The Connecticut golf post got me thinking of where I came from and where I am now. I am curious as to where everyone else on here started playing golf. I guess I started playing in my early teenage years. I started by caddying for my father when he would play, and then started beating it around the range until I could hit it well enough to play on my own. My father and uncle had an after 5pm membership at Pequot Golf Club in Connecticut and we were at the course almost daily. They had their weekly foursome that played at different clubs throughout the state each weekend so I was back to caddying on those days. My junior year of high school my cousin was playing on the golf team that played their matches at Pequot and one day superintendent John Allen asked if anyone on the golf team wanted a summer job. I my cousin wasn’t old enough at the time so he told me about it. At the time it paid very well $7 and most importantly free golf. That was it I was hooked. I started out working in the pro shop after school. I would collect the greens fee receipts on the 1st tee to make sure the league golfers had paid before they played. Once the league members were off I was free to play golf until they finished playing and then I would park the carts. On weekends I would work as a starter on the 1st tee then try to Marshall during the day. (A 16 yr. old kid truing to tell someone to speed up was a joke, but oh well it was a job). Once school let out for the summer John asked if I was interested in working on the grounds crew. My days working in the pro shop were over. I worked through the summer and really enjoyed the work. John was a great boss. Tuesdays were slow days for us so after we finished mowing greens John would take us to other golf course to play each week. It was great to get out and see other courses. I think it was during this time that I started noticing how each course was a little different and what I liked about certain courses.
Anyway I was a golfoholic during this time. Once my cousin was old enough he joined the crew and he and I and two other guys on the crew would get up at 4:30am and play 9 holes when daylight would allow before we had to be at work at 6am. We would then wait for the leagues to finish and play til dark with our fathers. We lived at the course. This went on for a few years and when I finished high school I didn’t really have any plans. I decided to go to a local community college. I continued to work at the course while I was in school. Around this time John decided he was going to get married and move back to Massachusetts. At the end of the season he moved and I was left as interim superintendent. It was during this time I realized this is what I wanted to do. Chris Ryan took over as Superintendent the next season and I worked with him for one year, but it wasn’t quite the same so I moved on to a little private course New London Country club.
By this time I realized if I wanted to get a job as superintendent I needed to go to turf school. I looked into the usual Umass and URI, but out of state tuition was pretty steep. I was thumbing through some trade magazines and saw an ad for a little school in TX Grayson College that offered Golf Course and Turfgrass management. I made a phone call and scheduled a trip for an interview and my Cousin and I were off. This was our 1st road trip across country. We made it down to TX and looked things over. The school had a golf course on campus so that was a bonus. After talking it over with the director of the turf program and talking with the financial aid person we were in. Grayson offered book and dorm scholarships to out of state students and with the help of a pell grant we went to school for basically free. Little did we know that TX is in the heart of the bible belt and the dorm’s didn’t allow girls in the rooms, so we quickly declined the dorm scholarship and found a condo close by the campus.
The time in Texas was exciting. We learned all about this weed called Bermuda grass that they played golf on. No seriously it was a good time. We had about 50 students in the turf program and 75% of us came from out of state. We were a wide range of people from different backgrounds. We had an ex LPGA player who was getting into golf course management, a few older oil men who were taking advantage of retraining from the oil companies, a golf course owner who was going through the process for his own good, but mostly we were young kids. We were a pretty close group. Being poor we played quite a bit of golf on campus. It wasn’t much of a golf course, but the price was right FREE. Having the course on campus the programs biggest asset. We had many labs right out on the course and had the courses equipment to work on in mechanical class. We took several field trips and saw many of the courses in the Dallas metro area, Colonial being the cream of the crop. I worked part time on the college course for a little extra money and many of the other students worked at other area courses and I had the opportunity to work as a temp at several clubs during aerification week.
Once I finished school it was back home to Connecticut. When I was younger my father owned a small engine shop and had ground reels for several local golf courses, so I tried beating down those doors looking for a job. This brought me to see Bob Chalifour at Shennecossett Golf Club. Bob didn’t have any work, but suggested I contact Bob Johns at Fishers. One thing lead to another and here I am 12 years later.