0:05

welcome to the reel turf techs podcast

0:07

for the technician that wants to get reel

0:10

follow along. As we talk to industry

0:12

professionals and address hot topics

0:14

that we all face along the way

0:16

we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm

0:18

your host, Trent. Manning let's have some

0:24

Welcome to the real turf text podcast

0:27

episode one 16. Today,

0:30

we're talking to Brian Harper. Equipment

0:32

manager at Pendleton golf club

0:34

And Fredericksburg, Virginia. Pendleton

0:37

golf clubs, the 19 hole public facility.

0:41

Brown is typically the only tech in the

0:43

shop. Sometimes he gets help from the crew.

0:46

He's all John Deere, except for one

0:48

poor lonely. Procor 6

0:51

48. Let's talk to Brian. Welcome

0:53

Brian to the RealTurf Techs podcast.

0:56

Thanks for coming on man.

0:58

Thanks for having me, Trent. It's this is going to be

1:00

a blast.

1:00

Yep. No, I'm looking forward to it

1:03

And we'll just hop right in there.

1:05

Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

1:08

It's a little unorthodox. I got

1:10

in late. I was 28 years old when I

1:12

got into the turf industry. I had, I

1:14

had done a lot of things already at that point

1:17

in my life. Um, quit high school

1:19

when I was young and to join a rock band,

1:21

thought I was going to be a musician for the rest of my life

1:23

and that didn't work out. And then That,

1:26

that's a hard living. And then I was

1:28

a truck driver for a little while delivering

1:30

furniture, driving 26 foot straight trucks

1:33

and popping into your living room and giving

1:35

you a new couch every now and then, and

1:37

then I became a bartender

1:40

and I moved to Florida

1:42

and I hung out down at, you know, the, the, the Mecca

1:44

for bartending. And I was in

1:46

the keys for a while. I was in Miami for a while, Orlando.

1:49

I was all over. And then I moved back home.

1:51

My mom got sick and I was tired

1:53

of being in

1:55

a bar. I was tired of not

1:57

getting home until four in the morning. I had all those

1:59

things. And in order to be, for me

2:01

to be with my mom, I had to change jobs. And

2:04

my brother and I were brainstorming about what

2:06

we would do if we weren't bartending and

2:09

my brother said, I always wanted to cut a golf course.

2:11

And I said, you know, yeah, that's a great idea.

2:13

That'll get me up early and get me home, you

2:15

know, and I applied for

2:18

a job that was just looking for a guy for

2:20

a string trimmer and and I

2:22

got it and I never looked

2:24

back really, um,

2:27

started a place called the gauntlet golf

2:29

club and Stafford, Virginia,

2:31

a guy named Pat Spillane hired me. And

2:34

I enjoyed it. I thoroughly

2:36

enjoyed everybody I worked with. It

2:38

was just different. And I've been doing it

2:41

ever since. Um, I

2:43

was in the turf side for a long time. I stayed

2:45

on the turf side worked my way up to

2:47

assistant superintendent after irrigation

2:49

tech and

2:50

Mm hmm.

2:51

or whatever foreman. But

2:54

I realized that the mechanic went home

2:57

every Friday and didn't come back until

2:59

Monday. Unless it was a holiday

3:01

and then he didn't come back till Tuesday.

3:03

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

3:05

So I was like, you know what, I'm,

3:07

I'm mechanically inclined and I like to,

3:10

you know, and I come from that operator space. So I

3:12

got that aspect to it. And then

3:14

I just I applied for a job

3:16

at a golf course as the mechanic and.

3:19

The rest is history. That was a long time ago now.

3:21

I mean, I'm

3:24

28 years in this, this

3:27

summer,

3:28

Awesome. Well, congratulations

3:30

Yeah.

3:30

Yeah, yeah. So, so good. So,

3:33

but I did, I got to know how

3:35

did you and your brother decide

3:37

I want to cut a golf course.

3:39

Well, we like, we both like playing golf.

3:42

When I was in the Keys, we had a, we had a country

3:44

club, Sombrero Country Club, which is right

3:47

in my little island of Marathon

3:49

in my little town. Otherwise, you

3:51

had to go to Key West and play golf, or you had to

3:53

go to the mainland, which we did, both of those

3:55

things. But since we weren't members,

3:57

one of the waitresses that worked

4:00

with me, her dad was the head pro.

4:02

And he said, I need guys to hand rake

4:04

greenside bunkers on Mondays if

4:07

y'all want to play golf. And so that's

4:09

what me and the chef would do. We'd go hand rake

4:11

greenside bunkers and play golf for

4:13

free. Um, Yeah. So,

4:16

so I I've liked golf

4:18

always, you know, I've liked the game too.

4:20

And I'm very good at it. You know, at one point

4:22

I might've had an 18 handicap, but I'm,

4:25

I'm still pretty bad at it. I don't play often enough

4:27

to be good at it.

4:29

That's all good. You know, you know,

4:31

if you enjoy it, you enjoy it. And that's,

4:33

that's all it mattered.

4:34

It's a good waste of time for four hours. Yeah.

4:36

it's, it's like fishing. Yeah. You don't, you don't have

4:38

to be good at it. It's something you enjoy.

4:42

Yeah. Um, a lot, a lot

4:44

of people probably enjoy driving a car

4:46

and they're really not good at it. Um, Right.

4:49

So

4:50

That's right.

4:51

yeah. So was you

4:53

and your brother bartending together?

4:55

Yeah. My brother was a, I was a bar manager

4:58

down in Florida and he was a bar manager

5:00

here in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And,

5:03

Okay.

5:04

and he was, he's a, he was a

5:06

confirmed bachelor. He's never been married.

5:08

Jumped ship and went into golf. Yeah.

5:11

Okay. All right. Well, awesome. Well, what's

5:13

your least favorite part of

5:15

working at the golf course?

5:17

I mean, there's, there's a lot of stuff

5:19

that, that irritates us, I guess. Obviously

5:22

the, the, the sand is no fun for the,

5:24

for the equipment manager. That's a necessary

5:26

evil. We all know my, my

5:28

greens love it every other week. They, they

5:30

love it. Like top dressing, you know,

5:33

Can you, can your superintendent

5:35

really do a lot of top dressing?

5:37

Yes. So yeah,

5:39

he really does. And we also have. I

5:41

don't know, Dakota Turf Tender

5:43

on a 2020 platform. And

5:46

it has a, you know, it has a little

5:49

computer now that saves all your settings.

5:51

And so he can go in and dial up those settings.

5:54

And, and the guy that does it is really,

5:56

really good at it. He's just, he's really

5:58

good at it. Yeah. Now if the super

6:00

does it, it's a hair heavy, but yeah.

6:05

Yeah, that's the way it goes

6:07

for

6:07

And then, you know, what I really hate is the gouging

6:10

of the big three on the parts.

6:13

I'll give you an example, like,

6:15

you know, the foamer cup on the end of a

6:17

HD 200 or 300, it's a piece

6:19

of hard plastic and a screen. That's

6:22

it. It's 186.

6:24

I just had to buy one the other day. And

6:26

I'm just like, I know this does not cost anywhere

6:28

near this to produce. And

6:31

that kind of stuff just gets me sometimes.

6:34

now I understand completely

6:36

and The big three

6:38

isn't gonna like me, but I'm not

6:40

here to you know to

6:43

get pats on the back You

6:45

you should check out Try

6:48

I don't know. I just went blank on their name.

6:51

Oh, it's Richmond Industries,

6:54

I think they're in Idaho

6:56

maybe somewhere, you know

6:59

out that way You Maybe they're in

7:01

Iowa. I don't remember, but

7:03

just Google them and you can

7:05

get that same collector head

7:07

for the foam marker, or they

7:09

also sell a little smaller ones and

7:12

they are much, much, much more

7:14

cheaper.

7:15

okay. Thank you.

7:17

I shouldn't say cheaper. I mean, it's

7:19

like the same thing and yeah,

7:22

less expensive, much less

7:24

expensive. And usually

7:27

like all my sprayer parts, I

7:29

usually go through Daltmire, which

7:31

I think they are Iowa. Um,

7:35

and they sell, I mean, anything

7:37

from pumps and all that stuff. And then I've,

7:41

actually, I just bought a Hypro

7:43

pump from Sprayer Depot.

