Episode 142: Chris Snyder

Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 142!
Today we’re talking to Chris Snyder, Equipment Manager at Mt. Hawley Country Club in Peoria, Illinois.

Mt. Hawley is a private 18-hole course spread across 110 scenic acres next to Peoria Lake. Chris has been at the course for over 30 years, surviving everything from a decade without a grinder to a full course renovation — and he’s still going strong.

Chris’s love of motorcycles steered him toward a degree in applied science with an automotive focus, eventually leading him to the parks district and then into golf course equipment management. He’s the lone tech in the shop during the busy summer months, maintaining a mostly Toro fleet with EZGO carts, and is a big believer in preventative maintenance — a lesson he learned early on from his dad, who once built an airplane in their garage.

We talk about how Chris keeps things fresh after decades on the job, the importance of patience, surviving parts shortages and budget challenges, smart tips for setting up new equipment, and why you should always pay close attention to the leaf blade with your prism gauge (and your phone!). Plus, his favorite shop tool, his gamer side, and how he balances work with family time.

Let’s jump in with Chris!

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• Email us at ReelTurfTechs@gmail.com
• Check out our YouTube Channel

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 Welcome to The Real Turf Text Podcast, episode 1 42. Today we're talking to Chris Snyder, equipment manager at Mount Hawley Country Club in Peoria, Illinois. Mount. Hawley is a private 18 hole course. That sits on 110 acres next to Peoria Lake. Chris got a new shop in 2009. He is the Lone Tech in the shop in the summertime. He has mostly Toro equipment with easy go carts. Let's talk to Chris. Welcome Chris to the Real Turf Text podcast. Thanks for coming on.

Chris Snyder 1:52

Well, thanks for having me.

Trent Manning 1:53

Yep. We're gonna have fun. We'll start right off. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Chris Snyder 1:58

My whole mechanic background, I guess, kinda started with motorcycles back when I was a teenager. And then that kinda grew into love with automobiles right after that. So I did some automotive courses. We were fortunate enough to have a couple classes given to us at high school,

Trent Manning 2:17

Okay.

Chris Snyder 2:18

went through that. I was like, okay this is looking pretty good. So ended up going to college got a degree in applied science in the automotive industry. And while I was going through college, you know, we have our internships and that ended up being at the Peoria Park District.

Trent Manning 2:42

Okay.

Chris Snyder 2:42

So my internship was spent there and that was just. Basically the park side of it after graduation, from graduating from college, went to, went back to Pere Park District worked with their parks for a while and they had, at the time five golf courses they took care of.

Trent Manning 3:06

Oh wow.

Chris Snyder 3:07

And one of the guys retired. There was two guys. Taking care of those five golf courses. And one of the guys retired and they said, Hey Chris, you wanna come over to this department? And I was like, okay, well I'll give it a try. So I worked there for about, I don't know, about a year and a half or so worked on golf equipment. Then a job happened to come open at Mount Holly. And ended up getting that job as the mechanic there. That was in, I believe it was 92.

Trent Manning 3:44

Oh wow. Okay.

Chris Snyder 3:46

And obviously still there. So you know, through. Through the years it's really grown on me and you know, the first few years it's like, okay, I'm turning wrenches and stuff like this. as the whole industry started to kind of change and, you know, people were, I guess more demands on the equipment, more demands, you know, as far as playability of the golf course and stuff. And a lot of that started to intrigue me a little bit more.'cause I really wasn't planning on staying there. I had like, I had a three year plan.

Trent Manning 4:23

Uhhuh.

Chris Snyder 4:24

It turned into a 30 year plan,

Trent Manning 4:25

Yeah. Yep.

Chris Snyder 4:27

but

Trent Manning 4:27

You're not the only one man. There. There's a lot of people out there. I remember John Patterson, I mean, he said the same thing. He is like, ah I'll try this for a little while and then I'll find something better.

Chris Snyder 4:38

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Trent Manning 4:39

We got a guy on our crew he's a super good operator, and he he said that, he was kind of in between jobs and he seen the ad and the newspaper, whatever. He's like, oh I'll work there until I can find something better. You know, over the winter, you know, he's been in construction work his whole life. He's like, I'll work the winter. You know, construction's kinda slow anyway. I'll find something in the spring, and he's been there 11 years, you know, just hooked him in.

Chris Snyder 5:08

yep. Exactly. Yeah, my first impression was, well, I'm gonna be working on weed eaters and push mowers all day long. And well, it's nothing of the sort, you know, you're definitely a lot more in depth than just your regular yard mower and weed eater. You know, it's, you know, getting mowers to cut at, you know, 1 10, 1 20, and. Getting everything even and true and it's kind of fun and at the same time rewarding when you go out and take a look at your green and be like, oh, yeah,

Trent Manning 5:45

Oh yeah. Yeah, very much so. Yeah. And that's awesome. How have you been able to keep the passion? That I see you have, you know, about setting mowers up and mowing grass and after doing it for this many years

Chris Snyder 6:02

I mean, there's definitely times you kinda scratch your head and be like, gosh, do I really want to do this another five, six years? You know? And then I mean, just like opportunities, like right now, you know, I. Really kind of perks your interest up. Again, you know, it's it's kind of a, an emotional lift, I guess, of sorts, you know? So it's like, oh yeah, hey, this is bigger than just me, you know? So,

Trent Manning 6:26

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 6:28

really makes me want to dig in a little bit more. So there, there's definitely times that, you know. I don't know if I want to do this tomorrow, you know? But then, you know, it all comes in round in a circle and it's like, okay, I'm back. Here we go.

