Three Penn State students volunteer at AT&T Byron Nelson

Students from Penn State’s winning Turf Bowl team were given various jobs as volunteers at the AT&T Byron Nelson. (Photo: John Deere)

Thanks to John Deere, three students from the winning Penn State Turf Bowl team were able to take part in keeping Trinity Forest Golf Club tournament-ready, despite rainy conditions at this year’s AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.

Alex Hendler, Ian Patterson and Seth Re experienced what it’s like to work on a maintenance crew as they mowed greens, collected course data such as green speed and soil moisture, repaired bunkers and filled divots.

Hendler recently graduated from Penn State with his degree in Turfgrass Science and participated in the Turf Bowl his junior and senior year. He said the highlight of working at the tournament was seeing how management handled all of the different people there and put on a successful tournament despite a lot of rain. “I think that was a really cool learning experience,” he added.

Turfgrass management has always interested Hendler. He says he’s always enjoyed working outside and knew it was definitely something he wanted to do. Once he started completing internships, he knew he had chosen the right career path.

Hendler said that seeing the great management at Trinity Forest will help him as he continues in his chosen career path and prepares to lead his own crew someday. “I can’t stress enough how great the management team was throughout the week, despite poor weather,” he said. “Their passion went down to the full-time members of the crew and the volunteers.”