7:46

Right.

7:47

You know, cause

7:48

I have outsourced pumps. Yeah.

7:50

yeah, if you go even like nozzles and nozzle

7:53

bodies and all those things, if you

7:55

go OEM, I mean, it's

7:57

rough

7:58

It is.

8:00

and you know, it's, I mean, it is

8:03

a bummer. And I understand, you know, the companies

8:05

in business to make money, but

8:07

it does seem excessive at times.

8:10

Right. It

8:12

seems like they're holding a gun to your head sometimes

8:15

and other times they got the welcome wagon.

8:17

Yeah.

8:18

Right. And then, I mean, the other strange

8:20

thing is if there's competitive

8:23

parts out there, you know, just

8:25

like tapered roller baron, say

8:27

a lot of times John Deere and Toro,

8:30

they'll be pretty competitive on those

8:32

parts, you know, within a few cents, sometimes

8:34

they're even cheaper, you

8:36

know, so you really

8:39

gotta, you know, to manage your budget,

8:41

you really have to do your due diligence

8:43

and check around and see what these

8:45

prices are. Same. You

8:47

know, same way with oil filters and

8:49

stuff like that, you know, Wix oil

8:52

filter may be less

8:54

expensive, but it may not be.

8:57

And then, you know, the whole

8:59

direct fit thing and all

9:01

that stuff you run into same micron

9:04

rating, same beta rating, all

9:06

those things you can get in trouble too. But

9:09

I'm glad you, you brought that up. And

9:11

I mean, I think we all feel that pain.

9:14

right. And, and like those two

9:16

companies you mentioned, I'd never heard of. I'm, I'm 28

9:18

years in. I'm like, what, what is he talking about?

9:21

What are these

9:22

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. you

9:24

know, and that's just I mean, really networking

9:26

word of mouth. A friend of mine told

9:29

me about Dalton Meyer and

9:32

the Richway industries.

9:34

Pulled apart a John Deere.

9:37

Foamer, and it

9:39

had a Richway industry sticker inside

9:42

of it. And I said, Ooh,

9:43

I'm writing them down

9:44

people out. Yeah. Yeah. Write them down, man.

9:47

Um, if not, you got my number you text

9:49

me anytime and I'll be happy to

9:51

help you out and turn you on to those

9:53

companies.

9:54

Thank you.

9:55

Yes, sir. What's your favorite tool?

9:58

Um, my 10 millimeter gear wrench.

10:00

It usually goes in my pocket in the morning and it

10:03

and I'll use that thing all day long It seems like

10:05

oh, that's 10 millimeter. That's 10 and then

10:07

on top of that. It's the whatsapp group I mean

10:10

the whatsapp group is so so

10:12

beneficial and useful and And

10:14

and not just fixing things and not just

10:16

Maybe getting a different Point of view on

10:18

how to fix something, but just the,

10:21

the release, the being able to joke

10:23

around with each other, or, you know,

10:25

let's, let's all talk about the trailer tongues on

10:28

the Sousko roller trailers, you know, that

10:30

kind of stuff makes me laugh. I'll, you know, every time

10:32

I pick it up, I'm like, I didn't get a good chuckle out

10:34

of it. But yeah, the, the, the, the

10:36

WhatsApp group is really cool.

10:38

That's awesome that you say that. Not,

10:40

I mean, you know, I never dreamed when we

10:42

started all this and doing a podcast

10:45

and then starting the community.

10:47

I mean, you know, I never dreamed it would turn into

10:49

what it is, but I'm so happy about

10:52

where it is and I mean, you

10:54

know, it's a good group of people in there

10:57

and yeah, we cut up and joke around

10:59

and. You know, I mean, that's, I don't,

11:01

were you able to come to I'm sorry

11:03

that I don't remember, but were you at the

11:05

EM round table and

11:07

Yes,

11:08

okay.

11:08

I was.

11:09

You know, I hosted that and

11:13

I enjoyed that so much. And

11:15

I know, I don't know if anybody else enjoyed

11:17

it, but I had a blast

11:20

and.

11:20

format.

11:21

Well, and I mean, it's just, you know, a

11:24

good group of people that.

11:26

You know, I, I like to call friends,

11:29

you know, it's, it's awesome.

11:31

cool group of folks.

11:32

And, you know, out of everybody, I don't

11:34

know how many we had in there. We had 50 people

11:36

and there was probably, you know, 15

11:39

of them that's in the WhatsApp

11:41

group and that's how I know

11:43

them is through the WhatsApp group.

11:46

And then from being in

11:48

Phoenix, I don't know how many people

11:50

we added. There's, I mean, four

11:52

or five. Seven, eight people

11:55

got added in Phoenix.

11:57

And just the other day, John Watson,

12:00

he was the Toro. University

12:03

school, whatever. And

12:05

he added two more guys, you

12:07

know what I mean? It just keeps growing

12:09

growing. Yeah. I saw today you were like,

12:11

you know, we're trying to keep it to text now. There's so many

12:13

people, but yeah.

12:14

well, yeah, and I've had quite a few

12:17

maybe not quite a few, but I've had a,

12:19

a couple superintendents, you

12:21

know, reach out and I've had some texts asked

12:23

me, you know, what about a superintendent joining?

12:26

And. I don't

12:28

know. I mean, I don't have anything against superintendents,

12:31

obviously, you know, I've been working for

12:33

him for however long I've been in

12:35

this industry. Um, and they're

12:37

great guys and all that stuff, but I don't want

12:40

a superintendent to be in

12:42

the group and a technician

12:45

not be able to be himself, you

12:48

know what I mean, you know, or,

12:51

you know, and not that anybody looks bad

12:53

and everything stays on the up and

12:55

up in there. And I appreciate

12:57

everybody in there. And. Everybody

13:00

being positive and just trying to help people

13:02

out and not, you know, giving anybody

13:05

a hard time because they're new to

13:07

the industry because we all started somewhere.

13:09

I think I've harped on that enough.

13:12

But, um, yeah,

13:14

I just don't want to open that can of worms

13:17

and if it's a superintendent.

13:20

Cause we have, I know there's at least a couple

13:22

in there that are superintendent

13:25

slash mechanic slash irrigation tech,

13:27

you know, if they're doing, if they're doing

13:29

all that stuff, I'm fine with them being

13:32

in there, but

13:33

and pop and they're doing

13:35

yeah, yeah, because

13:38

I mean, you know, They're just

13:40

as much a mechanic as they are a superintendent.

13:42

It just depends on the day, you know, they're changing

13:44

hats all the time, whatever, you

13:46

know, wherever I got to put out of this fire.

13:49

Yeah, for sure. But yeah,

13:52

so and if anybody listening, you

13:54

know, i've had a lot of people dm or text

13:56

me or you know, Send me an email like

13:58

oh, I heard about this whatsapp group. Can I

14:00

get in? You know, just send me an

14:02

email or text me or send me a dm whatever

14:05

And we'll get you pointed in the right

14:07

direction You And while I got you

14:09

here, I want to ask, what do you

14:11

think about the different groups in

14:13

there now?

14:14

I love it. I love the, the, you, you

14:16

have the, the BS group and

14:19

then you have the now what's

14:21

going to be San Diego 2025,

14:23

show group. I like bouncing back

14:25

and forth in there. I don't give as much time to look

14:28

at it as I would like. Like, you know, Somehow

14:30

my WhatsApp got frozen while I was

14:32

on vacation. I don't know. But

14:35

when I came back, there was a million messages

14:37

and I was just, well, I can't go through all of them.

14:39

Yeah. Yeah.

14:40

But I do love going through all of them. Yeah. And

14:42

I got lots of WhatsApp groups with other stuff too.

14:45

Like my Melrose, my Melrose group

14:48

has a WhatsApp group.

14:51

Okay. Awesome.

14:52

And, and all of us try to stay in touch.

14:54

We've done a a a Zoom

14:56

happy hour with each other before. Yeah. It's

14:59

kind of fun to work that out.

15:00

yeah, yeah. That's cool. That's awesome.

15:02

Yeah. And I'm for the people listening,

15:04

start a WhatsApp group in your area.