Trent Manning 6:43

Right? Yep. Yeah, I mean, we all have those days for sure. Like, wow, do I wanna do this again tomorrow? And then, you know, tomorrow's a new day. So, so, yeah. You never know what tomorrow's gonna bring. Well, I'm glad you've stuck with it this long. That's awesome. That's

Chris Snyder 6:59

me too. I'm. I'm I really enjoy the job. Like I said it's really rewarding when you go out there and take a tour of the course and like everything's clicked in and it's like, all right we did it today. Let's do it again tomorrow.

Trent Manning 7:17

What's been some of your challenges? You know, you kinda let in to higher expectations.

Chris Snyder 7:25

Yeah.

Trent Manning 7:26

What's been some of the challenges with that?

Chris Snyder 7:28

probably the biggest challenge was I probably went, I don't know, approximately 10 years without a grinder.

Trent Manning 7:35

Oh wow. Yeah. Yep.

Chris Snyder 7:37

So I. Spent a lot of time back lapping And obviously that's, you know, a bandaid of sorts and you know, we always send our reels off in the winter to get ground and, you know, always start to season off great. And as it goes along in your top dressing and all this, you know, it, it is, everything just goes downhill after that. Fortunately one of our distributors our Touro distributor during this timeframe came up with the idea of some mobile grinding.

Trent Manning 8:10

Oh, okay.

Chris Snyder 8:11

So, so that definitely helped us out. We had have'em about mid-season come in and grind everything. So then we were good for another month or so, you know, but still had that. Need for some sharp reels and bed knives.'cause, you know, lapping only gets you so far.

Trent Manning 8:30

Right, right.

Chris Snyder 8:31

So we ended up, fortunately we were able to get a new maintenance building built. And in that process we were able to purchase some grinders.

Trent Manning 8:44

Oh, nice.

Chris Snyder 8:45

So, that really, that was a huge relief. And just being able to keep everything true and sharp and at its peak, you know, was really a load off my shoulders.

Trent Manning 9:00

Oh yeah. No, that's awesome. Yep. Very good. Can we pause one minute? I'm sorry to do this, but my daughter just called me. And she never calls me, so

Chris Snyder 9:14

no.

Trent Manning 9:15

I just wanna make sure everything's okay.

Chris Snyder 9:17

You better take that.

Trent Manning 9:18

yeah. So I'm gonna send her a text and just make sure, let her know what I'm doing. Yeah, she's 17 and she's supposed to be working right now.

Chris Snyder 9:27

Oh.

Trent Manning 9:27

So, let's see what she says. Alright. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Chris Snyder 9:34

The least favorite getting up at four o'clock in the morning.

Trent Manning 9:37

Yeah, the early mornings.

Chris Snyder 9:38

Yeah, those early mornings like that can be a bit rough, but you know, you do it long enough, you kind of get adjusted and get used to it, but you know, it's still four o'clock in the morning no matter what.

Trent Manning 9:49

Yep. Yep. And then you do the same thing on the weekends. You can't sleep in probably.

Chris Snyder 9:54

Right? Yep. Yep. Usually up by five anyway, and it's like, oh gosh, come on.

Trent Manning 9:59

Uhhuh.

Chris Snyder 10:00

I want to sleep.

Trent Manning 10:01

Yep. Yep. Yeah, that makes it tough for sure.

Chris Snyder 10:04

And it does.

Trent Manning 10:05

What's your favorite tool?

Chris Snyder 10:06

Our favorite tool. Boy, that's, I put a lot of thought into this, and it's like, I walked around the shop, opened up some drawers, and I'm just like, I like this, you know? And right now. I would have to say it's probably my Milwaukee grease gun.

Trent Manning 10:21

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 10:22

I love that thing. You know, I had some pneumatics and then of course the old hand pumps a couple other cordless ones. But the Milwaukee is really a game changer for me when it comes tore. You know, it's got the little shoulder strap so you can hold it right there on your side and you can have your hands

Trent Manning 10:38

Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 10:40

whatever. It's got a long hose on it, so you're not trying to adjust your grease gun all at the same time trying to get in there to exert it's tucked away. But yeah. Yeah, I think the the old grease gun I really enjoy here lately.

Trent Manning 10:56

That's awesome. Do you have the lock and lube coupler on the end?

Chris Snyder 11:02

No, I do not.

Trent Manning 11:03

Are you familiar with it?

Chris Snyder 11:05

yes I am. Yes, I am.

Trent Manning 11:07

I'm a big fan of the lock and lube. I,

Chris Snyder 11:09

I've seen'em and I've kind of considered'em, but I just haven't bit the bullet yet.

Trent Manning 11:14

yeah. Yeah. Yeah, e Every grease gun I got, it's got the lock and bluebe on it now. I, yeah, I just, I fell in love with it. It does a good job of holding it on there. And so in our WhatsApp group, Chris Hyman actually asked the question'cause he had a little money in his budget to spend and wanted to get a cordless grease gun. And hands down, the Milwaukee won the. Yeah, everybody chimed in Milwaukee. Milwaukee. There was a few people that had the DeWalt and I think the main reason they had the DeWalt is they already had some of the DeWalt batteries and stuff, so they went and that makes sense.

Chris Snyder 11:53

Yeah,

Trent Manning 11:54

But yeah, I'm big Milwaukee fan. Hope to reach out and see if they wanna sponsor this podcast,

Chris Snyder 12:00

you go.

