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Today I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a.
Bright egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Egg, Frida Egg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the the hump.
Welcome to the Friday Podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison, and today we have a little something different for you. We're telling the story of the GCSAA Golf Championships. GCSAA stands for Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America, and the GCSAA Golf Championships is the biggest tournament of the year for competitive golf course superintendents. I went to last year's edition of the event at Torrey Pines. It was really cool. I think it's an event that not many people know about
but is really worth kind of looking into. This episode will be not only about that event, but also about what makes this tournament special. So I'm going to talk to three different people. Scott Hollister, the editor of Golf Course Management, which is the gcsaa's monthly publication. Then I'll talk to two players who contended for last year's championship. It really actually came down to the two of them in the end, Tanner Westbrook from Dallas, Texas and Seth
Strickland from South Florida. First, you'll hear from Scott about the history of the tournament and what it's all about. Then you'll hear from Tanner and Seth about their backgrounds and their careers in the game. And finally, I'll bring back all three voices to tell the story of last year's GCSAA National Championship, so slightly different structure to this episode. I hope you enjoy it, and let's just get right into it.
Yep.
I'm My name is Scott Hollister. I'm the editor in chief of Golf Course Management Magazine, which is the official publication of the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America.
All right, so Scott, we're here to talk about the GCSAA Golf Championships, which occur annually, and specifically we're going to get into last year's tournament at Torrey Pines. But first of all, for people who don't know about this, what is this tournament? What are kind of the basics?
Well, the GCSA Golf Championships are an annual event. It's been annual since nineteen sixty eight, largely annual before that. It's San Diego marked the seventy second plane of the event. And it is a golf tournament for members of GCSAA, primarily working golf course superintendents, whether they are head superintendent's assistant superintendents. We have some flights for what we call affiliate members, so maybe folks that work for industry companies
who want to participate in the event. There are multiple time, multiple portions to the event. We do a four ball championship to start things off, so a little four ball fun event that always attracts a good crowd. And then
there are two days basically quote unquote championship play. And so we have a Golf Classic, which is a flighted play where the point quota system is used to score those and that ranges from we you know, first flight competitors are pretty good players down to you know, once you get into the fifth and sixth flights would fit much more my game, a little higher handicap players. And then we have an annual National Championship, and that is
the top event that we offer. These are folks typically with very low handicaps from you know, we're talking scratched, one, two, three handicaps in this field. And these are accomplished players who just happen to be working golf course superintendents. It's a great event, We have a great time. It's typically
leads into our annual conference and trade show. So it's a great way to start what for most of these guys and myself and my fellow staff members is a pretty long week in whatever city we happen to be in or that event, right.
And we'll get into the twenty twenty two National Championship later in the podcast by talking with two of the players who contended for it. But before we get there, maybe you could just tell me a little bit about the history of this tournament. How did it start, why did it start, any of that kind of stuff that you.
Know, well, when it first started, what was behind the founder's decision to start That was obviously GCSAA and its predecessor organizations has had various names over the years as the title of the profession has largely shifted in the public's mind from greenkeeper at least here in the States, to superintendent. I know, you get into Europe and everyone is still a greenkeeper there. But back in the thirties, the organizers of the association wanted a way to connect
with the game of golf. The golf course superintendents are maintaining the playing fields for our game, and it seemed only natural that we would have some form of event for these folks to display their golf skills. And as I mentioned earlier, there's a wide variety of skill levels involved. It happened largely annually, but off and on. Obviously took a break for World War Two and various times such as that, but as I mentioned, starting in nineteen sixty eight,
it became an annual event. As time went on, it became attached to our conference and trade show, so it's
a vital part of that. And every year we've had anywhere from I've worked events in my twenty plus years with GCSAA where we've had as many as seven hundred participants, and now the event typically pulls in between four hundred and five hundred participants every year, so it ranks among the largest amateur golf events in the US every year, especially back in those days when we were getting seven
hundred to seven hundred and fifty competitors. We're using six different golf facilities, and you know in San Diego we used three different ones, but a lot of multi course facilities as well, so we could utilize that. So we have a really loyal crew of participants in the event who just would not miss it for the world. There's an amazing amount in addition to the great golf, it's time of year when a lot of people want to play golf. Special if you're living in the northern part
of the country getting too San Diego in February. It's not such a bad deal. But it's an amazing networking event as well, where superintend's from all over the country get together, meet friends, trade war stories, things of that nature. And so it's got a lot of loyalty among a lot of GCSA members.
So for you, Scott, as a writer who covers this event, goes to this event looking for stories, what makes it special to you? What makes it like different from covering say a PGA Tour tournament or another kind of golf championship.
