It’s significant that a steely-eyed tiger peeking through the grass is the beloved logo of the Brentsville High School Turf Program. These teens are hungry to try it all and their ebullient leader, Drew Miller, is engaging support at every level to provide opportunities and expand the narrative of an industry-wide dilemma – how to attract skilled labor.

BDHS is in a developing rural area of Virginia and it is part of Prince William County Public Schools, a district with 12 high schools. In 2016, Katherine Meints, principal of BDHS, and some other PWCS leaders were exploring ways to renew the agricultural vocational program to meet industry needs. The discussion pointed to turf management. “However, we needed to find the right leader,” Meints says.

The district interviewed several people. Nobody was a good fit. “Then, in walks Drew,” Meints recalls with satisfaction. After doing seasonal work during his undergraduate years for the New York Mets, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miller’s hiring journey can only be described as serendipitous. The combined efforts of PWCS, Meints and Miller are creating a program that is both productive and popular.

There are approximately 1,000 students at BDHS and 200 of them are now enrolled in the turf program. Forty percent of the turf students are female, and the total number of turf students has more than doubled in just three years. “Miller and the turf kids are so welcoming that even students not involved in the program want to help with extra projects, just to be a part of it,” Meints says.

“We have two teachers for the program and we would happily find a third if there was more classroom space,” she adds. “There is literally nowhere in the building for them to go.” Despite the increasingly limited indoor space, Miller – who made time to get his masters in career and technical education (agriculture) in 2017 from Virginia Tech while teaching – has been finding ways to get things done from Day One.

Launching the program

On a Sunday in May 2016, Miller graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in turf management. On Tuesday, he started at BDHS. With big ideas, he insisted on having the equipment he needed to teach the kids in the strongest way possible.

“When I took the job, I told the administrators it was going to be hands-on,” Miller says. “The kids will learn that I trust them. They will know that I expect them, without any hand-holding, to get on the mower and make sure that they have mowed every blade of grass.”

With the blessing of and some financing from the athletic director, Miller was charged with taking care of the school fields, which have Bermudagrass, and he was determined that the kids would be doing the work. And he wants more work to do – he envisions the students designing and maintaining a five-hole par-3 course on the school grounds.

The department started with a John Deere 2653B Triplex Mower and a Toro Triplex 2500 Sidewinder before adding three Echo Weed Trimmers, a pair of edgers, a paint machine and drafting tables for winter landscaping classes. “We are building as we go,” Miller says.

Budget is always an issue, but the county’s Career and Technical Education Department initially helped with the funding. All the equipment acquired is commercial grade. Miller wants students working on the same standard of equipment industry professionals utilize.

The tactile nature of the program and comfort with professional equipment has proved essential, as the students have been well-prepared for their summer work with five area golf courses: Stonewall Golf Club, Prince William Golf Course, Broad Run Golf & Practice Facility, Bristow Manor Golf Club and RTJ. The students have also worked at Audi Field — home pitch of MLS’s D.C. United — George Mason University, local nurseries and with Game Day Inc., where some students helped with a dormant sprigging trial.

Freshman year is for Horticulture, sophomores take Turf Management 1 (planning for and working on the athletic fields), juniors take Landscape 1 (including more in-depth instruction on the machines), and seniors can choose Landscape 2 or Turf Management 2. With so many students working for golf courses in the summer and aspiring to be superintendents, Turf Management 2 may soon incorporate maintaining greens.

For Turf Management 1, there is a safety unit in the beginning of the year and a written test that requires a 90 percent pass rate before the students can use the equipment. “Safety is the first thing we cover,” Miller says. “Everyone has to understand that safety is a priority.”

Once the written test is completed, students must pass a driving test on the mower before they can help maintain fields. They then spend the first quarter taking care of the football field, completing tasks such as painting, mowing, watering and filling divots.

The program emphasizes problem solving. For example, last year was wet and this year has been dry. When the water pump broke, students asked, “What do we do?” They thought of solutions and went to work.

“Someone came up with bucket brigade, so we were doing that,” Miller says. “Someone suggested filling the tractor bucket up and dumping the water where it was most dry – we did that – and we had two hoses out and connected at the spigot to hand-water the football field for three days straight. We couldn’t get the pump parts for two days. Students learned you just have to find a way forward.”

