Reel Turf Techs Podcast

Episode 155: Tanner Knudsen, CTEM

• Trent Manning • Episode 155

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In this episode of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, we sit down with Tanner Knudsen, CTEM, Equipment Manager at North Oaks Golf Club in Minnesota. Tanner talks through his path from working on small engines to running the shop at a private 18-hole club, and how much of what he knows started in his grandpa’s garage. His grandpa was the first person to teach him engines, and Tanner still calls him whenever he hits a snag.

We get into what it takes to keep things running smoothly with a seasonal crew, how Tanner approaches training without letting the stress get to him, and what winterizing looks like in a Minnesota shop. Tanner also shares what he learned during recent facility upgrades and through attaining his CETM designation, and why mentorship and technician education matter so much to him.

It’s a practical, down-to-earth conversation packed with tips, stories, and lessons from Tanner’s time in the industry.



Trent Manning:

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 Reel Turf Techs Podcast, episode 1 55. Today we're talking to Tanner Knudsen, CTEM, equipment Manager at North Oaks Golf Club in North Oaks, Minnesota. North Oaks is a private 18 hole golf club. Tanner's the sole mechanic in the shop. They primarily have Toro equipment. Let's talk to Tanner.

Tanner Knudsen:

Let's go.

Trent Manning:

Welcome, Tanner to the Real Turf Text podcast. Thanks for coming on.

Tanner Knudsen:

Thanks for having me.

Trent Manning:

We already talked for 20 minutes, I think before we got started here.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, it's been a little bit. We got to get to know each other a little bit better.

Trent Manning:

That's right. You made the mistake of asking me a question that you didn't really care about, so I just spent 20 minutes telling you a long, boring story, but it was fun for me.

Tanner Knudsen:

I love hearing every story, Trent.

Trent Manning:

All right. Okay. Good. Good. We're gonna get along. Great.

Tanner Knudsen:

Perfect.

Trent Manning:

Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Tanner Knudsen:

so I kind of fell into the turf industry. My goal kind of growing up was to be a small engine repair guy, and my grandpa owned a shop. Out of outskirts little town in Wisconsin called Ellsworth. So my goal is just to work with him. I went to school for marine and small engine repair and worked for him for about seven years and then transferred to Hennepin County for a sentence to service program. So just a big landscaping program. But one of the towns they worked for was the city of Golden Valley. And the city of Golden Valley owns a municipality golf course called Brookview. And after working for Hennepin County for about three years and opening at the Brookview Golf Course came up and I just applied for it. Didn't really think anything of it. I played golf, so I thought it'd be a cool change of pace instead of working on 600 plus pieces of equipment that were just weed whips and push mowers to get into something more. Detail oriented, I guess would be the path I was aiming for. And they hired me. I worked there for about five years and the rest is history. Now I'm at North Oaks Golf Club private facility out of the northeastern side of the Twin Cities.

Trent Manning:

Oh, that's awesome. So cool. No, that's a really good. Story. So did you spend a lot of time in the shop with your grandpa growing

Tanner Knudsen:

I worked for him for six or seven years and it was very strictly like farmers bring in broken stuff, you know, a lot of welding, fabricating. So, and he kind of got into it. Out of his garage and he grew it into, you know, a shed that he built on his property. You know, never anything huge, but I mean, he is one of the smartest guys I know. I mean, he was big into dirt bike racing, so he would bore out and create his own two stroke engines. And it is just amazing the story he has and one of the biggest fab projects he did. Back in the day, they had these Kawasaki 750 cc triple two stroke engines, and you could buy like a drag pipe kit that went underneath while in hill climbing that gets smashed while he redesigned and fabricated and cut and twisted the pipes, and really came out the frame up above. And he was really proud of that. he still has a picture of it in the shop, actually, but, so that I don't know, I just kind of grew up watching him, you know, go over, he'd see all the. Used equipment sitting out that's broken down in front of his shop and it'd just be a constant changeover. And I just fell in love with the idea of fixing used old stuff, I guess.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. And it's so cool and you get to spend, you know, extra time with your grandpa

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. Spent a lot of days with him. It's great memories.

