Episode 139: Carl Michael

In Episode 139 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, we sit down with Carl Michael, Equipment Manager at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, FL. Growing up in the turf industry, Carl's journey began when his family bought a golf course in foreclosure, teaching themselves the business from the ground up. After completing a two-year ag and mechanics program followed by a turfgrass degree at Penn State and working as a superintendent at his family’s course, he eventually transitioned to the equipment side in Florida.

Carl shares the unique challenges of maintaining equipment during the club’s annual one-month closure, the shift in mindset from agronomics to equipment, and the importance of a solid foundation in cutting units. He also reflects on his love for working on the course, spending time at the ball field, and perfecting his skills on the pellet grill. We discuss the importance of exposing young people to the golf course mechanic profession and the rewarding career opportunities it offers. Tune in for a conversation about turf equipment management, industry challenges, and a shared love for the 90-degree ¼-inch Snap-on ratchet!

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Transcript

Trent Manning 0:56

Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm your host, Trent. Manning let's have some this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company's line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to The Real Turf Text Podcast, episode 1 39. Today we're talking to Carl Michael, equipment Manager at Concession Golf Club in Bradington, Florida. Concession Golf Club is a private 18 hole facility with a nine hole par three course. Carl has one assistant in the shop. He's primarily Toro Equipment. Let's talk to Carl. Welcome Carl to podcast. Thanks for coming on. How are you doing today?

Carl Michael 2:30

Ah, doing great. Thanks for having me.

Trent Manning 2:32

It's it's going to be fun.

Carl Michael 2:34

Yeah, looking forward to it.

Trent Manning 2:36

Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Carl Michael 2:38

So pretty much I was born into it. My dad and grandfather, a year before I was born they had a steel fabrication business up in Detroit area. We're looking to get out of that, and somebody told them there was a golf course and foreclosure sale down in Pennsylvania, so They came down, made an offer, and won the bid. So, yeah, essentially they came down and decided or figured out they had to learn how to grow grass, and I was born a year later on the golf course, and grew up pretty much knowing nothing but that, so,

Trent Manning 3:14

Okay. Wow. That's definitely a different path than a lot of us get here.

Carl Michael 3:19

Yeah, I would

Trent Manning 3:19

Get here. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So walk me through what all. What'd you do as a kid and on growing up on a golf course and

Carl Michael 3:29

I kid, I was, kid I was always out playing on the course I mean, grew up messing around on golf carts all the time. Yeah, I don't know, probably 10 years old. I'm not sure, probably frowned upon nowadays, but I was the cart kid, washing carts over at the pro shop and and probably 12 years old. I think a couple of the guys out on the maintenance crew I went out to golf with them and they said, quit doing that sissy stuff, come out here and work on the course with us. So I think around 12, I started doing sand traps and everything kind of progressed from there.

Trent Manning 4:01

​how'd you end up getting into the shop do out in the shop or

Carl Michael 4:07

well, no, I'm more or less I started working with mechanic out there. I mean, probably by the age of 15, I knew how to run everything from greens, mower, fairway, mower. God, we had a great all in our property and I knew how to run that thing. So, I mean, yeah, just kind of worked coming up with working out on the course and everything with my dad and the mechanic and the rest of the grounds crew trying to. Learned everything I could about the course, and then my dad kind of had a grand plan of everything. So for college, he sent me to the two year, I guess, turfgrass mechanics program that they had up there.

Trent Manning 4:48

Was that at?

Carl Michael 4:49

Penn State.

Trent Manning 4:50

Okay. All right.

Carl Michael 4:51

Yeah, it didn't last real long, unfortunately. It was a very good program, but It was a turf and ag thing, covered a little bit of both sides, but two year certificate program. And then I followed up with the two year turf grass program after that.

Trent Manning 5:06

Okay,

Carl Michael 5:07

So, he pretty much wanted me to come through and be able to, I don't know, look at any aspect of the business. know what to do with it. So,

Trent Manning 5:15

right, right, right, right So how did you get from there to where you're at now?

Carl Michael 5:22

So pretty much after I graduated the turf grass program, I was the superintendent there at my dad's course for about 10 years. I don't know, it started getting a little rough and was looking for a change of scenery. So, I don't know, my wife and I have always loved Florida. So, got a assistant superintendent position job down in Fort Myers at the Forest Country Club. Was there for two years and then COVID hit and, I don't know, dealing with the country club. It wasn't so much my cup of tea with all the greens committee boards and stuff like that. So after COVID hit my dad was struggling keeping the place afloat up there. So we decided to pack up shop and head back to Pennsylvania to. Help him kind of keep everything going.

Trent Manning 6:12

Okay. So, so you still got everything going?