“Seeing the kids work together was awesome,” adds Miller, who enforces the importance of working as a crew. That mentality results in the students receiving a group grade near the end of the first quarter. “This is not an industry of one, it’s a crew,” he says. “It’s a grounds crew, not a grounds member. I can alter the grade based on whether an individual was working or not. The big thing is that they are actually seeing themselves being critiqued on ‘how’ they did, not ‘what’ they did. I want them to be concerned with the process of it.”

Teaming up with RTJ

Coordinated effort and problem-solving cannot be emphasized enough and the summer work students complete is beneficial for everyone. Students use the season to practice their skills and determine if they might be interested in a future in turf, expanding their knowledge and bringing it back to BDHS. Local courses and businesses benefit from receiving skilled labor.

“I can’t take them all, but I would if I could,” RTJ superintendent Scott Furlong says. Furlong knows how pivotal seasonal work can be. He was initially destined to be a teacher, earning his bachelor’s degree in education from Old Dominion University. Before he started teaching fulltime, Furlong worked a summer at RTJ in 1994 when the club hosted the Presidents Cup.

“I have been at RTJ ever since,” Furlong says. “The vistas are breathtaking. This is a great place, with a great membership. It is very easy to get up and go to work every day – it never gets old.” Maybe that’s why Furlong understands why so many students feel compelled to work in the turf industry – it’s an attractive occupation, and the more you learn, it seems the more there is to know.

For instance, Furlong says, “the (Annual Bluegrass) Weevil problem across the Mid-Atlantic is something we have struggled with the last few years, and next summer I want our Syngenta rep (Sam Camuso) to meet with the high school and college interns for a 90-minute session so they start to understand one of the biggest pests to hit our industry. They have an eagerness to learn and it’s our job to expose them.”

Furlong and Miller are arranging a classroom visit later this year. Furlong will talk to students about college. “They don’t need to rush into school or a four-year degree,” Furlong says. “The two-year degree might be more manageable for some kids. There is a shortage of students, a shortage of assistants and a shortage of interns across the country. We have a nice little pocket here to work with these kids, talk about placement and see where they can get a good experience.”

“RTJ has great internship programs – high school and college.” Furlong adds. “The college intern program includes working a tournament, attending an association meeting, and scholarship opportunities. All college interns spray, fertilize, calibrate, moisture manage, scout for disease, roll greens and do course set up – all the big stuff. The high school interns start with raking bunkers and pulling weeds, but our goal is to have every one of these kids trained on greens mowing before the end of the summer. If they go somewhere else, they are leaving more talented than when they arrived – there is a progression. If they come back next year, we get them trained in hand-watering and riding jobs.”

Riding jobs at RTJ are scarce, because the course requires a lot of walk mowing and hand work. The crew uses Toro walk and push mowers, and John Deere fairway units, which they try to get students on before college. “Many of the kids from BDHS have been very interested and worked very hard,” Furlong says. “Are they perfect? No. Are they close? Sometimes. They are kids and I expect them to be kids.” The mentality is encouraging to students. No matter how hard a young person tries, mistakes will be made. “It’s frustrating that we don’t have more college interns walking through the door because we truly do try to push people here,” Furlong adds.

Burnout is another industry problem. Workers sometimes don’t feel challenged as they sit in line and wait for a promotion. A recent RTJ recruiting advertisement reads, “Goals of becoming a superintendent within 2-4 years are a prerequisite.” Furlong is serious about advancing careers – from summer workers to top employees.

“I don’t want people to get complacent,” he says. “I want people who want to come in here and not be good but be great, make RTJ better for being here and then move on. Lots of assistants leave to become superintendents. It makes me happy to see them go out, be productive people in society, in their community, and wear their logo and be respected at their club.”

Furlong says that, in 2018, “we couldn’t find local, seasonal labor from April to November. I contacted landscape companies (who were having the same problem) and used people who had never worked on a golf course just to rake bunkers on tournament days. It was really, really difficult. Then a couple of high schoolers wanted summer jobs and I told them to get their friends because I need staff.” Then he “hired 20-some high school kids. And 17 of them [he] had coached – football, soccer, basketball or lacrosse, and some of them [he] had coached multiple years.” Through personal effort, by working with colleges and teaming up with the BDHS turf program, RTJ is finding the workers it needs. Furlong might have left a career in teaching, but he’s now teaching every day.