Trent Manning:

yeah. I mean, that's so, so cool. Just this yesterday we had a pump company out a well company, and they're pulling out a well pump and it's this older guy and a younger guy that, I mean, he looked like he was, I don't know, early twenties or whatever. And, so anyway, I'm just talking to him and the older guy's yeah, I've been doing this, you know, whatever, 35 years or something. And he says, this is my grandson that was working with him. And I'm like, man, this grandson is so lucky, you know, that he's, and I watched him work. I mean, they get along good together. And you know, the, it is funny the grandpa he was doing all the technical stuff. But he was not straining himself at all. The grandson was doing all the work, but, you know, and I mean, he's earned it, right?

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh Yeah, for sure.

Trent Manning:

yeah, of course. So, I mean, I totally get it. But it was really awesome to, to get to watch that that made my heart happy for sure. Do you have a least favorite part of the job, or you just love it all?

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean, everybody hates sand, right? But. I understand the reasons why of it, you know, and we're not a place right now where we are dumping loads and loads. And if we do, I got two really good. I have a superintendent and a director of grounds, and they're both very good about watering and heavy. So I would say the my least favorite part. There's gotta be the the changeover of seasonal employees. We get a lot of guys that don't stick around. We have a good year round staff. We keep about seven guys on year round, so they're solid. But the changeover of seasonals gets tough, the constant training them in and get a lot of high school kids. So they start a little bit later and they end a little earlier. Versus the college kids who get in here and they kind of stick around through the whole season, but. I would say that's the toughest part is the retraining and then if somebody works their way up, you know, kind of keeping'em attentive to everything that they're working on so they're not going out and breaking stuff or, you know, scalping the crap out of something because they're not paying attention.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, I don't, it's always a struggle,

Tanner Knudsen:

is really is.

Trent Manning:

try training new people and yeah. Do you have any I special tips for training new

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean, you don't ever get anything outta yelling at somebody. So I would say just try to stay as absolutely calm. Even if they make a really boneheaded mistake, take it as a learning experience. I mean, that's all they're gonna do. 99% of these seasonals that are coming in have zero interest of doing this the rest of their life. There's no reason of hounding them and making'em feel terrible about a mistake that, and it's grass, it's gonna grow back. You know, it's, I would just say stay calm, be persistent, and don't blow up on somebody just because you're having a bad day either, you know?

Trent Manning:

Yeah, no, that's great advice for sure. Easier said than done

Tanner Knudsen:

much easier said than done.

Trent Manning:

all depends on what else is breaking around you. But yeah, I mean a lot of us are guilty of it, but yeah, try to keep a cool head in those situations. What's your favorite tool?

Tanner Knudsen:

it depends on the day. Later in the season like this, we get these cold overnights. Right now, I love my little Milwaukee portable air compressor for filling tires.

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Tanner Knudsen:

The greatest thing of all time beets, filling up those portable air tanks and draining'em down on one tire, this thing is just a lifesaver. So right now that's it. I'm sure in the next coming months it'll be. Either my grease gun for doing all my winterizing of everything and making sure everything's good, but I would say right now is that portable air compressor is amazing.

Trent Manning:

Those are super handy and. So we got one, I don't know how long we've had it, and it's it's the 12 volt, so it takes a minute, you know, it's not yeah. Which one are you using?

Tanner Knudsen:

have the 18?

Trent Manning:

18? I probably should upgrade to the 18. Luckily we don't have a ton of issues, but it's so much easier than the stupid air tank. If I could tell you how many times I've filled an air tank up, drug it across the shop, or you know, out to cold storage and yeah, that's

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. And the greatest feature on this is you set your PSI on it, and then you hit start and it doesn't stop until it hits. So if you have a bead that's broken. You can start jacking up, playing with the beat and it's still constantly filling. It's just, it's great. And that air tank, as soon as it's out, I mean, you're just SOL

Trent Manning:

Oh, right, right. Yeah. You're going back to the shop. I'm filling it back up. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, whoever thought of that was a great invention.

Tanner Knudsen:

Absolutely.

Trent Manning:

all do y'all do for winter maintenance or you know, to winterize equipment?

Tanner Knudsen:

so I'm lucky enough now we just got a brand new facility built. Got the keys April 1st, I believe, of this year. So we're kind of in a good spot now. We can probably fit everything inside of a climate control. But before it was kind of bad. You had to make sure everything, either Kant was gonna hold. Really check on gas and make sure it was either filled or stabilize it. But for the most part, it's just going through washing everything, getting everything clean, and then filling every single possible crevice with grease or something to prevent rust. That's a huge one. That fluctuation and building of humidity when stuff is heating up and cooling down, it just seems to kill any form of raw metal.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, when I noticed when I was up there driving around like Chad Brown, I'm pretty sure Austin had it at Sand Valley, like indoor pressure washer areas where you could really clean stuff and hot pressure washer,

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. So we,

Trent Manning:

that at your new

Tanner Knudsen:

that was a key component to building. Yeah, we, so we have an electric mount pressure washer. Kind of a smaller PSI 1200 to 1400. But it's high gallon per minute, so it'll throw a lot of water at it with quite a bit of pressure. But then for fine d detailing, we do have a 3,600 PSI heated hot seat

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Tanner Knudsen:

washer.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I've seen in my travels quite a few of the hot seats. I think that's a popular brand.