Yeah, I've had an interesting kind of view of that. Prior to my days at GCSA, I spent about a decade in newspapers and I was a sports writer and had an opportunity to cover professional football, baseball, and some professional golf as well. When I took this job and I got the opportunity, I was that people looked at my resume and they said, hey, you you've covered golf before the actual playing of the game as opposed to turf, grass management and things of that nature. Why don't you
go to this event? So I did, and what struck me at first is how many high quality players there are among those that participate in the tournament, and really among the GCSA membership as a whole, there are there are. There are certainly superintendents who are not low handicapped players or who play very infrequently yet do an excellent job
of maintaining their golf courses. But there are also a number of very low handicapp player who have great stories behind their games and how they made the decision to These are guys that perhaps that played at a high level in college, entertained a professional career, whether that was as a touring professional or even a PGA professional, but at some point made the decision, hey, I wanted the side of this business, The turf crast management side of
this business appeals to me. So this event kind of for them is a way to still demonstrate, Hey, I'm a stick I can still play this game at a very high level. So what I've enjoyed is is learning some of these stories we've had past champions. I'll mention like Steve Gilly for example, Steve Gilly one I believe in.
I'm going to check my.
Notes here because I do have this officially in twenty twenty nineteen, Steve Gilly one. Steve is a superintendent in the Dallas area. He just this last year made it to the final round of Q School for the Champions Tour and had a chance to get on to get onto the Champions Tour. He's been twice. He in his younger days led after the first day of Q school
for the regular tour. And he also has the awesome distinction of apparently karting the lowest verified round of golf in history, a fifty five that he played shot at Lynnwood Country Club. He had like like three eagles and you know, a nine or ten bird. It was insane, but it.
Is That is where I heard his name. I was trying to think, where have I heard this guy's name. I know I've heard of Steve Gilly.
But yes, he is a legitimate champion. We had a champion in four, Tommy Robinson, and Tommy was a longtime superintendent in the Chicago era. He went on to qualify for the two thousand and nine Senior Open at Sahali. Going back even further, and I'm not sure if this is the name some of the listeners may be familiar with. His name is Paul Jet and Paul was super tenant at Pinehurst number two for a long time prior to the renovations at number two, so he was the superintendent
in ninety nine when they hosted the US Open. Paul was an unbelievable player. Never won the GCFA event, but was a four time runner up, and the stories of the touring professionals that would seek him out in advance of those big events that were contested at Pinehurst to play with them. Phil Mickelson was one in particular. I think he's played with Tiger, but these touring pros that we all know trusted Paul enough to get out there.
As I said, hey, listen, you'll be able to teach me something about this golf course because you're the person who maintains it every day. But you're also going to be able to keep up with me. You're going to be able to play the game the same way I do see things that I'm going to potentially see on
the golf course. And Paul's not the only one. There's other stories like that, but those are the kind of things that always jump out to me that this membership has some really talented players and whether they decided they were going to come up just shy of having a successful tour career, or they didn't want to work in
the golf shop they preferred to be outdoors. Whatever the case is, they've made the move into this business, but they still love the game and they still played at a very high level.
I'll tell you what's impressive to me about what I saw at the twenty twenty two Championship. I was out there at torry Pine's. You were as well, looking at these guys play. I was just thinking the whole time. I kind of know what goes into a superintendent's job, and it is not easy, right. They are long hours, you get up really early. It's just not the easiest job in the world. It's a very satisfying job for
many people. It's a wonderful job, but it's not easy, and it's not sort of like light on a time commitment. And yet somehow these players have found a way to keep their games really, really sharp. And I also sort of know what goes into that, right, and that's another thing that takes a lot of time. So I just don't know how these guys do it right, how they stay so good at golf while also you know, succeeding at the job of superintendent, which itself is pretty overwhelming.
Yeah, you're exactly right. And the other complicating factor at that time of year. We traditionally play this event in early February, So depending on where you are, where you reside, your game will be in a totally different state. For the folks, say in South Florida or even Texas, Arizona, southern California, they may still they may have an opportunity to play. The weather may offer them the ability to
get out practice play. Now, if you're in South Florida, it's also your high season, so you probably have far more job demands than you might in the middle of the summer. But then you look at superintendents in the Northeaster, you know, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, anywhere in the upper Midwest and into the Dakota's, it's you've got snow on the ground.
So your only opportunity to get yourself, you know, get your game up up to snuff for this event is to basically bang balls out of a you know, enclosed driving you know, driving bay somewhere maybe when the snow melts, getting out and put a little bit on a green that hasn't been mode and god knows how long, and so there's just a whole different variety and everyone comes in facing you know, different challenges and you hear folks.
I heard comment slash in San Diego early in the week about the weather there.
It was cool.
There was kind of a heavy marine layer that folks were playing, especially when they were playing the Tory Pines courses and if they were coming from Texas, where there was, you know, just a totally different atmosphere. They were finding they were having to adjust what clubs they were using for what shots because the ball wasn't either wasn't carrying as far. They were just they weren't quite as limber as they might have normally been because they're used to
different conditions. So I know that for all golfers, we all deal with with this for one way or the other depending on what time of year we're playing. But when you're going out to compete for a national championship, which is what this is, those are those are those are real factors for these guys. So it's just kind of another added layer as you as you look at the at the competition that takes place at this event.