Working for the future

Regular communication with students is a major part of Miller’s philosophy. “If you give a kid five minutes of your time, see what he or she is thinking, and really talk about what’s possible – that’s a difference maker,” he says. The approach empowers students, expanding their passion for turf and the program.

“This program wouldn’t be where it is today without the kids who were in my cabinet last year,” Miller says. “Our president, Cole Couch, literally did everything that was needed. Bronco Deeds is the president this year. They understand the importance of what they are doing and the impact they are making not just in the program but everywhere they are going. They have the mindset that ‘this is what I want to do’, and the more I learn now the easier it will be.”

Deeds worked at RTJ. “I want to be a superintendent,” he says. “I enjoyed it and it gave me a good view of the future. I understand what it will be like to work on a course and the responsibilities.” He is applying to Virginia Tech and a few other schools to see what his options are.

“We actually do a lot of community work and work on the school fields,” he says. “Students compliment our designs and everyone seems interested. People respect what we do and understand that the field takes a lot of work to maintain to be ready for game day.” His favorite thing about the turf management program is “being able to learn and getting the experience I need to be able to have a job in this industry. The hardest thing is having everything ready on time.”

John Carayiannis started working at RTJ as a sophomore and transferred into the turf program during his junior year, because he “kept hearing how fun that program was.” He says, “there is a good balance between fun and learning new things. What I like most is being able to make the connections between my job at RTJ and the program because it’s two different types of turf management, but you can see what they have in common.”

Carayiannis has “learned a ton in these two years – for me to catch up and know as much or more than a lot of the people in the program is cool because I got so much experience in such little time. I worked in the bunkers and mowed the greens about half the time this summer. When the afternoon jobs were done, an assistant would take me out to go cut cups or plug out scalped cups.” Carayiannis also hopes to become a superintendent. He plans to obtain more work experience and study turf in college.

Another top student in the program is Julie Kessler. She participates in equestrian activities and works at the barn where she rides. The enthusiasm surrounding the Brentsville program convinced her to give turf a try. “When Mr. Miller started teaching, everyone really seemed to enjoy it, like getting the tape on the football field and designing and working on all of the athletic fields at the school,” she says. “He has been talking to me about how turf management could be a career.”

She plans on applying to college with turf management being an option. “It’s nice that Mr. Miller doesn’t really teach us like children – he teaches us like we are all part of a crew – everyone is equal to him,” she adds. “Sometimes adults talk to us like we’re kids, because we are, but Mr. Miller treats us all with respect. I mean the things he lets us do … he trusts us! It’s pretty great.”

Miller is also proud of Collin Brady, treasurer for the turf program and also an intern at RTJ for the past two summers. Brady runs his own landscaping company – “to put in new beds, mow, mulch and weed.”

He spent his first year at RTJ mulching, raking and weeding. “But as they trusted me more, I was mowing greens and the rough around the edges and stuff like that, cutting holes – it was a lot of fun,” he adds.

Brady eagerly anticipates getting into turf management. “The thing I enjoy most is being outside and learning new things all the time,” he says. “I learn something new every day and I am having fun while I’m doing it. That’s really cool to know that you are putting all this effort into one of the best sports fields in the nation and you helped make that happen. Mr. Miller is one of the best teachers. He doesn’t get mad. He just tells you how to correct mistakes and then he tells you that you did a good job. Sometimes I think, ‘I don’t want to go to school today and then I’m like, I’ve got Landscaping Class.’ It makes me want to keep coming back and keep learning. It’s awesome.”

To have a draw that powerful, to keep kids coming to school and be excited about learning as they are exposed to the great careers that are possible in the turf industry, is a wonderful thing. And students aren’t the only ones better off, because college programs are noticing their talent, and the local community is benefiting too.

Involving colleges and the community

Students in the turf program make an annual visit to Virginia Tech. They have visited Penn State. And this year, sophomores will also be visiting the University of Maryland.

“Every year when we go there are a couple of kids who don’t really think a four-year university is the place for them,” Meints says. “By halfway through the day, they are asking me, ‘What would I need to do to get into the two-year program at Virginia Tech? How can I finish out my junior/senior year to get in here?’”