Trent Manning 12:00

you know?

Chris Snyder 12:01

awesome.

Trent Manning 12:02

Yep. That would be be very cool. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Chris Snyder 12:07

Oh, to relax.

Trent Manning 12:09

Is there such thing? Do you relax ever?

Chris Snyder 12:12

I mean, to an extent, you know, outside of spending time with the kids watching tv, movies and stuff like that, you know, I like to play video games.

Trent Manning 12:23

Hey, no, nothing wrong with that.

Chris Snyder 12:24

Yeah. Little Rainbows, six Siege, and I'm rejuvenated.

Trent Manning 12:29

Okay. Nice. That's awesome. I don't, I mean, video games is definitely a way just to, you know, check out,

Chris Snyder 12:37

You do?

Trent Manning 12:38

you know, you can just, yeah. Get so in, focused in on what you're doing and Yeah, forget all the world problems.

Chris Snyder 12:44

Yep. Yep.

Trent Manning 12:45

Yep. That's good stuff. What's been one of your biggest challenges to date?

Chris Snyder 12:51

Biggest challenges, gosh. Probably keeping the sand off the greens.

Trent Manning 12:57

Have you figured out how to do that? Let everybody in on your secret there.

Chris Snyder 13:02

Nope. That's that's an ongoing battle. Gosh dang. You know, probably communication trying to keep communication between the staff and me. Getting them to be able to come to me and say, Hey, this broke, you know, instead of just parking it and walking it, walking away from it, and then the next day we're like, oh gosh, what happened? Just trying to get those guys to, you know, your accidents happen, things break, Gonna happen. Just trying to get that mentality into some of'em is, has been a challenge. I don't know, they feel like they're gonna get in big trouble or what, but you know, if it's something big, you know, like they're playing bumper cars with golf carts out there, then yeah, it's gonna be a problem. But, you know. Accidents happen and, you know, I try to keep that mentality as long as I can. You know, obviously if it keeps on happening then there's something else that we need to dig a little deeper into What's going on. But just trying to keep that communication open to the employees that let's communicate this stuff. You know, let me know. Something's broke, something's not running right. Just let me know and we'll go from there.

Trent Manning 14:16

Yeah, because it's one of the most frustrating things when. You know, you just find something broke in the back of the shop or small equipment room or whatever it is,

Chris Snyder 14:26

Yep.

Trent Manning 14:27

And that's the last time we want to be working on something is when we actually need it. You know, let it let us know. But before,

Chris Snyder 14:35

Yeah, you try to be proactive and that kind of sets you back,

Trent Manning 14:40

yeah, for sure. And I mean, it's something I think everybody struggles with, you know, no matter how you handle it. And yeah, we, a lot of mechanics have over the years, definitely has got a bad bad name for their self, you know, getting angry with people and all that stuff. And I mean, I'm not condoning it, but I definitely understand it because we're getting bad news all day long. You know, it's like, bring me some good news for once, you know, tell me something works really good for a change. Instead of telling me I run over something and I broke this, or I broke that, or I definitely, one of my pet peeves is working on shop tools. So like, you know, whether it be the grinder or you know, whatever in the shop that, you know, I need this tool to do this job and the tool broke. Like, you know, I don't wanna work on that.

Chris Snyder 15:36

That's my pet peeves as far as. Tool usage and putting stuff back, you know, if you need to borrow something, lemme know.

Trent Manning 15:46

Yeah. Yep.

Chris Snyder 15:47

I don't mind you. If you borrow, gotta borrow a hammer wrench, whatever, you know, that's fine. But let me know if you don't know where it goes. Say I set it on the work bench, I don't know where it went. Just letting you know it's back,

Trent Manning 16:01

Yeah, exactly. Because when they put it in the wrong drawer, it's lost until you happen to see it again.

Chris Snyder 16:09

Yep. Yep.

Trent Manning 16:09

It's definitely misplaced and you'll be looking all over for it and, yeah. I don't, I'm very fortunate where I'm at'cause I do have a couple guys that help me in the shop. But on the other hand, it can be extremely frustrating because we, you know, I have a spot that I want everything and it's not the same spot. They want everything.

Chris Snyder 16:33

Right,

Trent Manning 16:34

And that can be kind of frustrating too. And like, who used this last, who put it in this drawer? It's never been in

Chris Snyder 16:42

Why would you put it there? Think it goes up here.

Trent Manning 16:44

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So anyway it's a good problem to have.

Chris Snyder 16:49

Yeah.

Trent Manning 16:50

What's one of the strangest things you've seen at work?

Chris Snyder 16:53

Oh gosh. Don't, I'll go with the frog one. I got we had a seasonal guy who mowed fairways and in one week he put the fairway mower in the lake twice.

Trent Manning 17:06

Oh, in one week.

Chris Snyder 17:07

Yes. And it was two different lakes. The first lake. Has a pretty big embankment. So he kind of backed up, had some do on there and he slid and he went in, you know, I get that. That's fine. Later in the week, he got stuck in another pond and it was a pond that really wasn't anywhere he should have been.

Trent Manning 17:31

Yeah. Yeah. Not close to a fairway.

Chris Snyder 17:33

like, what are you doing over here? He is like, well, you're not gonna believe it, but. I'm driving along and looking down and I see these frogs. So I'm just kind of driving along watching these frogs, and before I know it, I'm in the lake and I'm just like,

Trent Manning 17:50

Yeah, you can't make that up.