Carl Michael 6:15

yeah. He still got everything going. Yeah, he was actually, whenever I came back down here the second time, he was in the process of talking about selling the place and I don't know, it wasn't so much that I wanted to take over and run the whole place. I kind of put myself in a position where I was definitely over working myself and Have a good work home life essentially. So, yeah, it got offered well. Yeah, I was trying to get back down here for probably a year and then talked to one of my old fertilizer reps down here And he said have you ever thought about turning wrenches? Yeah I do have kind of a background of that as well. And he said I know somebody It's probably gonna be looking for somebody soon. So I Got the phone call from him and came back down Well, this will be the beginning of my third season here, so

Trent Manning 7:08

Oh, nice. Awesome. So you're enjoying it. I'll take it.

Carl Michael 7:14

yeah, it definitely was an interesting change of pace from Don't know, worrying solely about the grass all the time to I don't know, back to working in the shop and kind of trying to fine tune all the mowers and reteach myself all the stuff that I've kind of forgot about over the last couple of years, but

Trent Manning 7:32

Yeah, no, that's good though. And I think it's exciting to,

Carl Michael 7:36

yeah, it's,

Trent Manning 7:36

learn and new

Carl Michael 7:37

Exciting new New path to be on, I guess I would say Much worried about fertilizer and all the other stuff, but trying to dive in and learn as much as I can about cutting units and all this other, everything else to go along with it.

Trent Manning 7:51

Yeah. To go back to the way you and I met, I don't even remember. Did I reach out to you or you reach out to me on Twitter?

Carl Michael 8:01

you reached out to me. It was, I want to say it was shortly after your podcast with Robert Smith from Marion.

Trent Manning 8:10

Okay.

Carl Michael 8:10

I grew up with him and he worked at my family's golf course. So we've known each other pretty much our home, our whole life. So. Yeah, kind of interesting. Both of us ended up Text that golf courses, but

Trent Manning 8:23

Yeah.

Carl Michael 8:24

but yeah, it was shortly after that, I think you were coming down to meet up with skip and then I came over to the East coast where you we're at Chris's place.

Trent Manning 8:32

Yeah. Yeah. Johnson. Yeah. In September the South Florida, whatever the group with Hass and all awesome guys down

Carl Michael 8:42

They've got a good group over there.

Trent Manning 8:43

Yeah. Really good group. Yeah I'm envious that they meet like every Friday or every other Friday to talk shop and have some food and, you know, they meet for lunch on Friday and don't know. I think it's very cool. But yeah, so you got to come out to that too. Is first time kind of out?

Carl Michael 9:04

yeah, meeting some other kind of techs in the industry Went to a couple events around here, but it seems like it's primarily superintendents that show up to them, so, Yeah, need to start reaching out and try to get in touch with some more guys in the area and kind of build that networking, but Yeah, I've been so busy trying to re teach myself, it's been It's been a little hectic lately.

Trent Manning 9:23

Right. There's only so much time in the day

Carl Michael 9:26

Yeah. Yep.

Trent Manning 9:28

to get all that stuff done. Well, what's your least favorite part of the job?

Carl Michael 9:35

Least favorite part I would probably have to say is the one month of closure we have in the summertime. It's not that I hate it. I I know it from the agronomics side where I know everything that needs done and completely understand it, but it's like we rent so many different pieces of equipment and we're always changing mowing heights and it's something new almost every day. And it's just like a constant battle of what's going to break down next for a month straight. And it's yeah, if I had to pick something that would probably probably be a, cause it's, yeah, go in, just waiting for the first call. Yeah, this is not working anymore. And it's usually machines that I've never never worked on before. They just show up a week before. And Like, all right, what what did this guy do?

Trent Manning 10:23

Right, right, right. Yeah, this When does that start? Is it

Carl Michael 10:28

It's typically, I think this year it's the whole month of January.

Trent Manning 10:34

Oh, okay.

Carl Michael 10:35

yeah, so we've split it up in years past, but I think we have like four or five weeks straight this year. So,

Trent Manning 10:41

Oh, all right.

Carl Michael 10:42

finally got it combined together where we don't have to kind of bounce verification back and forth. We can just do everything straight through and not have to worry about opening back up for play again.

Trent Manning 10:52

Okay. So you got all that behind you for this. year. Nice.

Carl Michael 10:57

yes, behind us and coming up in a couple more months.

Trent Manning 11:02

Okay. Do it. Do, it again. Yeah, that's why I was thinking a lot of the courses close in the summertime

Carl Michael 11:10

Yeah. Yeah. So we're July. Did I say January?

Trent Manning 11:13

Yeah, you said

Carl Michael 11:13

Oh, I'm sorry. I meant July.

Trent Manning 11:16

Okay, alright. Yeah, nah, it's all good.

Carl Michael 11:19

Yeah. July. So yeah. Whole month of July for about four or five weeks. And yeah. Then open back up right before all the snowbirds come down again.