Miller remembers Virginia Tech’s Dr. Mike Goatley teaching him that you are creating more than just a field. Working in turf management, you are creating a place for memories for kids, a safe playing environment for athletes and something pleasing for spectators to observe. Turf is never just turf. It has a larger purpose, for sports and the environment, and that’s critical.

Fortunately, support is pouring in from every direction. The Prince William branch of the Farm Bureau Insurance Company donated $20,000. This enabled the turf program to acquire a pair of mowers. The students maintain some of the community fields and they also work field jobs at other schools, such as baseball mound reconstruction or field edging. Sometimes they work for service hours, sometimes for pay. Any money made on these jobs is reinvested in the program.

The county is helping fund a new greenhouse at BDHS that will mainly be used for the horticulture class, but ideally also for cultivating grasses for turf identification. Virginia Tech and Penn State have sent letters supporting a grant, which Miller has applied for so that BDHS can build the first high school turfgrass research center in the United States. It will include a research lab, research putting green, maintenance facility, storage area and an area to house classes. The idea is that BDHS can help conduct research trials for both of those colleges – and much more.

“There will be a workshop area so that the students can work on the engines, and a welding station … everything we need to teach the kids how to maintain equipment,” Miller says. “Sports turf managers usually ship maintenance equipment out to be repaired, but that’s less common for golf course managers. I want the kids to have a better understanding of the equipment so that when they are out there on the course, they know what is going wrong.”

The new facility could allow the program to grow even more, solving the classroom issue. Partnerships with the community, universities, administrators and courses like RTJ are providing students with the skills they need. The influential approach of Furlong and Miller, to continually teach and show the students new things, is keeping their interest and helping solve the problem of bringing skilled labor to the industry.

Brentsville students are learning how to work together and that quality turf skills provide career opportunities. Though they have just started peeking through the grass, the students are thriving with a steely, tiger-like determination to make the most of what they see.

Lee Carr is an Ohio-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.

The end was near, and Jason Stroehlein knew the end was near, his staff whittled thinner than any sensible size, his days obviously numbered, and still he worked.

He hopped on “some cheap rental equipment” for basic mows. He worked for months without water. Just do what you can, he was told, to keep as much turf alive as possible. When winter arrived, he sprayed what little snow mold preventative fungicide remained in his maintenance facility, steering clear of fairways and not indulging at all in any aerification, and winterized an irrigation system that carried an $8 million price tag when it was installed less than a decade earlier. Blow it out. Shut it down.

“Two days later, they laid me off,” he says. “That was it.”

Stroehlein had worked for four glorious years as an assistant and later as the superintendent at Cornerstone Club, an incredible and ambitious course outside Montrose, Colorado — on the eastern edge of the Uncompahgre National Forest, about 30 miles north of Telluride and 300 miles west of Denver — laid out by Greg Norman Golf Course Design and bankrolled by Hunt Realty Investments. After opening back in 2008, Cornerstone was heralded as “the best new course in Colorado” by one magazine, “the best new private course in America” by another, and “easily the best high altitude course in the nation and quite possibly the world” by a third.

“We had a big checkbook,” Stroehlein says. “We had a ton of money and a promise that Hunt was going to develop other golf courses. We felt like we were a success and everything was great.”

And then everything wasn’t great. Not long after Hunt turned to KemperSports to manage the sprawling 6,000-plus-acre property, the dregs of the Great Recession seeped into Colorado and the rest of the Mountain West. Lot and membership sales had bottomed out and the oil and gas business appeared far more lucrative for Hunt. The course changed hands in 2011, then again in 2012. Financial problems plagued both groups and the course shut down in June 2012, the staff trimmed from 27 to seven.

Stroehlein remained for another handful of months before that number dwindled to zero. The day he learned he was out of a dream job, he and his wife, Valerie, started to pack up their lives — their children were just 4 and 1 at the time — and wondered what was next.

“It was like having the rug pulled out from under us,” he says. “It was like, ‘Wow, what do you do?’ I was applying for jobs all over the Midwest and the Mountain West to try to find anything.” After heading back to southern Illinois, not far from home, Stroehlein worked for a couple local landscape companies before landing a position as a parks superintendent in suburban St. Louis. “We just decided it was time to get back closer to family and find something with some stability until the golf industry bounced back a little bit,” he says.