Chris Snyder 17:52

No I had nothing. I had nothing. I'm just like, well, let's not look at frogs anymore and

Trent Manning 17:58

Oh boy.

Chris Snyder 17:58

a little bit more attention to job at hand.

Trent Manning 18:02

How do you keep a straight face when you say that?

Chris Snyder 18:05

Even get mad at him, so it was okay.

Trent Manning 18:07

yeah, that's pretty funny.

Chris Snyder 18:10

I unfortunately, you know, the engine wasn't submerged or anything like that. He had two wheels in and one of the outside reels was down in the water. But beyond that, you know, it's like, okay,

Trent Manning 18:20

No major damage.

Chris Snyder 18:21

no more frog watching for

Trent Manning 18:23

Yeah. Yeah. That's. The Frog Watcher. Oh, that's a good one. That's one of the better ones I think we've heard on the podcast. And it reminds me, I don't, are you familiar with the four 50 D, the Toro four 50 D. All right, so we had a four 50 D back in the day, this, like mid nineties. And we had this operator we used, that was our fairway mower, one of our fairway mowers. And we had the, this operator that drove it into a tree. On the car path or you know, next to the car path or

Chris Snyder 18:56

Right.

Trent Manning 18:58

And you know, ripped, almost ripped one of the side units off. And so anyway, they asked him what happened and he said a rabbit ran out in front of him. So he swerved to miss the rabbit, you know, with this four 50, I mean, and yeah, for the listeners, if you don't know what a four 50 D is, look it up. It later changed to 4,500 d. A five gang fairway mower at, with 20, I think 27 inch reels. I mean, they were big

Chris Snyder 19:27

big ones.

Trent Manning 19:28

And if you've never adjusted the center cutting unit on a four 50 or 4,500, can you really say you're a golf course technician?

Chris Snyder 19:38

Exactly.

Trent Manning 19:38

You know,

Chris Snyder 19:39

Exactly.

Trent Manning 19:40

because man, that was no fun. Oh, those things are a beast. That was one, one machine. I was not disappointed to see it go.

Chris Snyder 19:49

How about that?

Trent Manning 19:50

Do you have any mentors in the industry

Chris Snyder 19:54

Mentors in the industry? Gosh.

Trent Manning 19:57

Or maybe in your personal life growing up?

Chris Snyder 19:58

well, I mean, I would have to definitely, I mean, the guy that got me going on all this was probably my dad.

Trent Manning 20:05

Okay. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 20:06

You know, through the years, through my teen years and well, for as long as I can remember, you know, my dad always was. A preventative maintenance guy. Preventative maintenance was his number one go-to every time we were ever working on anything. From the Volkswagen Beetle up to my motorcycles, up to, you know, vans and trucks. And you know, he preached changing oil, changing plugs keeping it clean on and on, and. Obviously through my younger years, I just kind of, whatever, you know, whatever dad.

Trent Manning 20:45

Right, right, right.

Chris Snyder 20:45

But you know, as time goes and you're working on stuff, you know, it that 10, 15 minute job of preventive maintenance, you know, save you two, three hours later on down the road. So that's something that, that's really stuck with me through the years is, you know, take care of it. Change your oil, fluids, filters, grease it stay on top of it, and you treat it right, it's gonna treat you right.

Trent Manning 21:15

Yeah. No, that's good. Good. Great stuff to live by. For sure.

Chris Snyder 21:19

Yep. This is also coming from a man who built an airplane in his garage. So

Trent Manning 21:25

Oh wow. How cool is that?

Chris Snyder 21:28

he him and my uncle did that. It took him. About four and a half years, but they got it done and we, I wouldn't say I really took part in it, but I kind of did. But no, nothing in the structural integrity or anything like that in the airplane, you know? But it was quite an experience to live through. That's for sure.

Trent Manning 21:49

Oh no, that sounds like, yeah, a super cool experience. So, I mean, was it, you know, every night or every, you know, few nights and on the weekends

Chris Snyder 21:58

Well, mostly weekends a few nights here and there. But a lot of weekends were consumed by the family getting together, working on the airplane. So yeah, there was about four, four and a half years of nothing but airplane.

Trent Manning 22:11

Wow. Okay. And so I'm assuming they did it Johnny Cash style one piece at a time and

Chris Snyder 22:18

piece at a time.

Trent Manning 22:19

Yeah. I love it, man. That's, yep. I've lived my life that way for quite a while. One piece at a time, you know,

Chris Snyder 22:25

Yep.

Trent Manning 22:27

Save your money up so you can afford this or that, and yeah,

Chris Snyder 22:30

Exactly.

Trent Manning 22:31

Yeah. So did you did you get to flying it?

Chris Snyder 22:34

Yeah, I have flown it. Yeah. Yep.

Trent Manning 22:37

Awesome.

Chris Snyder 22:38

was, let's see, I think they finished it in the early eighties. So, I mean, he still has the plane. But yeah, I mean, I've never done takeoffs or landings, but up in the sky. Yeah. Flown around a little bit.

Trent Manning 22:50

That's so cool. So cool For something. Yeah. That was built right there in the backyard.

Chris Snyder 22:56

yep. Exactly.

Trent Manning 22:57

That is super cool. Supercharged course maintenance with Task Tracker, the leading golf course maintenance software in the industry. Built for precision and efficiency, Task Tracker simplifies daily operations, optimizes water usage, and keeps your team on track. With real time updates and streamlined workflows, It's the essential tool for modern superintendents. Learn more at www. clubessentials. com backslash task tracker. Let's get back to the episode. Well, what would be your dream job or opportunity?