Trent Manning 11:28

Yeah. When I was down there in September, a lot of them were, yeah, getting ready to start the season. And I don't, I mean, that just kind of blew my mind because it's the exact opposite and I'm only, you know, I'm not that much further north than y'all are,

Carl Michael 11:43

Yeah. It's

Trent Manning 11:44

Far enough. Yes,

Carl Michael 11:46

where you still get to enjoy the seasons.

Trent Manning 11:48

Yep. Yeah. I keep hearing about Florida. There's two seasons. It's hot and really hot. Or if you want to put some X clip in there, you could.

Carl Michael 12:00

Yes, it gets very hot. And yeah, don't mind it too much, but man, it seems like it lasts once it gets here.

Trent Manning 12:07

Well, what is your favorite tool?

Carl Michael 12:10

Favorite tool I would have to say is 90 degree quarter inch snap on ratchet that I got

Trent Manning 12:18

Oh, yeah. huh.

Carl Michael 12:20

I don't know why, but it seems like almost every day of the week I'm using that thing for something. It's so handy. And yeah. First thing I bought off the snap on truck when he came in and it's kind of became my little little baby.

Trent Manning 12:30

Nice. Yeah. No, I have one, and I absolutely love it. It one of my favorite tools, for sure. And I use it a lot taking DPAs apart. So Spin out the pivot bolts.

Carl Michael 12:44

It works perfect for that.

Trent Manning 12:46

Yeah. Quick and easy and just zip'em right out don't tell anybody. But I install'em with that thing too.

Carl Michael 12:54

Ooh. Okay. I still do it by hand, but

Trent Manning 12:57

Yep. I'm I like, I live on the edge.

Carl Michael 12:59

I gotcha.

Trent Manning 13:00

like pushing the envelope yeah. I, you know, I don't know. I'm not going to say, you know, I would never say there's anything wrong with torquing it, but I don't, you know, I hadn't seen a need to do that. Yeah,

Carl Michael 13:15

much power where I think you're going to over torque it or strip anything out. So it's probably almost the perfect tool for if you're going to power it in, go

Trent Manning 13:21

Yep. Yep. I'm one of those, yeah, do as I

Carl Michael 13:27

Not as I do. Yep I understand that one

Trent Manning 13:30

Yep. I don't, but there is, I do think there's some, you know, some stuff you learn over the years with experience on being able to feather the trigger, you know, and you don't down and yeah there, there's something to that.

Carl Michael 13:46

Yeah, I agree.

Trent Manning 13:47

you were talking about your work life balance. What do you do to relax and find your balance?

Carl Michael 13:56

Right now, I am struggling trying to do that. My son is in two baseball leagues right now, so it seems like five or six days a week we're at the baseball field. I don't know. I enjoy golfing. I try to get out whenever I can. It's just yeah, probably the last thing I want to do whenever I leave the shop is go out and look at the golf course again. And I still kind of have that superintendent mentality where I'm looking at everything that's wrong out on the property. And Don't really enjoy myself too much, but I don't know living so close to the water as we do down here I've got five fishing poles in the garage and I keep telling myself I need to grab one of them and get out there and try to put that back into my Weekend routine or something like that. But aside from that My weekend's off. I'm a big pellet grill smoker guy So

Trent Manning 14:46

Oh,

Carl Michael 14:47

typically have that thing running non stop on the four or five days a weekend or a week.

Trent Manning 14:52

Okay. Yeah. That's sweet. Yeah, like, you got any specialties or anything? Your favorite ones to do?

Carl Michael 14:59

Honestly, my favorite one. I picked it up from one of those Brazilian steakhouses. The picanha it's a top sirloin cap. It's a top sirloin, but it still has a big fat cap on the top of it, but you can slow mo slow smoke that thing. Probably three or four hours. Man, one of the juiciest pieces of meat you'll ever get and really cheap as well to cook. So you can pick the thing up for 30 bucks and feed probably six or seven people.

Trent Manning 15:25

Oh, nice. Yeah.

Carl Michael 15:26

That's probably one of my favorites, but,

Trent Manning 15:29

Okay. Yeah. No, that's a good one. Have you heard of Malcolm Reed?

Carl Michael 15:33

I have not.

Trent Manning 15:35

All right check out how to barbecue right dot com. All right. And so Malcolm Reed, he's a, he was, I guess, still is a competition barbecue guy. And he's become really famous over the years. A friend of mine turned me on to him. It was probably seven, eight years ago now. but anyway, he's got some really good recipes. And, you know, he's got YouTube videos, and he sells his own rubs, and you know, all stuff too. But yeah, no, it's He's, he is my go to if I'm gonna cook pretty much any kind of meat. I check out his recipe first.