Well, let's talk a little bit about the two players slash superintendents who contended for last year's national championship. They were Seth Strickland and Tanner Westbrook. So, without giving anything away about how the tournament ended up, because we'll kind of save that for a little bit later in the podcast, could you just tell me a bit first of all about Seth Strickland.
So, Seth is one of the most decorated UH players in the i'll say modern modern era, but he's he's now climbing the list in terms of the overall his three of the event coming into twenty twenty two in San Diego, he had won four previous national championships. He won back in five, he won back to back in eight and nine, and then he had a bit of a gap and he was definitely a contender in those intervening years, but he didn't win his fourth title until
twenty twenty one, which was in Palm Springs. And I mentioned earlier that our event is traditionally in February. Because of the pandemic, our annual conference and trade show in twenty twenty one went virtual, so we had an event in October as things started to kind of open back
up in Palm Springs and he won that event. So Seth is a superintendent at Miami Shores Country Club down in Miami, so he's one of those players who gets an opportunity to actually play the game in advance of the tournament, although he's also very very busy with his
golf course in the intervening time. Also, he and his wife had two children, so his life changed a little bit, but he is still he is still a thoughtful, focused player when you follow him over the course of typically I will see the contenders play anywhere from nine to twelve thirteen holes on the final day of the event.
I've seen a lot of Seth playing golf and he's a focused, thoughtful, really sticks to his routine, doesn't make too many If he makes a mistake, it's not because he hasn't thought through what he wants to do on that next shot. So he's a really, really talented player. Still, he's in his mid forties now, still has enough length to contend with some of the younger competitors in the field and has really just has really been just a
great champion. To see that him able to stretch over the course of more than a decade between events and still be a factor is something else.
So the other player who really had a shot at the twenty twenty two Championship was Tanner Westbrook. What should we know about him?
Tanner's a younger player in fact, as well as I know Seth, and I've known him obviously since he first won to know five San Diego's first time I had an opportunity to meet Tanner. Tanner's at Merida Golf Club in Texas, Carrollton, Texas. And fun fact, I don't know, it's a fun fact for me. I don't know it's
a fun fact for anyone else. But a previous superintendent at Merida Golf Club won the GCSA Championship in twenty sixteen, that is Sean Westcott, and Shawn moved on still plays in the event, but Tanner was his assistant at that time, so when Shawn left, Tanner was promoted. What I know about Meredo is that it was built in designed for very accomplished players. Those were the people that were in
mind when that course was designed, built and opened. And I can't speak to whether they specifically look for superintendents who also had a high level of playing ability or not, But obviously Sean and Tanner both fit that. Bill Tanner from what I saw and my conversations with him during and following the event, He's a lot like Seth, very thoughtful, hits the ball a mile, really thinks his way around
the golf course. Had a background playing some college golf, much like a lot of the others I talked about. He kind of got to that crossroads in his professional life and had to make a decision and ended up on the turf management side, but still plays regularly. His length gives him an advantage over typically someone like Seth. As I said, Cetel hits the ball a long way, but Tanner was going to have an advantage off the tee against someone like Seth. And boy, he's he you
know from what I saw that week. You know, he fits the mold of what a GCSA, a golf champion looks like.
All right, So now we're going to toss it to Seth and Tanner. I talked to them separately, but we're going to basically weave the interviews together. Will also bring Scott back in for a couple of things. And the idea here is not just to tell the story of the tournament, which ended up being really exciting, but also just to find out how two people with such a demanding job can be so good at golf. This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast is brought to you by
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Okay, my name's Tanner Westbrook. I'm a director of Agronomy at Marrido Golf Club in Dallas, Texas.
All Right, so how did you start playing golf?
So my dad's a golf course superintendent, so I've been around golf my whole life. Had the Plastic golf club since I was a baby, the whole deal. He would hook up a car seat and his golf cart and take me out there when I was a baby. It was It's just been in my blood forever. And started playing more competitively probably twelve ish years old, started playing in a lot of junior tournaments and just fell in
love with it. So just wanted to play as much golf as I could, And that's kind of how it all started.
At what point, if at any point, did you realize that you were good at golf, like that you were skilled at this particular game.
Oh, it took a long time. Actually. In my head, I always knew I should be better. I played a lot of junior tournaments and it like the scoring just didn't ever come. I was the My golf coach always told me, you could put me on the range at any PGA Tour event and you would think I was supposed to be there. But when I went out on the golf course, it just would never click, and I would make little mistakes and it would just kind of
snowball into a bad score. And then when I got done with school high school, I didn't take the conventional college route. I went and worked at a country club in southern California for a general manager that my dad knew at the time, with the goal to try to pursue a golf career, and essentially my dogs essentially went down there with the goal. It was actually my golf coach that took me kind of and said, you got to move down to southern California where there's some more competition.
