Episode 137: Anthony Donofrio

Welcome to Episode 137 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast. Today, we’re talking to Anthony Donofrio, Equipment Manager at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver, BC. Marine Drive is an 18-hole private club where Anthony leads a team consisting of one full-time technician and one part-time grind technician.

The club primarily uses Toro mowers but is introducing new Baroness mowers this year. Their equipment lineup also includes Club Car utility vehicles and Kubota tractors. Anthony's journey in the golf industry began as a summer crew member while studying criminology. Over time, he worked his way up from technician to equipment manager, gaining valuable experience along the way.

In this episode, Anthony discusses the advantages of having a hydraulic press in the shop and how it helps reduce equipment downtime. He also shares the value of regular friendship check-ins to start the weekend on a positive note and tackle weekend projects together. Shop space and setup can present challenges, and Anthony explains how he has adapted to those constraints.

As expectations for quality of cut continue to evolve, Anthony highlights the importance of reel maintenance education, especially for those transitioning into turf equipment management from other careers. He also emphasizes the wealth of opportunities and resources available in the industry and the role that strong mentorship plays in helping technicians grow and succeed.

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Transcript

Trent Manning: 0:56

Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm your host, Trent. Manning let's have some this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company's line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to the real turf text podcast, episode 1 37. Today, we're talking to Anthony Donofrio. The equipment manager at Marine drive golf club in Vancouver, British Columbia. Marine drive golf club is a private 18 hole course. Anthony has one full-time tech and a part-time tech. He has primarily Toro equipment. Let's talk to Anthony. Welcome Anthony to the real turf text podcast. Thanks for coming on. How you doing today?

Anthony Donofrio: 2:25

Good, good. Yeah, no, thanks for having me, Trent. Yeah, I've I've heard a few of these and I was happy to see that email come through when you sent it in, so glad to be here.

Trent Manning: 2:32

Well, that's awesome. I do think some people probably just hit delete, delete, you know, when they see the email come through. And

Anthony Donofrio: 2:40

worried or nervous about it.

Trent Manning: 2:41

Yep, and I've had people to, you know, so now, you know, I just like to keep to myself. I don't want to do that. And that's fine. I respect that. That's cool. You know? So if I am sending you emails and you don't want to do the podcast, just let me know and I'll stop sending the emails

Anthony Donofrio: 2:56

Don't just ghost you.

Trent Manning: 2:58

Yeah, right. And if you are interested in being a guest on the podcast. Let me know. Send me an email. I'd be happy to have you on because we're always looking for guests and it's, you know, a random luck of the draw or unluck of the draw, however you want to look

Anthony Donofrio: 3:14

sure. Yeah, no doubt.

Trent Manning: 3:16

Well, Anthony, tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Anthony Donofrio: 3:20

Yeah, I mean, it sounds familiar sometimes talking to guys and then other people I talk to, it's completely different. But for me, I kind of just fell into it. I was going to school for following kind of a law path. I was going to school for criminology and kind of thought that I would end up in some type of either law enforcement or lawyer type of role. And I needed a summer job while I was going to school. So I ended up working at the golf course. And I started on the crew first. And within a couple months I kind of mentioned to the super that, hey, I have a mechanical background. My father is a 25 year technician, so, for automotive. Building stuff since I was young, you know, either with him or, you know, what have you. And he gave me that chance back then. That would have been in 2012. 12 I guess or 2013 at this point and I never left. I Realized that you know, the law path is not for me. I'm not that type of person and I Kind of just stuck with the golf side of it and tried to find the ladder to climb I guess would be the right way of saying and I didn't really know where that was gonna lead me just working at a Lower end club at the time and I really didn't know What was the right path through that, whether I wanted to become an assistant and follow the supers route or stay as a technician, but yeah, my progression was almost accidental, I would say, because working up to this point, I hadn't even, I didn't even know the industry was like this, to be perfectly honest

Trent Manning: 4:47

Oh yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 4:48

first two clubs, I had no idea that, The GCSAA existed you know, I didn't realize that there was some events to go to and networking, you know, conventions, and things like that, so, it's been pretty fruitful, I gotta say, you know, in, in terms of starting there, and my dad kinda looking at me going, wow, it's a weird, you know, shift going from law to this, and it doesn't make any sense, and he was obviously, you know, worried for his son that he wasn't gonna, you know, amount to much or something or whatever, but you know, it's been great, and it's taken care of myself and my wife, so, yeah the job has been great, so,

Trent Manning: 5:19

No, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. How long have you been in the industry?

Anthony Donofrio: 5:24

Yeah. So it's since 2013. So what does that put me at now? I guess 12 years.

Trent Manning: 5:28

Okay. Yeah, that's awesome.

Anthony Donofrio: 5:30

12 years. Yeah. Most of that is, I would say most of that as a technician and now stepping into I'm at a private club now as more of a, I guess, management role or equipment manager role with technicians under me, which is great and very different. You know, not a, it's not always a grass is always greener type situation.

Trent Manning: 5:48

Right. Right.

Anthony Donofrio: 5:49

there are some days I wish I could just go back in the shop and keep wrenching, but you know, there are other days where I'm very fortunate to be in the position that I'm in. So.

Trent Manning: 5:56

Oh, yeah, for sure. And I mean, I think I've said this before, but you know, most of us kind of end up in your predicament, if you will. Because we're really good at being mechanics and working on things or whatever. And then, you know, the need arises and you need more help, so you hire somebody under you. And then next thing you know, you're a manager. Well, you know, we didn't go to school to be managers, you know. Give me a diesel engine, I'll fix that thing. But, give me a person to try to lead and instruct to fix that thing. That's a whole different. It's a ball game we're playing with, but

Anthony Donofrio: 6:34

exactly,

Trent Manning: 6:35

does make it interesting for sure.

Anthony Donofrio: 6:37

Well, for sure. And you know what? If anything, it's dynamic, so, it keeps us on our toes and learning, which is always nice.

Trent Manning: 6:43

Oh yeah, for sure. So did you have a background in golf? Did you like to play or any of

Anthony Donofrio: 6:50

No, actually, up until then, I had I think I may have played once or twice with buddies. I want to say probably not, but if I had, it was only once or twice, and from then on we have played more. I'm not sure I can consider what I do on a golf course as playing golf, but you know, I do get out there and I swing a stick around. So, you know, I make it happen. But yeah, I won't be joining any tournaments anytime soon for sure.

Trent Manning: 7:15

Well, and I mean, I don't play either, but I know Mitch Hunt and Chris Whitaker. I'm trying to think Jordan Roth, Brian Eplin all technicians, all that I've had on the podcast before, and they really enjoy playing. And I don't know if they're very good. I mean, I can't, I've never seen. So, you know, but just from what I hear, they just really have fun playing. And so more power to

Anthony Donofrio: 7:45

it's really just getting out with the guys and just having something else to do other than work or chores or, you know, home life stuff. Right.

