The titles "academic" and "educator" might seem interchangeable, but as Bill Kreuser, Ph.D., reinvents his career, he is proving that those labels are mutually exclusive.
After recently leaving the University of Nebraska, where his duties for seven years included teaching, research, writing (and getting published) and extension, Kreuser still is an educator and scientist, even if the classroom where he teaches looks a little different.
Today, Kreuser is managing turf and conducting research as superintendent at Jim Ager Golf Course, a nine-hole municipal layout in Lincoln. He does his own research there and makes areas of the course available to University of Nebraska turf students looking for a real-world research plot. He also is dedicating more time to growing TurfGrade, the research and education business he owns with his mentor Doug Soldat, Ph.D., from the University of Wisconsin, where Kreuser earned bachelor's and master's degrees.
"My career in academia is over," Kreuser said. "This way, I can keep doing what I love doing: writing articles, teaching, doing research. I'm just doing it in a different capacity.
"I left the university to be more involved in running my company. I was being pulled in so many directions, I wasn't doing anything well. This is less stressful and more fulfilling. I don't want to be a consultant, but if people need help, I do some of that. This way, I do it on my own terms."
We are using research results to make superintendents' jobs easier. That's why people use it.
Through TurfGrade, Soldat and Kreuser manage GreenKeeper. A mobile- and desktop-friendly application that Kreuser developed at the University of Nebraska as a way to help turf managers be more efficient with plant growth regulator use based on a growing degree day model, GreenKeeper monitors weather and employs user data to provide turfgrass managers with information to make informed decisions about applying PGRs, fertilizers and other inputs.
Kreuser developed the app while employed at the university, which still owns it. TurfGrade pays the university royalties for exclusive rights to operate it with an option to buy after 10 years. Kreuser and Soldat are four years into that agreement.
"It tells you what to spray and when," Soldat said. "We are using research results to make superintendents' jobs easier. That's why people use it."
TurfGrade is a multi-pronged tool with one simple goal in mind - to help turf managers do their jobs better and more efficiently. Some of that occurs through the GreenKeeper App, and some includes university-level education from some of the brightest minds in the business. Kreuser's new path dovetails nicely with that goal, Soldat said.
"In academia, you're always doing applied research to help people do their jobs better, but they also need support," he said. "Bill is taking that to the next level.
"I don't get credit for developing software. I get credit for writing papers no one reads and giving talks that hopefully blow the socks of one or two people who when they go home make changes at their golf course. If you sign up for GreenKeeper, you don't have to remember what I said about PGRs. You need someone to do the applied research, but you also need a way to get the research into their hands so they are not making wholesale changes all by themselves. Bill is a more effective educator by working at a nine-hole golf course and continuing to develop software."
Kreuser is working hard to grow the business.
"Any money Doug and I make goes right back into the company. We don't take anything out," Kreuser said.
"We want to keep seeing it grow. Our mission is to transform the way turf managers make decisions. We are doing that with classes and the app."
TurfGrade employs three full-time and three part-time developers who, based on Kreuser and Soldat's work, are constantly updating GreenKeeper.
"We are getting more integrated with hardware and sensors," Kreuser said. "The app won't take the place of superintendents. We want to give them information in a clear way and help them make the right decisions."
Through GreenKeeper, Kreuser and Soldat are redefining turf education at, no pun intended, a grassroots level. The app allows superintendents and sports turf managers to dial in on best management practices from their laptop or phone 24/7. GreenKeeper University provides those already with an understanding of turfgrass physiology with more in-depth education. Besides Kreuser and Soldat, some of GKU's instructors are Tom Nikolai of Michigan State, Paul Koch (Wisconsin), Aaron Patton (Purdue) and Ben McGraw (Penn State). The GreenKeeper U template is a spinoff of the Great Lakes School of Turfgrass Science model that Soldat runs with Koch, Brian Horgan, Ph.D., now the chair of the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State, and Sam Bauer, Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.
This is not meant to replace university education, but to get university-level education into the hands of those who don't have the time or money to get a two-year or four-year degree.
"We are passionate about helping people do their jobs better," Soldat said.
"We expect people to have some general experience in turf. GreenKeeper University offers a more specific curriculum. It's a more focused platform. We are seeing trends in declining enrollment, even in some two-year programs. This is not meant to replace university education, but to get university-level education into the hands of those who don't have the time or money to get a two-year or four-year degree."
Leaving the university for more time growing TurfGrade and GreenKeeper has not stopped Kreuser from his research.
As the superintendent at Ager, which might soon be the world's best-conditioned par-3 course, Kreuser conducts research trials just as he did at the university. He also lets UNL turf students use the course that has a long history with the university.
UNL alumni have served as superintendent there in the past, including Kreuser's predecessor at Ager, Andrew Getty, superintendent at the Prairie Club in Valentine, Nebraska.
The course also has a legacy in growing the game. It has a vibrant junior golf program Foot Golf is popular there. While working around junior programs, foot golfers and 20,000-plus rounds a year, a lot of research also takes place at Ager. Wetting agents, fertilizers, fungicides and, of course, PGRs, all get tested there, including a current yellow nutsedge trial. A traffic study is meant to simulate conditions during a major championship. And the results of all these trials help feed GreenKeeper.
"This is a 40-acre test course. It doesn't take a ton to make it look good, but we have high standards for an $11-a-round golf course," Kreuser said. "It's easy to lose touch in academia with all the pencil-pushing. When I got off the grass I felt like I was getting more distant from the industry. Working on the golf course also helps me stay connected to the industry."
