This past week has been a busy one for the first, second, and third year Turfgrass Management Students. We have been fortunate enough to have numerous Guest speakers come to Olds College to talk to us about the Turfgrass Industry. Guest speakers can be very beneficial to us as students. They present us with new ideas, they offer a new perspective, and they can give us insights on what to expect in the future of the Golf Course Management.
The first speaker that we were lucky enough to have speak to us was Dale Miller, the Lead Agronomist for Brett Young. We should give Dale some credit as he travelled all the way from Texas and faced the -40 degree temperature just to speak to the Turf students. You could tell right away that he was passionate about our Industry and that he had learned so much from his 30 plus years of experience. He talked about the benefits of Carbonates over Sulfates in terms of fertilizers, and he showed us that we can be way more efficient with the amount of fertilizer applied.
The second set of speakers that came to Olds College to talk to the Turf Students were various Assistant Superintendents from around Central and Southwestern Alberta. These Assistant Superintendents came from different types of golf courses with varying budget ranges and maintenance capabilities. They sat as a panel at the front of the lecture hall and were then bombarded with questions prepared by the Turf students. They all handled themselves very well with the questions presented to them, giving us clear responses of what to expect as an Assistant Superintendent. Each one of the speakers from the panel had their own path to becoming an Assistant Superintendent and they shared some advice that they learned on the way. This proved to be very informative to us who are preparing to make that next step in the Turfgrass Management Industry.
Brandon Conrick
