Peter Braun knows being the best golf course superintendent he can be requires a broad spectrum of experience. To that end, he set out last year on a whirlwind tour working on three golf courses on three continents before settling in as a newly anointed intern at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
Part of Braun's tour included blogging about his experiences as an intern at Mount Juliet Golf Club in Kilkenny, Ireland. A native of Cambridge, New York and graduate of Ohio State via SUNY Cobleskill, Braun was the third intern placed by TurfNet at Mount Juliet, and the third to share his experiences in his blog presented by Jacobsen.
Following his internship at Mount Juliet, Braun followed with another internship at The Hills Golf Club in New Zealand and volunteered on the crew for this year's Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He was placed in New Zealand through The Ohio Program, an international internship program at OSU.
"By the end of my second-to-last semester of college, I started to think about what I had done during my time in school," Braun said. "One experience was missing for me: to experience different cultures. By utilizing TurfNet and The Ohio Program I was able to achieve this goal. Seeing how golf courses in Ireland and New Zealand are run gave me more perspective on turf maintenance here in the States. From small things such as less bunker maintenance to larger problems like quality sand availability I realized these are still golf courses where grass is mowed and the course is set up for play each day."
TurfNet's involvement in placing interns on golf courses in Ireland began in 2012 with Cam Cooper. A SUNY Delhi graduate from Manlius, New York, Cooper now is the head superintendent at The Ridge Golf Club, a nine-holer in Syracuse. He is in his third season at The Ridge and is recently married to the former Rachel Huber.
The internship program associated with TurfNet and Jacobsen not only prepares tomorrow's greenkeepers for a career in turf management, but also helps give them valuable international experience that will help them off the golf course.
"The golf course work was a big part of the experience, but not the whole package," Braun said. "In Ireland and New Zealand, I traveled around exploring the country, went to agricultural shows, and saw lots of history. I ran a few races, biked around, and went hiking. My trip overseas opened my eyes to the differences in countries and cultures, but each having their own beauty and uniqueness. The golf course work was a big part of the experience, but not the whole package."
The blog started quite by accident. Cooper contacted TurfNet's Jon Kiger in December 2011 for help finding a job or internship for summer 2012 after he noticed various activities in Ireland on the site. Mount Juliet superintendent Aidan O'Hara brought Cooper aboard, and the blog materialized as a way to showcase the differences in cultural practices in other parts of the world.
Carson Letot has been extremely busy since interning at Mount Juliet in 2013.
He has earned a bachelor's degree in crop and soil sciences and another in environmental studies, both from Michigan State. Before heading into the real world, he is completing an internship at the university's Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center in Chatham, and was chosen partly because of his work abroad in association with Jacobsen and TurfNet.
Since blogging, Letot has turned his focus away from the golf course for a planned career as an educator.
"Not only was my summer in Ireland at Mount Juliet the best summer of my life, but it was also a great experience to be in partnership with TurfNet. The blog entries that I completed taught me to document experiences so that I could later properly reflect on what I learned and what I enjoyed," Letot said. The lessons learned that summer are still with me today, and I believe that they will pay large dividends down the road as I embark in a career as a teacher the fields of biology, agriculture and environmental sciences."
Two more bloggers, both from the University of Nebraska, have taken up the mantle this year.
Jeff Lenihan is working for Campey Turf Care Systems, a supplier of turf management equipment based in Cheshire, England. Lenihan previously interned with the Columbus Crew, an MLS franchise in Ohio.
Eric Bruening is spending the summer as an intern at Lahinch Golf Club in County Clare, Ireland. He is on pace to graduate in December, upon which he hopes to return to Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska. Ohio State's O'Keeffe assisted both students with placements as well as the process of securing visas.
In his new role at Hazeltine, Braun is part of a group brought in to help head superintendent Chris Tritabaugh prepare the Twin Cities-area course for the 2016 Ryder Cup Matches.
"Here I am part of an intern group that is given lots of responsibility and educational material," he said. "Currently we have started a weekly management program where each week one intern gets to lead a crew of 6-10 workers to get the bunkers mowed and raked, irrigation heads and trees trimmed, as well as other small projects. I am excited to see what is in store for course leading up to the 2016 Ryder Cup matches."