15:07

You know, I, I know Jr had one

15:10

and New York Ben

15:12

Beards got one in Michigan. Brian

15:15

started one in Nebraska. I'm

15:17

pretty sure there's one in Florida.

15:20

You know, I mean, there's, they're popping up all

15:22

over and I know the UK

15:24

guys, Matthew Axton, he's got some

15:26

stuff going on for, you know, with them

15:28

and

15:29

my guy, Chris Fogg.

15:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and I do

15:34

think, you know, it's good to have your,

15:36

your local group. Two, you

15:38

know, I think there's a need for,

15:40

for both.

15:42

right,

15:42

So, yeah, and you know, just

15:45

that network of, especially

15:47

in your local region where, you know,

15:49

maybe you run out of bed knives or

15:51

this machine goes down during verification

15:54

and you need this. And the guy down

15:56

the roads got that, that he can let

15:58

you borrow or whatever. I mean, that's

16:01

happens all the time. And Like

16:03

John Patterson, he calls me one day and he

16:05

says, you got a front tire for

16:07

a 2020 pro gator. I've, you

16:09

know, ordered 10 of them and they're not going to be

16:11

in for three days. You know, and I need

16:14

one right now. I'm like, yeah, man, come on. You

16:16

know, I mean, it's no big deal. Um,

16:19

cause yeah, we love helping out our neighbors.

16:22

Well, I think I rambled enough on that. What

16:25

do you do to relax or find your balance?

16:28

So there's a lot to that for me.

16:30

I'm all over the place. I played

16:33

music most of my life, but playing

16:35

drums isn't very relaxing. It's

16:37

kind of kind of aerobic and blood pumping.

16:40

Mm.

16:40

I fish. I fish a lot. I like to fish.

16:43

Specifically, I love to fly fish. I

16:46

pick up spinning gear too. I got one hanging on my

16:48

wall in my office and it's moments

16:51

ready for any, any bass pond on the

16:53

golf course. That's one of the best things

16:55

about working in golf for me is

16:57

all the different bass ponds that I've fished

17:00

and how many, How many fish

17:02

I have landed and, and

17:05

kissed and loved on during

17:07

lunch hour. Right. You know, it was like, I

17:09

got, Oh man, it's lunchtime. I'm going to go catch some

17:11

fish, you know, and I'll catch four or five

17:13

in 30 minutes and I'm just like,

17:15

Oh, what a productive lunch hour. But yeah, I like,

17:17

I like fishing for all of it, man. I like smallies,

17:20

big mouth, large mouth stripers

17:22

and, and, and shad in the spring here

17:24

in the rivers. I love ocean fishing.

17:26

I got my bug when I was in the Keys

17:29

fly fishing. So yeah, any saltwater

17:31

it's, I love all of it, man. For

17:34

That's awesome. And I can definitely relate.

17:37

I don't know how many fish I've caught on the golf

17:39

course. It's been a bunch

17:40

Yeah, it's been a bunch. And then we have.

17:42

And then one

17:44

more thing that I do

17:47

that I've been doing for the past year is, is

17:50

taking standup comedy classes. I've

17:54

taken standup one on one and standup two

17:56

on one. And for the past year

17:58

I've been doing open mics and

18:01

I've done a few showcases and

18:03

I've done one book. gig and I

18:05

wanted to be creative. I could I was bored

18:07

with just going to work, doing my thing, coming home, you know,

18:10

and I wanted to be creative somehow. And I always

18:12

played music, but you got to get a group of people

18:14

together and schedules and, um,

18:17

it's not quiet. It's loud. You gotta have a

18:19

spot. You gotta, you know, it's expensive.

18:21

I wish I could paint, but I can't. And

18:24

that's, that's also a very expensive

18:26

hobby. And I landed on stand

18:28

up comedy because all he needs a laptop

18:31

or pen and a paper and and and,

18:34

and use your brain. And so,

18:36

I've had a lot of friends tell me over the time,

18:38

Hey man, you ought to be a comedian. You're funny. So

18:43

one night last year, I just said, Oh,

18:45

you know what? I'm going to give that a whirl Merle.

18:47

And, and here I am.

18:49

I love it. I'm, I'm, I'm a little more than a year

18:51

in and it's been a blast. I

18:54

tried to look for open mics at Myrtle

18:56

and at Phoenix and they didn't have

18:58

any, but yeah,

19:00

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome, man. That's

19:02

so cool. And I mean,

19:04

it's so funny, you know, I've interviewed, you

19:06

know, well over a hundred people and,

19:09

you know, everybody has their thing, you

19:11

know, and you know, it's just awesome how

19:14

we all do the same thing, but,

19:16

you know, we're all so different also,

19:19

That's, that's the beauty of

19:20

tick and all that stuff. Yeah, I mean,

19:22

it's really, really cool.

19:23

Yeah.

19:25

What has been your biggest challenge

19:27

to date?

19:28

Technology. Um,

19:31

and just being blunt I'm not necessarily

19:34

afraid of it. I just don't necessarily

19:37

get it immediately. It takes

19:39

a while. I, you know, it has to be real repetitive

19:41

for me in order for me to get technology.

19:45

Mm

19:47

I can fix things. I can figure things out.

19:49

I understand why this works or why

19:51

that work. And then sometimes when it

19:53

comes to technology, I'm like, how come this isn't

19:55

working? I cannot figure it out, just

19:57

like last night when I was trying to get on with you, but

20:00

eventually I figured out, Oh, it's

20:02

just my terrible wifi.

20:04

hmm.

20:05

And then, you know, yeah, coming down the pike

20:07

with the, with this industry and this

20:09

business and this job, if you don't

20:11

stay up with the times, you're going to be left behind

20:14

and I'm not ready to retire yet,

20:16

nor can I, you know, so,

20:18

Yeah. Yeah. One. I mean, there's unfortunate

20:20

that there's a lot of good mechanics

20:23

that yeah, are, are here with

20:25

us anymore, mainly because

20:27

of that, because they didn't keep up

20:29

with the times. And

20:31

I mean, I get it, but you know,

20:33

you gotta, gotta embrace it. It's, it's

20:35

common, whether you want to. Do it or

20:37

not.

20:38

exactly. So that's probably my biggest challenge

20:40

today.

20:41

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I relate

20:43

and, you know, especially electricity,

20:46

electronics and all that stuff, it's so

20:48

intimidating because you can't see it. You

20:52

know, and I mean, hydraulic fluid,

20:54

you know, hopefully you're not seeing it, but

20:56

you know, you can at least think about the way

20:58

it flows through, you know, the circuit

21:01

and what's doing

21:02

Right. You understand how that

21:04

yeah, you can, it's easier to

21:06

comprehend. And I mean, The

21:09

few classes that I've had on,

21:11

you know, electrical and that kind of stuff, they

21:13

try to relate it back to hydraulics

21:16

and how that works. Cause it's

21:18

easier to understand that. Well,

21:20

what's the strangest thing you've seen

21:23

around the golf course?

21:24

This is, I'm gonna keep it PG 13

21:26

as much as I can, but there was this guy

21:28

or who knows, there was this person

21:31

who would have

21:33

these, let's

21:35

say trysts on our fourth

21:37

fairway at this old golf course I worked at.

21:39

And you would see the evidence the next morning by,

21:42

there would either be a sheet or towels laid down and

21:44

surrounded by little tea

21:46

lights, little candles. He had, his romance

21:49

game was on point, right? And

21:51

I can only imagine that they would get,

21:54

you know, showered with irrigation

21:56

at some point during the night, which

21:59

is why the towel and the tea lights are still

22:01

there and they didn't collect them. Who knows, maybe

22:03

it was part of the plan anyway. But

22:06

Right. Right.

22:07

we would find that that guy was prolific.

22:10

I mean, I found four or five different

22:12

nights where he was active. Other

22:15

than that, you know, it's a lot of, we had,

22:17

we had a, a hole in one camera

22:19

on one of our So if you pay a couple of bucks

22:21

at the clubhouse and you get a hold of one and this camera

22:23

sees it and you get paid out the jackpot.

