Travelogue: Charlotte/Future Turf Managers

Last week I was on the road again, this time to a familiar location: Charlotte, N.C.

I was invited to speak at Jacobsen’s annual Future Turf Managers event. Every year Jacobsen brings in 20+ of the top turf students from around the country (and this year, one Aussie) to give them an opportunity to learn, network, and of course, ride and drive some orange equipment. A tour of both Jacobsen facilities in Charlotte is also included.

The event was great, and I was impressed with the line-up of speakers (minus myself.) Of note to Golfdom‘s readers would be presentations from Jared Nemitz, the Peninsula Club, Cornelius, N.C., and Steve Loughran, Rock Ridge CC, Newtown, Conn.

Nemitz gave an interesting presentation where he, in his own words, presented “turf nerd” data — examples of the measurements and charts he keeps every day in order to be a successful superintendent. (Example: Nemitz and his crew weigh the clipping yields daily from all 18 greens in order to monitor growth habits.) Of special interest to me was when Nemitz flashed a slide up on his PowerPoint that had Golfdom‘s April cover (“To Core or Not to Core?“). His point with that slide was to talk to the attendees about making important decisions that interfere with play, and how it costs the club revenue.

Loughran, a past attendee (graduate, if you will) of the Future Turf Managers event, spoke about his career path, some lessons he’d learned along the way, and the rewards of becoming a superintendent. In Loughran’s case, he was recently tasked with rebuilding a handful of greens at Rock Ridge. “I’d never rebuilt a green before,” Loughran told the group. “If you earn the trust of your members, you get to do cool projects like this and call it work.”

I stuck around long enough to get some good photos of the ride and drive, then I exited stage left. I then took up Matthew Wharton, CGCS at Carolina Golf Club, on his invitation to play his course located on the west side of Charlotte, not far from the airport. The course looked great, and those greens! Perfect. Sadly, I didn’t play as well as I did at Whistling Straits, but I still had a great time, including

rolling in a 30-foot birdie putt from off the green on the par-three No. 16.

All in all, a great trip to Charlotte. Thanks to our friends at Jacobsen for the opportunity to speak to the goup; the Steve and Jared for their time; and to Matthew for the hospitality!