Plan ahead

It’s difficult to find the right crew members to put in long, difficult hours on the course during the summer, usually. But Mark Kuhns, director of grounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., has a steady stream of talent, just about hand-picked for the position.

On top of his regular staff, his club runs an internship program that brings in about 10 students each season, with a focus on mentoring them and preparing them for a superintendent’s role later on. Many of the students are from turf programs like the one at Penn State, and they stay on the course for the whole season to be able for hands-on lessons.

It started easily enough when he worked at a previous course, and needed some new assistants – but didn’t have anyone prepared.

“I made an effort to try to get someone in who was going to be trained,” says Kuhns. “We got one of our crew members through Penn State and decided, let’s mentor a few more. I developed this to be part of a succession plan. You knew these guys weren’t going to be staying, and we needed to have someone to wait in the wings who was ready.”

He’s expanded the program everywhere he’s gone since that point, and has student seeking out the opportunity to intern just for the experience and in building their skills. Early on in the program, he would receive lists of internship objectives from turf programs. He’s compiled those objectives into a master list for his own program, and uses that to figure out how best to work each student.

“It’s a great source of talented labor,” he says. “Unfortunately, superintendents often use these guys strictly as labor and don’t have much interest in their intellectual and scientific abilities as they probably should.”

Once in the program, the student starts learning about chemical and fertilizer applications as well as mechanic calibrations. At the end of the season, not only do they have their pesticide licenses, they’re proficient in those areas because of all the hands-on training.

“Some courses, they just have them do all the work without knowing why or what needs to be done,” he says. “We’re just the opposite of that. We answer all the questions, whatever they want to know about what we’re doing.

“Training has helped us to attract the best students, because they’re getting a hands-on experience, and a lot of them are getting college credit.”

Just because the internship program has a focus on training and incorporates lectures from industry speakers and professors alike doesn’t mean he lets up at all on the agronomic work of taking care of the course. He treats the summer months with his interns as a “boot camp” for their career, moving into the final leg before finding a place in the industry.

Not every course can carry the weight of an internship program, especially those with smaller budgets. But giving crew members the chance to ask questions and build on their knowledge of turf care can make the difference for a future superintendent.

“These students work day and night,” he says. “You don’t have to beat up your crew. The fact of the matter is these kids are just energetic. They want to contribute. They want to be part of something great. They want to be proud of something they did and learned over the summer months.”

Superintendents can reach out to local universities to find students interested in internships – even if it’s more specialized in mechanic work. But once a program starts, a superintendent can begin building opportunities for his graduated assistants through references and connections.

“We take great pride in our interns,” says Kuhns. “I hear from kids who were with me 20 years ago. They’ve asked me for references and I have no qualms about recommending them because we work so hard in our program.

“The golf industry is on the rebound, facilities are looking to improve. There are some good opportunities for young people to get involved, to be successful and be part of a team. We try to instill that in our interns: To build a team, learn to work with all the entities involved. These kids have a lot more to learn than just turf.”