Carl Michael 16:15

Yeah. My guy's usually you know, Matt Pittman, he has the meat church,

Trent Manning 16:20

No yeah

Carl Michael 16:21

yeah, he's always kind of my go to for seasonings and recipes and stuff like that, but yeah, I'll have to check out Malcolm, see see what he's got to offer.

Trent Manning 16:28

Yeah, I've been smoking a turkey for I don't like the last seven years probably

Carl Michael 16:34

Okay,

Trent Manning 16:36

It's Malcolm Reed's recipe, you know, LeBron and you know everything

Carl Michael 16:41

all right, do you spatchcock or do you cook it whole?

Trent Manning 16:43

Now I've been cooking at home.

Carl Michael 16:45

Okay, I've I've started spatchcocking in the last two or three years and man, is it comes out so nice and even the whole way across.

Trent Manning 16:52

Want to do that, but I can't pronounce it it's like I could How could I do that if I can't even

Carl Michael 17:00

I, I understand.

Trent Manning 17:02

So that's where I'm at. Well, what's been one of your biggest challenges?

Carl Michael 17:09

I would say probably, well, two. I mean, just the transition from being a superintendent for so long, switching back to the technician side of everything. It's definitely been a little bit of a learning curve and weird when I first started, not running out to grab a hose when it's 100 degrees out and go syringe greens and stuff, but but yeah, now that I've kind of got that tamed down and focused majority of my time in the shop and focusing on machines I would say the transition between like cool season and warm season grass is

Trent Manning 17:40

Oh yeah.

Carl Michael 17:41

yeah, I used to help the mechanic in my dad's shop set up all the mowers and stuff like that and do the grinding and stuff up there as well, so. I mean, we would grind everything in the winter and then maybe have to hit it once or twice during the season and really don't have to worry much more about that, but got 365 down here. It has been one heck of a learning curve trying to, I don't know, schedule everything and. Keep on top of everything and figuring out how soon it needs reground or I don't know, just the general preventative maintenance on stuff. Cause I mean, every machine's going out almost every other day. Those hours man, do they rack up quick, but yeah, I would say that's probably been the biggest difficulty with the transition between everything is trying to kind of set some type of program up where I can kind of settle up where I know when things need sharpened. And of course, then we go out and do a heavy top dressing and it throws a big wrench in everything. So.

Trent Manning 18:45

Right, right, right, right. Yeah, no it's it's a grind literally. Right. It's a grind. Keeping it all going. Do you have help in the shop?

Carl Michael 18:53

Yeah. Have have another mechanic in there with me. I'm actually very fortunate. He was the original technician here when the golf course opened back in 2006 and we still connected. Oh, there we go.

Trent Manning 19:06

Yeah, we had a little glitch there.

Carl Michael 19:08

Okay. But yeah, he was the original technician. He was here for 20 years and then left for a year to go with the previous superintendent up to the new course. He took over up the road Tired of making the drive and, When we had an opening, he he came back. So he's been kind of teaching me all the tips and tricks that he's learned over the last 20 years at the property. And he's got all the background knowledge of everything and pretty much

Trent Manning 19:36

that's super

Carl Michael 19:37

yeah, almost an identical fleet since they opened up. So he's a lot more familiar with a lot of the machines and I've been, so.

Trent Manning 19:44

No, that's awesome.

Carl Michael 19:45

Yeah, it's been great working with him. So

Trent Manning 19:48

Well, it kind of leads us into, do you have a mentor in the industry? Is he helping mentor you a little bit?

Carl Michael 19:54

Yeah, I would say he's definitely helping mentor me in this portion of it I mean prior to that I would say my dad and The mechanic that was at his golf course he was, he's probably one of the brightest guys I've ever met. I mean, he looks at something and I don't know, he'll figure it out within a week or figure out an easier way to do it. Think when I first started grinding reels, I liked 14 or 15. We had one of the original Foley grinders, the old ones on the stands where you had to hand crank everything back and forth.

Trent Manning 20:28

Yeah. Okay.

Carl Michael 20:29

I forget how old the thing was, but within one season he had relays hooked up on that with different cables and some type of weight system where it would automatically drop down to the next reel. And

Trent Manning 20:40

Oh, wow. so cool.

Carl Michael 20:42

I'm not staying here all winter grinding reels. And he came up with that. It was and now that I look back on it, I'm like, man, that, that was way before it's time.

Trent Manning 20:51

No, that is awesome. Yeah very cool.

Carl Michael 20:53

Yeah, I'd say, I don't know, between my dad and him, they've probably been the best through my youth kind of teaching me my work ethic and all the basics that I've learned. But Yeah, Gene's been definitely a great help lately helping with the transition at more of a high end club where Things are a little bit more particular and fine tuned man.