The course, meanwhile, spiraled into a legal

AROUND 200 COURSES SHUT DOWN every year around the United States, at least according to numbers released by the National Golf Foundation, just about all of them for one financial reason or another. Some will be cleared for new suburbs full of homes. Some will grow over and become fields, the hint of a course peeking up from under the weeds.

“If you’ve been in the golf industry long enough — and certainly if you’ve been in the golf industry from the late ’90s through the 2000s to now — and you didn’t have a project that got closed somewhere along the way, you just weren’t very active,” says Matt Dusenberry, who launched his Dusenberry Golf Course Design in 2014 after 16 years with Greg Norman. What isn’t common, of course, is the reverse. “I think it’s rare,” Dusenberry says, “that a project comes back.”

Cornerstone Club is today a part of that far smaller number because of its Owners Association. Spurred by its longtime president, Bob Aisner, the group sued the club’s owners in March 2013 for a breach of contract related to breaking up the property and selling it in packages. The case ended in a settlement and the land was deeded back during the last quarter of 2015.

“We were really just focused on taking control back of the whole property,” says Aisner, who splits his time between the Dallas Metroplex and Cornerstone. “What was going to happen to the course was second to getting it back and under control in one unified ownership with a long-term vision.”

After sifting through more paperwork, Aisner and the Cornerstone Owners Association dived into the details of renovating the course — which had now lay dormant longer than it had welcomed golfers — and they called Stroehlein first, bringing him back as a consultant for a revival project that would have been funded by a prospective ownership group out of North Carolina.

“It was almost surreal just to be back, and it was just heartbreaking to see it in that condition after we had hit so many high peaks,” says Stroehlein, who walked the property for four days during that summer 2016 trip and then worked with Aisner for the next six to eight months to develop a revival plan. “All the fairways and roughs, all the bluegrass areas, were only about 6 inches tall and just very thin. That was surprising. We had a few weeds, dandelions and thistle, but nothing was overgrown or crazy. You couldn’t see fairway contours, but it was a golf course, wall to wall, right down to the edge of the grass limits. It took shape fairly quickly to determine what we were going to have to do.”

“We were lucky Jason was willing to come back,” Aisner says. “He had always loved the course and there was nothing more important than getting him back. He had great relationships with contractors, subcontractors. There was never an issue.”

“Even as the assistant superintendent, I was involved in everything, not just the golf course,” Stroehlein says. “All the amenities, the real estate, everything.”

Dusenberry received the next call — almost a decade after he first arrived on the property to participate in the design of the course during his days with Norman. How often is an architect afforded an opportunity to edit their work on such a scale?

“The only areas that were really in poor condition, which is amazing, were just the areas that had sand,” says Dusenberry, who worked on the project with his design partner James McKenna. “There’s a sand profile under the tees, there’s a sand profile under the approaches and greens, and those areas were all desiccated and had very limited turf on them. There were a few cracks from the years, but it was really all there, almost like it was preserved. Bizarre. Even the bluegrass — if you were to go to an overgrown course in the Midwest, the grass would all be a foot high. Here, it was like it had maintained itself. It looked like you could darn near go play golf.”

Perhaps the grass stunted because of a relative lack of water. Because Cornerstone sits in essentially a high desert environment, the course enjoys what Stroehlein calls “even decent growing conditions” for no more than five months every year. Couple that with an irrigation system that had been turned off for almost five years and the recipe is right for short grasses rather than tall.

Oh, and about that irrigation system. When Stroehlein turned it back on, all but about 1 percent of the 3,200 or so Rain Bird heads worked perfectly. Thank that last blowout back in 2012.

“We didn’t know if we were going to be replacing three-fourths of the heads, or if plumbing was going to be blown up, or if pump stations were going to be completely shot,” Stroehlein says. “I walked in the first day and turned the pumps on and they lit up like I’d left them yesterday and we charged everything back up in three days. It was unbelievable.”

Instead of spending millions more, Stroehlein needed about $50,000 to tune up an elaborate system of pipes and sprinkler heads.

Aisner also called John McNeely, the founder of Diamond Creek Golf Club in Banner Elk, North Carolina, and managing partner at Congaree in Ridgeland, South Carolina, to help restart operations. He focused more on the macro than the micro, providing big-picture perspective. “We had a spectacular team,” Aisner says. “Nobody had an ego and the free flow of ideas was just terrific.”