Trent Manning: 7:53

right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, what's your least favorite part of the job? Those employees.

Anthony Donofrio: 8:02

Yeah, I guess, well, no, it's not too bad. I got some great guys right now, you know, I was very fortunate with who is able to come up with in the shop this time. But I think the least, yeah, the least likely thing that I would want to do probably just in terms of management is crunching the numbers and getting sitting down and going through the budget meetings. And although they're necessary and it's, you know, interesting spending someone else's money, it's just. It's kind of monotonous for me to sit there for hours through a budget meeting or whatever it is and have to figure that out, although it's, you know, just as important as everything else. It's like, like we understand, right? My peace comes from sitting and fixing something rather than sitting behind a desk, but,

Trent Manning: 8:46

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's I don't know anybody that got into our role and said, Oh, I really want to sit behind the desk all day long. You know, I mean, that's not what we signed up for. Even though, you know, some of us do end up that, especially some of these bigger facilities. I was talking to Jason Fontana last week and he was at desert mountain. I interviewed him out there. He's also a CTM. And now he went to Madonna and I think, yeah, in Chicago and which is still a huge operation, all that stuff, but he's going to be able to get his hands dirty again, and I think

Anthony Donofrio: 9:25

you go.

Trent Manning: 9:26

excited about that, you know? Because I think Desert Mountain was just so big, like I want to say he had 14 techs working for him or something like that. I mean, it's a huge property. So yeah, I mean, he was just, you know, behind the desk all the time and putting out fires all day long every day. So yeah he seems really excited about the new challenges that he'll have there at Medina. So I'm definitely happy for him.

Anthony Donofrio: 9:54

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 9:55

Well, what's your favorite tool?

Anthony Donofrio: 9:57

Favorite tool that I have. You know, we just we just got a hydraulic press in the shop, a full hydraulic setup. And that has been key for getting stuff back in business. And I had one originally back at my first club, but it was a super basic, you know, setup. And I don't, I wasn't even a hundred percent sure it was the correct setup to be honest with you, but it was just one of those things that had been sitting in there for 25 years. So. We used it, but yeah, no, getting this hydraulic set up has been really nice. We tried to stick to the, almost our replacement intervals for anything going near green, at least rough. We kind of push and, you know, let it slide, go past those hour intervals. Obviously we don't want to be building hoses for no reason if they're in good condition. So, but yeah, no, I, you know, I really love that thing. It's something that's, it's expensive of course, but it's a small thing to have in the shop. That increases your, your, like, increases your downtime in terms of, or decreases your downtime, I guess, right?

Trent Manning: 10:54

Oh

Anthony Donofrio: 10:54

instead of us having to grab a hose, clean it off, put it in the truck, drive over to the shop, you know, hose shop, get them to rebuild one, or they can't do it same day, you know, You know, pain in the butt trying to get all that done.

Trent Manning: 11:06

Oh, for sure. Yeah, the situation I'm in, it, you know, it's an hour one way to the host shop. So, you know, automatically there's two and a half hours out of my day or, you know, want somebody else's day to go get the hose made. And I would say 90 percent of the time that store is able to make the hose. We need, I do have a Napa that is closer, you know, it's 20 minutes away, but it's. You know, 10 percent of the time they might have the fitting I need to make the hose, so I usually don't even bother going over there. So I've been making my own hoses too for, I don't know, how long it's been now? Probably seven, eight years. What kind of hose machine did you get?

Anthony Donofrio: 11:57

we went with the Parker setup. So same as the factory stuff for Toro. I I didn't choose it because it was the same stuff that Toro uses, but they had a incentive program here in our area where you basically just buy all the product and they give you the crimper. I'm not sure if that's the same system down in the States, but yeah, it was pretty simple for us. Just buy all the stock and they offer you the crimper for free. Sort of. It's based on a, you know, stock ordering basis. So. It made sense to us at the time and given that certain pieces of equipment that we do have that we decided to retain longer term We're gonna have to get fully re hosed I mean you're blowing through stock pretty quick on some of these machines right once you get into that.

Trent Manning: 12:37

No, that's cool. That was, yeah really awesome. What kind of crimper is it? Is it pneumatic or electric? Right,

Anthony Donofrio: 12:50

It's got all the you know, it's the more modern ones. It's got all the phases So you just crimp down until it stops. There's no I mean, you should check your crimp specs anyway, but it's typically pretty good, especially when new, as long as your dyes aren't worn, it's going to crimp it down perfectly every time. So as long as you have nothing on the hose, sheath, I guess, before you crimp, but, so it's a pretty foolproof one, which is kind of why I went with it to make sure that when I do train other techs, that it's a little bit, you know, dummy proof in that sense, where we're not going to have any weird blowouts near greens or anything like that, based on. You know, unless it's some type of strange issue with the fitting or whatever, that's a different story. But,

Trent Manning: 13:28

Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 13:28

I

Trent Manning: 13:29

Yeah, no,

Anthony Donofrio: 13:30

it as easy as possible for guys.

Trent Manning: 13:32

That's good stuff. Yeah, and I've heard other people in the industry kind of go the opposite way on that. Like, I don't want the liability of making my own hoses. You know, so I do get that side of it but I definitely think it's situational depending on the type of course and facility you're at and you know, if the guy you're working for is behind it, go for it. You know, if the guy you're working for is not behind it, buy all your hoses,

Anthony Donofrio: 14:02

yeah, no, for sure, it's a valid point. I mean, if you're concerned about it or maybe if you're a super and you're like, ah, I don't know about this tech, I don't know if he's able to, you know, perform that

Trent Manning: 14:14

Well, true.

Anthony Donofrio: 14:15

that it's not going to have a problem, you know, it's a valid point. I've seen some guys where I shake my head too, so.

Trent Manning: 14:20

Right, right, right, right, right. Yep, for sure. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Anthony Donofrio: 14:27

I got a pretty good routine with my best friends every Saturday or Sunday, typically Saturday we always hit the same place for breakfast, you know, creatures of habit type of thing. And basically we, some of us call it unwinding from the week. I call it kind of starting up the weekend. So, you know, we sit there, you know, bleed off any of our woes from the last week and. You know, talk shop, politics, whatever it is, and then we head over to my dad's place where we have a pretty well set up automotive shop. We just wrench on our cars or projects that we have going on or if none of that happens, we just sit there and crush cans all day,

Trent Manning: 15:05

Oh yeah. No, that is so cool.

Anthony Donofrio: 15:08

just try to stay ahead of it and again, it's kind of trying to keep us out of the house if we can and not because we don't love our home life. It's just, you know, we need that bit of that balance in terms of

Trent Manning: 15:18

yeah. For sure.