Tanner Knudsen:

they're amazing.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Tanner Knudsen:

this time of the year, I love to hunt, do a lot of deer hunting. Being in Wisconsin, we have three seasons now. It's kind of obnoxious, but we'll get the week before Thanksgiving and then they do a holiday hunt that's just antlerless. And then just after the first of the year is another one. We're all rifle. Otherwise, I don't archery hunt. I don't have the time for it. Being at a golf course. But yeah, I love to hunt. And then middle of summer I do play golf. I'm one of the suckers, so I try to hit the ball around as many times or as least as many times as I can and one round of golf. But yeah, those are kind of things. And I got three kids, so I'm always chasing them around too,

Trent Manning:

yeah, that's that'll keep you

Tanner Knudsen:

and that's very busy

Trent Manning:

three kids for sure. But I do think, you know, I don't play personally, I mean, the. I mean, the last like year or two, I've thought more and more maybe you should try this again. But I just, I hadn't bit it off. But I do think it's good to play and to play your own course.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yep.

Trent Manning:

you know, you see it from almost a different set of eyes

Tanner Knudsen:

yeah, absolutely. When you're playing, you'll. I mean, when you're driving around and not, you'll notice like blemishes and be like, oh man, that looks terrible or whatever. Oh, you can really see the after cut effect. And I hate the way that mower's cutting. You'll spend hours, you know, trying to fine tune it. And when you're playing golf, you don't notice any of it. The only

Trent Manning:

Oh, really? Okay.

Tanner Knudsen:

So it's kind of good to have that secondary, I mean, obviously we'll notice like slow greens or stuff like that and be like, ah, we better look at either lowering cut or roll it again or something. Maybe. But you definitely don't notice. The little things that when you're just driving around checking everything you, I mean, that's the only thing your eyes are glued to. So it is good to have that secondary view.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep. been one of your biggest challenges?

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean, with the new facility, I guess changing over and getting reorganized was a pretty big challenge. It took a little while to do that. And then fine tuning. So I took this place over from a guy who's here for, I think it was 46 years. So he was set in his ways about the way he fixed stuff and stuff like that. So the last couple of years being here, really going through and making things the way I want them and producing a product that, that I'm proud of has probably been my biggest challenge here.

Trent Manning:

No, that's awesome though. I mean that, how involved were you with the design of the new facility and all that kind of stuff?

Tanner Knudsen:

so we actually my director grounds John Cameron. He kind of got the blueprints from the Town and Country Club down where Chad Brown's at, and then we just expanded it. So we made it 10 feet deeper. Might be a hair longer, but I think we're the same. So we just kinda roughed it off of that. And then I got to really design the layout of the shop area. So I got two new lifts, a lift table put in two new grinders, fully grinders, and then I found a bridge crane off of eBay. And we put that up just in the, yeah, in the grinding room. So the grinding room, I can shut the door, fully isolate myself and it's awesome area. Really. It'll be really nice this winter. First year

Trent Manning:

Yeah. No, that is so cool. How much was the bridge crane? I'm just curious.

Tanner Knudsen:

I think we got it shipped to our door for$4,000.

Trent Manning:

no way.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, so I can't remember the company. It was out of Indiana, but I found it off of eBay and I messaged the guy and I was like, Hey, I just need to know the dimensions to see if it'll fit in here. And it was a hair too wide. And I said, oh, it's not gonna work. Unfortunately, it's six inches too wide. And he goes, oh, you can just take a saw and cut those down. It won't ever affect it. I was like, oh, would do you have any room for a little discount if I order it through you? He goes, oh yeah, I'll knock 1500 bucks off of it for you and I'll figure out shipping and we'll just go from there. It'll be like 4,000 bucks. I was like, perfect.