Trent Manning 21:15

yep. No, that's good stuff. What's the strangest thing you've seen? Ha,

Carl Michael 21:22

That's a loaded question there. I mean,

Trent Manning 21:24

ha. We got plenty of

Carl Michael 21:26

yeah, I've seen a bunch over the years. I mean, my dad's course was right. The river wrapped the entire way around the property. So about every two or three years, there'd be a major flood across it. So, I mean, I remember the one year there being. Three or four pepsi machines floating down the 6th fairway from the baseball fields five miles up the road that flooded.

Trent Manning 21:48

That is cool. Or not cool, I guess,

Carl Michael 21:51

​yeah, it all depends.

Trent Manning 21:53

Yeah, something you don't see every day for

Carl Michael 21:55

no, I definitely don't see that every day, but I mean, aside from sand pros floating in ponds or actually I had, what was it, the rough mower up at my dad's place. He was notorious for breaking about everything he touched. But I remember looking across the property the one day and all I could see was the biggest cloud of smoke possibly coming off the top of that thing. I went running up there. He was on an old 580D. He

Trent Manning 22:24

Oh,

Carl Michael 22:25

over, yeah, ran over a giant giant limb, had two of the blades locked up, smoking the belt like crazy. And somehow busted the fuel line that was shooting straight on the on the exhaust so there was just smoke rolling everywhere and he had not a clue whatsoever that anything was wrong just out there cruising along thinking he's mowing grass while half the mowers about ready to catch on fire

Trent Manning 22:49

Well, I'm sorry to ask this, but is your dad that guy? No. Okay. All right. All

Carl Michael 22:56

usually pretty good on most machines if he does break it he'll be the one to fix it

Trent Manning 23:01

Okay. All right. That's all

Carl Michael 23:02

he's the guy he's had Moe and Ruff for him for the last five years man, he he is I guess Murphy's Law. As soon as he touches it, something's gonna break.

Trent Manning 23:10

Yep. I don't know. And I don't think it's, you know, an intentional, just some people have really bad luck when

Carl Michael 23:18

Yeah, they have a way of making stuff stuff happen.

Trent Manning 23:21

Yep. Well, what would be your dream job or opportunity?

Carl Michael 23:27

I'm really not sure at this point right now. I mean, I'm extremely happy at The place I'm at now I talked to my wife years ago. If I would ever try something different, I always thought about maybe doing something out on the water related, like, I don't know, I'm not a good fisherman, but maybe running, I don't know, sightseeing cruise or something like that, I'd. I don't know, I've always enjoyed being out boating and stuff like that but now, as of right now I'm really loving the position I'm in, and I don't know, it's a good new adventure to be on, and I'm kind of looking forward to see where it

Trent Manning 24:00

Well, I think you got in at a good time because,

Carl Michael 24:04

so. It it seemed like a good time to make a transition if something was going to happen.

Trent Manning 24:09

Yeah, and I don't, I mean, you know, the more I do this and interview and different people, I just keep hearing more and more stories about people coming from the superintendent side over to the mechanic side and why not,

Carl Michael 24:22

Yeah, I mean, it's I don't know. It seems like a better balance for me. And I don't know. I'm not having nightmares about the grass 24 7 like I used to. Or more or less, I don't know, a nightmare about a hydraulic line. But

Trent Manning 24:34

but right

Carl Michael 24:34

that's an easier one to check than yeah, something else like that. But no, I'm pretty happy with the change. Yep.

Trent Manning 24:42

when I had David flowers on, he said that, you know, superintendent has to look at the grass and say, okay, I think it's this, I'm going to spray that. And then I'm going to give it seven days and see what it looks like. You know, at least with a hydraulic line, you can say, okay, this line is busted. I'm going to replace that line and then go about your day.

Carl Michael 25:03

Yeah, until it comes to some crazy electrical thing, it's a lot easier to diagnose.

Trent Manning 25:08

For sure. Do you have a technician you would like to work with for a day?

Carl Michael 25:13

I don't know. I mean, after meeting some of those guys over on the east coast I probably wouldn't mind going over and maybe spending a day with Haas or Chris or somebody over there.

Trent Manning 25:21

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Carl Michael 25:22

Yeah, it seems like they're all pretty good guys. I do, I am lucky enough. Robert Smith has some family down here in this area. So about every other year they come on a vacation down here and he usually gets bored and asks if he can come by the shop for a day or something like

Trent Manning 25:36

Oh, nice.