22:25

Well, what it did was catch all these kids

22:28

riding dirt bikes, jumping our

22:30

sixth degree

22:31

Yeah,

22:32

tearing it all up. And they posted it

22:34

on YouTube and found out

22:36

who the little crazy guys were. It

22:39

was pretty funny. That worked out,

22:41

yeah. Yes,

22:43

Yeah. I've heard about people putting trail cams

22:46

up and all kind of stuff, you know, trying

22:48

to find, yeah, people vandalizing

22:51

or the coyotes chewing

22:53

through the ropes.

22:56

we have a lot of coyotes up here.

22:58

Yeah, well, I mean, we definitely have them down

23:00

here and our superintendent had

23:03

convinced himself and everybody

23:05

else on the crew that it was

23:07

a member cutting the rope

23:09

Right.

23:10

until he got a picture on the trail camp.

23:13

That's pretty

23:13

Yeah, it was pretty wild. Um,

23:16

he's like, look, it's just a clean

23:18

cut. You know, if if it was anything

23:20

chewing on it, it would be frayed. And,

23:22

you know, I mean, he had convinced everybody good

23:25

stuff.

23:26

That's funny.

23:27

Do you have a mentor in the industry?

23:30

So I do, I've worked with one guy

23:32

a very long time. His name is Brian Radebush.

23:34

He's a class A superintendent. He was assistant

23:37

superintendent when I got my first job at the

23:39

Gauntlet. Um, and

23:41

he and I have worked together. The

23:44

whole time we've worked at three different golf

23:46

courses together, and we even owned a lawn and

23:48

landscape business together.

23:49

Okay.

23:50

yeah. So, he's, he's a real

23:52

bright guy, really knows how to grow

23:55

grass in a transitional zone here

23:57

in the mid

23:57

Mm.

23:58

Um, and he's working with

24:00

us now. He's not the super, he's the assistant

24:03

because his daughter is in her final year

24:05

of high school playing softball

24:07

and he likes to be able to lead. At

24:09

Oh, okay. Yeah.

24:11

or whenever, you know, so he's looking

24:13

for another superintendent's job, but he's, he's,

24:15

he's working with me again right now. And I'm working with

24:17

him and he's he, he's a big part

24:20

of my golf life. We've, we've

24:22

been, we've been around the block together. He

24:24

started his career as an assistant and I started

24:26

my career as a bunker puke. And, and

24:29

we, we've been together for a very

24:31

long time. There's, um,

24:33

There's a few other guys that

24:35

mean a lot to me too. Jeff

24:38

McMacken with Rebels Tractor. Jeff

24:40

was a super that I worked for at my very

24:42

first mechanics job,

24:44

Okay.

24:45

job. Jeff and Jay Wade. He's a

24:47

certified golf course superintendent here at Magnolia

24:49

Greens. He was the assistant at that

24:51

course. A guy named John Dunker.

24:53

Helped me out a lot. And George

24:56

James was the first tech I ever worked with. And

24:58

he that poor soul. He he hated

25:00

to work. He hated work. He, he

25:03

thought work was the, was the devil itself.

25:06

And the day he retired, I'm telling

25:08

you, Trenton is tragic. He

25:10

got sick and he didn't last a year before

25:12

he passed He waited his whole life to

25:15

retire. And but he, he

25:17

was something else, man. He was, he was a good time.

25:19

He came from the automotive world and that

25:21

was his last job until he could retire,

25:24

but he, he taught me how to work on Jacobson

25:26

reels, you know, early on. Green's

25:28

King fours and all those machines. Yeah.

25:31

that's awesome. Yeah, and I mean, it

25:33

is such a shame and I mean,

25:35

I've seen it, you know, I don't think it matters, the

25:37

industry, whatever, but yeah, these

25:39

guys, and I'm sure gals

25:41

too, but you know, we just here.

25:44

About the guys, they retire,

25:46

you know, they work their whole life and they're talking

25:48

about all these things they're going to do in retirement.

25:50

They retire. And then a year or two,

25:53

they're gone

25:53

Yeah. It's

25:54

and it is terrible. And, but

25:56

it tells me, and

25:59

I hadn't been this wise all the time,

26:01

but it's something I've put together

26:03

recently.

26:05

Yeah.

26:05

should have some fun now, just

26:08

in case,

26:09

Right.

26:09

you know, I hope I live a long time, but

26:12

if I don't, I want to have some fun now too.

26:14

Right. I want to enjoy my family. I

26:16

want to enjoy. Yeah.

26:19

Fishing. And I

26:19

right, right. All those things. Yeah,

26:22

for sure. Well, what would be your dream job

26:24

or opportunity?

26:26

So a million years ago,

26:28

I thought I wanted to be a tractor tugboat

26:30

captain. I wanted to push iron around a Harbor,

26:32

you know,

26:33

Okay.

26:34

those boats. They, they, they're so cool.

26:36

And you would talk about technology. Those things

26:38

are, you know, joystick driven

26:41

and, and got props going in

26:43

every direction. I would love to be a tugboat

26:45

captain. I think when it comes to

26:47

being in turf, I'd love

26:49

to be the guy at any major league baseball

26:51

park. I love baseball as well and

26:54

I think managing a baseball park

26:56

would be a major league baseball park would be awesome. And

26:59

then in golf, I think St. Andrews

27:02

managed to manage the turf that old Tom

27:04

Morris managed.

27:05

Yeah. That's that'd

27:07

Yeah, I want to sharpen those reels.

27:09

Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah,

27:11

crazy.

27:12

Yeah,

27:13

Yeah. And it's funny. So, you know, I've asked so many

27:15

people this same question, you

27:17

know, what would be your dream job? And

27:19

it's so funny, you know, it's

27:22

across the board because some

27:24

people read that question and they think,

27:27

well, what is my dream job

27:29

in turf? And then like,

27:31

when I had Bob Smith. He's

27:34

in the witness protection. We gave him a hard time, but

27:36

being in witness protection, Bob Smith

27:38

from a PGA Frisco,

27:41

he said he wanted to own a NFL

27:43

team. That was his dream

27:45

job. So, you know, I mean, that's, that's, what's

27:47

good about the question. You can take it any way you want

27:49

to. And we get all these different answers.

27:51

This is just great, but yeah, tugboat

27:54

captain. I get on

27:56

board with that. That'd be awesome. It

27:58

would be.

28:00

I thought so. At least when

28:02

I was young, if my mom didn't get

28:04

ill, who knows where my life would have taken me. I might have

28:06

gone back down to Charleston and started

28:09

my tugboat career, but you know, I came back over

28:11

and I got into golf. Yeah,

28:14

We're glad to have you. What I love about

28:16

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28:48

Let's get back to the episode. What technician

28:50

would you like to work with for a day?

28:52

so there's a bunch of I would like to

28:54

work with you. I don't want to name drop. Paul McCartney

28:56

told me to never name drop. Right.

28:59

Okay.

29:00

would like to work with you. I'd like to work with Mike

29:03

Rollins and JP. Austin Wright,

29:05

I'd love to work with Jordan Raw Brian

29:07

Applin. Um, I'd

29:10

like to work with all those cats. There's a bunch of

29:12

Chris Fogg, Kayla Kip. Kayla's awesome.

29:15

Um, and then oh,

29:17

Chad Braun. I just want

29:19

to see how all these people operate every day

29:21

because they're, they're really, really awesome.

29:23

And then lately when I went to Phoenix,

29:26

I think the new person I want to work with would

29:28

be J. R. Wilson and his son.

29:31

Yeah.

29:31

seemed like they could baby step me through

29:33

technology to where I would get

29:36

it, you know. His class

29:38

with Corey was awesome, you know.

29:40

Okay. Yeah.

29:40

that. Yeah,

29:42

That's awesome. Yeah. I don't, I was bummed

29:44

cause I don't, I was doing something and couldn't

29:46

get in there when Jr and Corey were doing

29:48

their thing. Um, Bob would

29:50

love to be able to attend that class,

29:53

but yeah, I mean Jr, he's just one

29:56

of those guys and yeah, he's a New Yorker,

29:58

but man, I love him to death. He's

29:59

Man, he's awesome.

30:00

He's an awesome person. And

30:03

if I called him out right now and said, Jr,

30:05

I need you here tomorrow, he would hop

30:07

in the car and drive down here. And it didn't matter

30:09

what it was. If I, if

30:12

I said, I need you to hold my hand, he

30:15

would just get in the car and come down here. I mean,

30:17

that's just the type of guy he is, you

30:19

know. Yeah, he is very, very cool

30:22

and that's something else that come up in Phoenix.