Anthony Donofrio: 15:19

at home versus spending time for yourself. So

Trent Manning: 15:22

No, that's really good. Yeah. Some guy time. Yeah,

Anthony Donofrio: 15:25

yeah, you know, just some, yeah, exactly.

Trent Manning: 15:27

Yeah,

Anthony Donofrio: 15:27

And it's an open door policy. Whoever's around and available. Yeah. Just roll in, you know, come hang out if you want, if you like that stuff. Some of the guys, they don't know, they don't know anything about cars. They just like to hang out. So it's perfect.

Trent Manning: 15:39

Well, right. I mean, you need people to drink beer with, too, so. I mean, whatever.

Anthony Donofrio: 15:43

that's just how it is. Right. I mean, you know, it's usually a good precursor to a good day. So

Trent Manning: 15:49

That's right. No that's good stuff, man. That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm definitely going to hit you up when I'm

Anthony Donofrio: 15:54

Hey, if you're ever, if you're ever in Vancouver, you're more than welcome.

Trent Manning: 15:57

What's been one of your biggest challenges working at the golf course?

Anthony Donofrio: 16:01

Space. So, it's a great facility. The building itself is not that old, and I'm sure that me complaining about space to certain guys would be like, Oh, you're out to lunch. But the way that the shop is currently set up is imagine a big one bay. So it's a huge one bay with a hoist in the middle. I've got a bay door in front of the hoist and behind it. So it's like almost like a drive thru style. But it's awkwardly built in the sense that I can't really put equipment on either side of the hoist. And there's not a, enough room front to back to put them on the edges. So it makes it kind of difficult. And with the amount of equipment that we have, it'd be nice to have at least two bays. One for sort of real set up. And then one for repairs because a lot of the time we put something on the hoist and then, you know, you're in the middle of the repair. You're like, it's not really worth taking it off while we wait for a part we need to get headset up or whatever the case may be. So, it just tends to be a bit cumbersome and slows us down and end up running into efficiency issues. So, we've been in conversation for a little bit now and figuring out how we're going to expand if we need to. But there's kind of this long term goal of getting this shop moved to a different side of the course Where we can build a new facility. Anyway, we're pretty small short on storage as well It's just changed over the past 30 years In terms of how much equipment we have and I think they've built the building a little too small even back then for themselves So it's sort of the same story here in a lot of places to be honest with you. But yeah.

Trent Manning: 17:33

yeah, the amount of equipment that we have now, you know, I'm at, I got the two courses, but the one I stay at primarily is an 18 hole course and we have enough equipment probably for a 54 hole course, you know, it's just crazy how much equipment that you collect over the years and we do the best we can on, you know, purging the older stuff that we don't use. But I mean, that's the other thing. Like, when I first started in 95, I think we had 12 people on the crew, including the mechanic, the assistant mechanic, a superintendent, and an assistant superintendent. And now, in the summertime, we got almost 40 guys on the crew. You know, so you do have to have a lot more equipment than we did back then. But space is always an issue. The other thing I was thinking about when you were talking about that and my recent trip to Chicago, I noticed a lot more people has two lifts in their shop. And obviously if you don't have one, try to get one.

Anthony Donofrio: 18:42

You no doubt.

Trent Manning: 18:43

yeah, but if you got one, I think let's try to get two because I'm in the same situation kind of as you are with the one lift. I don't use that lift for anything other than checkin mowers.

Anthony Donofrio: 18:58

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 18:59

And, I mean, you know, I say that. Occasionally, yeah, I'll do an oil change or somethin on the lift. But, again, I can't do a repair. Somethin that's gonna take, you know, if it's gonna be down for a day, that's not an option.

Anthony Donofrio: 19:12

No, exactly. Yeah. And that's the tough part. And I mean, coming from the automotive side, everything's done on a hoist. Right. And I kind of treat it the same way. You know, I try to get my tech to use the hoist as much as he can just to try and save your body. I mean, my dad, his neck is mangled and his back's mangled from working on stuff. Right. So if you can get it on a hoist, you should. But again, like you said, right, you almost need to, at that point If the industry is going to push that way. So

Trent Manning: 19:39

Yeah, I think everybody, you know, That I know, we try to check our mowers every cut. So, you know, we're mowing every day and that ties the lift up for a long period of time.

Anthony Donofrio: 19:53

yeah,

Trent Manning: 19:54

Check, you know, checking mowers in and out. What's one of the strangest things you've seen at work?

Anthony Donofrio: 19:59

Yeah, I've seen a couple of things. Probably one of them was one of our guys at an old club. He he was a good guy. Great operator. He'd been there for a long time, but, he was driving a tractor with a slicer on the back of it. And I don't know if he had, what had happened. And I can't remember the exact situation of why he couldn't turn. But he couldn't turn away from one of our lake hazards, and he started heading directly towards it, and I was probably, I don't know, maybe 200 yards away, and I saw the whole thing unfold, and he went into the water, and lucky for him, it wasn't a heavy drop, it kind of sloped in. So the tractor just followed the slope into the water and he just calmly killed the key and let the tractor dive in and he just started raising his hand above his head holding a cigarette to keep the cigarette from going out. And I was like, I've never seen something so calm and relaxed in my whole life. It was just, I'm glad he hit the key. So at least it didn't ingest water. But yeah,

Trent Manning: 20:58

Oh, yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 20:59

things I've seen.

Trent Manning: 21:00

That is a really good one. Yes. Too bad you didn't get that on video

Anthony Donofrio: 21:04

I know. That's no doubt.

Trent Manning: 21:06

And as you were telling that story, I was, my first question was going to be, did it bend a rod? But he got it turned off and that's

Anthony Donofrio: 21:13

No, he was smart. He knew. He's like, Oh, that's it. It's too late now. Just shut the engine off and let it go.

Trent Manning: 21:19

That's funny. Yeah, as far as I know, every diesel engine that went in a lake bent a rod. In my experience, it's like

Anthony Donofrio: 21:29

I want gas. Yeah. Not so much. But with diesels, man, when they hydrolock it's a lot of pressure, I guess. It just doesn't like it.

Trent Manning: 21:36

Nope. It does not.

Anthony Donofrio: 21:39

No.