Carl Michael 25:37

Nice picking his brain about different stuff. Cause even though we worked together for, I don't know, six, seven years, something like that, it's, he jumped straight into the technician side of things and the amount of stuff he's picked up over the years versus Where we kind of separated it just baffles me of yeah all the stuff. He's kind of picked up. So

Trent Manning 25:57

No, that's cool. That's super cool. Yeah, I don't, I was talking to somebody. Trying to remember who it was. Maybe Mike Elliott. But they were talking about Robert. milling his own bed bars. Like he had a milling machine and

Carl Michael 26:14

Yeah, he's got a milling machine up there and Yeah, we've went over a couple different stuff and it's very interesting some of the stuff he gets into

Trent Manning 26:21

Yeah, no, that's cool. That's you know, with this job, if, and don't get me wrong, I was guilty of one in my younger years. I got bored with it. But it was cause I was young and I didn't know better, but there's no reason to ever get bored

Carl Michael 26:39

Now there's so many different things you can do and come up with it's

Trent Manning 26:42

you can go all kind of different directions.

Carl Michael 26:45

yeah, get bored. Try to make something

Trent Manning 26:47

Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, what do you know now? You wish you'd known on day one. Yeah,

Carl Michael 26:58

college years, I wish I would've been a little bit more studious. Definitely once I got away from the home life and got some freedom up at college, I probably wasn't the best student and took advantage of a lot of good education that was right there in front of me. So. Yeah I would say that's probably the biggest thing I wish if I could do it over again pay a lot more attention and, I don't know, pick up a lot of the little things that you kind of take for granted that's right in front of you and you don't realize you're gonna need it down the road. Yeah.

Trent Manning 27:29

Just all part of growing up, I

Carl Michael 27:31

Oh,

Trent Manning 27:31

yeah, there's Maybe not everybody's guilty of that, but I definitely know was guilty of it too.

Carl Michael 27:37

yep.

Trent Manning 27:39

Yeah it's tough for sure. Well, do you have that person on your crew? How do you deal with that person?

Carl Michael 27:46

I do, and I'm still trying to figure that out.

Trent Manning 27:52

Okay.

Carl Michael 27:54

I mean, I, typically I go in every morning, open up the shop, and I try to be real formal with all the guys, get to know them on a, I don't know, a pretty good basis where they're all real friendly and not afraid to come over to the mechanics side if there's a, if there's an issue with something, but But yeah, I can, you can typically tell kind of by the personality of which one's going to be up front with you and you know, they're going to kind of take care of the equipment and the other ones that just yeah, you wait for the next thing to break down. And I'd still, I don't know. I've always kind of had the three strike rule, but I don't know. It's, everything's a little bit different. I mean, from up north, yeah, it was it's a whole different kind of, I don't know, environment than down here, so, yeah, 90 percent of our crew all speak Spanish, so it's a little harder to say don't do that or try to teach them the right way to do it, but usually whenever they come in and there's an issue with something, I try to go over everything, tell them what the issue might be, but yeah, I don't know there's always that one guy that you can't quite figure out how to get through to him sometimes.

Trent Manning 29:04

yeah, and I don't, yeah, I don't know

Carl Michael 29:06

I don't know what the correct answer is for that, but

Trent Manning 29:08

yeah, no, I don't, I got, I think it depends on the situation and the person or persons that are involved. Yeah. With the what the correct answer is, or if there even is a correct answer, I don't know.

Carl Michael 29:23

Yeah I'm not quite sure, but I, if somebody finds the the golden golden rule of how to do it please let me know.

Trent Manning 29:30

Yeah. Well, I do remember this story about training and I do think a lot of it does go back to individuals not being trained properly, you know, from the get go And I mean, we're all guilty of it, you know, and I talk about training a lot and, you know, we don't train very much,

Carl Michael 29:52

yeah, I agree. It's,

Trent Manning 29:53

talk about it, everybody knows you need to do it and then you don't, but.

Carl Michael 29:57

yeah, show up once you learn the golf course. All right, here's a mower. Go try this. Yeah. Training, I think is definitely probably one of the biggest biggest things, but. Yeah, it's such a fast paced environment. It's a little tricky to make sure you stay on top of that and train and retrain as much as you can.

Trent Manning 30:14

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's a challenge for sure. Get ready for tips and tricks. Well, what kind of tips and tricks you got you want to share with us?

Carl Michael 30:26

I have one. I don't know if anybody's ever said it before, how much science there is behind this. I had a salesman tell me this years ago, but after you put down or after you plan on doing a top dressing, spray your wedding agent right behind it. I don't know if you've ever noticed in the past after you do your wetting agent, you typically don't have any dew formation for the next couple days on your greens. I don't know, the guy told me if you spray wetting agent on top of it, it takes the positive charge off of the sand particles. And your mowers won't pick it up nearly as much the next day. So I, I don't know if there's any truth to that, but I've been trying that for the last couple of years and from doing it to not doing it, it seems like there's a pretty substantial difference how much sand to pick up the following day versus not doing that.

Trent Manning 31:17

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. We do the same thing here and I don't know. I think somebody did do research on it, but I don't know where the research is.