Trent Manning:

That is awesome. Yeah. And yeah, if for the listeners Google it, if you don't know what a bridge crane is and

Tanner Knudsen:

best tool when it comes to moving reels around. You'll ever have.

Trent Manning:

yeah. No, it is so handy and it is funny. So I've really pushed it with my director and we got one. For the mechanic there. He's, well I think he just turned 60 this year. But you know, he is had a bad back, you know, for the last 10 years and reels are not good for your back

Tanner Knudsen:

No.

Trent Manning:

So anyway, I was pushing this thing and it got approved and we installed it and he was a little leery about it. He was like, yeah, that's cool. You know, whatever. And I'm trying to think how long he's had it. He's had it for probably six or seven years. And you asked him today, that's his favorite

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah,

Trent Manning:

I mean, he just loves it. He's I use this thing for all kind of stuff. I seen him he had a fly mo, he had it hooked on the handle of the fly mo and then picked the fly mo up to set it on the table.

Tanner Knudsen:

Sure.

Trent Manning:

yeah, hey, why not? You know, you got it. Use it. So, yeah, I mean this is awesome. So you can get pretty creative on all the things you can pick up with a bridge

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Good stuff. Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Tanner Knudsen:

Not, I mean, my grandpa has been a huge mentor. He is not in the industry, but I still call him if I have any sort of an engine question. He's just a wealth of knowledge.

Trent Manning:

That's awesome.

Tanner Knudsen:

being in Minnesota I have met Austin, right? He's been amazing. I get to bounce a lot of questions off of him and Chad Braun here too. I've called Chad about a ton of stuff. So in the industry, those two are probably the two greatest assets I know of. And then Tyler Lewellen at Spring Hill, I've gotten to know him the last year. We, him, Chad Austin and myself are actually start or have started a EM committee through our local GCSA chapter.

Trent Manning:

Oh, nice. Awesome.

Tanner Knudsen:

them three guys have been amazing. For any sort of questions I have that they're, all three of'em are a wealth of knowledge for sure.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I mean, definitely the three of them is, yeah, like there's not, probably not a whole lot. They don't know.

Tanner Knudsen:

Right, exactly.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. So yeah. That's awesome. I don't know. I just love, I mean, obviously I love it, but that's why I'm doing this podcast, I guess. But I love surrounding myself with these other individuals in our industry that I consider at the top of their game, and I mean, it's just really fun to talk to and, you know, even if you're having a bad day you know, just. Hey, can you believe what happened here today? And they're like, oh, I know. I, yeah, that drives me crazy. You know, Howard Horn, I've had him on before and he's a close friend of mine and we talk, I mean, once a week probably. Yeah. And most of the time that's what it was. Like, you believe what this knucklehead did today? It's I don't know. But I mean, just like you're saying, you go back to training. And you've trained how many people over the last, you know, for like me and him, you've been doing this for 30 years or going on it, you know, how many people have we trained to do this and this guy or person did not get the memo, you know, and messed it up? I mean, I don't, you know, it definitely can be frustrating at times, but that's when we go out and ride around on the course.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yep, exactly.

Trent Manning:

And take a deep breath. What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean, I love where I'm at right now, so I haven't even thought about the future to be honest with you. To work at a facility that's in the midst of doing some sort of huge event, I think would be fun just to try it out or to go south and maybe this is a really bad answer, but go south, my last superintendent's down at John's Islands Club. And he's sent me pictures when they're aerating that golf course and it's, you look at it, it looks like a war zone and I think it'd be cool to go and experience it once. So I would guess maybe it's not a dream, but to go and see what an operation at, like a major or a really high end facility looks like compared to where I'm at. And to see what a true demolition of a golf course does would be kind of.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Going to TPC Sawgrass and what? And volunteering at the players or something. I mean, that is a machine down

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah.

Trent Manning:

and they have, I don't, probably 200 volunteers.

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh, that would be insane.

Trent Manning:

and the amount of equipment they had, I mean, it is crazy to see what all they do. You know, and not saying they're better than anybody else, but it is truly amazing to see all the moving parts in that operation.

Tanner Knudsen:

And to have it be successful with all those moving parts is

Trent Manning:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't know how they pull it off. Yeah. Every year. Every year, you know, I remember talking to Ralph Keppel when he was at East Lake and they were having the tour Championship every year, and at one point, I don't know if it was late nineties, early two thousands, they were having it every other year. And then they went to a point where they were having it every year and he said, well, I really would like to go back to having it every other year doing this every year. I mean, because soon as. over, you start preparing for next year.