Chris Snyder 23:37

Dream job. Gosh, I, you know, I've always wanted to have my own shop,

Trent Manning 23:41

Okay. What would you be working on in this shop?

Chris Snyder 23:46

Basically whatever anybody wanted me to, I mean, it, it would be more of a benefit for friends and family and friends of friends. Obviously it's a process that I would probably have to win the lottery to do. cause it would be like, Hey, you buy the part, bring it in, let's do this

Trent Manning 24:03

Okay. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 24:04

kind of thing. You know, I guess it. It sounds like fun to me. You know, if even down to the single parent, you know, Hey, I got this car. I gotta get it fixed. I ain't got the money. Well bring it in, we'll fix it,

Trent Manning 24:17

Yeah. No, that would

Chris Snyder 24:18

of attitude and experience. But like I said, I'd have to win the lottery in order to fund something like that. But I think there'd be a lot of satisfaction to come out of that.

Trent Manning 24:28

Yeah. I mean, definitely you're helping others, right?

Chris Snyder 24:31

Right.

Trent Manning 24:31

Yeah. And that is so rewarding. Yeah, no, that would be super cool and something Yeah. Very valuable to do with your time.

Chris Snyder 24:42

Yeah, I think

Trent Manning 24:43

Yeah. That, yeah. No, that's a good one. Do you have a technician you would like to work with for a day?

Chris Snyder 24:50

I suppose Hector would probably be one of the guys I'd like to work

Trent Manning 24:53

Okay, awesome.

Chris Snyder 24:56

He a few years back he was doing a, oh, I don't remember what he called it. He would come to guys' shops and record and kind of do what we're doing right now, interview the, you know, the mechanic and superintendent and stuff, and kind of do a walkthrough of the shop and. Well, he was speaking to my superintendent at the time and he was just happened to be passing through, so he ended up stopping at the shop

Trent Manning 25:26

Okay. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 25:27

and, I don't know, it was like the first or second episode or something that he was doing and had his camera guy, which I believe was his boy, and they're filming us and, like I said, just kind of doing what we're doing right now, but we're walking through the shop and showing him around all at the same time. So, it was kind of, it was pretty cool to meet him and have him there at the shop and be able to speak to him one-on-one for the most part. so, yeah, I

Trent Manning 25:56

super cool. Yeah. Was it Hector's shop on tour or something like that?

Chris Snyder 26:00

Yeah. I mean, I think that's what it was.

Trent Manning 26:01

Yeah. No, that was so cool when he was doing that. Yeah. I was, and I don't remember, I brought it come up the other day I was talking to somebody and he had I think eight kids

Chris Snyder 26:14

Yeah, he had quite a

Trent Manning 26:15

he was doing that. And I Man, how do you do that? You know? That had to

Chris Snyder 26:20

I know

Trent Manning 26:21

so stressful, I would think at times. You know, especially with little kids and stuff.

Chris Snyder 26:26

are a full-time job in themselves.

Trent Manning 26:28

Right. But more power to him. No, that, that was super cool that he is doing that. And I think he's still doing some tech training and stuff like that. Yeah. So, yeah. No, that's super cool. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Chris Snyder 26:42

Oh boy. A lot. A lot. Probably I. Kind of a generic answer, I guess would be kind of patience and mostly patience, you know, because it, I've had superintendents, you know, that, Hey, we gotta get this going now. We gotta get going now, we gotta get it going now. And it's like, well, you hear that three or four times and it, you know, it kind of builds up like, okay, I gotta get going. And you may not have the part on hand at that time. And, You know, they're on you. Hey, how long is this part gonna take? Well, I don't know when they get it shipped out and get it here,

Trent Manning 27:22

Right?

Chris Snyder 27:23

but you, you know, you, you try to work around some of that stuff the best you can. And. Anymore. I don't wanna say I, I ignore that stuff'cause that's the furthest thing from it. But I'm able to deal with it a lot better than what I used to because it would really stress me out, you know, a lot. Like, oh my gosh, I can't get this going. What? You know, I'm gonna lose my job.

Trent Manning 27:47

Right, right, right. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 27:49

So

Trent Manning 27:49

I think we can definitely put too much pressure on ourself really easily in, in situations like that. And, you know, don't get me wrong, a lot of times our supervisors or managers can put that stress on us too. And I mean, I'm guilty. I put stress on people before for no reason. You know, I don't know, you know, I tend to put more stress on myself than most people would put on me. But definitely something to be aware we aware of. And I do think with age, some of that gets easier. Like, this is not the end of the world. Nobody's gonna die, It is just grass. I mean, we joke about it being grass. And not that our job isn't important and. Those things, but it isn't life and death,

Chris Snyder 28:39

right.

Trent Manning 28:39

you know? So,

Chris Snyder 28:40

It's a lot easier to take these days than what it used to be

Trent Manning 28:44

yeah. Oh yeah.

Chris Snyder 28:45

By far.

Trent Manning 28:46

Yep, for sure. Yeah. And with parts availability, and I mean, all you know, you never know what

Chris Snyder 28:52

Yeah.

Trent Manning 28:53

you know, and you know, it's like dealing with a budget. I'm like, I don't know what's gonna break today or tomorrow or this month. You know, I'll try to stay within budget, but you know, if this piece breaks, do you wanna fix it? You know, this is your call.

Chris Snyder 29:09

Either gets fixed or don.