Carl Michael 31:29

An old superintendent that I've known for, or he's been in the industry for like 30, 40 years. I said that to him a couple of years ago. And. He thought it was the greatest thing he's ever heard.

Trent Manning 31:38

I really, okay.

Carl Michael 31:40

Like, maybe other people don't know about this.

Trent Manning 31:42

No, that's cool. I mean, yeah And it's funny. Yeah. Everybody listening to the podcast is going to go to their superintendent and say, all right, now we're swearing wedding agent. Whenever we top dress, See how that goes over. But yeah, leave us some comments or send me an email. Let me know if you're doing that at your course and if it's helping you out. No, that's good stuff.

Carl Michael 32:05

Yeah, that's that's about the only tip or trick I could really really think of.

Trent Manning 32:09

Okay. Yeah, no, that's a good one. Well, let's talk about the first shot program instead of the first tee. It's going to be the first shot. Yeah, you sent me under in our email correspondence back and forth. We were we were talking about this a little bit and you were asking if GCSA does anything.

Carl Michael 32:29

Yeah.

Trent Manning 32:30

the question?

Carl Michael 32:31

Well, it was more or less, I know within the last couple of years, GCSA has started the first green program to try to bring more, I guess, younger people into the superintendent side of the business and everything like that. But I didn't know if there had been any talk or anything of that nature of maybe doing like, offset thing of like the first shop program where I don't know, maybe you take the kids from the Votex or ones that are in the automotive. or something like that and take them over to the shop for a day and show them what we do on our side. It's, I don't know, a different way to maybe try to bring some more youth into this this side of the business.

Trent Manning 33:11

Yeah, I think it's an excellent idea. I think they're maybe doing a little something with the first screen, you know, with some mechanics or not, you know, some mechanics, but a mechanic you know, have like a little set up. they're touring around, you know, the maintenance facility. But I've just heard talk about it. I don't know any

Carl Michael 33:35

okay. Yeah, I think it'd definitely be a,

Trent Manning 33:37

details. Yeah,

Carl Michael 33:41

hour hour something add on. You could probably easily do a shop walkthrough, show my grind reels, and work on different mowers and stuff like that, instead of I don't know, doing PERT tests and learning how a stint meter works. But,

Trent Manning 33:54

yeah.

Carl Michael 33:54

yeah, just I don't know, might be a different alternative since seems like, GCSA's starting to, I don't know, push a lot more stuff with the equipment manager side of things now. So.

Trent Manning 34:09

Well, we got a new executive director here in Georgia, Tim Busick, and he sent me a text the other day, and I don't know, it's one of the local high schools around here. That he's working with and they're going to try to get a technician mechanic thing started. And he was talking to me and a couple other guys about maybe going over there and talking to some students. you know, as part of, I think it's part of the shop class, you know, like an automotive type class, you know, and talking to those students. I know personally around. My area here, you know, used like when I was in high school, all the high schools in my county had an automotive class And construction class and all that stuff. And now same county there, I think there's only one high school out of six high schools offer that. And, yeah, I mean, Atlanta keeps getting bigger and, you know, people are not as interested in that

Carl Michael 35:17

it's kind of the same thing down here. It keeps growing and growing, and yeah, we've just been going through middle school with my son, and yeah, everything's more computer based now, and not so much I don't know, I think when I was in 8th, 9th grade, I had the full option to go work, on engines and stuff all the time or work in the But yeah, it's not so much. So much of a thing anymore. It doesn't seem like

Trent Manning 35:38

No, it doesn't. I do think a lot of the education for young people, you know, everybody wants to push them to college.

Carl Michael 35:47

yeah college and

Trent Manning 35:49

you know, and there's nothing wrong with going to college, but, There's only about 25 percent of the jobs you need a college degree for

Carl Michael 35:58

at some point you still need the the hands on people doing all the the work out there.

Trent Manning 36:03

right? Well, I mean, it's just like, caddy shacks is the world needs ditch diggers too. And you know, I mean, nobody wants to do it, but it is the truth.

Carl Michael 36:11

Yeah, I agree completely.

Trent Manning 36:14

Yup. Anything else you want to talk about anything else on your mind?

Carl Michael 36:20

I mean, no, nothing I can really think of off the top of my head.

Trent Manning 36:24

Okay. Well, let's do some rapid fire.

Carl Michael 36:27

All right, sounds good.

Trent Manning 36:33

What's your favorite movie?

Carl Michael 36:36

I would have to say the Boondock Saints.

Trent Manning 36:38

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a good

Carl Michael 36:40

it's been one of my go tos whenever I'm looking for something to rewatch again. And yeah, it just, it's got a little good mix of everything. The action, good storyline, some comedy in the middle of

Trent Manning 36:52

Okay. Yeah. No, that's good. And you said rewatch and it made me think have you ever listened to the podcast rewatchables?