Tanner Knudsen:

Right.

Trent Manning:

You know, it's just a constant grind. Yeah. But the guys down in Florida, they don't really get a

Tanner Knudsen:

Never

Trent Manning:

I mean, they're wide open all the time. Tommy Richie said one time that they work 13 months outta the year in Florida,

Tanner Knudsen:

yeah.

Trent Manning:

I believe it. I mean, it's crazy the amount of work they do down there. Do you have a technician you would like to work with for a day?

Tanner Knudsen:

I had the honor of working with Austin Wright at the US Amateur when he hosted at Hazelton. That was really fun experience. I've been over to Chad Broun shop while he is grinding, and I mean, how meticulous that guy is something everybody needs to experience, honestly.

Trent Manning:

huh.

Tanner Knudsen:

yeah I met JR Wilson at Phoenix. I mean, the stuff he works on outside of the golf, like the robotic stuff and stuff like that, would be awesome to go out and

Trent Manning:

Oh Yeah.

Tanner Knudsen:

and do everything he does. So, I would say JR Wilson Brian Lin, I met him. He came and visited the shop with Chad. I'd love to go down and spend a couple days with him. Brian's a sweet dude.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. Yep.

Tanner Knudsen:

So those would probably be the two guys I haven't got to deal with. That'd be really fun.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that'd be so much fun. JR. He is always into something too. It's just crazy because he was making his own sub air, like making the fan motors get, sending'em off, getting'em balanced. he had, I don't, whatever you would call it, a mold or something to do the fiberglass cover that went over. The precision air units or whatever. I mean, it's just crazy. Dude what do you not do

Tanner Knudsen:

my, my mind doesn't work that way, so it'd be cool to watch somebody else do it.

Trent Manning:

I, yeah. Well, I remember seeing in his shop, he had, and maybe I've told this story again, but so if I tell too many of the same stories over and over again, maybe somebody will call me out on it. And if they call me out, I'll stop telling the story. But he had a drill press with a bench grinder mounted to the drill press, and I'm like, what is this contraption for? And he said, oh, this is for sharpening green teeth. So it's a round stump grinder tooth.

Tanner Knudsen:

Okay.

Trent Manning:

And so you put it in the drill press and you get it turning slow, and then you use the quill and pull it down to the grinding stone, and the bench grinder's set up at the right angle and it grinds the stone, or, you know, res sharpens the tooth, which is, you know, I'm like, how'd you come up with this? You know? I don't know. This is crazy. but yeah, he would be a good dude to spend some time with. I hope to be able to I'm supposed to go speak in New England in March, so I'm gonna try to get by Jr's and spend a little time on Long Island. Not in the busy season

Tanner Knudsen:

Not,

Trent Manning:

and yeah, in the winter

Tanner Knudsen:

bring a jacket.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yep, for sure. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Tanner Knudsen:

probably touching back to training in just staying more level headed and calm. It's just grass. Everything we're dealing with is just grass. It grows back one way, shape or form. So there's no reason to lose your cool about stuff or get angry and. And don't, definitely don't hold anything in against somebody, you know, don't hold or stuff like that. Just let it go and move on and move forward.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, talk it out. You know, if you're having friction with somebody, just yeah, talk about it. And I mean it, I guess maybe it's cliche or maybe it sounds crazy, but open, honest communication is the best way to communicate with somebody and you know, and you would think, oh, well that's so obvious. Everybody knows that. And maybe everybody does know that, but everybody doesn't do that.

Tanner Knudsen:

Right.

Trent Manning:

And it'd be just a whole lot easier. And I mean, I'm guilty just, you know, as much as anybody else. And always thinking that somebody's reaction has something to do with me and taking that personal. That they reacted in a negative way or whatever it is. And it might not have anything to do with me.

Tanner Knudsen:

Right.

Trent Manning:

You know, it might be something they're dealing with, right? Because we're all dealing with personal stuff, you know, who knows what's going on or what's going through. Especially my mind. I'm as bad as JR like squirreling around. Who knows what I'm thinking about when you ask me a question. So if I don't give you the response that you're, anticipating that might be why.'cause I'm thinking about who knows what, maybe I'm thinking about sharpening green teeth on a drill press with a bench grinder. Who knows?

Tanner Knudsen:

Or figuring out how he ever thought about that.

Trent Manning:

Right? Yeah, exactly. How do you deal with that person?