Trent Manning 29:11

yep, that's right. Well, how do you deal with that person? You got that person on your crew. I,

Chris Snyder 29:18

Oh, gosh, actually we've got a pretty darn good crew right now.

Trent Manning 29:22

that's good. Yeah. Awesome.

Chris Snyder 29:24

I don't know what our seasonal help's gonna look like right now, but right now our staff you know, they're they can follow directions and. In most cases, if they don't understand, they're gonna come to you and be like, Hey, is this the right way? Is this the wrong way? Which way do we really need to be doing this? Because I wanna make sure I get this right. But I really, I don't really have any complaints about this crew that we have right now.

Trent Manning 29:51

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. No, good. Good for you.

Chris Snyder 29:54

Yeah, exactly. No, I'm.

Trent Manning 29:57

I mean, I could kinda say the same thing now. We just got our H two B labor back in town, and it's the same crew that we had last year.

Chris Snyder 30:08

Okay.

Trent Manning 30:09

so that is awesome. I mean, it's like

Chris Snyder 30:11

a lot.

Trent Manning 30:12

I think we have one new guy out of, I mean there's 10 there, so one, one new guy out of 10. So I mean that's, that is awesome. And

Chris Snyder 30:25

to start,

Trent Manning 30:26

that crew, even last year. It was the first time they had been with us at our club, but they'd worked at another club the previous year. So I mean, they got it, you know, a lot of the things they already understood and we got a couple of'em that speak really good English. So, I mean, it's just, it's awesome.

Chris Snyder 30:46

Yep.

Trent Manning 30:47

And I don't, I mean, it's really a godsend that program for us, because those guys really like to work. They don't mind working, you know?

Chris Snyder 30:57

Yes they

Trent Manning 30:57

And the, a lot of the labor we hire, you know, in our area, most of them don't really like to work. You know, it's just the way they were brought up and that kind of, you know, more of

Chris Snyder 31:10

also. Yeah.

Trent Manning 31:11

more city type kids and nothing there's wrong with that, but they just don't quite like to work the same.

Chris Snyder 31:21

Nope. It's totally different nowadays,

Trent Manning 31:23

Yes, it is. Get ready for tips and tricks. What kind of tips and tricks you got, you wanna share with us?

Chris Snyder 31:29

Oh, tips and tricks. Well, I know one thing I like to do I get a new piece of equipment in the shop. Have it be a used piece or. Whatever it may be. New to me, new to us at the course. You know, the first thing it hits is the lift. I put it on the lift. I'm looking through it, you know, make sure wires are ran correctly. Make sure especially hydraulic lines are ran correctly. Try to correct as much as you can. Obviously you can't see it all, but, I like to go through and. Some of the fuse panels are generally just right there in the open, you know, collecting dust and moisture. I like to go through and put just a dab of dielectric grease on'em. Try to keep that corrosion to a minimum. And, Anything preventative

Trent Manning 32:23

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 32:24

as much as possible. That's kind of how I like to start out anyway.

Trent Manning 32:29

No, that's really good. And I'm kind of thinking maybe you picked that up from your dad.

Chris Snyder 32:33

Oh, maybe a

Trent Manning 32:34

Yeah. Maybe a little bit of that. That's awesome though. And I mean, it's a really good point. I'm glad you bring it up. I do think that there's other technicians that do that, but I know there's a lot of newer people in the industry and. They might not ever thought like, Hey, let's get this brand new piece of equipment on the lift and look it over.

Chris Snyder 32:57

Flick it over. You gotta get to know it.

Trent Manning 32:59

Yep. Get to know it. Because the person at the factory that was putting that piece of equipment together, you know, is a factory worker and nothing wrong with factory workers, but they make mistakes just like me and you make mistakes every day. So, you know, look it over.

Chris Snyder 33:17

Yep. Nothing wrong with double checking.

Trent Manning 33:19

Yep. Nothing at all. Yeah, and like the guy marking all the fittings with the paint pen, you know, he can have a bad day too, and not get a fitting tight. And he marked it.

Chris Snyder 33:31

Or it could be a Friday at five o'clock. Who

Trent Manning 33:33

yeah, you're right. You never know any other tips and tricks.

Chris Snyder 33:38

Something else I like to do. I, you know, one of my favorite tools is in my pocket all the time. It's my phone. I. I go out on the course and as you know, we spoke before going out there and checking the cut. The after cut I got my prism with me. I go out there and check everything with my prism from greens to tee to fairways. I also get my phone out there and get the best picture I possibly can of, you know, the leaf blade and the quality. You cut to that leaf blade.

Trent Manning 34:12

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Chris Snyder 34:14

I bring my phone in, hook it up to my computer, pull that picture up. You know, sometimes they're good pictures, sometimes they're not. But you know, it gives you some idea of, you know, are we mowing too fast? Are the reels not cutting quite as good as they possibly should? You know, we ripping, tearing just trying to stay ahead of any problems that might come along.

Trent Manning 34:35

Yeah, no, that's really good. And so, Jim Ned's episode just dropped the first of February and he brought up there in, in the episode, and he had talked about it before. He always carried a microscope with him,

Chris Snyder 34:53

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning 34:53

A 10 power, 15 power microscope. And then he even, he said he had a really nice one that he could hook up to his computer and, you know, all this cool stuff that he'd done for years when he was on site and visiting people. And, but now he has his cell phone and a little piece of two by four. And he uses the piece of two by four and lays it on the ground and lays the cell phone on top of the two by four. And that way he keeps the distance the same on all his pitchers and uses it that way. And you almost don't need the, you know, the microscope

Chris Snyder 35:28

Right, right.

