Last month, about 50 assistant superintendents from across the country were selected to attend Green Start Academy, a two-day educational and networking event sponsored by John Deere Golf and Bayer Environmental Science. It's a dynamic program and assistant superintendents get to rub elbows with some of the movers and shakers in the golf course maintenance business. The assistants learn a lot, meet a lot of new people and share some laughs.

This year, attendees were treated to a Who's Who lineup of speakers. If this were Major League Baseball, this all-star lineup would win the World Series. It included Ken Mangum, certified golf course superintendent of the Atlanta (Ga.) Athletic Club, and Bruce Williams, who recently left his gig as certified golf course superintendent at the Los Angeles Country Club and joined ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance as director of business development in the West. Mangum and Williams are veterans in the business and call it like they see it.

One thing Mangum and Williams harped on to the assistants was the importance of getting themselves noticed in their quests to move up in their careers. In this challenging golf economy, where jobs for superintendents are limited, it’s vital to make yourselves stand out, they said.

John Deere’s Brad Aldridge provided a demonstration on the benefits of fixed head versus contouring walk mowers.

“You can’t be better than everyone else if you’re doing the same thing,” Mangum said.

Of course, there were questions for Mangum and Williams about the struggling economy and job security.

“I think everybody is concerned about their jobs,” Mangum said.

There are also not a lot of available jobs. Even those who are unhappy in their jobs are staying put because they have nowhere else to go, said Stan Zontek, director of the Mid-Atlantic Region for the United States Golf Association's Green Section.

The amiable Zontek, who told assistants, “I’ve been employed by the USGA longer than most of you have been alive,” gave a presentation on golf course trends. He said more clubs and courses are adding first-rate practice facilities to accommodate more golfers who don’t have time to play 18 holes.

Zontek also spoke about golf course conditioning in America. While more people say conditioning has become too extreme, Zontek says he’s fine with just that.

Thom Nikolai educated (and entertained) attendees with a dynamite presentation.

“People say to me, ‘Stan, when will it end?’ I hope it never ends because it’s job security,’ ” he added. Speaking of which, the bet here is Thom Nikolai is secure in his job as turfgrass professor at Michigan State University. That’s because the man can outright teach.

You know someone is a top-notch presenter when you can pay attention to him/her for almost two hours and not notice the time go by. That would be Nikolai, who spoke on a variety of subjects, from green speed and rolling greens to communicating with golfers.

“I don’t think speed kills,” Nikolai said when discussing green speed. “Speed doesn’t kill — ignorance does."

The quick-witted Nikolai was a hit. There were no watch-glancing-wondering-when-this-presentation-will-be-over people in the audience. The same could be said of Nick Hamon’s presentation. Hamon, Ph.D. and director of development and technical service for Bayer Environmental Science, gave a presentation on sustainable development. Hamon provided a fascinating presentation on what the green industry can expect in that regard.

While the assistants got to hear one of Bayer’s top researchers, they also got to hear longtime John Deere engineer Ron Reichen present on, “Details of Bedknife/Reel Composition.” As Matt Armbrister, marketing director for John Deere Golf said as he introduced Reichen, “Ron has forgotten more about this subject than I’ll ever know.”

Reichen’s the type of guy anybody would want to listen and learn from.