Carl Michael 37:00

I have not.

Trent Manning 37:01

It's a really good podcast and that's what they do. They go over different movies, mean, all the classic movies are in there and really get deep dive into the movies. Cool podcast.

Carl Michael 37:13

to check that out.

Trent Manning 37:14

What would be your last meal?

Carl Michael 37:16

I would have to say probably a tomahawk steak. Smothered in mushrooms and onions. You know, side of asparagus or brussels sprouts on the side.

Trent Manning 37:28

Okay. Any certain restaurant? Are you cooking it yourself?

Carl Michael 37:33

I don't know. I might cook it myself.

Trent Manning 37:35

Yeah,

Carl Michael 37:35

I've grown quite fond of my my steaks.

Trent Manning 37:39

I don't blame you one bit. Yeah, and I don't, I struggled to go to a restaurant and spend a lot of money for a steak and think, I believe I could have done better than this at home.

Carl Michael 37:50

I would say if it would be a restaurant the New York Casino out in Vegas there's a restaurant there called Gallagher's, but they have a, I want to say it's like a 28 day dry aged steak.

Trent Manning 38:03

Oh

Carl Michael 38:04

that's probably the only one I would pick that I've had

Trent Manning 38:07

Okay. Nice.

Carl Michael 38:09

kind of, I fell in love with. Yeah.

Trent Manning 38:12

Very cool. Do you do any dry aging or wet aging or any of

Carl Michael 38:16

I've tried it in the past. I don't know. I've tried dry aging. It's, I'm still back and forth with trusting myself to do it because you almost have to wait till it grows all that mold and stuff on the outside. And I don't know, I'm still a little skeptical of How much I trust myself trimming all that off and not poisoning myself in the same process.

Trent Manning 38:35

Right, right, right, right. Yeah. I hadn't dove into that. And doubt I will leave the professionals. Right.

Carl Michael 38:42

Yeah, I would say so.

Trent Manning 38:44

What are you most proud of besides your family?

Carl Michael 38:47

I would almost have to say maybe just in, I don't know, taking a new adventure and going a different direction, making kind of a non anticipated life change and, I don't know, switching careers, switching states again and moving back down to Florida. Kind of starting all over from scratch, but I don't know, kind of taking the jump and making it work.

Trent Manning 39:14

Yeah. No, that is awesome. Yeah.'cause it takes, I mean, that's, you're, you know, you're putting a lot on the line Right.

Carl Michael 39:20

Oh yeah yeah, when I told my wife, like, yeah, we're gonna move down here and I'm gonna do something I haven't done in 15 years. Like, yeah, we're gonna stay in Pennsylvania for six months. Let us know what you think.

Trent Manning 39:30

Huh. Oh, ha So they did, they stayed in

Carl Michael 39:33

Yeah, so I started in January down here, what, three years ago, but my wife's a school teacher, so she wanted to finish out the teaching year up there, and it kind of worked out pretty well. Gave me a chance to get my feet wet with everything. Made sure it was going to be a good fit before we packed everything up and move the other side of the country again.

Trent Manning 39:52

Yeah, okay, awesome.

Carl Michael 39:54

But yeah,

Trent Manning 39:55

Yeah, no, that's awesome. Well, very good. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it for sure.

Carl Michael 40:01

thank you for having me.

Trent Manning 40:02

Yup. Tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you.

Carl Michael 40:05

So

Trent Manning 40:06

Got an email.

Carl Michael 40:07

yeah, email is cmichael114 at gmail. com and my Twitter or X is cmichael114.

Trent Manning 40:18

okay. Very cool.

Carl Michael 40:20

my dirt bike racing number over all these years. Hey,

Trent Manning 40:23

Oh, nice. Alright. Well, yeah, look. I mean, we didn't even talk about dirt bikes. Dang.

Carl Michael 40:27

even think about it.

Trent Manning 40:28

here. Yeah. That's I'm sure some of the listeners grew up on dirt bikes too.

Carl Michael 40:35

Oh, yeah, that was kind of the other back into getting mechanical. I started racing at probably nine, 10 years old. And so my, I think I sold my last bike about 10 years ago. So yeah, it was probably a good 15 years of racing and yeah, doing all the wrenching and stuff on that. And finally, one good injury and realized I'm too old for this.

Trent Manning 40:56

Yeah. Yeah, we got to grow up sometime, right?

Carl Michael 41:00

Yep. Yeah. It's a lot easier when you have to, didn't have to pay the bills and

Trent Manning 41:04

Yeah, right.

Carl Michael 41:05

broken leg, but

Trent Manning 41:06

For sure. Well, thanks again. I appreciate you being on and we'll talk soon.

Carl Michael 41:13

All right. Well, sounds good, Trent.

Trent Manning 41:19

thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don't forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you'd like to discuss, or you'd like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.