Trent Manning 35:30

'cause Yeah, you can really zoom in there. But yeah, I thought that was a, an excellent idea that he passed along. Yeah. What all are you looking for when you're looking in the prism?

Chris Snyder 35:42

Evenness, you know, from real to real. Make sure that's true. I'm trying to see how many leaf blades are left behind. How hairy is it?

Trent Manning 35:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I mean, stragglers are there.

Chris Snyder 35:58

is it a fine cut? Is it kind of a rough cut? Do we need to speed the reels up? Speed'em, you know, slow'em down the unit itself too. Or maybe I need to go in and grind one or the other, you know?

Trent Manning 36:12

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 36:12

Just trying to get the best playability out of the greens, mainly, you know, that we can without you know, having to go down to 110 or 90 or whatever,

Trent Manning 36:26

Yeah.

Chris Snyder 36:27

Trying to keep the height up as high as we can without impacting ball speed and playability.

Trent Manning 36:34

Yeah, I think a lot of people too get caught up in that number and they just want to go as low as they can, and it's not necessarily necessary.

Chris Snyder 36:43

I am, I'm a firm believer, at least at our course anyway, you know, other courses with different style greens may play different. You maybe need to go a little lower, whatever. I'm definitely a firm believer if we're at like one 20 right now. I don't like it at one 20. I like it around 1 25, 1 30. That's not my call.

Trent Manning 37:05

Right.

Chris Snyder 37:06

But we're trucking along pretty good right now. We, you know, we have a combination of mowing and rolling, so, I think we have a pretty good program going right now that we're maintaining the same ball speed. On a normal day outside of humid days and rain and whatnot. But I think it's working out pretty good right now. And you know, obviously the higher the cut, the easier and better it's gonna be on the equipment. It's gonna be a little healthier on the greens. So that's I've always been, well, I won't say I've always been, but. The last several years definitely promote higher cuts.

Trent Manning 37:47

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No, that's good. Good stuff. Any other ones?

Chris Snyder 37:53

I can't think of anything right off the top of my head.

Trent Manning 37:55

Okay. No, that's good. That's, both of those are excellent. And I appreciate you sharing them with our audience. What else do you want to talk about? Anything else come to mind?

Chris Snyder 38:08

You know, the one thing. That I, I really look back on is back in 96 when we did our course renovation. You know, if you're in the industry, you have to go through some kind of renovation in order to appreciate, you know, what you have and what it takes to get to that point. As far as a, a constant good playing course and. When you start seeing bulldozers and scrapers and backhoes and semi trucks coming in and outta your place and all you see is dirt, it's like this place is over. We're never gonna be a golf course again.

Trent Manning 38:51

Huh.

Chris Snyder 38:53

but as time goes on, you know, you start slowly seeing the progress and. Again, kind of with the equipment, you kind of get to know your course a little bit better and, you know, as far as the irrigation and wiring and why is this mount here? You know, what kind of drainage are we gonna put here, you know, and you start seeing that stuff and it all just kind of, you know, starts going together. Kind of like an erector set and, before you know it, you got green grass and a few months later you got people out playing on it and it's just like, wow, this is really cool.

Trent Manning 39:35

pretty quick transformation, isn't it?

Chris Snyder 39:37

Yes. Yeah it's pretty impressive. And I do know one thing that I'd never want to do again and that's lay another roll of, so.

Trent Manning 39:45

Okay. Didn't enjoy that, huh?

Chris Snyder 39:48

No, that was probably the worst part of it.

Trent Manning 39:50

Yeah,

Chris Snyder 39:51

You get done with one semi and then comes another. It's like, oh no,

Trent Manning 39:56

so did y'all lay a lot of the sod in house

Chris Snyder 39:59

We did do, they had their crew laying side, but our crew, well, we have four or five people working at the time. We jumped into kind of speed up the process, some.

Trent Manning 40:12

Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, my course, we're under a full renovation right now. We closed Labor Day and we're supposed to reopen this Labor Day

Chris Snyder 40:21

Oh,

Trent Manning 40:21

and everything. Seems to be going pretty good right now, but yeah, I mean, all I'm looking at is dirt. There's just dirt and dirt and mud and mud after it rains. And the Georgia Red Clay I'm sick of all that already. yeah, I mean, I got yeah a layer of dust on everything in the shop

Chris Snyder 40:43

Oh gosh

Trent Manning 40:44

it's not fun. And then we end up doing a lot of stuff in-house too. Even though we have a construction company in there doing the renovation, we've already put in 700 feet of 30 inch drain pipe.

Chris Snyder 40:59

Okay.

Trent Manning 41:00

We, I don't know if it's good or bad, but I got a John Deere one 60 D excavator. So, I mean, it's like, I guess a 20,000 pound machine. I mean, it's a big excavator. It's, you know, it's not a mini excavator. It's a few sizes up. So anyway, we got that and you know, they're digging the ditches and now we're putting in more drainage. And I don't remember how many feet of this drainage we're putting in. I'm like, how is this not included in the project? But anyway we're doing it in house and then we're doing all the seating too. So we'll have a lot of.

Chris Snyder 41:38

we did do some of the hydro seeding and seeding on the greens. We did do that in house.

Trent Manning 41:44

Yeah, we will have a lot of native areas. So we're doing all the seed for the native areas, and then our greens will be Bermuda. So we'll spring those, hopefully in

Chris Snyder 41:54

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Trent Manning 41:56

Then we can start mowing some grass.