Trent Manning: 21:40

Do you have a mentor in the industry? Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 21:50

been really great at just kind of guiding me through. And, you know, it's funny, he's super hands off in terms of mentorship, in the sense that he doesn't try to push too hard if that's not what you want or whatever. And but his way of running the show in terms of being kind of hands off and letting you do your thing, he won't step in unless he thinks there's actually something going on. But I've learned a lot from him just in being around him. You don't even need, he doesn't even really need to, you know, have a lot of input per se. It's just, I kind of just start to reflect the same things that he's doing and try to present myself in the same ways and become more professional. So just being kind of with him and near him has made me I suppose more polished, if you want to call it that, in terms of cleaning up the edges and really trying, especially now that he's brought, he was the one who's been bringing me down to the shows and trying to push for that difference of image for us and who we are in terms of equipment technicians or equipment managers and just try to show people, you know, primarily our membership or the board that we're not just a bunch of wrenches, right. Or there, there's a little, there's a little bit more to us than you know, just a plain old mechanic. So. It's it's been great in that sense and like I said, moving to this club and having him as a super has completely opened my eyes to what's out there and available. So,

Trent Manning: 23:07

that is so awesome. Yeah. I mean, I'm so glad. Yeah. That he's getting you involved. Like that. I mean, what has that meant to you? Like, how opening is that? I guess going to the conference and some of those things.

Anthony Donofrio: 23:23

It was staggering to be honest with you in the first, my first year here first off being a private club versus, you know, a public track the, just a, the amount of money that's around, which obviously comes more problems,

Trent Manning: 23:36

No

Anthony Donofrio: 23:36

money to spend. So that was one thing to get over. Yeah. But then going to the show was I just I probably would not have imagined that in 100 years that's how the industry was that there's all these programs and the trade show is huge, massive trade shows and the, you know, education side of it, everybody that's kind of intertwined, ready to help, willing to talk, willing to You know, get involved. It's it's pretty incredible to be honest with you. And what's even probably more shocking at this point, now that it's kind of phased off of the surprise, is how many guys are still not involved in terms of they just don't know it exists, or their supers don't push them into it. Yeah, it's crazy. Some of the guys I've talked to are like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know how to help you then because you got to see it for yourself. You know, I can't really explain it. So

Trent Manning: 24:25

don't, I do think I hope it's not this way, but I mean, I think there's some old school guys out there that, you know, they're scared of losing their guy and they don't want to show them what else is out there, which is really sad if that is what's happening.

Anthony Donofrio: 24:44

yeah, that could be the case. Like I said, in terms of when you asked me how I started in the industry and I said I was very fortunate, I meant it in the sense that my second super well, my first super as well, he saw a position nearby open up at a different club and he knew that my trajectory was not going to be staying, you know, at that club for him. So he was the one who said, Hey, listen, you should really apply for this. I said, okay, sure. I mean, if you think that's the right thing and they were paying more on the whole deal and it's it was a semi private club. So you're kind of getting, you know, a little bit closer to that upper end. And then that super, I had only been working with him for two years, I believe. Again, I wasn't a part of any of the associations and he saw a posting come up for this private club, Marine Drive. And he said, Hey, listen I'd hate to lose you, but this is really a huge opportunity and you should consider taking it. Right? And having two superintendents willing to fall on their sword because in our area turf techs, or I mean, I guess people competent enough to be a turf tech, they're far and few between. Right? And there's not a lot of guys willing to work for, you know, realistically, not the same amount of money as other technicians out there. You know, whether it be heavy duty or whatever. So, they knew full well that if they lost somebody, it could take some time to get another guy in there. So, hugely fortunate that that they decided to do that for me, and in turn, I try to be the best guy that I can for my technicians as well. I try to push them up the chain. I got one guy in doing his Red Seal Apprenticeship right now, because for me, I think that's important for him to do and tick some boxes if he wants to work for the city or whatever, so I try to do what I can in terms of that.

Trent Manning: 26:17

Yeah. What all is involved in Yeah. What all is involved in

Anthony Donofrio: 26:20

For us, it's it's a four year program, basically not four years flat out it's basically you start off with like an eight year as your, or sorry, eight month, eight week period in the first one and then your second, third, and fourth start to reduce down by a couple weeks as you go through school. It's basically based off of hours on how that apprenticeship works. And then your final is just a test. So it's your Red Seal certification, which allows you to work across Canada except for Quebec for some reason.

Trent Manning: 26:49

Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 26:49

so yeah, it's a good program. It's something that he should have if he ever decides to move or whatever. Something happens to the club and we close, who

Trent Manning: 26:56

Yeah

Anthony Donofrio: 26:57

he's got something to fall back on and and some accreditation that follows that, right?

Trent Manning: 27:01

No, that's cool. That's really good.

Anthony Donofrio: 27:03

Yeah,

Trent Manning: 27:04

What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Anthony Donofrio: 27:08

yeah, you know, I think about this a lot in terms of, is there anything next for me? Is it a different club or what would I want to do? But in terms of call it a reasonable dream job. I love like, emergency vehicles, police cars, fire trucks, things like that. Even, you know, fire trucks at airports. I thought it'd be a cool job to be able to be the procurement guy on that side of it. So building them out, specing the cars out, whatever,

Trent Manning: 27:35

Oh, yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 27:35

ambulances and stuff. I, cause I don't know, I'm sure they have internal people that do that, but for some reason I thought it'd be just the coolest thing to be, you know, choose a brand and start decking it out kind of thing. Right. So

Trent Manning: 27:46

Oh yeah. No, I could definitely, I could get behind that.

Anthony Donofrio: 27:49

Yeah, for sure.

Trent Manning: 27:50

Yeah, that would be fun for sure. Yeah, heavy rescue unit or something with, yeah, all this. Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 27:57

Yeah, my uncle he's he works ground operations for one of the big airports nearby. So he obviously I Understand what's on his you know property and what kind of equipment they're running And yeah Some of those fire trucks are huge military Oshkosh units and stuff like that and they have to spec all that stuff out I'm like, ah, that's so cool

Trent Manning: 28:15

That is cool. That is cool. Yeah, for sure. Do you have a technician you would like to work with for a day? Okay.

Anthony Donofrio: 28:27

You know, there's a lot of guys out there that I think could benefit from one guy in particular that stands out, and I met him in Orlando last time, that'd be JR over on the East Coast. He was great.

Trent Manning: 28:40

Oh, okay.

Anthony Donofrio: 28:42

I sat next to him and just chatted with him, and man, he's just a do it all kind of guy. So I was like, you know what? This guy seems like somebody I would love to Yeah, I just feel like it'd be one of those super dynamic type of days or, you know, weeks, whatever, spending with him. I'm sure he's got a million projects. He only, you know, eliminated a couple that he was doing, but yeah, it was crazy. So,

Trent Manning: 29:04

You're not the first one that

Anthony Donofrio: 29:06

Yeah, I bet. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 29:07

Yeah, and I would highly recommend it. I was fortunate enough to spend, I don't, I think I spent two or three days, at least two, but I think three days with JR around his shop. He took me around Long Island. We visited a bunch of other shops. But, and hopefully I didn't hurt his feelings. I don't think I did. He's got, if you're in, if you live in New York, you got thick skin. Anyway,

Anthony Donofrio: 29:33

Oh, I bet.