Cornerstone opened in spurts, with 21 acres filled with a practice facility and a short course opening June 1, 2018, the first eight holes of the course opening September 8, 2018, and the full course opening for good July 13. A western drought last year helped the renovation wrap up on time, with work rolling on every day from April 13 through October 5. The elk that moved into the bunkers have been evicted back to an even more natural habitat and the primary avenue for growth is to bring in as many as 75 new national members, a number Aisner says “we think we can easily reach.”

Stroehlein is working with a bigger crew than before, 35 in the summer and 10 in the winter, with snow removal in the winter and summer lawn care maintenance for homeowners a part of the schedule.

“It’s been a crazy two years and we’re just killing it right now,” he says. “Great year agronomically, great year with members. We feel like it’s been a pretty amazing process.”

The differences between then and now are stark, but not lost to memory.

“It gives you much more of a sense of purpose and you’re much more grateful,” Stroehlein says. “Not that we weren’t grateful the first time around, but gosh, all the work that was put into it and then to have it closed down and then have an opportunity to come back. I looked at it as the ultimate opportunity. We get to tweak it until it’s to where we think it’s perfect.

“In 2012, I was pretty down about it. I could have just walked away. I could have not blown out the irrigation system. I pushed and fought hard to spray fungicides and do all the things that we were trying to do, just in case. I saved records. I had all the information I needed in the event that the following year or two years later, if somebody wanted to get things back going again, I would have all that. I put myself in the best position if I was the guy coming back. You never know. Put it to bed as if you’re going to open it next year.

“I couldn’t imagine if I hadn’t done all those things, coming back, what I’d be in for. If we had walked out there and the pump station was dead, if the pumps were all frozen up, if we had plumbing issues, they would have pulled the plug. They wouldn’t have ever even gone through with it.”

No story has a real beginning, or a middle, or an end. We all just pick random moments from our experience to look back — and to look ahead.

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Ireland, where I walked 99 holes of golf over six consecutive days. I honestly cannot tell you when, if ever, I played golf for six consecutive days, let alone walked. It was heavenly.

My first taste of links golf came earlier this year at the home of golf, the Old Course at St Andrews. Walking across the sacred ground previously tread upon by the game’s founders, legends and greats sent shivers up my spine and I’ve never felt more at peace or serene.

In Ireland, it didn’t matter if it was pouring rain at 9-hole Spanish Point or if the wind was howling nearly 40 mph at Carne. All that mattered was we were in the moment. More than 3,000 miles from home, work and all the other distractions that come with day-to-day life in America seemed a distant memory, even if only for a short while.

I managed to play Lahinch with one ball, whilst losing several at both Carne and Rosapenna. It took me six attempts to extricate my ball from the deep, revetted bunker guarding the front left of Doonbeg’s 18th hole. We all had a good laugh! And when my wife’s caddie at Enniscrone shouted an expletive in his native accent across the adjacent fairway to another member in our trip, we nearly laughed ourselves to tears.

Guinness and thick, hearty vegetable soup with brown soda bread warmed my bones following each round. I’m happy to report I didn’t gain one pound whilst away — the power of walking between eight to 10 miles each day over, between and around the dunes.

I recently listened to Episode 99 of “The State of the Game” podcast. Just before the seven-minute mark, Rod Morri references a comment made by Derek Duncan, who hosts the “Feed the Ball” podcast. Derek says, “When you play a golf course in a cart, you almost never approach the green from the front, from the fairway, cause you’re always parking to the side to go and putt. When you walk the golf course, it’s a completely different experience because you approach all the greens from the front.”

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve probably played greater than 80 percent of my lifetime rounds with a cart, and never thought about it in the context of Derek’s comment. He’s right and it makes me wonder if this plays a role in the number of unrepaired ball marks routinely seen on U.S. courses. If golfers are approaching from the sides of each green, do they fail to walk past where their ball first struck the putting surface?

Another thing that struck me about my experience in Ireland is how Americans in general are willing to accept the quirkiness often found on old links courses (blind shots, severe slopes, pot bunkers, etc.), but are quick to chastise those features when at home. I personally do not mind blind shots and find them to be thrilling, plus good friend Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS, MG, told me that Pete Dye always says, “they’re only blind once.”