You'll play with higher competitors. So took the leap, moved down there right out of high school, like a month after high school, moved down to southern California, Orange County, and just they pretty much gave me the one of the best deals ever, which was you can play golf as much as you want as long as you work on the crew. So I'd work from six to two thirty, I'd go play golf until it got dark every day for a year and then kind of had my breakthrough moment.
So the goal was my old goalways had a goal of shooting under seventy and until this point I had never shot seventy or better. And one day it just clicked and I went out and shot sixty four and it was pretty much off to the races after that, and it was kind of like, Okay, I think I could do this as a career. And that's kind of how it snowballed.
So when you broke through, you shattered it.
Yeah I shattered it. I didn't.
I didn't, you know, scrape the surface of shooting sixty nine, like, I don't know. I I've never had that feeling again. But it was like I could throw the ball in the green, close my eyes and put it and it was going to go in the hole that day, particularly out of any other day I played golf, And yeah, I shot like seven eight under par the first time I broke seventy, and I probably went on a run
for months after that of not shooting above par. And that was when I knew I could actually try to play in a high level of amateur golf before I try to turn professional.
And did you try to turn professional? Was that a possibility for you at some point?
So I think I could have had a good run of it when I was in that golf shape that I was in, but what happened was I was kind of leading up to I qualified for the California Amateur, like the season was starting for all those high end
amateur events. Calim I was going to do the US Amateur Qualifier all that stuff, and qualified for the US or the California Amateur, played really good, shot a couple under par, and then I was getting just practicing, getting ready, and our course had mats at the back of it, and I was hitting balls off the mat. And the next day I woke up and I injured my ribs really bad.
And they did X rays.
Essentially what they said was there's like intercostal muscles that make your ribs function and they think I strained one of those, and I probably didn't play.
Golf for a year after that.
And all the work leading up to that point, how long it took to get to that point. I knew that for me to get back there after that rib injury was it was pretty pretty slim. And that's when the general manager that I was working for kind of sat me down at the time and it's like, you know, I really know you really want to do this golf thing, but you could have a really good career as a superintendent, so you still have that in your back pocket if this doesn't work out.
And here we are.
So what action did you take after that conversation? Did you decide fairly soon that you wanted to commit fully to the superintendent path.
So it kind of like I was back and forth for a while and kind of started. I took started taking classes at UC Riverside for turf, just to kind of get that ball rolling. But in the back of my head, I was like, oh, I really want to I want to play golf, That's the ultimate goal. And then it kind of just started happening for the turf career. Like when I always had the kind of my dad in my back pocket, I could always go work for him play golf, you know, kind of keep it going.
But my game never quite got the same level. Like I could still go out and play really good, but the amount of practice it takes to be especially a professional golfer now is such a different level than when even I was trying to do it. I just my body can't take it. Like even if I hit balls for too long now, like that rib will still get sore. So there's always that limitation for that. And then with the turf career side just kind of worked for him.
I got like my pesticide license when I was eighteen nineteen, and then I moved back down to southern California after the injury to work for the same golf course that I had worked for, and I just kind of wanted to change and put a bunch of my applications out.
I did Riviera, LACC Olympic Club. You know, I went for all the internships and I got callbacks on all of them, and I was good to work at LACC, and I went and interviewed, loved the course, but I was stuck in traffic for like an hour and twenty minutes and four miles off the one oh one Freeway in California. So a couple of weeks go by, getting ready to start, and then I get a call from the Olympic Club and they're like, hey, sorry, it took so long to get back to you. We'd love to
interview you. And went up to San Francisco and it was no traffic, nice coastal air, no smug and I'm like, oh, man, I think I want to do this instead. So went up there for hired me on as an intern and worked for them. We did a USGA event up there. I was the first USGA men's fore ball they had up there, which was televised. So I had like the USGA prep of the agronomy side. And this was like
right at the beginning of the career. I'd always worked on the golf course for my dad, but this was like that next level, and I was like, this is really cool, and they hired I worked really hard. They hired me on as a second assistant, but it was so expensive to live in San Francisco. It was getting hard to do, so I had to move back home with my parents and then just kind of worked for my dad and just kind of the whole thing kind of took place, and I got to where I am now.
So tell me about where you work now.
So I work at Marrito Golf Club now in Dallas. And Sean Westcott, who's a really good golfers, won the GCSAA tournament before I played with him. My dad enrolled me in like a second assistant assistant, like sweepstakes for the golf course tournament, and I won the sweepstakes. So it was like the free state at the hotel. The enrollment fee in the tournament, and that was when they played at LaCosta in San Diego a few years ago.