Trent Manning: 29:34

yeah, they razz each other. Yeah, something fierce. But anyway I said, nothing's good enough for you, is it, JR? Like, anything that he bought, right? Like, whatever it was. Like, he had a hydraulic shop press and the support on the bottom of the press. He rigged it up with some pulleys and some cables and a little winch so he could crank it up and down, you know, to lower it up and down

Anthony Donofrio: 30:01

Oh, yeah.

Trent Manning: 30:01

height. And I'm like, that's a really good idea. Why hadn't I thought of that? You know, or why hadn't I done that to mine? Yeah, he had a drill press, like a small bench top drill press with a die grinder sitting on it.

Anthony Donofrio: 30:19

Okay.

Trent Manning: 30:20

I'm like, what in the world is, you know, what are you doing with this? Like, why do you put a bench grinder on, on your drill press? And it's for sharpening stump grinder teeth.

Anthony Donofrio: 30:32

Oh.

Trent Manning: 30:33

the green teeth, they're round. So you put them in the chuck of the drill and spin them. And then, you know, lower the quill

Anthony Donofrio: 30:41

And then you, yeah, you bring it

Trent Manning: 30:42

yeah. And I'm like, bad.

Anthony Donofrio: 30:44

Mill.

Trent Manning: 30:45

right, exactly. And I mean, one of the latest thing or I don't know who knows what he's doing now, but you know, he makes his own tines and he treats them. He's got a Ford, you know, all that stuff, which is super cool, but he was making his own sub air systems like welding the impeller, having it balanced all the way down to doing the fiberglass cover lid that goes over it, molding the fiberglass. I'm like, is there anything you can't do, J. R.?

Anthony Donofrio: 31:17

Yeah, man.

Trent Manning: 31:18

bet, yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 31:19

that's made in the USA right there. I mean,

Trent Manning: 31:21

know, it is crazy.

Anthony Donofrio: 31:23

awesome.

Trent Manning: 31:24

It's crazy. So, yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 31:26

great. No. And you know what? It's that type of, you know, creativity and ingenuity that, yeah. You know, I try to explain to my super. I'm like, we're not just a mechanic. I mean, just a mechanic means you specialize in one thing or a couple things here and there. I mean, I've done building electrical, you know, machine electrical, hydraulics, engines, you know, you name it. We've all been there. But then you talk to these other guys that work for, you know, Caterpillar or whatever, like, yeah, I'm just a diesel tech. That's it. That's all I do. And I'm

Trent Manning: 31:56

Right, right,

Anthony Donofrio: 31:57

yeah, well, that must be nice, but we don't do that, right? We kind of have to wear all those hats all at once, right? So, you know, it's a pretty, pretty unique situation to be in, I guess.

Trent Manning: 32:07

I ran into this technician working at a golf course and he came from the Coast Guard. And he'd retired. I don't remember how many years, whatever. But super knowledgeable guy. But he said where he messed up in the Coast Guard is he got all his certificates or degrees or whatever they were in electronics because he really enjoyed electronics. Well, he couldn't work on engines because he was certified on, you know, and I mean, he'd been around helicopters, you know, for whatever it was, 20 years. And, you know, helping the engine mechanics, but he wasn't certified in engines, so he couldn't work on them. And, I mean, it was kind of crazy, and that just reminds me of what you were talking about there.

Anthony Donofrio: 32:53

yeah, it is. Wow. I mean, instrumentation is its own trade really, but yeah, it's a lot, you know, and then all of a sudden you're thrown into something else go. Actually, I don't know how to do that part.

Trent Manning: 33:04

Yep. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Anthony Donofrio: 33:09

Yeah, definitely. Well, I mean, there's a few things, but obviously industry inclusion was probably number 1 on my list. But the 2nd, 1 1 down from that is really how in depth, you know, taking care of reels is and then how it affects performance on the course. I growing up and in the industry itself and working with another old timer there was no, stress put on leveling heads or, you know, even really making sure that it's perfectly, you know, parallelly ground as long as it sort of cut paper, it was good to go and send it out. Right? And that's just how it was and did a lot of back lapping and stuff like that there. So. Once I got here and started to realize a bit more of the onus that's put on quality and we don't even take it really as far as it can go. Of course, I mean, I, you see the, some of the stuff it's set ups for these big tournaments, you know, they're really taking it to an extreme but for our day to day we're not really going to do that. It doesn't really make any sense in terms of cost or, Yeah. You know, labor input, but yeah, I really wish I had known some of this stuff because I struggled in my earlier years, you know, trying to diagnose what was happening to certain heads or, you know, super would come in and go, Hey, you know, this feral units got all these lines. And I'm like, I know it's supposed to be 1 color. I don't know how to make it 1 color. Right? So, you know, getting to this point, and I still have barely scratched the surface of understanding how these reels are all. Yeah. Different, right, in terms of John Deere versus Toro and Jake and all that jazz, but yeah it would have been something that would have been nice to start off with rather than learn later, but,

Trent Manning: 34:39

Yeah, and yeah, how do we as an industry get that knowledge to beginner technicians or you know, people when they first start out, cause I mean, I've, I mean, I've learned more. I've been saying this a lot, but I've learned more in the last year on cutting units. have, you know, my first 27 years in the industry. You know, I mean, as when you really dive into it, you can learn a whole lot about what all is going on there. But yeah, I think the hard part is how do we get that to other technicians to train them? Because a lot of us and I mean, even including me when I first started the guy that trained me on You know, a lot of what I've known was, you know, he was an automotive mechanic and he was a really good mechanic and I mean, he could fix anything. He was, I mean, he was a wizard, you know, when it comes to engines and I mean, just he was very knowledgeable, right about all kinds of stuff, but what he knew about cutting units is just what he learned out of the book. You know, and kind of taught himself and at the time, we didn't have a bed knife grinder. So, we didn't grind bed knives. We couldn't. We didn't have a way. So, we lapped. You know, that was our only way and and when I look at, look back at that, like, wow, how did we get by? You know, without having a grinder. But we were still in the top ten in the state of Georgia. Our club was, which is, you know, it's like how do you argue with that? You know, I don't know. And

Anthony Donofrio: 36:29

it makes you wonder,

Trent Manning: 36:31

has expectations changed? Yeah, expectations have changed. They're a little bit higher now than what they used to be.