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh, I mean,

Trent Manning:

way to deal with somebody like that.

Tanner Knudsen:

just walk'em through and try to have every moment be a teachable moment. If they're really that person, then maybe just sit'em down side away from everybody and figure out what their. Mindset was in the moment that's causing them to be that person, if you know what I mean. Just get down to the basics of it. If they're not knowing what's they're supposed to do or if they're misunderstood on what they're supposed to be doing, just talk. That's all you gotta do is just talk to anybody and be cool as a cucumber and figure out how to resolve the situation with him and just move forward.

Trent Manning:

No, that's good. Get ready for tips and tricks What kind of tips or tricks you got, you wanna share?

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh man.

Trent Manning:

What's some of your favorite ones here?

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean, one of the favorite ones I always use is whenever you get a tire in that's been all morphed or whatever, they all send tires now just completely squashed. Keep an old crappy tube laying around that doesn't have a bunch of pinhole leaks in it, and you throw it inside there and inflate it up, and then put a ratchet strap around the center of that tire and throw it out in the sun and let it bake for a little while. It should come back to life. That's a pretty good tip I've learned. Another one nasty hydraulic lines. If you can't get'em bust loose. I use a brass hammer and I just bang on it a couple times. If you can't, then an air hammer works too. Just make sure you don't mar it up Too bad. But those are the two ones that I've kind of learned along the way that some people don't know about.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. No, I think that's a really good one. I saw this. I still. Can't hardly believe what I saw, but it was a rusted bolt and nut. And this guy, I don't, I mean this was in The Bahamas and they do stuff a little different in The Bahamas, but the guy, he had to be 70, maybe 75. Garfield was his name. Austin? Yeah. But he started taking a chisel that, I mean, it was not a sharp chisel by any means, but he was chiseling the nut and finally got it to break loose. Basically what you're saying, I think with the air hammer, that's what made me think of this with an air hammer or taking a brass hammer and hitting the nut of the fitting. Right. Just that friction to, or the shock, I guess. To get it to jar loose. Back to my story with the, well guys. So when they pull, you know, the sticks of pipe are 20 feet long, they go down in the well. So they pull it up and they go is a coupler there. They'll take a sledgehammer and they'll beat that coupler about five times before they try to break it loose. And it's, you know, that shock of hitting it with a hammer kinda loosens everything in there. You know, and freeze it up. So just to your point of a hammer or an air hammer or whatever,

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. Any, yeah, like you said, the, just the pure shock will bust a lot of stuff loose. And saving a lot of time.

Trent Manning:

yep. Just to jar it loose. So anyway, good. Good stuff good tips and tricks. Do you wanna talk about getting your C 10

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, we can.

Trent Manning:

was like?

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. It was actually very smooth. Being in a new facility really helped stuff.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah, I'm

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah. I got the rubric from Diana before we kind of got in the door of this facility, so we kind of actually. I should say more or less really made a lot of decisions about where stuff would be placed and the organization and the safety stuff based around the rubric itself. So I kind of built the place in my area, I should say laid out the stuff according to the CE. So all the signage, ventilation, anything like that was on the rubric was knocked out before we even started building.

Trent Manning:

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. No smart too. Very good.

Tanner Knudsen:

I mean that being the goal in mind, I had my level two already completed before we broke ground, so I knew I was gonna try for it within the next year or so anyways, so it made it very helpful. Building a new facility, and I mean, it opened our eyes. We got new fuel tanks and you never really think about emergency shutoff or. What code would be on it. You just kinda ask either the electrician or the builder who's putting it in. And both of'em were kind of dumbfounded. So I called over to the local fire department and just asked what they needed and then the electrician didn't even think about it either, and he was just gonna put straight conduit in to power it. And he found it had to be bombproof conduit even to wire

Trent Manning:

wow. Okay.

Tanner Knudsen:

pumps. So he kinda learned some stuff and then I kinda learned some stuff too. So it was. An eyeopening experience going through CTE, definitely worth it. Even if you don't have the goal, you know, doing the CT EM at the end goal, but doing level one and two is really informative, to say the least. I would for sure look into doing level one and two at the bare minimum.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, for sure. And I think even, yeah, even if you don't care anything about getting your CT a m, go to the website, print off the rubric, and just go through it. Because it's gonna make your facility better and safer for you and everybody else working in there,

Tanner Knudsen:

Yep.

