Episode 166: Dan Haxton

Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 166.

Today we’re talking with Dan Haxton, Equipment Manager at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. Congressional is a private 36-hole facility with a deep history in tournament golf, and Dan leads a three-person shop supporting a fleet that’s primarily John Deere equipment.

Dan shares how he got his start in the industry at just 14 years old filling divots at Queenstown Harbor before moving from the crew side into the shop. After stepping into an assistant mechanic role, he became a head mechanic only eight months later and spent 12 years at South River before stops at Woodmont and eventually Congressional.

They talk about the realities of managing people — the most rewarding and most stressful part of the job — along with favorite tools like calipers, preset torque wrenches, and a milling machine that’s become invaluable for rotary blade work and repairs. Dan also discusses how forums, YouTube, and networking with other techs continue to help him learn and problem solve.

The conversation gets into designing Congressional’s new two-story maintenance facility, standardizing reel data and height-of-cut communication across the operation, and the club’s growing use of robotics and automation, including Kress and Husqvarna mowers along with a Relox ball picker.

It’s a great conversation about growth in the industry, building systems that make life easier, and balancing tradition with new technology at one of the game’s iconic clubs.

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Transcript

Trent Manning, CTEM 0:05

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 Welcome to The Real Turf Text Podcast, episode 1 66. Today we're talking to Dan Hackston, equipment Manager at congressional Country Club, and Bethesda Maryland. Congressional is a private 36 hole facility. With a deep history in tournament golf. Dan has three helping him in the shop. They have mostly deer equipment. Let's talk to Dan. 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, Dan, to The Reel Turf Techs podcast. How you doing today?

Dan Haxton 1:33

Oh, great, Trent. Thanks for having me.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:36

No, thank you so much for being on. Well, we met, how long ago was it? At John Patterson's shop at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Dan Haxton 1:45

That's funny, I was thinking about this the years have kinda grown together here, but I think it was 2021 'cause we hosted the KPMG in '22.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:54

Okay.

Dan Haxton 1:55

yeah, and h- and his was there the year before ours.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:58

Right, that makes sense. Yeah. No, it's just such a small industry. Not that we've stayed in contact or anything since then, but I've run into you here first of this year. It's like, "Hey, I remember you."

Dan Haxton 2:11

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, we c- we can't tell, we can't tell him where we were, though. We were at a

Trent Manning, CTEM 2:16

Oh, no. That was top secret meeting. I wasn't even gonna say it was top secret meeting. I was just gonna say that we run into each other.

Dan Haxton 2:24

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 2:25

did you come to the Golf Industry Show?

Dan Haxton 2:27

I was there. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 2:28

You were there, okay. You made an appearance.

Dan Haxton 2:31

I you know, I think I've been to the equipment manager's, what is it? What do they call it? The equipment manager

Trent Manning, CTEM 2:37

The E/M reception,

Dan Haxton 2:38

yep, I've gone to that maybe two or three times, but I didn't go to it this year. That's a busy week when I'm down there. Everybody's got some event, and I've got a ton of friends that I haven't seen in years that I wanna hang out with, so yeah. there's not a lot of time.

Trent Manning, CTEM 2:55

No it's hard to make all the rounds, and it seems like, yeah, everything you wanna do is on the same night or, you know, you have

Dan Haxton 3:01

It

Trent Manning, CTEM 3:01

multiple things on every night going on. Just, Yeah, really busy time. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Dan Haxton 3:12

well, it's not that exciting of a story so

Trent Manning, CTEM 3:16

here for it. This is what Reel Turf Techs is about, okay? We are here for the story

Dan Haxton 3:22

I don't know if there is an exciting story about how someone got into the golf industry at all. But no, I was 14 years old. My mom worked at a golf course in Queenstown, Maryland, called Queenstown Harbor, and she had worked there for a long time. It's an amazing property. It's a public course. And she got me a job. I was 14, and I filled... I was telling someone this story today, actually. I filled divots for eight hours a day, days a week,

Trent Manning, CTEM 3:53

Nice.