Anthony Donofrio: 36:38

Yeah, to me, I mean, yeah. From what I can tell, it really seems like people have been making this big push for more knowledge and more change in terms of how they deal with their cutting units over the past five years, at least from what I can see, but I know guys that are putting out unbelievable products, you know, in terms of turf, turf health and playability with some old equipment, like pull behind gang mowers that they only back lab, you know, things like that. And they're still producing great results, so it kind of makes me wonder how far you should go with it in terms of an operational standpoint, obviously, I'm sure we would all love to be able to do the absolute perfect thing every time all the time. But, I mean, it's not usually worth it in the end. Once you start crunching the numbers, you know, unless you have a super important tournament, we don't host any big events in terms of PGA stuff, but. I could see maybe in that sense they probably have their own you know, specifics or criteria that you have to meet but for the day to day operation I'm not sure that we should be getting into too much of the weeds when it comes to that, right? I mean,

Trent Manning: 37:45

All right.

Anthony Donofrio: 37:45

a good, healthy cut and everything's even, then I think for the most part we're in good shape.

Trent Manning: 37:51

No and I do, I agree with that a hundred percent. The only thing I want to learn or try to figure out or get better at is there a way to set up a cutting unit where the cut will last longer.

Anthony Donofrio: 38:08

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 38:08

You know what I'm saying? That so yeah, if I grind these angles on my bed knife and you know, I'm setting my contact like this. Yeah. You know, how long does my cut last and is there a way to make that better? Cause, yeah and, yeah, inconsistent. You know, and then the superintendent top dresses the green and I just throw all that info out of the, out, you know, it's all gone.

Anthony Donofrio: 38:35

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 38:36

over. Get ready for tips and tricks. Well, let's do some tips and tricks.

Anthony Donofrio: 38:43

Sure.

Trent Manning: 38:43

what do you got for us? What kind of tips and tricks you want to share?

Anthony Donofrio: 38:47

Tips and tricks. I mean, you know, it's funny. There's certain things that I'm not sure are really different than what anybody else does, but there's certain things like lifting wheels up if you're, if you do have a machine on a hoist. One thing that seems to blow people's mind is how to lift a wheel up that's heavy up into place. And people don't realize that if you spin the rim so that it's outside face, it's facing away from you and then you grab the inside of the rim and just roll it up on your knee, you can actually just lift the whole thing up into place with zero effort, doesn't hurt your back, none of that stuff. I see guys struggling with fairway tires, trying to put them up and I've never had that issue. And again, that's something that's an an industry transfer from automotive. Cause if you see these guys working in the shop where they're working on an F four 50. Those big dually wheels are crazy heavy. Well, they don't have a machine. I mean, maybe some shops do, but most of those guys are using that technique just to bump up the wheel and get it on. So that one blew my technician's mind when I showed them for the 1st time. So, it's 1 that I try to kind of push to everybody just, you know, in terms of shop health too, right? I've seen, I can't tell you how many mechanics I've seen that, you know, their knees are shot and their backs gone and everything's, you know, kind of blown out from pushing hard and just trying to get the job done. And I'm like, yeah, I agree. I do the same thing, but try to do it with, you know, a little bit of thought because once you're, you know, in your 60s or 70s, you're really going to wish you gave it a little more thought,

Trent Manning: 40:12

yeah, for sure.

Anthony Donofrio: 40:14

Yeah. So yeah, that's probably one of the ones that I have. I don't know if you have anything to share with me, but

Trent Manning: 40:20

I don't, I mean, that's that's a really good one and I mean, it makes me think. So, if I have whatever kind of unit it is and I don't remember who taught me this if it was the mechanic that I kind of trained under but. You're squatted down, you're putting the tire on the machine. You know, the machine's just off the ground, right? I'll tell you, you know, I'm right handed, but I take my left foot and I put my heel on the ground and I use my toe to like hand your lever, the tire up enough to get it onto the studs.

Anthony Donofrio: 40:58

Right.

Trent Manning: 40:59

I don't, you know, it's pretty simple. But I mean, same thing. I've seen, you know, I have these guys come through the shop that I've tried to teach them, you know, and they just see them struggle and struggle trying to get a tire on there.

Anthony Donofrio: 41:14

Like straddle their legs underneath whatever they're trying to mount and they're trying to hold it

Trent Manning: 41:18

Right, right,

Anthony Donofrio: 41:19

it on and you know they're balanced and I'm like same idea just stick your foot under it and leverage it up and then you can kind of get the lugs on right but yeah it's kind of funny how it's usually the same type of platform right you see the same type of things and I guess if you've never worked in the shop that maybe that is the go to method you know in terms of how people see things right

Trent Manning: 41:39

Right, right. Yeah. And I think another thing that I find is leverage, like knowing how to apply leverage. I see that a lot with, you know, the younger guys and it doesn't matter, you know, their physical strength. But they're almost fighting against themselves. If you will, you know, if you got two wrenches and you're way out here apart and you're trying to push them together or something, you know, but like breaking loose hydraulic fitting, if you can get the two wrenches where, you know, they're right side by side and take your hands and squeeze them together, right? Yeah, exactly. Makes it so, so easy. Or it makes it a lot easier.

Anthony Donofrio: 42:28

yeah. Oh, and there's stuff like that. I mean, I know guys have gone most of their career not knowing certain things like that, right? They see it for the first time ten years later and go, I can't believe I've been doing that for so long,

Trent Manning: 42:39

Right, right. Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 42:40

So, yeah. No, that's a good one. That actually is a good one.

Trent Manning: 42:43

Well, yeah. And I remember the first time I seen a guy take a boxed in wrench and put it on an open end wrench, you know, and connect

Anthony Donofrio: 42:51

Oh

Trent Manning: 42:52

to break something loose.

Anthony Donofrio: 42:53

Create

Trent Manning: 42:53

right, right, right. I'm like, what

Anthony Donofrio: 42:55

Yeah, and now you've got companies like Snap on and Mac where they actually make the little extension piece

Trent Manning: 43:00

Right, right. Uhhuh,

Anthony Donofrio: 43:01

It's got like the double hook, right? Okay,

Trent Manning: 43:06

shared that in our WhatsApp group, I think. Yeah, and they make one that like a ratchet will connect to that hooks

Anthony Donofrio: 43:13

yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's got like a little 3 8 or half inch drive on it and you can reef on it.

Trent Manning: 43:18

Yeah, that's pretty cool. What will they think of next, right?

Anthony Donofrio: 43:22

no doubt.

Trent Manning: 43:23

Well, yeah, what else you want to talk about?

