This March I finally get to put the classroom knowledge I have gained at Penn State to work in the field. I will be spending six months on an extended internship at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. While my past four years have been spent working at Tobiano, this will be my first official internship, and I have high hopes for it being a great one as well.
The Winged Foot Golf Club was established in 1921 when a few members of the New York Athletic Club decided that they wanted to build a golf course. Without support from within the athletic club, they were forced to undertake the process on their own. Within a year they acquired a 280 acre piece of land in Mamaroneck. With the selection of Albert Warren Tillinghast as their course architect, construction began. In June of 1923, after a very laborious process of tree and rock removal, construction of the East and West courses was finished.
The West Course is a par 72 and measures 7,264 yards with a course rating of 76.1 and a slope rating of 145. The East Course is a par 72 and measures 6,750 yards with a course rating of 73.9 and a slope rating of 142. The 2009-10 listings in Golf Digest place Winged Foot's courses at 8th and 65th for the West and East respectively. Winged Foot is also home to two of the longest holes ever played in a major championship. During championships, the course is converted to a par 70, and the average length of the par five ninth hole, soon becomes a monster to play at a par four rating. At 514 yards, this is the longest par four in the history of major championship play. The par five twelfth measures in at 640 yards, making it the second longest hole in major championship history.
I have several things that I hope to accomplish this summer on my internship. Over the past few weeks at Penn State, I have been taking an increased interest in our mechanic classes. This is one area that I hope I am able to gain experience with while at Winged Foot. Ideally, I would like to spend a week with the mechanic in order to gain a greater understanding of the processes involved in keeping the equipment properly tuned. Additionally, I believe that the potential benefits of "being on the other side of the work-bench" would prove to be invaluable later in my career. With some exposure to the common issues that golf course mechanics encounter, and exposure to the remedies they employ, I believe that I will become an increasingly well rounded turf manager. Here, is a sample of the mechanical related goals I developed as part of our internship preparation class last fall.
Goal: To develop a solid base knowledge of regular day-to-day mechanics.
- Become proficient at adjusting the height of both reel and rotary mowers
- Learn how to swap over cutting units
- Be able to troubleshoot small engine problems
- Be able to repair small engines
- Learn proper machine lubricating regiments
- Grind reels and bedknives
An additional goal I have for my internship this summer is to take my first leap into the realm of spraying. The safe and environmentally sensitive approach to applying products on golf courses is one of the most important agronomic practices a turf manager must employ. My goals related to spraying practices include:
Goal: To become comfortable with selecting and applying pesticides and fertilizers.
- Learn how to operate a boom sprayer
- Familiarize myself with effective chemical mixtures
- Learn to use a sprayhawk
- Learn how to properly select fertilizer
- Calibrate a spreader
- Figure out the most cost effective fertilizers/pesticides
In closing, I am very excited at the opportunity to intern at a golf course with such prestige and history and I will take as much as possible from this experience. I plan on keeping my eyes and ears open and ensuring that I make my time at Winged Foot beneficial to both myself, and the club. I look forward to the challenge of meeting the high expectations of the club and I can not wait to start!
(Picture obtained from img.timeinc.net)
(Information regarding dates and history obtained from Wikipedia)
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