30:24

I met, um, and why I'd met him

30:26

before, but Jason Fontana, I met him

30:28

last year in Orlando and

30:30

he's the desert mountain. He's been on the podcast

30:33

before, and it's just north of

30:35

Phoenix, like 45 minutes north of

30:37

Phoenix and. Luckily

30:40

John Patterson had drove out there. JP

30:42

that everybody knows him as JP. Um,

30:45

so I called John and I said, you only go up

30:47

to desert mountain on Sunday

30:49

before the show started. And he's like, Oh

30:51

yeah, it'd be awesome. I was planning on hooking

30:53

up with Jason anyway. So anyway, we go

30:55

up to Jason. I'm making this story

30:57

longer than it needs to be, but that's what

30:59

I do and why I have a podcast, I guess, but

31:02

we go up to see Jason and

31:05

just, you know, hanging around Jason for, you

31:07

know, a short period of time. I'm

31:09

like, we are all rednecks, like

31:11

every mechanic I've met

31:13

in the golf industry. We're just rednecks

31:16

and even, and, and I think of this because

31:19

Jr. He's on Long Island.

31:21

He's in the Hamptons, you know, and everybody

31:23

talks about the Hamptons and all the money there.

31:25

And don't get me wrong. There's a lot of money there.

31:28

Oh yeah.

31:28

JR's a redneck, you

31:31

know, it's just like, no matter where you go,

31:33

we're all, we're all rednecks.

31:35

Isn't he like a firefighter too, or the captain

31:37

of his local

31:38

Yeah. Yeah.

31:39

fire department?

31:39

Well, and that's the other thing that I

31:42

hadn't figured. I mean, it's great that they got volunteer

31:44

fire, you know, I'm not bashing

31:46

on that at all, but the amount

31:49

of money On Long Island

31:52

and they have a volunteer fire

31:54

department.

31:54

funny. Yeah.

31:55

Yeah. You know, that kind of, um,

31:59

they are very well funded and

32:01

I don't, I never asked Jr, I don't know

32:03

exactly where their money comes from. If

32:05

you know, if it's donations or if it comes

32:07

from the state or the counties

32:10

or, or whatever, but I

32:12

mean, I forget. Well,

32:14

he told me, I think last year

32:16

they had, he ran like 150

32:18

calls. I mean, a lot

32:20

of calls because, you know, I mean,

32:23

it didn't, you know, people say fire department,

32:25

but if you don't know, that's,

32:28

you know, automobile accidents,

32:31

that's, you know, grandma

32:33

having

32:34

God bless him. I couldn't do it. I couldn't see,

32:36

you know, those kinds of things. Yeah.

32:39

Well, I've been a volunteer

32:41

with our fire department here,

32:43

um, for a long time, but

32:45

I'm not a fireman. Um, I volunteered,

32:48

we had a rope team. So as a technical

32:50

rescue team and I volunteered

32:53

for the search and rescue team and

32:55

that all fall. Fail under

32:57

the fire department. And

32:59

so I got a bunch of buddies that was in the fire

33:02

department. And I mean, I've been doing

33:04

that for what, well, almost 20

33:06

years now. And you know, over

33:08

the years, the guy's like, man, why don't you

33:10

just come join the fire department? But

33:12

the one thing that has

33:15

kept me from doing that is

33:17

I didn't think I could handle working

33:20

a vehicle accident with a child.

33:24

In

33:24

exactly where I go to, too. I'm like, God

33:26

bless them because I couldn't do it.

33:28

Yeah, I don't, I don't think I could handle

33:30

it. I mean, run, running into a

33:32

house on fire. I think I could handle

33:35

that, but not the

33:36

know if I'd want to, but yeah, I probably could. Yeah.

33:40

no, no way. So

33:42

anyway,

33:43

That's tough. That's tough volunteering right

33:45

there.

33:46

yes. Well, and that's the thing. I mean,

33:49

you know, and Jr and all the guy, I

33:51

forget how many just at his station, there's

33:53

like 50 volunteers.

33:55

Wow.

33:56

And I mean, yeah,

33:58

big shout out to those people that

34:01

are volunteer, you know, cause

34:03

they're not getting paid for that. And they're having

34:05

to deal with all the stuff that the paid

34:07

people are dealing with. Plus they

34:09

have to have a normal job. You

34:12

know, it's,

34:12

they get woken up in the middle of the night to go.

34:14

Mm hmm. Yep. Yep. Well,

34:16

what do you know now you wish you'd known on day

34:18

one?

34:19

I wish I'd have known how rewarding the job

34:21

would end up being in the end versus,

34:23

well, not the end, but later,

34:25

Mm hmm.

34:26

versus being jaded early on,

34:29

jaded by the, the guys that I was working

34:32

with, you know, who were totally

34:34

jaded. And even I got. Jaded

34:36

and tried to leave the industry a couple

34:38

of times. And, and it just didn't work

34:40

out. I just, I found my way right back

34:43

into the industry. Um, was

34:45

an equipment operator working for a major

34:48

construction company, an industrial construction

34:50

company when they were doing solar fields here

34:52

in Virginia, and so I was,

34:54

you know, running skid steer and doing things like that. Doing

34:56

that. And they, they laid me off at

34:58

Christmas. And, and my

35:00

wife was like, Oh, this, this isn't going to work.

35:02

And I was like, no, no,

35:05

it's not. And and I went back into

35:07

golf cause they never laid me off at Christmas. So,

35:09

yeah.

35:10

And I mean, that is another good thing about

35:12

golf is, I mean, not that times

35:14

can't be tough and you know, things

35:17

happen. Yeah. But for the most part,

35:19

you know, it's a pretty stable

35:21

job,

35:22

Right. Yeah. During the pandemic, I didn't miss a day.

35:25

right? No, I

35:26

Golf was huge. Yeah,

35:29

We still had to maintain a golf course.

35:31

that's right.

35:31

Well, how do you deal with that

35:34

person on your crew? You got that person

35:36

on your crew?

35:37

We all do, don't we? And,

35:40

and many different facets of that person

35:42

over the years too. But I used

35:44

to, I used to be a guy that would, you know,

35:47

you know, call someone a moron or get mad at

35:49

them or whatever I definitely,

35:52

and even more so, even since

35:54

I've found this group and listen

35:57

to everybody else's way, they deal with that

35:59

person. I've certainly try to

36:01

find out what, That person

36:03

responds to positively. How,

36:06

how am I going to get that person to respond positively

36:09

or even just, you

36:12

know, not be

36:14

mad at each other. Right. Cause,

36:16

cause we all know when we are just angry,

36:20

nobody brings us what is broken.

36:22

And we get more angry because we find

36:24

it put away or whatever.

36:26

But yeah, I, I've certainly in the

36:28

last few years tried

36:30

to slow my role and just Relax

36:33

a little bit. I don't want to be my, my

36:35

guy, George James, that ends up, you know, having a

36:37

heart attack the day he retires.

36:39

Right, right, right. Not

36:42

very good. I like it.

36:44

Get ready for tips and tricks.

36:46

Let's do some tips and tricks.

36:49

All

36:49

do you get? What do you got for us out of 28 years?

36:53

So, you know, a lot of them have already

36:55

been done. That's for sure. I

36:57

don't know if this is, has been mentioned,

37:00

but I like to take a little piece of half

37:02

inch round stock and weld

37:04

that to a deep well, three H inch socket

37:07

and then use that to use

37:09

the to loosen the set screws

37:11

or tighten the set screws on Procore

37:14

648 blocks, the little three H square

37:16

set screws

37:17

Oh yeah, yeah,

37:18

That way it gets my fingers

37:20

and knuckles out of the way of the tines. I

37:22

used to just destroy my hands

37:25

on the tines. Especially if they were side

37:27

eject or, you know, trying to use

37:29

a little 3 8 inch wrench to loosen those things.

37:32

And so, that is the way that I foiled

37:34

that, you know. I keep the skin on my fingers.

37:38

I love it. That's awesome. No, that's a good

37:40

one. It's a good one.

37:42

yeah,

37:43

Yeah. We all, we all like making making our

37:45

own tools.