Anthony Donofrio: 43:28

I mean, nothing huge. I mean, one thing I did want to touch on and it's something that, you know, some of the other guys have, we've kind of bounced off of before at some of the conferences is, you know, the difference between a technician and an equipment manager and how to sort of communicate that to your management or super whomever it may be. And even like in general day to day, you know, I, if I explain something and I say, Oh, well, you know, my, Fleet manager or equipment manager for a golf club. And the first thing they say is, well, you're just fixing golf carts? I don't understand. Like, what are you managing exactly? Right? They don't understand the whole, proclivity of the job. And and the other thing I noticed too, is that being an equipment manager by title doesn't mean that you do all the same things at every club. And I'm not sure if that's something that superintendents are kind of giving that title off and then You know, to, to adjust a technician, let's say, and they don't give them any of the responsibility that is kind of part of it, you know, in terms of myself, I spec the equipment, I quote the equipment, I go to the lease companies and get the percentages, and then at the very end, it all gets floated to, you know, the super, the GM, the board, then they make their decision behind the scenes. But there's a ton of guys that I talked to that they don't, they're basically full hands off other than They're super will kind of involve them and maybe making the choice of what type of equipment, but they're not crunching the numbers. They're not doing, you know, the math on the back end and trying to figure out what's, you know, what's going to be the best for the club. And I wonder if there should be a difference there, or if we should be pushing our technicians to do more to help possibly raise all of our kind of industry wages if you will should an EM make more than a regular technician. And in turn, if you are the only tech, you should be making a lot more, right? I mean, you're kind of running the show yourself, right? So, I see a lot of guys where they're running on their own. They do far more work than I've ever imagined you should be taking on as one person and I, and my hat's off to them. They're doing it for, you know, much less than I think should be fair depending on where they are or, but yeah, it's just something that I always wondered and, you know, you kind of hear rumblings about it, but it never really seems to get talked. About too much in terms of those specific, is there different stages and should there be and, you know, pay increases or not? I know pay is always a conversation, but not necessarily between the two types. So yeah, it's always been something that dwell, I dwell on a little bit. Yeah

Trent Manning: 45:59

yeah. Nah. Yeah. I don't know where to go with that, honestly. You know, it's one of those things I think each operation is, you know, so different. So, I don't, you know, it's, I think it's hard to put a label on that sometimes. And, I mean, just, I'm thinking like, my situation at my club, and I think my official title is Equipment and Facility Manager. Because, I also manage the turf care facility. So anything that happens, you know, all the electrical in there, all the plumbing in there, you know, all that stuff, you know, falls under me and, you know, but I know it's not that way at every club, you know, and it's just like, I know some clubs have it set up where the equipment manager also maintains the golf cart fleet for the golfers. And like my club, I don't have to mess with that. I, you know, I mess, I do I take care of our range picker. I take care of our beverage cart because it's owned by the club. But the other stuff is leased and part of their three or four year lease, they get their whatever they call it. Where the dealer comes out and services

Anthony Donofrio: 47:23

Like a main maintenance package of some sort or whatever. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 47:27

You know, and then you get clubs like J. R. Where he's building his own, you know, sub air systems.

Anthony Donofrio: 47:34

I'll be surprised if he doesn't start building carts by himself. I mean, there's no point in buying them if he can build them.

Trent Manning: 47:40

Don't say that. Okay, when we're in San Diego, don't mention that you get him going into a rabbit hole. But yeah, you know, The whole, you know, equipment manager name, you know, I don't know who really come up with that. I'm not a huge fan, honestly, of that name. At the end of the day, I think I'm a mechanic and, you know, and if I tell somebody I'm a mechanic, they get an idea of what I

Anthony Donofrio: 48:10

Yeah. They put you in that box. That's

Trent Manning: 48:12

right, right, right.

Anthony Donofrio: 48:13

that's okay, and that's kind of where it should be, right? Like, you know, realistically.

Trent Manning: 48:17

Right. But yeah, you tell them your equipment manager like what are you, what

Anthony Donofrio: 48:21

What the heck does that mean? Yeah,

Trent Manning: 48:22

does that

Anthony Donofrio: 48:22

don't really understand that part

Trent Manning: 48:24

But again, when you do tell them that you're a mechanic at a golf course, they say, oh, you work on lawn mowers and golf

Anthony Donofrio: 48:29

That's the same, yeah. Same kind of

Trent Manning: 48:31

I'm like, yeah, the lawnmower that I work on cost 150, 000 now. And so it's a little more than People snapper that you grew up with or, you know, whatever, roll rear engine snapper, one pull and it would start every time.

Anthony Donofrio: 48:49

Yeah, no doubt, yeah, this isn't, yeah, these aren't just toys, that's for sure.

Trent Manning: 48:52

right. Yeah. So, yeah. What's kind of the consensus amongst your group?

Anthony Donofrio: 49:00

Like in terms of how that should be played out, yeah, well, my super thinks there should be a, like, definitive line, and I'm not sure if that's just for himself, given the fact that you know, maybe equipment and the understanding behind it isn't strong for him, right? Obviously, agronomy and running the course and understanding how to manage people. That should be his primary objective. And that's kind of where he sits with it. So he tends to try to hire somebody more of in a management position. And we can, I can jump in the shop and wrench and do all that and that's not a problem. We do have some union stuff that we have to be careful with on how much time I'm spending in there, but for the most part, there's no issues. But yeah, in terms of the dividing line he thinks that there should be a bit of a difference because if you think about it, industry, like industry to industry this is probably one of the only ones I've ever seen where you didn't have somebody in management. Making the call on a lot of this equipment, you know, sometimes half a million dollar packages, million dollar packages, and you'll have a technician with, you know, no background, no schooling, no, nothing getting put in the hot seat and then having to deal with it. Right? And then getting paid pennies to do it. I don't know. To me, it just doesn't make any sense. I mean, you look at the heavy equipment industry, trucking, whatever, they have all their own fleet managers. Right. That get paid huge amounts of money to take care of stuff. And when I talk to them, they're doing all the same stuff we are, really. Other than, you know, the hands on stuff. But, when it comes to the specking equipment, going through options, you know, How is this going to work for my club? Especially with new stuff. Obviously, we all understand the same equipment that's been out there forever. You know, 35 55s from Toro or whatever, right? So, we get that stuff. But, when it comes to all the other things, there's a lot involved. And I don't know. It just seems like a weird, a bit of a weird mess in our industry that we just let it kind of slide, you know,

Trent Manning: 50:51

Yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 50:52

yeah, it's kind of nice having him see it that way as well. I'm sure there are superintendents that don't but to the same degree, there are superintendents out there that there doesn't seem to be really any you know, pay calculation. You got supers 2 different clubs right next to each other, making completely different amounts of money doing the same job.

Trent Manning: 51:09

Oh

Anthony Donofrio: 51:10

I never really understood that either. So. Yeah, it's been a bit of an odd gap, I would say, in terms of what we deal with, but

Trent Manning: 51:17

Yeah, I've seen it even. Yeah, like assistant superintendents, you know, at one club, they might be making 35, you know. They're making 85, 000 a year and another club, they're making 85, 000 a year and they're both 18 hole facilities. You know, I mean, all those things and they're both private, you know, it's just crazy how across the board, some of the pay ranges can be,

Anthony Donofrio: 51:42

Oh, for sure, yeah. And is that something we can fix? Maybe not, but maybe talking about it helps? I don't really know, but I think everybody's generally aware of the issue. It's just a matter of how do we get out of it is a whole other thing.