It was probably six years ago now, and I played with Sean and I just kind of my girlfriend at the time, who's my wife now, was with me, she wrote in the cart, and I just kind of I told her, like, the whole reason I wanted to go down there was to try to meet somebody to get a future job opportunity. And I happened to play with him, and I told him I was interested in moving out of California, and he's like, hey, we might have a spot for you. So they flew me out, checked out
the golf course. The golf course was awesome, like it's just such a spectacle in Dallas, it's crazy, and told him I was interested. So we uprooted our whole lives and moved to Dallas and worked for him for two years, and he decided to take another job, and I had spent some time with the owner and they just hired me on right there, right after he left as the superintendent. And it's been no stopping since.
I bet now there's there are a lot of good players at Merido, right, Oh.
Yeah, yeah, there's I got we got Wills, Ala Torres, Davis, Riley, Taylor Moore, like we got Tony Romo, Jordan's b Like you can name drop all the Scottie Scheffler, all the guys here in Dallas are out there pretty frequently.
So it's I mean.
The golf course itself is it's built for high end competitive golf. Like if you want to be a good golfer and you want to challenge, you.
Play at Marydell.
It's tough, I mean from the normal Red team markers. It plays at seventy three hundred yards pretty much force carries on every green. It's a test slopes like seventy it's ratings like seventy seven point.
Six from the reds. So it's it's a challenge.
Maybe you could just take me through a brief version of your normal daily schedule. What does that look like?
Normal day?
Wake up at five am, get into the shop around five thirty six o'clock. The guys start at six, so I try to get in there as much as I can. It's just me and my assistant right now, so I get in there and make sure we get them going, get some coffee, do some emails, do invoices, whatever paperwork
I have to do when it's still dark outside. I try to get all my admin work done in the morning time before I could see what's going on on the course, and then kind of once the sun comes up, I can see what's going on week and I go out and try to start looking at how much grasps we're getting off the mowers, that kind of stuff, setting up afternoon jobs for the guys, kind of around that time with my assistance, seeing what else needs to be done mowing wise or clean up wise around the clubhouse,
stuff like that, and then around ten o'clock the guys take lunch. I try to do a little bit more admin stuff. I take lunch a little bit later in the day, get those guys kind of all lined up, and then if I'm lucky, I'll try to break away and hit some balls in the afternoon, maybe go play a couple holes. I try to get out there as much as I can playing golf to see it from that perspective, because I think that's a really important thing that we.
Get to We get the ability to do.
With a superintendent, you can kind of get out there and if you play golf, see it from that perspective, So try to get out there, roll some putts, hit some chip shots. I'll take a scorecard with me and it's just all notes for the next day, you know, wet areas. I'm trying to do kind of all that stuff while I play a couple holes to get some practice and to get some work in as well. Just really trying to stay three steps ahead of what the guys are doing. Is kind of like how I try
to make it work. So that way I'm already ahead of what's going on the next day, and then I could just funnel it down to chain of command on my side to make sure everything's getting done. And I'm just trying to stay ahead of what's going on on a day to day basis out there.
So hearing that schedule, I wonder how it is that you keep your golf game as sharp as it is.
I mean, if you ask some of the professional like the he pros and you know, people at the club, they'll tell you it's just talent. But when I was trying to play professionally, I mean I'd hit balls for hours and it's just all muscle memory. So like I kind of have the ability to I won't play golf for a little while, and I'll pick it up and just go play good somehow. But sometimes when I play practice too much, the game goes backwards. If I can just kind of get out of my way and go
care free play golf, I'll play really good. And if I start working on the game, it can kind of kind of go backwards. So that's kind of the real answer if you want to know the truth.
My name is Seth Strickland, and I'm the golf course superintendent at Miami Beach.
Did you recently change jobs?
I did, Yeah, So let me rephrase that. I'm actually the director of agronomy over Miami Beach in Normandy. I was at Miami Shores for twenty years and recently, I would say seven months ago, I got moved. I still worked for the same company, all.
Right, So going way back, how did you start playing golf?
Oh, man, that's a long time ago. So my brother played golf whenever I was a kid, and I remember him taking me to the golf course every once in a while whenever I was growing up. And then it was one year I think I was twelve years old, it might have been eleven. My friend and I signed up for a summer camp at Rogers Park golf course in Tampa, and you know, we had a great time. My mom would drop us off every day, we'd play golf all day long. It wasn't like the camps nowadays.
It was more like, you know, the moms would drop you off and then you would just play golf all day. So really that's really what the camp was. But yeah, that's kind of how I started, and I fell in love with it and I've been playing ever since.
At what point did you realize you were good or was it a gradual kind of realization.
It was very gradual, I'll say that, Yeah, I was decent, I would say, I mean, I never really looked at myself as a great player. First of all, I don't think really anyone that is other than maybe Tiger Woods, really looks at themselves as great players. But you know, I've always thought of myself as a person that plays well. I can hang with people for the most part, but I know my role in the golf world, and I know I'll probably never be on TV. I know I'm
not that good. So I do feel like my game improved dramatically, I would say probably over the last like fifty or twenty years, twenty five years. Whenever I was in my mid twenties, I really started putting more time into it and trying to focus on it and get better at it. But I was a good player when I was younger, but I didn't get good at golf until I was playing in my mid twenties.