37:46

yeah, right, yeah, um,

37:48

you know, and I, even though everybody's got QR

37:50

codes and everything, and we all keep track of our,

37:53

well, either our inventory or, or our

37:56

maintenance through our computers and all, I still

37:58

write on my, Oil

38:01

and oil filters, you know, the date

38:03

and the hours on the machine. Just

38:05

so I know when I get in there and I just

38:07

peel back whatever dirt's there, whatever, I know

38:09

immediately how long it's been since

38:11

it's been, you know, dealt

38:14

with versus going to my computer and figuring

38:16

that out.

38:17

I agree a hundred percent and

38:19

yeah, I still do it too. And

38:22

as long as I'm doing

38:24

this, I'm not going to stop doing it just

38:26

because it is so easy to see.

38:30

And another thing, another

38:33

thing I think about too, um,

38:35

you know, cause people talk about synthetic

38:37

oil and you can extend your, you

38:39

know, your oil changes and all that stuff.

38:42

And that's great, but. We,

38:45

you know, in my opinion and my experience,

38:48

I don't touch the equipment as much

38:51

as I feel like I need to

38:53

anyway. So if

38:55

I extend my oil changes, that's

38:57

less time I got eyes on that equipment.

39:00

Because a lot of times when I'm doing preventive

39:02

maintenance, I'm looking all over

39:04

that machine for hydraulic hoses,

39:07

you know, chafed

39:09

or, you know, I mean, just all that stuff

39:12

that can happen over time.

39:14

I'm trying to catch one of those.

39:17

And if you catch one of those,

39:19

how much is that worth? You

39:22

know, I mean, you can't put a price on it,

39:24

but you know, if you save a hydraulic

39:26

line from blowing out. You know,

39:28

that's, that's worth a lot or,

39:32

And especially from blowing out somewhere

39:34

where we don't want it to. Yeah.

39:36

Well, yeah, I mean, I'll never forget. And

39:39

it was a GK five, it was

39:41

late nineties and one

39:43

of the rear hoses, it was three wheel drive.

39:45

One of the rear hoses blew out on

39:47

number three green. I mean, I still remember

39:49

like it was yesterday and the operator

39:52

was able to make a whole lap around the

39:54

green before it ran out of oil and stopped

39:56

moving, you know? And

39:58

I mean, it just destroyed the collar.

40:01

And yeah, I mean, just terrible.

40:04

So, you know, if you could prevent

40:06

that from happening, what is that worth?

40:09

So, you know, if you want to run, If

40:12

you want to run synthetic oil, by all means run

40:14

synthetic oil, but I still want

40:16

to touch that machine

40:18

I agree with you.

40:20

when I, I didn't say all that for you to agree,

40:22

but I appreciate, I appreciate

40:24

you agreeing with me and I like, I

40:26

really liked the one liner about Paul McCartney.

40:29

That was a good

40:30

Paul McCartney told me to never name drugs.

40:32

Yep, yep. You you learned that

40:34

in class, didn't you? Was that 101 or 201?

40:38

Who said that? I don't know. Dave Grohl or somebody

40:40

said it.

40:40

Okay. Yeah, that was a good well, let's talk

40:43

about operator training. What's

40:45

some of the things that you've done there

40:47

at your place?

40:49

So I, you know, as soon as I got there,

40:51

I wanted that. I,

40:54

anybody new that's coming in, anybody

40:56

that's been working here, I'd like to retrain

40:58

them or train them on all

41:00

of this equipment because first and foremost,

41:02

all of it can hurt you. And, and,

41:04

and, and certainly it could kill you. I,

41:07

unfortunately we had a death at a course

41:09

that I worked at, you

41:11

know, guys doing something. That

41:13

he probably shouldn't have been trying to do.

41:16

First of all, he's trying to save the equipment from going,

41:18

you know, into the woods or whatever,

41:20

and it killed it. And, you know,

41:22

if he'd have just let it go, it's okay. You know,

41:25

I try to let people know that none

41:27

of this stuff is worth your life

41:29

or breaking your arm or even a finger. Let

41:31

it go. We'll get it out of the water. We'll

41:33

get it out of the trap. We'll do whatever,

41:36

but yeah, proper training, man. I mean, how much

41:38

money does that save you? Can you put

41:40

a price on that as far as, them

41:42

operating the equipment the way it's supposed to be operated,

41:45

you're going to have less breakdowns or less accidents

41:48

or, you know, any of that stuff, operator

41:51

as my super likes to say, operator headspace

41:53

and error, you know, but yeah.

41:55

So I think it's, I think it's key.

41:58

For not just, I'll

42:01

give you an example. We we've had

42:03

a person that at our course, that's been mowing rough

42:05

for 15 years, right?

42:08

Mm

42:08

I'd like to jump out a window and cut my throat on

42:10

the way down. If I cut rough for 15

42:13

years, trust me, I would, but, but this person

42:15

loves it. Okay. The problem

42:18

is she had a hydraulic leak on the rear of

42:20

her 9, 009. It's the smallest hose on

42:22

that machine. But it was, it was,

42:24

it was blown apart and

42:26

she drove in. I don't

42:28

know how far, more

42:31

than a mile from where she was

42:33

to the shop with that thing leaking

42:35

away. And I'm just, I

42:37

was. It that

42:39

it didn't lock up somewhere on her and Everyth and

42:42

I, and I just, it was a teachable moment of you've

42:44

been here 15 years, when you get a hydraulic leak,

42:46

you need to get it to the cart

42:49

path and let it sit. You know, call me,

42:51

I'll come out and determine what we should do about

42:53

that.

42:54

Yeah. Yeah.

42:54

You know, but it, you know, just something

42:56

like that. You, oh, I gotta a leak. I better go

42:59

in. Not being. Properly

43:01

trained and that's on me, right?

43:03

So she'd been there 15

43:06

and I've only been there three, but I've,

43:08

if, if something happens where it

43:10

was a train, a trainable moment or something

43:12

they should have known or safety wise

43:15

or operational wise. That's on me

43:17

now, right? I can't blame anybody else,

43:19

but me. So, and that's the way I like

43:21

it. I don't want everybody kind of guessing around

43:23

at what happened or, or

43:25

whose fault it is, if, if that

43:27

isn't even important, whose fault

43:30

it is, let's just fix the problem

43:32

and move on. And hopefully it's a teachable

43:34

moment, you

43:35

No. Yeah. I agree with all that.

43:37

A hundred percent. And the other thing

43:40

I think, um, I need

43:42

to do a better job and I'm

43:44

sure there's a lot of others that could do

43:46

a better job also is coaching.

43:49

So when somebody is out on the course

43:51

and they're operating a piece of equipment, you

43:54

know, don't pull up to them and start yelling

43:56

at them that they're doing it wrong, but

43:58

just, you know, try to coach them. Well,

44:01

maybe get a little bit closer here,

44:03

you know, don't get so close to those tree

44:05

roots. You know, I mean, just whatever it is,

44:08

but just giving them a little coaching.

44:10

And I think that goes a lot

44:12

further than. Why are you doing

44:15

this? And I can't believe you're mowing

44:17

that. And, you know, I mean, all the things

44:19

that I'm guilty of doing,

44:22

Right. Me

44:23

you know, I

44:24

But I do, I do like this.

44:26

Like say we get a, a,

44:28

um, a seasonal guy comes in, he's

44:30

going to mow fairways all

44:32

summer, right? I mean, it's basically

44:34

what he's going to do all summer long. I,

44:37

I stay with that guy for 18

44:39

holes when

44:41

Oh, wow. Okay.

44:42

I let them know every little thing that's

44:44

coming, whether it's drain inlets,

44:47

whether it's you know, sprinkler heads,

44:49

what to look for with that. I stay with them that

44:51

entire day. And

44:53

then the next day I released them. And

44:55

then, you know, Usually

44:58

I don't have too many problems with them if I stay

45:00

with them. But yeah, yeah. No matter what

45:02

it is, T's or whatever, you know, cause

45:04

every, you know, every T's different, every green's

45:06

different, um, you

45:09

know, where to turn three point turns, where

45:11

not to turn, where are you going to tear up the collar?