Chris Snyder 41:59

There you

Trent Manning 41:59

ready to mow some grass. I didn't know if I would ever say that, but.

Chris Snyder 42:04

Well, it's it becomes a point where it's like, gosh, I just wanna mow grass. Come

Trent Manning 42:08

Yep. Yeah. And then the other thing I'm concerned about is what all are we gonna mow that's not grass. You know, how many sod, staples, and irrigation flags? And that's gonna be the fun part,

Chris Snyder 42:21

definitely gonna find side staples,

Trent Manning 42:23

Oh yeah, for sure.

Chris Snyder 42:24

a given. I. That is a given.

Trent Manning 42:32

Are you ready to do some rapid fire?

Chris Snyder 42:34

Absolutely. Let's do it.

Trent Manning 42:36

What's your favorite movie,

Chris Snyder 42:37

Favorite movie? I'm gonna have to say Rocky.

Trent Manning 42:40

ra? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. Yes. Awesome. The first one.

Chris Snyder 42:46

I like the first and second one. Yeah. Yep. But the first one's probably my favorite. Yeah.

Trent Manning 42:51

Yeah. Good stuff. What would be your last meal?

Chris Snyder 42:55

Last meal. Probably a smoked brisket.

Trent Manning 42:58

Oh, okay.

Chris Snyder 42:59

Yep.

Trent Manning 43:00

Are you smoking it or somebody else?

Chris Snyder 43:02

I've done a few. Yes. I wouldn't say I'm an expert at it but they turned out okay. At least for my taste. But yeah I enjoy using the smoker. I don't use it to the extent I would like to, but it's enjoyable.

Trent Manning 43:16

Awesome. What kind of smoke do you got?

Chris Snyder 43:19

It's a you would ask me, and I'm gonna draw a blank on the

Trent Manning 43:22

That's okay.

Chris Snyder 43:23

It's, it is, it's gold. I know that.

Trent Manning 43:25

It's gold. All right.

Chris Snyder 43:27

I can't think of the name of it right off

Trent Manning 43:29

Tagger, tiger. I can't, I don't even remember what that is.

Chris Snyder 43:33

It's a pellet.

Trent Manning 43:34

Yeah.

Chris Snyder 43:34

Yep.

Trent Manning 43:35

Traeger. That's it. Traeger, are they gold?

Chris Snyder 43:38

I don't know if those are gold, but that's not it.

Trent Manning 43:40

Okay. That's

Chris Snyder 43:41

This is the Walmart. You know, you get'em at Walmart or whatever, but

Trent Manning 43:44

Oklahoma Joe or something?

Chris Snyder 43:46

something. Yeah. Pit boss. Is

Trent Manning 43:48

Pit boss. Yeah. Yeah. Pit boss is a, yeah. That's a nice,

Chris Snyder 43:51

think that's what it is. Yep.

Trent Manning 43:52

Okay. Awesome. No I used to do a good bit of barbecuing but I fell off the wagon, just

Chris Snyder 44:00

Yeah.

Trent Manning 44:01

got out of it, you know. I still really enjoy eating it.

Chris Snyder 44:04

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning 44:05

it.

Chris Snyder 44:07

The best part.

Trent Manning 44:08

just hadn't been cooking as much

Chris Snyder 44:10

Yeah.

Trent Manning 44:10

you most proud of besides your family?

Chris Snyder 44:12

Oh boy. Just the fact that I've been able to hold out this long, 30 years in one p, actually 30 plus years in one spot and just been able to. You know, grow with the place, I guess, you know, it's pretty rewarding to, to see the progress through the years. Not only the course myself and obviously some of the people that I work with, it's like I said, just rewarding to just kinda look back and be like, this is where we started. This is where we're at now, and. I think we've done a good job.

Trent Manning 44:47

No, that's awesome. That's really good. Yeah, and I'm sure you've had some younger people come through there and move on in

Chris Snyder 44:54

yeah. Yeah. We've we've been very fortunate, especially in our assistants. Some of our assistants, they, I would say probably I. 80% of'em have moved on to superintendent jobs right outside, right out of the, you know, from leaving us.

Trent Manning 45:11

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No,

Chris Snyder 45:13

So, so it's been a pretty good turnout, I would say.

Trent Manning 45:16

That's awesome. Yep. Passing it on to the next generation.

Chris Snyder 45:19

absolutely.

Trent Manning 45:20

I love it. That's good stuff, man. Well, I really appreciate you doing this and your time. You wanna tell the listeners an email address? You got a social media

Chris Snyder 45:32

Most of the time I'm on Facebook, but I'm also on some of those, oh, equipment maintenance, golf course maintenance, you know, Facebook pages.

Trent Manning 45:41

okay. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 45:42

I don't really, I wouldn't say I contribute a lot, but. Usually when someone has a problem on there, there's, by the time I get on there, somebody's already got the answer on there.

Trent Manning 45:51

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Snyder 45:52

generally beat me to the punch. But email is equip tech chris@live.com.

Trent Manning 46:01

Okay.

Chris Snyder 46:01

I'd be more than happy to help anybody out, you know, whatever I can help out with. But. Preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance.

Trent Manning 46:09

There you go. Preventive maintenance. I love it. Well, thank you again, Chris, so much for being on the podcast. I've thoroughly enjoyed this and I appreciate your time and we'll see you round.

Chris Snyder 46:23

Alright, I appreciate it. Thank you very much, Trent.

Trent Manning 46:31

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.