An interview with Ryan Marangoni.

Mr. Ryan Marangoni is 22 years old and come from Mississauga in Canada. He is a student in the 2-year Golf Course Turfgrass Management program at The Pennsylvania State University in the USA. The Penn State program, as it’s called, is famous worldwide for its very high academic standards and ability to produce successful superintendents.

Ryan got his start in the industry at Toronto Golf Club through a high school program. According to Ryan, "I he needed a job, didn´t have a car and the golf course was close by". Luckily he ejoyed the work and took the advice of his superintendent to go to Penn State to further his career. For his six month internship Ryan chose to leave his comfort zone and go to Europe to work at Sunningdale Golf Club in England. An experience he says has given him a lot of excellent knowledge not only about turfgrass management, but also in living in a new country. At Sunningdale GC, he felt he got to put his knowledge from university to practical use. Seeing a different management style, than he was used to at his previous golf course. After graduating, Ryan wants to combine two goals, which are to travel the world and gain more experience, before he feels ready to take a superintendents position. New Zealand stands out as a part of the world he would like to explore.

As Ryan is getting very close to graduating, I asked him how he feels Penn State helps to prepare students to take the leap in to working life. He told me the difference he felt from before to after university, was in his approach to challenges. "They teach us to be critical of everything, mostly ourselves". Not only of others but to own judgment in the sense that there are always more than one way to get where you want to go.

Asked about his time at Penn State, Ryan´s eye lighted up. Not only be cause of the college life and night life, but mostly, he says, of the people you are surrounded by, from the best professors and research in the industry to fellow students who are working toward a common goal. Asked about whether he would recommend the university to anyone, the response was a definite “Absolutely!”

Communication and why it’s important.

You can be the best at what you do; have the best qualifications and have the best ideas in the world. But if you can’t tell anybody, then what good is it? That’s what the importance of communication is to me.

Communication takes on many forms; written, oral, body language and even within these categories. In writing, there is a difference between writing a blog on the internet, to writing an application to a government agency. Oral communication also varies and may include handing out the daily tasks on the golf course or speaking at a conference.

I feel that in order to get a message across you must first know who you are talking to. As a golf course superintendent, you may be the boss of your department, but you still report to someone ranked higher in the company. This could either be the owner of the facility, or if it is a members own facility, the board of directors. This puts the superintendent in the middle of the hierarchy; he is reporting upwards and giving orders downwards to his crew.

Depending on the golf club, these two groups can be very different in social and cultural background. Golf club memberships often consists of a highly variable group, with different backgrounds. This ma nclude lawyers, business men or women and CEO´s or it may include construction workers, postal workers and so on. These individuals work in different working environments and have their own set of unwritten rules and communication styles with one another. They are used to communicating in different ways. If you as a superintendent want to get a message across effectively you must communicate in a way that is understandable by these various groups.

The other direction of communication is downward directed from you to your crew. The crew is different from your membership and are used to a different way of communicationIn order to get your message across effectively you must understand their way of communicating. It makes no sense to write a report for guys raking the bunkers and have them sit down and read it before getting out to 1st fairway.

Being a effective communicator can save you a lot of trouble. It is importnt to be precise to your crew about how you want things done or how the outcome of a project must be, simply by keeping people informed on how you spend their money! The members pay a due to the club, so they have a right to know how you spend their money. Keeping members informed regularly about the state of their golf course can be turned to your advantage. Educating the members, that are not professionals in turf, about how this organism they play on lives, gives them a sense of being informed and involved. You may even find some that are very interested and start to pass on your information to others. Informing them and being open might just give them a chance to shine in their 4-ball, by knowing something the other 3 partners don’t!

In the July209 edition of “Golf Course Industry”, David Tierney, a project coordinator,states this about communication: “You cannot do enough of it. Superintendents succeed by helping members understand what’s going on, what’s going to happen next, where we stand and why we are doing it.”

Interning at The Kittansett Club, MA

The extended internship, that is a part of the 2. year program, is a huge advantage to the students.

I have chosen to stay in the US and do my internship at The Kittansett Club in Massachusetts.

The Kittansett Club is situated an hour’s drive south of Boston, near the town of Marion, MA close to Cape Cod.

History
The Club was established in 1922, but it actually started 9 years earlier in 1913, when the Beverly Yacht Club purchased some land on the end of Butlers Point to build a club house, from which their members could follow the ship race on the surrounding waters.
In the financial turmoil following World War I, the yacht club decided to sell the land to a group of people that wanted to use the land for a golf club. By 1922 the Kittansett Golf Club was established and the golf course constructed. The word “Kittansett” comes from two Indian words meaning “the sea”
Situated on the point the golf club is exposed to the elements. During its life time the course has been hit by several hurricanes. Beside weather, war also left its print on the golf club. During World War II the golf club was taken over by the US Coast Guard, who set up a gun on the point, 150 yards from the clubhouse, to control Buzzards Bay. The foundation of the gun turret can still be seen.

The foundation for the gun turret.

The internship.The Penn State name opens a lot of opportunities to the students when it comes to choosing the internship. As I have only had 2 seasons experience working on golf courses, I knew I would not be going to the superliga of US golf courses and it didn´t really matter to me. I am the first Dane to study turfgrass management in the US and that alone is a huge plus on my résumé.
I chose The Kittansett Club from perspective that its geographic location is similar to Denmark, where I plan to return and build my career. Similar climate, similar grasses.
The superintendent Mr. John Kelly is a Penn State Alum and he has put together a very structured internship program, that will expose me to all aspects of managing the golf course. We are only two interns, the other guy is from Umass, and so we will both have plenty of opportunity to do get involved.

In order to make sure I get the experience I am looking for I have set up some goals and objectives for my internships. F. ex.

1. Obtain better understanding of maintaining mowers
• Adjust the height of reel mower
• Sharpen reels
• Change cutting unit on Tri-Plex
• Sharpen blades on flymo/rotary mower
• Grease machines, greens- fairway and rough mowers.

As a special project I thought it would be interesting to see if I could map out the tree lines on the golf course, especially around greens and figure out how the shade moves over these greens. Especially in areas that are prone to diseases. The use for this would be to see how the tree-line should be manipulated to ensure sunlight hits the green at the right time of day in the right time of year. F. ex in the morning to dry out the canopy as soon as possible.

some call bunker "The Beach"

Here it is the beach !!! 3rd hole, par 3

Aerial photo of the Kittansett Club is curtesy of The Kittansett Club

About me

Welcome to my new little blog.

I am from a small country in Europe called Denmark. Home of such wonderfull things as The Little Mermaid, AaB Football Club and the schnaps Rød Aalborg, better known as The Aalborg Champagne.!!
Denmark is the oldest Monarchy in the world, with Her Majesty Queen Magrethe the 2nd as the present ruler.
Denmark is a democrachy, so our Queen is purely for public relations.

My start in the Turf Industry
After having completed my education in Landscape Gardening, I took a job as a seasonal greenkeeper at Loch Lomond Golf Club in Scotland. There I got the motivation and drive to further my career within the Turf Industry and come to The Pennsylvania State University.
I will be doing my internship at The Kittansett Club near Cape Cod in Massachusetts