45:13

Are you going to tear up the rough? You know, you might

45:15

have to move all the way down to the front of the green to turn

45:17

around or the back of the green to turn around, but. Yeah,

45:20

and they don't know that right away. You know, you can

45:22

teach them to drop the buckets and pick

45:24

them up and, and to do a light bulb

45:26

turn or whatever, but

45:29

all the little idiosyncrasies

45:31

in the, in the minutiae, that's

45:34

hard to train. So you have to be there with

45:36

them to point that out, I think. And

45:38

that's what I like to do. Yeah.

45:40

That's really, really good because

45:43

I know, I mean, I've been doing this

45:45

plenty long and most of the time they

45:47

say, you know, basically this

45:50

is the way you start it, you know, this

45:52

is the gas, this is the break, enjoy

45:54

your ride,

45:55

Yeah, yeah, right around in the shop yard

45:57

for a minute. So you get used to it.

45:59

Right. Yeah. And yeah,

46:01

we, we definitely, a lot of us could

46:03

do a lot better job on training.

46:05

And I think that's awesome that you spend that

46:07

much time with them. And

46:10

I think that's, you know, the other thing

46:12

that I would think it would

46:14

tell an employee is

46:17

this must be really important. If

46:20

they're going to stay with me, the whole

46:22

Four hours. I'm out here, however long

46:24

it is to Mo fairways.

46:27

Like, yeah, this must be pretty important.

46:30

And like you said, it's coaching,

46:32

you know, so I'm there for that four hours.

46:34

I'm not talking to him the whole time. I'm not overcoaching

46:37

him. But whenever I see something that

46:39

either comes up or they look at me and

46:41

they know something was weird about their, Turn

46:44

or their line or whatever it may be. They're

46:46

doing, whether they're running lines

46:48

or whether they're checkerboarding or

46:50

doing a tuxedo cut or, you know,

46:52

and I try to explain to them all of that. I try to explain

46:54

to them why the grass has different colors and it's

46:57

rolled over and you're seeing the top half and the underside,

46:59

but, you know, the, you know, explain as

47:01

much to them as I can so that they get

47:03

it, you know, so that they understand why

47:06

they're doing what they're doing, not just doing what they're doing.

47:09

No, I think that's really good. And yeah, I've tried,

47:12

you know, over the years, like operators

47:14

washing equipment and show

47:16

them, you know, why. That

47:18

we need it washed what we're trying

47:20

to do in the shop, you know, checking the cut

47:23

and checking the hop. And if it's

47:25

packed full of grass, you can't stick a

47:27

piece of paper in there and see if it cuts, you know,

47:29

it doesn't work that way. So, you

47:31

know, help us help you type

47:34

thing. And I do think

47:36

that goes further than just yelling

47:38

at a person and saying, watch this

47:40

better, you know, next

47:42

time. So. And

47:45

same thing, like if I put a fairway mower

47:47

up on a lift and I see

47:49

a bunch of, you know, Clippings

47:52

up under there, I'll bring the operator

47:54

over and say, you know, next time when you're out there

47:57

washing, you know, I know you got to

47:59

bend over a little bit, but try to spray

48:01

up in here, you know, and try

48:03

to relate to them and try to give them

48:05

a little coaching. And I

48:08

think, I think it'll go a long way. We

48:10

got anything else you want to add on that?

48:13

no, I think that's about that. That's

48:15

about it for that.

48:17

Well, let's do some rapid fire.

48:19

Okay. Yeah. All

48:22

Get ready. What's

48:25

your favorite movie?

48:27

Comedy is a caddyshack.

48:29

Drama is Shawshank Redemption.

48:31

Oh, wow. Yeah. Both great, great

48:33

movies, man. We could talk about, I could

48:35

talk about Caddyshack all day for sure.

48:38

It's

48:39

usually do. Yeah.

48:40

Yeah. Well, yeah. How much,

48:42

how many times does Caddyshack come

48:44

out through the week at the golf course?

48:47

Oh, a bunch.

48:49

Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of it. Yeah. Always.

48:52

Yeah. One liners from Caddyshack.

48:54

I love it. What would be your last meal?

48:58

So I think I would, if it was going to

49:00

be the last meal I was going to eat, I would have

49:02

to get brisket, Dirty rice

49:04

and cornbread from ZZQ

49:06

Texas craft barbecue in Richmond, Virginia.

49:09

Oh,

49:10

Very specific. Yeah, it is.

49:13

It's, and a cold Modelo. It

49:15

is, it's a 30 lunch,

49:17

but I don't care. I pay it every time.

49:20

Brisket's so crazy expensive, but

49:22

it's so good. Yeah.

49:24

Well, if I ever get back through Richmond,

49:26

I'm definitely going

49:29

to check that out and I'll give you a

49:31

call. We'll run over there together. That'd be

49:33

absolutely.

49:34

What are you most proud of beside your family?

49:37

Oh, wow. You took the words

49:39

right out of my mouth then.

49:40

Well, and let's talk, you know,

49:42

I, I want to, I want to hear

49:45

what you're proud about.

49:47

Other than your family, but I don't

49:49

want to leave family out of it.

49:51

So tell me about your family.

49:54

So right. And thank you. And I

49:56

think that's important too because they live

49:58

this life with us, right? My

50:01

wife Patricia, we've been married

50:05

27 years

50:06

Congratulations. Awesome.

50:09

we have two kids. My son, Max, who's 23

50:12

and my daughter, Lily, who's 20. And

50:14

Max is a baseball player. He's in he's

50:17

in the great state of Kentucky playing for

50:19

the University of the Cumberlands right now. And

50:21

my, my daughter lives with us,

50:23

but goes to school. She's a

50:26

community college, a local community college. And

50:28

she works she works at Cheddar's as a waitress.

50:30

And,

50:31

Okay. Awesome.

50:32

she's, she's funny, man.

50:35

That, that, that thing makes me laugh. My,

50:37

my daughter, my daughter has the funny

50:39

thing too. Yeah. Yeah.

50:42

good.

50:43

And then we got our dogs that we

50:45

love Bo and, and, and Bell. But yeah.

50:47

And then what I'm most proud of other

50:49

than those people, I'm most proud

50:52

of the employee I've become

50:54

over time or the friend that I've become

50:56

over time to people or

50:59

the mentorship I've given

51:01

several people. I'm proud of that. Um,

51:05

I coached baseball for a long time with my kid

51:07

playing as a youngster. And, and,

51:09

and a lot of that was very rewarding to

51:11

me. And I was proud of that.

51:12

No, that's awesome. That's so good. And

51:15

I want to tell you that

51:17

I want to apologize first off

51:20

for waiting this long to have you

51:22

on the podcast, because

51:24

we've known each other,

51:26

at least known of each other for quite some

51:29

time. And I will

51:31

never forget. Being in

51:33

Myrtle beach, I don't remember what year it was,

51:35

but I remember where we were and

51:38

you come up and introduced yourself

51:40

and you told me how much the

51:42

podcast meant to you

51:44

It does.

51:45

that has stuck with me

51:47

so long and just,

51:50

you know, that one experience

51:53

meeting you, you tell me that

51:55

made me say everything,

51:57

every hour I've spent, um,

52:00

every dollar I've spent. Was

52:02

worth doing this because it helped Brian.

52:06

I'm serious. That's just

52:09

the way it made me

52:10

right in the old ticker too. Thank

52:12

you. And I appreciate that. And I'm telling you,

52:14

when I found the podcast, I was like, Oh man,

52:16

my people, they understand

52:19

what I'm going through. And, and it's been

52:21

fun. I mean, the podcast is great. It's in

52:24

this whole community that you've

52:26

created is just, Killer.

52:29

I mean, on every level don't

52:31

know. What was I going to say about Eplin?

52:33

Oh, Eplin kept saying, you've been on

52:35

the podcast. And I was like, no, man, I said, that's,

52:37

that's not really up to me. You can just ask him. That's

52:39

what I did. And, and, and, and,

52:42

and I, and you, and you have put that

52:44

out there for sure. It wasn't like, you know,

52:46

I was unaware, but I was just like,

52:48

I don't want to feel like I, I just, I didn't

52:51

want to, I didn't want to, I

52:53

don't know. I felt like I'd be like, I want to be

52:55

on your thing. But anyway, I'm very

52:58

glad that we talked in Phoenix and

53:00

I'm so glad that you hold

53:02

me in that regard and, and that's

53:04

awesome now that's what I'm most proud.

