19th Hole: Marc Muniz

Photo: Christina Cicippio

Marc Muniz

Director of Agronomy // The Club at Lansdowne (Va.)

Marc, what can I get you? An IPA. Partly Cloudy from Solace Brewing Company.

Tell me about the Club at Lansdowne. We have 45 holes. A (Robert Trent) Jones course, a (Greg) Norman course and a spinoff of a Norman design called Sharkbite. And the grasses are all different — Norman and Sharkbite are bentgrass greens, tees and fairways with cool-season grass rough. The Jones course has Meyer Zoysia fairways, bentgrass tees and bent/Poa greens. And I have a bermudagrass range and tees.

Which is your favorite grass to take care of? The greens on the Jones course. I’m from up north in Jersey, so I’m familiar with the New York Metro area and those Poa greens. And the Meyer Zoysia fairways, they practically watch themselves.

Tell me about yourself. I’m married — for three years — to Krysta. But we’ve been together for almost 13 years. We met on the Jersey Shore during prom weekend. We have a dog, Tucker, who just turned 10.

What do you and Krysta do for fun? The food here is great, and there are 35 to 40 breweries in the area. But our big thing is, we have seen Eric Church every time he’s been on tour.

You’re lucky you and your wife have the same taste in music. That’s the only one we settle on, country music. I’m mostly a ’90s grunge guy. She’ll get in the car, and I’ve got Alice in Chains on, and she says, ‘What is this?’ I say yeah, this is a normal day.

What was your toughest course at UMass? Soils were a hard concept to understand. But I would say, now, knowing what I know about it, it’s the most important class that you could possibly take. UMass was great; I got to work at the Joseph Troll Research Center and helped with NTEP research. I felt like after I left the program, I was agronomically ready to do whatever.

Do you have any good luck charms? Are you superstitious? I have one. There’s this Spanish myth that if you need to get something done before it starts raining, stick a steak knife in the ground. And the key is, if it starts to drizzle, you have to pull it out. It gives you a little window. It’s got me out of a jam a ton of times! I’ve watched the radar and seen storms go right around us.

Did you get this from the crew? I got it from my wife’s stepmom. I told her I’d try it because it was one of those years where you couldn’t get anything done. I was coming off the last green, and it started drizzling, so I ran behind the shop and pulled it out, and it just started dumping. And I’m like, all right, that’s cool, I’m in.