Musings from the Ledge: A trip to the Australia Sports Turf Managers Association

It’s a late November morning; we have a frost delay and I’m going through my emails. Junk, delete; ad, delete; Golfdom, keep; junk, delete; ASTMA request, delete. Oh wait, what was that?

I go to the trash folder. It’s the Australia Sports Turf Managers Association asking if I would like to speak about the First Green at their conference in June. It took a few minutes to absorb this, then after working out it’s not some Nigerian prince phishing or a friend pranking me, I replied with a “What an honor, let me look into taking off in June,” and other than that being an issue, it’s a yes!

I called my wife, and she thought I was pranking her, but then she immediately announced that I’m not going without her, which might have been to force me to come clean or, if not, just to ensure she was coming. I’ve never been away from the course in the summer for more than a few days, so it was weird considering it at first. I’ve mentioned before that there are two amazing assistants at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, so that took a lot of pressure and worry away about leaving for a few weeks. The club was delighted I had the opportunity, so it was an official yes!

I should have asked at that point what else I had to talk about. The First Green was easy, it was one I’d done several times before, but then came the, “You’ve had an interesting journey from Ireland to Delaware … so talk about yourself.” It should be a subject I know well, but it turns out that 50 minutes talking about yourself while not boring a room full of people is trickier than you would think. Thankfully, I’ve worked at some great properties, and that was my hook; I could chat about them.

My biggest fear is always running out of time, so that PowerPoint was picture-heavy, so sorry to all of my new Aussie friends for the dizzying end as the pics flashed by.

My last talk was on building a workplace culture. After an initial panic that I didn’t think I knew anything about that subject, I realized that I live it every day thanks to the “Talon Tribe” at RBCC, so it came together easily. Maybe because it was my last talk, but it turned out being the best one. So much for worrying about it.

After I confirmed that I was going, the next question was can I see the Sand Belt courses in Melbourne. I was not traveling that far just to not see them. Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath didn’t disappoint — incredible doesn’t come close to describing them, and a huge thanks to Hayden at Kingston Heath and Paul at Royal Melbourne for taking the time to show us around and talk Australian turf. The turf management practices there are nothing like I had even heard or thought about before, so it was a huge learning experience.

After the first few days in Melbourne, we were back in Sydney for the conference, and luckily we had a little time to see the sights. We took a few vacation days and went to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and eventually back home in what felt like a whirlwind, from it being months away to it being over.

Most of us don’t like public speaking, and I’m not an exception, but having been “forced” into it over the years, I have slowly become more comfortable — although not necessarily any better! I’m glad that I stepped out of that comfort zone, as I never considered it would create an opportunity like this. It’s easy to say to put yourself out there and try something that makes you uncomfortable, but in this case, I can say it worked!

I can’t thank Bruce Macphee, Mark Unwin, Simone Staples, Tim Fankhauser and everyone at the ASTMA enough for inviting me and giving me an amazing education on how it’s done Down Under. Cheers, mates!