My game isn’t as sharp as it once was. My most recent GHIN update stated I’m now a 6.0 index. My personal best was 1.2 and the days of 2.0 are now a recent but distant memory. The self-imposed pressures of work continue to mount each season and Mother Nature continues to find new ways to frustrate me and prevent me from playing.

I resolve to do better. I fell in love with greenkeeping because I fell in love with golf first. I fell in love with my wife because we met on a golf course and love to play golf together. Ireland showed me despite our efforts to enjoy life we haven’t made enough time for ourselves. We’re not getting any younger and each year our skills and abilities deteriorate, but links golf is suited for all ages.

I don’t know exactly when or where golf in America went too far astray from its roots in Great Britain and Ireland. After having experienced golf twice this year in the homeland, I believe it’s something we need more of in the U.S., and I can’t wait to return across the pond to experience it again. There is something to be said about a stroll across a links course, whether it’s with your clubs on your back, pushing a trolley, or with a caddie by your side. It’s a good walk!

Negotiating, regardless of who you are, can be intimidating.

Knowing when to ask or for what to ask for is difficult, whether you are a successful golf course superintendent or a long-time club employee. If you are a dedicated, talented and trustworthy staff member who values your skills and job, requesting a raise may cause you to teeter on a fine line of standing firm on your abilities and accomplishments or facing the potential risk of changing jobs.

Why aren’t you asking for more money more often? Shying away from going to the boss and asking for a raise occurs for several reasons:

• Appearing to be too bold
• Taking a risk
• Uprooting a secure situation in a delicate job market
• Undervaluing your contributions to the staff and operations or worse, NOT valuing YOUR contributions to the operation

We all know that golf course maintenance begins with planning and then execution. So, let’s apply these principles to your negotiating tactics.

Start with a clean story. Ignore past salary or wage numbers. Often, previous hourly wages or a starting salary did not match the level of competency or services provided. What you started with should not be an indicator of what would be a fair wage or salary now. You have more experience and a better understanding of the operations than when you started.

Be prepared. Off-the-cuff conversations or spontaneity when asking for more money rarely prove successful. Always be prepared to accurately support yourself and your credentials. Much like proper golf course product applications, set a discussion date far enough in advance to allow time to prepare.

Take control of yourself. This is creating your “I” statement so you can exude confidence in your abilities, knowledge, and accomplishments on the golf course and within your career. If you were responsible for the successful completion of a project, take ownership. Don’t downplay your abilities. The “I” statement applies throughout the phases of your career — whether asking for a raise or interviewing for your next job. Get used to talking about yourself and taking ownership in YOU!

Visualize a positive outcome. Seems obvious but … when the time comes, your preparation will provide positive energy and results. What you think about the results matters. If you are doubtful, then guess what? Create a positive mental scenario prior to your meeting. Picture the results you are seeking.

Understand your numbers. Evaluate all the costs associated with your requested raise so you have a clear and defined “ballpark” number. Then convey these numbers with clarity. Remember, you are trying to sell yourself to those who already know you.

As a counterpoint, even the best-made plans can get thrown off by unexpected budget reductions, special equipment needs, decline in play or memberships, or some other circumstantial change such as a new boss. As you consider what having additional resources might mean to your lifestyle or family, it is as crucial to consider your plan of action if you are declined a financial reward.

Play to your strengths. Have a firm resolve not to be denied, regroup and tap into your personal strengths to review what may have gone wrong. Remember past wins that made you proud and confident – on or off the golf course.

Celebrate the small victories. Often, when a goal is not achieved, we become frustrated or assume the “I’ll never get anywhere here” mentality. Don’t let this happen. Reflect on your career and life plan. To move up another level remove this distraction and refocus on what made you successful.

Handling problems. How you view and handle setbacks is what shapes us, our attitudes and how we rebound. This is life, get used to it. As Rocky Balboa once said, “It ain’t how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

See setbacks as opportunities to get better, because they happen to all of us. You can learn a lot about yourself by the way you handle adversity. Find and follow people who have turned problems into steppingstones.

Finally, as Gary Player once stated, “the more I practice, the luckier I get!” Practice (role play) for this opportunity with a friend, spouse or relative who can provide an honest assessment of your presentation or how to improve it.