Trent Manning:

you know? And if you can't afford to do every single thing on there, fine you know, but you can, we did design that so you don't have to be at an A level club with a super high end budget to be able to pass that part of the, you know, the testing. So a lot of stuff you know, you can do for on the cheap, but yeah, you might need to buy some money and get a s spill kit. But the other thing

Tanner Knudsen:

That's normally the most expensive stuff, is the little things. I mean, You can go out and source 80 to 90% of it either through a Facebook marketplace or eBay or something like that, and get something used. That's gonna work for like flammable cabinets. That was, we found three of'em, two or three of'em for sale on Facebook. Marketplace for dirt cheap. They don't need to look pretty, I don't care. As long as they're holding stuff and if it catches fire, it's gonna contain it. And it's all about how the thing works. It doesn't matter how it looks. Yeah, the most, I think the most

Trent Manning:

the other thing.

Tanner Knudsen:

on was the spill kit.

Trent Manning:

The other thing with that is we had a flammable cabinet that looked terrible and we repainted it,

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh

Trent Manning:

and then I bought, you know, and I bought the stickers and put, you know, fresh stickers on it. And I mean, it looks great, you know, I mean, so especially if you have some time in the winter, like a lot of clubs do. I mean, you can knock some of that stuff out.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, for sure.

Trent Manning:

So, yeah, highly recommend it for sure. And I think that's super cool that you use the rubric to help you design the maintenance facility. I mean, smart on you for doing that too. And I, we should find out GCSA probably has the number of how many man hours slash Kayla was on some of those calls. So. You know what I'm saying? How many hours was spent developing the rubric? Because, you know, I mean, I don't know. There was probably 15 of us, maybe,

Tanner Knudsen:

Okay.

Trent Manning:

I mean, maybe even a few. You know, there was definitely, you know, probably seven or eight that carried most of the load, but there was, you know, another seven or eight that was. Dipping in and out of some of the meetings and coming up with ideas and I mean, it was a super fun process developing that. And I mean, it's just like any other thing that I've went through you know, I learned just as much as anybody else probably through that process

Tanner Knudsen:

Oh yeah, I believe

Trent Manning:

get to hear, you know, different viewpoints. Well, just for instance, like JR was on a lot of the calls and he's a volunteer firefighter on Long Island and the other thing on Long Island, the state requires them to have fire suppression over any fuel pump. So even the fuel pump?

Tanner Knudsen:

even if it's outdoors.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Outdoors and what? It was crazy. So when I went to visit him, all the gas stations, they have fire suppression over the fuel pumps.

Tanner Knudsen:

Wow.

Trent Manning:

I mean, it's, you know, I don't know. I thought that was kind of crazy. But you know, getting to just learn about that and how that works and, you know, everything else is it was a fun process for sure. You wanna do some rapid fire?

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, let's go for it.

Trent Manning:

What's your favorite movie?

Tanner Knudsen:

I love Happy Gilmore Movies. I or Adam Sandler movies, I should say Happy Gilmore is number one. Billy Madison's number two. Even like big Daddy, all the Adam

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. He is great. Really good. What would be your last meal?

Tanner Knudsen:

I love media or yeah, medium rare filet, some potatoes, asparagus. Carrots and I love my grandma's mashed potatoes. Probably it has to be in there. She leaves just a little bit of lumps in'em. She'd kill me if I said that and she heard it, but I just love the way she makes mashed potatoes is just the best.

Trent Manning:

that's awesome. Good stuff. Nothing like grandma's cooking,

Tanner Knudsen:

Nothing like grandma's cooking.

Trent Manning:

What are you most proud of besides your family?

Tanner Knudsen:

I gotta brag about the facility that we created over here. Having a brand new facility, I mean, gracious, that the members were willing to fork out the money for the bill, but the way it turned out got a lot of compliments about everything. We're really proud of how this place turned out.

Trent Manning:

No, that's super cool. That's awesome. Have you had people coming by and checking it out since y'all opened up other

Tanner Knudsen:

did a full. Champagne toast, open House, probably four or five months after we opened up. So at first, first Deep Clean for the shop too. It was kind of nice. But yeah, they, a lot of members didn't see the old place. So our golf course was built in 1949, opened in 1951, and there's a photo up in the clubhouse of opening day, looking back on one of the holes. And you can see the shop that I was working out of in the background.

Trent Manning:

Oh, no way.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, it was probably a maybe 2000 square foot heated area and then another 2000 square foot cold storage, and it was terrible mouse infested insulation falling off the thing. Asbestos in the windows, the whole nine yards. Terrible facility. So to go from that to this is just amazing morale booster. It's just awesome.