That's interesting, that's not the usual story. Did you play competitively in high school or college? Was golf your sport?
I played high school golf and I played I played junior tournaments whenever I was a kid. I was a good high school player, I would say, but I was never really competitive in junior golf. With that being said, you know, I enjoyed it. I always loved it, you know. But it seemed like something clicked around the age of like twenty four twenty five, and I started playing much better. To this day, I still feel like I'm improving.
How did you decide to go into greenkeeping as your profession.
First of all, whenever I get out of high school, I was going to community college and I was working at Timble Terra's golf course. That's where I started. That's where I was playing high school golf, and that's where I started working on the golf course maintenance crew. So throughout community college, I actually stopped working on the golf course in college for a little while to go become an electrician. I went to a technical school and I ended up working as an electrician for a year. But
I absolutely couldn't stand it. I hated it, and I wanted to go back to work on a golf course. That's what I love, That's what I really wanted to do. So I stopped working at a as an electrician and I went to work for Jim torba Usf golf Course. I remember going to the golf course every morning. I would pass by there on my way to my job as electrician, and I would always say, I need a job, you know, I want to come back, and I don't
have anything available. I don't have anything available. Eventually, he had something available and we hit it off. We played golf together. We ended up becoming really good friends. So I guess there was a turning point. Whenever I was at a golf course called Plant City Golf Course, I had a choice. I felt like I could have gone the route of becoming a pro or a golf course superintendent, and I was actually giving lessons on the side in the afternoons, just to some friends and some local members,
and the pro left. And there was a choice. I had a choice. I could have asked the general manager to become the pro or staying doing what I was doing. I was the assistant superintendent, and I thought about it for a little while, and I was like, you know, I just really love what I'm doing. I don't want to jeopardize my career. This is what I want to do. And that's all she wrote.
And so am I right that by the time you started to buy your own estimation get better at golf, or take the game more seriously, you were already working in the golf industry.
Yeah. So I was at USF golf course whenever I was twenty years old with Jim Torbo, and he really pushed me to get better at golf. Also, we practiced, we played, and he was kind of like an inspiration in that way. And I would say then I definitely
was getting better, there's no doubt. And then whenever I moved to Miami Shores, I lived near the golf course at Miami Shores, and I practiced almost every single day, and it almost became as part like a ritual of my life where this is what I do, and I guess this is probably what I should have been doing from the beginning whenever I first started playing. But yeah, so I started. I started practicing a lot more whenever I was in the industry.
Actually, and some people say the opposite sometimes. You know, I've never played less golf after joining the golf industry. But it sounds like I completely get that too.
It sounds kind of insane to be there all day and then want to stay there in the afternoon of practice, but it's something I really enjoy.
So so I wonder if if you have any kind of tips or tricks for keeping your game sharp even when you have a serious, full time job. You know, when you don't have like a huge amount of time to work on your game, What do you think the key is to like staying as sharp as you have obviously stayed.
First of all, don't beat yourself up. You know, whenever you have bad days, you just have bad days. I think that we beat ourselves up sometimes and end up making it worse for ourselves. You know, whenever you're out there, you hit a bad shot and you kind of give up. So you know, just try to take each shot one by one and do the best you can on every single shot. Each shot is its own entity. It's not like the score doesn't matter. Really, the outcome doesn't matter.
It's all about this one moment and it's one shot and then the If I can say anything about practicing, if I could practice anything that would improve my game the most, it would be short iron play, short iron play, proximity to the whole. That would be the number one thing I would practice. That's probably that's probably fifty percent of my practice.
It's such a big differentiator between a good player and a great player.
Anything inside of like anything inside of one hundred and fifty yards. If you're not thinking I'm gonna stick it inside of twenty feet, then you need to go work on your swing because that's like, right then you got those shots. I'm thinking inside of twenty feet every time. If I don't go inside of twenty feet, it's some I haven't been practisant enough.
Well, I've got some work to do on my game. So when did you start playing in the GCSAA Championships. When did that become part of your kind of annual routine.
I know the first one that I won was two thousand and five. I think I played in two before that.
You know, you've played this tournament for a while, then you know this is this is about twenty years just generally. I know it might be hard to say, but what has this tournament started to mean to you?
