Just because Andy Hutchinson left the golf business behind for a position managing institutional turf, it doesn't mean he is free from pressure to produce high-quality grass on a consistent basis. But it does mean he has a shorter walk for help if the pressure becomes too much.Hutchinson, 31, spent nearly a dozen years in the golf business before leaving it in his utility vehicle mirror in 2011 for a career managing the grounds at Owensboro Health, a 157-acre healthcare campus in western Kentucky that includes a Owensboro Health Regional Hospital.
And the golf industry, he said, hasn't cornered the market on producing lush, green turf. Although there aren't green chairmen asking about Stimpmeter readings on hospital grounds, creating a strong first impression with aesthetically pleasing turf and grounds is important, Hutchinson said.
"There are a lot of similarities (between golf and hospitals) as far as aesthetics and attention to detail go," he said. "We still have very high expectations and are held to a very high standard."
Last year, Owensboro Health, under Hutchinson's guidance, was named a Certified Signature Sanctuary by Audubon International. Audubon's signature program is a comprehensive environmental awareness program that includes not only a properties natural grounds, but begins in working with property planners, building architects and others to achieve long-term sustainability practices.
"Landscaping at a hospital is very important for first impressions and curb appeal. It is not the main attraction like the golf course is," he said. "This can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. Missing small details here would not cause headaches like they would on a golf course, but at the same time, we are not nearly as important at budget time either. Turf maintenance is very different on this side of the green industry. It is very fragmented and broken up into little pockets and islands that make maintaining a small amount of acreage very time consuming."
During his college days at Western Kentucky University, Hutchinson was a biology major and was working summers on a golf course crew. It was the lure of the outdoors that led him eventually to pursue a turfgrass management education.He prepped at places like the 95-year-old Owensboro Country Club and Hunting Creek Country Club in Louisville, as well as at Atlanta-area tracks like the Golf Club of Georgia and Stone Mountain Golf Club.
Hutchinson and wife Lacey got the itch to move to their old Kentucky home in 2011. Initially, he took a job as the superintendent at The Falls Resort Golf Club, but the financially struggling facility closed its doors that year and has not reopened since, although a call to the facility reveals that it still is being maintained.
As luck would have it, there was an opening for the grounds supervisor at the Owensboro Health system property, and Hutchinson was hired with the understanding he would guide the property through the Audubon International program. He still remains active in professional development, both for himself and colleagues, as vice president of the Kentucky Turf Council.
"I don't think I left golf in search of something new," Hutchinson said. "My background and experience just fit the job at Owensboro Health very well. I would also be lying if didn't say that near equal pay for a 40-hour work week was very appealing."
According to hospital information, Owensboro Health's campus comprises more than 150 acres, about 110 of which are naturals comprised of turf, ponds and open spaces. The rest of the property includes hospital and medical offices as well as parking facilities.It was at Stone Mountain, a Marriott resort and conference facility located on a 3,200-acre state park, where Hutchinson got his first taste of managing vast expanses of land and turf that went far beyond just a golf course. At Stone Mountain, both the golf course and the resort grounds have been certified, separately, by Audubon International.
"Andy is a standout turf manager because he sees the connection between things," said Stone Mountain director of grounds Anthony Williams, CGCS. "He understands how weather impacts the timing of agronomics, everything from aeration to fertilization to irrigation. He sees the environomic connection that protecting the green space also means guarding the profit line because there is a financial component in any sustainability that is linked to a business."
He has since learned that institutional grounds care shares other things with golf as well.
"The one thing that is most difficult to manage is the unpredictability of mother nature," Hutchinson said. "It's really hard to make people understand that at a certain point you just get what Mother Nature gives you and we just have to make the best of it."