Trent Manning:

Oh, for sure. No, that is, yeah. Super cool. I was thinking too, do, have you had any industry people, other golf course mechanics or

Tanner Knudsen:

We, we've had two or three facilities, I think swing in just their E two EMS have come by. And Chad Braun and Brian Lin came in before we really got the keys. Yeah, but one other golf course where the superintendent assistant came in to kind of get an idea of how they wanted to build theirs. And then our local chapter, the Minnesota Golf Course Superintendent's Association, they do shop tours every winter. So we'll have the fir, or the last stop of this year's shop tours will be coming here this year.

Trent Manning:

Ah, sweet.

Tanner Knudsen:

a big tour sometime in February, maybe January or February or something in there.

Trent Manning:

Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. Is your chapter, or you and Chad and Austin, are y'all getting multiple things set up throughout the year for

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, so we have actually the 20th of November we're doing an autonomous mower class. Chad is actually hosting, it'll be down at Town and Country. So that'll be an EM based event that we're kind of building off of. And then this year you spoke at our mega seminar last year, I believe.

Trent Manning:

Yes.

Tanner Knudsen:

so that kind of fed off after you came. We're really adding on to the EM portion of the mega seminar. So we're gonna do kind of a hands-on learning class the first half of the first day, and then Mike Rollins is supposed to come in and teach. Later that day as well. So we'll have

Trent Manning:

Okay, cool.

Tanner Knudsen:

him talking. And then the first half of the morning session is just gonna be real managing practices, the best managing practices for real. So we'll have a rep from John Deere, a rep from Toro, and a rep from Jacobson come in and teach everybody the nitty gritty. Not so much the in depth stuff, but you know how to mount a bed bar properly. Torque specs, just areas of that, and do a kind of a broad teaching class.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Yeah, that'll be super fun.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, Austin coming over from Wisconsin and how in depth they were through their chapter has really been helpful in growing the little community that we have right now.

Trent Manning:

That's so cool. I mean, I don't, it just warms my heart every time I hear about these groups, like y'all's getting together. I mean, Brian Lin when he was in Nebraska, him and Jordan Roth, I got some stuff going with technicians down there and I mean, it's just really cool that's happening all over the country. I don't know if the Colorado Rockies, you know, or the Rocky Mountains, you know, block stuff from coming this way and we just don't hear about it, or they're not doing anything, you know, on west of the Rockies. I, you know, I don't know what's happening out there. And I do know you know, Montana and Wyoming and those places, it's just so spread out, you know, and there's so few courses. It's hard for. Those guys to get together. But us over here on the east side of the Rockies, we're making strides. And they're doing stuff in Texas too, like Tony and some of the guys down there getting together. I mean, it's really good what's happening all over the country. I love to hear it. Well, tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you an email or

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah, my email is.

Trent Manning:

Twitter or

Tanner Knudsen:

I do have a Twitter. I don't even know what my handle is but my email is tanner at north oaks golf club.com. I'll reply to anybody that gets ahold of me. I throw out my number, but I don't know if you want that or not.

Trent Manning:

Nah, I don't,

Tanner Knudsen:

I'll try to

Trent Manning:

yeah I get enough spam calls already. I don't want, you know, I, not that people listening to this would do that, but yeah who knows? I put out.

Tanner Knudsen:

at Tanner Knutson one. Then my name is Tanner Knutson CEM. So it'll be pretty hard to miss that one.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. Cool man. Well awesome. Thank you so much for being on. This has been a blast as always.

Tanner Knudsen:

thanks a ton for having me. Hopefully we can catch up down in Orlando.

Trent Manning:

For sure. I think Orlando is gonna be something really special. And I'm getting older and I can't remember numbers as good, but I know we had the most EM signed up last year in San Diego. And San Diego is not most popular show.

Tanner Knudsen:

Yeah.

Trent Manning:

You know, especially for all the East Coast people, because it's really expensive to get out there. The hotels are expensive. Everything's expensive. So a lot of people from the East coast don't go to San Diego for that reason, but they go to Orlando, so I'm, I mean, I think it was 176 or something like that, em signed up for San Diego. I think we'll be well over 200 this time.

Tanner Knudsen:

Sweet. I can't wait.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. I can't wait. It's gonna be so good.

Tanner Knudsen:

Awesome.

Trent Manning:

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.