It's been a lot to me actually getting people to know me and notoriety. I mean, there was no way anyone would to know my name if I hadn't won this tournament so many, you know, so many times, and people that I don't even know are coming out to me and talking to me about the tournament. For me, it's a big deal. It feels like it's part of my career. I think it's a big deal for quite a few guys that play in it every year, especially the guys that have won it. The guys that have
won it are on the cover of the magazine. It goes all over the country. I mean, it's it's like our Masters. I feel like it's a major championship for golf court superintendents. It sounds kind of like silly in a way. Whenever you look at the big picture and see, like, you know, we're just golf court superintendent's getting together to play in a golf tournament, you know. But I think for quite a few of us, it's a big deal, and some of us put a lot of preparation in
for it, you know. And I'm sure there are a lot of guys that go and play and enjoy it for the camaraderie and the fellowship. I feel like I learn more at the tournament that I do at the show. I don't know if you should say that or not. I don't know if this should be in the podcast or not, but that was actually one of the one of the ways I talked to my GM in the beginning, and I said, you know, I really feel like I learned more at these golf tournaments than I do at
the conferences. And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just go play golf and have fun. You don't have to blow smoke at my button, you know. So, but yeah, I feel like it's been a huge part of my career and I love it and I'm going to play in it as long as I can.
So going back to last year's GCSAA Championships, the venue was obviously the South Course at Torrey Pines. How demanding was the course from your perspective.
Those were the fastest screens I've ever played on my whole entire life period. I I've never experienced anything like that. They had to have been rolling fourteen thirteen. It was unbelievable. It was so hard, and we played the tease up. We didn't play it far back on the back teas, so I can only imagine playing from back there. It would be like unplayable.
You know, you got to hit it in the fairway. I mean, luckily it was cut down. You could tell they cut the rough, but it still was really long. Like there was a couple of guys in my group that lost their ball because they hit it in the rough. We all watched where it went and we just went up there and couldn't find it. So it was really demanding off the tee. I mean, the golf course is stout, it's tough, and the first round I played was really good.
I was very surprised with how good I played. I had a five shot lead going into the last round.
Let's talk about the last day at Torrey Pines. You know, early on, do you remember how things were going for you.
I remember that I just couldn't seem to get it going the whole tournament. It felt like I was, I don't want to say struggling, but it just wasn't there.
I couldn't hit my driver in the fairway.
That hurt.
That hurt a big time because the front nine is very If you hit in the fairway, you have a lot of short irons in you can hit a couple close, get some chances to make birdie. So I don't play in a lot of tournaments now, and you know theirs. The second day, you know, I had the lead in the tournament, and I just got super nervous, you know, everything off the tee the first few holes, I was
hitting it in the rough. I was I was still scoring okay, but I was making it harder on myself to just care freely play golf.
And maybe it's fourth, the long part.
Four along the ocean with the hazard on the left, I pulled my drive left in the hazard and it was just kind of like a sail out of your you know, wind out of your sales kind of moment where I'm like, oh no, here we go, Like I got to try to scrap this together and started hitting it better, kind of started loosening it up.
In about whole nine.
I started hitting some really good shots and it started to kind of loosen me up a little bit. But I started just hitting really good shots on the back nine, like I was, started playing really good. I think I birdied fourteen. I hit a three wood to the middle of the green from like two seventy, just launched a three wood way up there. I made birdie on that hole.
I three foot of the fourteenth hole, and I had to make bertie. I had to make bertie.
You know. As we entered the back nine, it sure looked like Seth had had kind of his tournament was over.
I was kind of like, I don't want to say giving up, but I was basically throwing in the towel. It was over. It was pretty I would have to burdy out to win.
He was hanging in there, but he was several shots off the lead. I knew from talking with him earlier in the week that he had kind of been struck. He said he'd been struggling with the weather. As we mentioned, he's not as young as he was when he first won in five uh. He admitted to kind of having a stiff back and that, and because we were playing in the morning, he was having admitted to it's just taking me forever to get loose.
From the beginning of a round all the way up to especially that fourteenth hole. I just didn't feel like I had the firepower to pull it off.
And then he birdied that hole.
I made a good birdie on fifteen. I hit the drive right on the middle of the fairway, hit the green and made a nice pott. The greens were so slick.
And then he had a few pars coming in and Tanner tripped up a few times, and suddenly this four or five shot lead was down to a shot.
I hit a couple really close on the back nine, and I just kept burning edges. I burned like three edges with birdie putts that were right there. Hit really good putts. I thought I made him, and it just hit the lip and kind of roll away, and I'm like, oh man, And.
Then I get to seventeen and seventeen t shot just doesn't fit my eye. I don't see how it fits anyone's eye. And I build out to the right and I was in the thick rough and I had an impossible shot. I think I had one thirty or one thirty five to the flag. And I had no chance to holding the green.
I knew it.
So my goal is just to try to hit it and then bounce it and end up in the back of the green somewhere and have a chance to get up and down. So I hit a great shot and hits the green and rolls down to probably like fifty feet or so. I hit a great first part and I hit it to about ten feet and I made the ten footer, and it was just it was clutch at the moment because Tanner was struggling a little bit.