Trent Manning: 51:55

Right, right, right. Yep. You ready to do some rapid fire?

Anthony Donofrio: 52:04

Sure.

Trent Manning: 52:05

What's your favorite movie?

Anthony Donofrio: 52:08

Fury.

Trent Manning: 52:09

Feared? Okay. I don't, yeah, I'm not familiar. What's

Anthony Donofrio: 52:13

Yeah, that's it's a tank crew in World War II. With Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, those

Trent Manning: 52:19

Oh,

Anthony Donofrio: 52:20

yeah really good one I enjoyed it a lot,

Trent Manning: 52:23

That's, okay. I gotta catch up on some

Anthony Donofrio: 52:25

yeah, fair enough,

Trent Manning: 52:27

what would be your last meal?

Anthony Donofrio: 52:30

ooh, that's a good one if my grandmother on my dad's side was still around it would be this dish that she used to make it sounds super weird, but it's unbelievable, so it's like, fish in a red sauce with like, I guess you would say reduced or sautéed Grapes and raisins that are in it, and it sounds super weird, but it worked really well, and I didn't think it was a real thing, I thought it was just something she did, but actually it is some type of real

Trent Manning: 52:57

Oh, okay.

Anthony Donofrio: 52:59

and yeah, an Italian thing that she found at some point, so, but yeah, unbelievable meal, and just one of those things that I, brings back a lot of memories,

Trent Manning: 53:07

Oh, I'm sure. Well, yeah. And honestly, anybody's grandmother that's going to cook something. I'm down. That sounds so good. You know, grandma's cooking it. Heck yeah. Count me in.

Anthony Donofrio: 53:18

usually can't beat it,

Trent Manning: 53:19

that's right. Yeah, for sure. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Anthony Donofrio: 53:24

You know, one thing, especially in my area I'm probably most proud that I was able to buy a home an apartment this not this year two years ago with my wife in the, we're not quite right in the city. We're in the outskirts, but, it's really difficult in our area for most people, my age to purchase. So I, I find myself very fortunate that I've been able to do that. And it doesn't come without its hardships, of course, like any, you know, like anybody, but yeah, a lot of cutbacks, and just kind of driving hard to make it happen,

Trent Manning: 53:54

There, yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 53:54

Those things, a lot of people that I grew up with, they have sort of just accepted they're going to rent forever and, you know, and that's okay, as long as you can, I guess, build up a nest egg some other way, but I always grew up thinking that I was going to buy a house and, you know, have my kids and have my garage and my cars, but I guess that's not the reality anymore. At least not for now.

Trent Manning: 54:14

Right, right. Not for now. But, well, congratulations though. That's awesome.

Anthony Donofrio: 54:18

Yeah. Well,

Trent Manning: 54:19

That's very cool. Very cool. Well, tell the listeners how they can get a hold of you. On Twitter, email.

Anthony Donofrio: 54:28

Yeah really I mean, they can if they wanted to get onto an email with me for sure. I don't know if we can post that somewhere or not, but they're welcome to call. My phone number for my office line is on our website for Marine Drive Golf Club.

Trent Manning: 54:40

Okay.

Anthony Donofrio: 54:41

I am connected to a few of the groups RealTurf Techs, of course, and SIP Grinders and all that jazz. So, they're welcome to, you know, DM me directly through there if they have any questions or, Yeah, things like that. I certainly don't have a problem picking someone's ear, you know, if I need to you know, have some strange questions about stuff. I've definitely reached out to people, but yeah, at any time, if you think that you have something for me, I'd love to help.

Trent Manning: 55:06

Awesome. Well, thank you so much Anthony for being on. I look forward to seeing you next week in San Diego. Actually, what? We're like five days, right?

Anthony Donofrio: 55:16

that's it. Yeah we're almost there. I'm already checked out.

Trent Manning: 55:19

I know. That's funny. That's

Anthony Donofrio: 55:23

No, it'll be good. Yeah, no, I appreciate the the invite on and yeah, I can't wait to see whoever's going to be there. I'm still putting names to faces, you know, after five years of going, but,

Trent Manning: 55:32

Oh yeah.

Anthony Donofrio: 55:32

it's going to be a great time.

Trent Manning: 55:34

Oh, yeah, for sure. No, I'm really excited and I Yeah, I need to say thank you to David Taylor for stepping up and throwing some money behind the bar for some

Anthony Donofrio: 55:45

Yeah. There we go. Right,

Trent Manning: 55:47

that is awesome. Yeah, unsolicited, you know, he's in our WhatsApp group and he's like, oh, I can throw it. And so anyway, I call him after just to tell the story and like the next day I call him and I'm like, thank you so much. That's so awesome. And he says, well, what they charge, like, if he wants to put a banner above his booth, it's ridiculous money. Okay. And he said, I much rather throw y'all some money.

Anthony Donofrio: 56:14

There you go. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 56:15

y'all can enjoy versus putting a banner up above my

Anthony Donofrio: 56:18

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 56:19

I'm like, awesome, man. Thank you. But,

Anthony Donofrio: 56:22

good giving back.

Trent Manning: 56:23

I've had a good relationship with him and he's not like any owner that I've ever dealt with. Stack, they sell. All kind of accessories, kind of, like tractor mount stuff. We got two of the top changers, and the top changer is kind of like dry jack, but they call it the wet jack. So it injects sand, but the sand doesn't have to be wet. But they sell all kind of accessories like that for cultivation and all that kind of stuff. They're based in South Carolina, so they're not too far from me, but they travel. Up to your neck of the woods and all over West Coast. I miss crazy. Their territory, but

Anthony Donofrio: 57:04

Yeah.

Trent Manning: 57:04

the cool thing about David is when we bought the machine from him, he gives me his cell phone number and he says, you have any issues with this thing? You call me, you know, not don't call my service department. Don't call your salesman. You call me and you know, I try, obviously I try not to abuse that because I mean, he's the owner of the company. He's a busy man. Yeah. But when I have had a question and I call him, he's always Johnny on the spot. Answer the phone. Yeah. We'll get that taken care of right away. I mean, it's just really good customer service.

Anthony Donofrio: 57:37

That's a good way to run a company for sure.

Trent Manning: 57:39

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, thank you. I

Anthony Donofrio: 57:44

Thank you again. Yeah. All right. Take care.

Trent Manning: 57:52

thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don't forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you'd like to discuss, or you'd like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.