah, So that that all happened when I was there, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.960 which was really great to be around, and it's turned 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:28.680 out great today. 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.080 The greens of the greens of Rome Melbourne. 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.520 Unbelievable, I think, oh yeah, like not just for the tournaments, they're. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:35.080 Great every day. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.520 When did you leave Australia And why why'd you leave Australia. Well, 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.479 you're you're rising, rising superstar at Royal Melbourne. What what 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:45.880 got you out of the country. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.640 So in two thousand the so we had the ninety 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.640 eight President's Cup at Rome Melbourne and in two thousand 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.680 then had the President's Cup over here in Virginia Robert 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.000 Trent Jones Golf Club, and I can't remember the exact connection. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.080 But there was a connection between the two clubs a little. 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:08.159 Bit, and there was an opportunity for a couple of 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.600 us from Royal Melbourne to come over and work that event. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.359 Myself and another guy on the staff at the time, 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:17.120