I made a bad bogie on seventeen and just kind of I don't know, I think I hit it in a bunker or wanted something like that around the green, just didn't get up and down and kind of left myself like a twelve footer and missed it for bogie.
You know. I figured then I might actually have a chance walking eighteen t I had to make birdie. I knew it. So I hit a great drive. It curves a little bit to the right, it ends up in the right fairway bunker. So for a second I was like, Okay, I'm kind of relieved because now I'll have to go for it. So I laid up out of the bunker to one hundred and ten yards something like that. One
hundred and seven yards I think it was. And it was like the storyline Finish Tory Pines eighteen front left pin location, and I knew I had about one hundred and twenty yards to get on top. Well, I couldn't hit it that far because it get stuck up there. So I hit a full gap wedge It's about my one p fifteen club and it hit perfectly and came back down to a foot and a half and it was like in slow motion how it was all happening. It was I'll never forget it for the rest of
my life. It was one of the best shots I've ever hit.
And then I knew I had a chance on eighteen and just kind of was a little frustrated with how seventeen went and just carried it on eighteen and I think I parved eighteen when if I made a birdie it would have kind of won me the golf tournament. So it was kind of, you know, frustrating the playoff.
You guys played the eighteenth hole again, right, so just take me tee to green through that playoff.
What happened there, so playoff hole. I knew.
I just I needed to hit a good drive. Really is what it came down to. It was just like, Okay, hit a good drive. I think the first time we played eighteen, I kind of pulled it left and it rolled through one of the bunkers and I was on kind of a weird upslope in the rough. So I'm like, okay, just hit in the fairway. The hole's not playing that long today, and I just bombed my drive way down there, and I'm like, okay, that's a good start.
I hit a great drug down the middle of this time. Perfect Tanner is much longer than I am. Tanner hit the ball probably thirty or forty yards by me, so I knew Tanner was in the go zone. He was definitely going to go for it. He had a short probably a mid iron in his hand, seven or six iron. I had two of five to cover.
He felt like he could reach the green. And I'm sure most listeners are familiar with the eighteenth The only body of water other than the giant ocean off the cliff is right in front of that eighteenth green, So that takes some gumption.
I mean, I could definitely do it, but I was afraid I was going to end up in the water, so I took the extra hybrid and I hit it to the back of the green and it was basically where the John romputt was whenever he made that long putt, same exact spot. That's where I hit my second shot too.
That was as fine a shot as I've ever seen, single shot as I've ever seen hit in that tournament, especially considering the circumstances.
It was a great shot. Was just flush, perfectly straight. It was incredible, and.
I'm like, Okay, he's up there in two. You know, he's probably got two put locked up. I need to make sure I make a birdie to keep it going. And I had a perfect six iron Number one eighty five was like perfect six iron, and I was super nervous, like really really nervous, and I'm like, okay, here you go. Go through my routine.
I do this.
It's an eight second count thing. Once my left foot starts walking towards the golf ball from me standing behind it, I count eight seconds until I hit the ball. So went through my whole thing and just flushed it. And I'm like, oh my god.
I just hit the best golf shot I've ever hit in my life.
I thought he hit a perfect golf shot. I thought it was over. I thought he was gonna be.
A foot it's just dead on the pin and.
Kind of got held up in the air for a second, I don't know how.
And it came up a couple of yards short in the water on eighteen at Tory Pines.
I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. Whenever he first hit it, I was like, well, great shot. You know, kid deserves it. He did a great shot, but I couldn't believe whatever happened.
It was a tough pill to swallow. Should I probably hit the five iron, yes, but I was going for the jugular. I wanted to hit it close. When it came up short, I was kind of shocked. I was like, oh man, I thought that was perfect.
And at that point that was pretty much game, set and match.
Whenever the ball in the water, it was like the only time I felt relief, like during the whole entire tournament, because I didn't feel like I was hitting them all very well. I felt like stressed. And then right then I was like, well, you know, I think I can kind of relax on a little bit. Winning number five it felt really good. I feel like out of all the national championships I won that, I feel like this one was. I don't know if I feel like I deserved it in a way or I just I felt
like Tanner deserved it. I didn't feel like I played super well, but in the end, I mean, I look back, I birdied fifteen, eighteen and eighteen again, but I just didn't see it unfolding that way. I didn't see it happening. But you never know in golf.
So are you planning to play in Orlando this year? I assume you are, since it's almost a home game for you, But are you planning to play? And how's your game feeling right now?
Yeah, so I'm playing. I'm definitely playing. The game feels good. So for me, this is what I look at it this way. I'm glad I don't do it for a living, because if I was playing golf for a living, it would probably drive me crazy. So I'm gonna go out there and play and do the best I can, and I look at whatever happens happened.
Yeah, I'm I'm I'm going to Orlando. I need I need some redemption after last year.
All Right, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
All Right, thank you absolutely, yep.
I appreciate it. Garrett, thanks for the interest.
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