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