53:07

Oh, that's awesome, man. No,

53:09

that's good. Good, good stuff. Yeah. And

53:11

while we're talking about that, anybody

53:14

right now, listen to the podcast.

53:16

If you want to do this, just reach out

53:18

to me. And it's as

53:20

easy as that. I'll send you the list

53:22

of questions. If you

53:24

got any questions you can ask me,

53:27

I mean, I try to make it as painless

53:29

as possible

53:31

It is very easy, even though I screwed

53:33

it up last night. It's very

53:34

Well, no, that was, you know, technical difficulties.

53:36

Those are going to happen. That ain't, that ain't nobody's

53:39

fault. Um, But

53:41

yeah, if you, if you're interested and if you're

53:43

like Brian and you're sitting there like, I don't

53:45

want to reach out, just do it, man.

53:48

Get out of your comfort zone. I say it all the time

53:50

in the classes and talks. I do get out of your

53:52

comfort zone.

53:54

Yes. And that, and that is, that's

53:56

also why I did the comedy, the standup comedy.

53:58

That's, that is not a comfortable scenario

54:01

to stand up and go, Hey, what

54:03

I'm going to tell you right now, I think is hysterical.

54:06

I sure hope you do. I mean, that is, that's

54:08

scary, you

54:09

Oh yeah. Yeah, no, that's serious.

54:11

Out of

54:11

but I loved it. I still love, I mean,

54:14

I'm loving it. I'm trying to do at least one

54:16

or two open mics every month, you know?

54:18

Awesome. That's so cool. Yeah.

54:20

And I mean, I know it's probably

54:22

harder than it is. To do it than

54:25

to say it, but, you know, living outside

54:27

your comfort zone. I don't, I

54:29

mean, if I hadn't have done that, I wouldn't

54:31

be sitting here talking to you today and

54:34

just like you coming up and

54:37

speaking to me and Myrtle beach

54:39

that year. You know, if you hadn't have done

54:41

that, I ain't saying I would have quit,

54:44

but, you know, I mean, that really impacted

54:47

me, you know, to say

54:49

this is worth doing. And,

54:51

you know, well, and honestly,

54:53

it's, you know, I don't want to, Take all

54:55

the credit away, but you know,

54:58

that that's happened several times

55:00

with other people and

55:02

you know, like when we, when we did the

55:04

mental health episodes and,

55:07

um, a guy in the WhatsApp group

55:09

said he was going to go get mental health. Or

55:12

I mean, you know, go seek help, professional

55:14

help. And I'm like, man, everything

55:16

we did is worth it. It's worth

55:19

every bit of it. If this one person goes

55:21

and gets help.

55:22

The, yeah,

55:23

so yeah, this is

55:24

Phoenix show, the Pete grass and

55:27

T Dunning and the

55:30

the other lady, I can't remember her name. I'm, I

55:32

apologize for that, but they gave

55:34

a mental health seminar. I was sitting with Kayla

55:37

and Kayla told me, oh, these people are great. You're going

55:39

to love this. And, and at the end I did love

55:41

it. Awesome. And I think

55:43

all of us could use, you know, a

55:45

little a little help in that area

55:48

all the time. You know, it's

55:50

it's, there's nothing, you know, there's

55:52

nothing bad about talking to somebody

55:54

and getting things off your chest and letting

55:57

them maybe give you another point of view or

55:59

another angle of attack on how you might want to deal

56:01

with something. It's, it's a good thing. Yeah.

56:04

Oh yeah, for sure. And I mean, I

56:06

don't want to turn this into a mental health

56:08

here and I'm ready as it's

56:11

going on to about an hour and it's

56:13

probably time to wrap it up, but

56:15

I have to say this. So

56:17

I started seeing a therapist

56:21

over a year ago. And

56:23

it took me a while. I think,

56:26

I don't remember if it was the third or fourth

56:28

therapist that I went to before

56:30

I found somebody that I kind of jived

56:32

with

56:32

Right. That's important. Yeah.

56:34

yeah, and you know,

56:36

nothing against this one lady I saw,

56:39

but I see her one time and.

56:43

I don't, she was, I don't know, she's

56:45

probably late twenties ish or something

56:47

like that. So, you know, immediately

56:49

I'm like, okay, I don't know about this.

56:52

And so anyway, she said,

56:54

it says here that you

56:56

have a podcast. That's

56:59

not right. Is it? And

57:01

I'm like, yeah, that's right.

57:03

So I kind of knew then like, okay,

57:05

she doesn't get me at all. Um,

57:08

so anyway, if you are trying

57:10

to You know, do some therapy.

57:13

It might take you a minute to find one

57:15

that you connect with. And then

57:17

the other thing I want to warn you. Is

57:20

your therapist will make you feel

57:23

not very smart quite often. So

57:26

I was talking to my therapist one day,

57:28

because I do have a problem with

57:31

a negative talk, personal negative

57:33

talk. Like, you know, you idiot,

57:35

you dummy, you know, why are you doing

57:38

this? You know, better than that, you should be

57:40

smarter. You know, I mean, all the things I heard

57:42

from my dad, probably

57:43

same thing, yeah.

57:44

um, Is, is where

57:46

I'm thinking of that about. But anyway,

57:49

she said or I was telling her I

57:51

wanted to work on not doing

57:53

as much negative talk. And

57:55

she says, have you ever thought of positive

57:57

talk? And I'm like, what,

58:00

what, what is going on here? There's

58:03

such thing as positive talk. No

58:05

way you're making this up. So

58:08

anyway, I mean, it's just, yeah, so

58:10

good. Um, and it's helped

58:12

me so much because I

58:15

mean, honestly, you know, I'm 45

58:17

years old. I'll be 46 this year.

58:20

And I didn't really know

58:22

what made me happy until,

58:25

you know, six months ago or eight months

58:27

ago or whenever it was within the last

58:29

year, you know?

58:31

now you know.

58:32

Right. And now I know what, you

58:34

know, and the people

58:36

around me notice it, you know, my

58:38

family notices it, my daughters

58:40

and all that, you know, that

58:42

I'm not the same old asshole

58:45

I used to be. You know,

58:47

and, and

58:48

good for you.

58:49

been great. And I'm

58:51

saying all that to bring home, get

58:53

out of your comfort zone.

58:55

Right.

58:56

And especially for men

58:58

like us, it's really hard

59:00

to, you know, pour

59:03

your feelings out there. You

59:05

know, I mean, it's, it's tough

59:09

and you know, the way we're, you know, our culture

59:11

or whatever, it's, you know, all

59:14

those things. But anyway, tell

59:17

the listeners how they could get ahold of you.

59:20

So, on Twitter, or form, or

59:22

X, formally known as Twitter, I don't know how to say

59:24

it. B. H. Jenkins. Right. At BH

59:26

Jenkins. Um, that's

59:29

my nickname, bullet Head Jenkins. And so

59:31

Okay. Okay.

59:33

my, my nickname has a last name and it's

59:35

Jenkins yeah, And

59:37

then I have an email if you wanna reach out to

59:39

me, comedy wise bhj

59:41

[email protected].

59:43

Okay. Awesome. That's so good. Well,

59:46

thank you so much, Brian, for being on.

59:48

And I'm sorry if I rambled too much

59:50

there at the end,

59:52

I enjoyed the conversation.

59:54

you know, I, I do, I am really passionate

59:56

about all those things

59:58

and I am very thankful for you

1:00:01

and what you did, um, early

1:00:03

on when, you know, this was first started

1:00:05

and I apologize again

1:00:07

for not having you on sooner.

1:00:09

You don't have to apologize. It's

1:00:11

all good. Thank you for those kind words.

1:00:14

And, and, and likewise,

1:00:16

because the podcast gave me another

1:00:18

breath of fresh air, my man.

1:00:19

That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

1:00:21

you so much for listening to the Reel turf

1:00:24

techs podcast. I hope you learned

1:00:26

something today. Don't forget

1:00:28

to subscribe. If you have any

1:00:30

topics you'd like to discuss, or

1:00:32

you'd like to be a guest, find us on Twitter

1:00:35

at Reel turf techs.