Dan Haxton 3:54

That is all I did. And we would

Trent Manning, CTEM 3:57

And you're still in the industry.

Dan Haxton 3:59

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 3:59

would think that would be enough to push somebody away.

Dan Haxton 4:03

Yeah, it's funny 'cause that was, it was, you know, it was the '90s, and golf was really big. Public golf was doing really well. And they had a, that club ac- or that course actually had a great budget. And we-- They had a crew, five guys. That's all they did. They would walk up and down the fairways with a bucket of sand and fill divots, and then we'd turn around, and we had a stick, like a broom handle with a nail on the end of it, and we would pick up every divot and put it in the bucket and then dump it in the cart when we got done. Yeah, that's all I did the entire

Trent Manning, CTEM 4:35

is at a public course?

Dan Haxton 4:37

It was a public course. Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM 4:38

I mean, that's pretty high level of detail, I

Dan Haxton 4:40

It was. No.

Trent Manning, CTEM 4:42

in the nineties too.

Dan Haxton 4:44

Yeah. No, this was a, this cl- this course is actually known as, like, the, one of the first, like, high-end public courses, and they did really well for a very long time. I mean, they took a hit when the economy turned down. But

Trent Manning, CTEM 5:01

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 5:02

anyway, I was there. I did that for a couple summers and then worked at a bike shop, at a bicycle shop in the wintertime when I was going to school. And then I graduated high school, and I applied for college, and I got in to a local college, local four-year college, and was, like, three days away from signing everything and going and just decided college wasn't for me. And still went to community college and did my five years of two-year college.

Trent Manning, CTEM 5:38

Okay.

Dan Haxton 5:40

I I worked at... I was, I needed to make money when I graduated high school, so I worked on the crew full-time at that same golf course. And I, it was fun, and it was great, but I knew it wouldn't go nowhere. You know what I mean? I didn't, I just, I knew I wanted to do something else and make a little bit more money. And thankfully, the mechanic that was there, well, thankfully for me his assistant left, and he went on to a new course, and he got a job as a head tech somewhere. And I just, like, very shyly walked into his office one day and was like, "Hey, would you mind i-if I give it a shot as an assistant?" And keep in mind, I had, you know, I wa- I didn't even think I had any interest in mechanics at the time. I don't know why I did it. It just seemed like a better opportunity. and it's funny because he was not-- It did not seem promising when I went in there and asked him. His reaction wasn't great. But then a couple of days later, he was like, "Hey, I'm sorry about that. Yeah, I'm definitely... I'd love to have you, you know. I'd love to give it a

Trent Manning, CTEM 6:40

Oh, no. Okay.

Dan Haxton 6:42

yeah. And so I did that for a couple of years as an assistant. And actually I, take that. I did that for eight months as an assistant for him.

Trent Manning, CTEM 6:53

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 6:54

so a couple of years of working on the course as on the crew, and then eight months as an assistant, and then I got a job in the company as a head mechanic. Same company owned another public g-golf course,

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:06

okay.

Dan Haxton 7:07

yep. So it was a great opportunity. Yeah, so it's eight, eight months as an assistant, and then I got

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:13

All right. Well, yeah, that's a pretty short time for being an assistant.

Dan Haxton 7:20

oh, yeah, I wasn't ready. No, I

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:23

That's all good.

Dan Haxton 7:23

you know, I didn't, I definitely got, like, thrown into it. I went to a pla- It was called South River. The, it changed names a couple of times. It's called the Golf Club at South River now. And it was a 18-hole, you know, pretty small operation. It once was a public course and then tried to do like a semi-private thing. I think they're still there great place though. I spent 12 years there. So yeah, I spent 12 years there, and I really... That's where I learned everything there. Like, it just I had time. It wasn't, you know, particularly difficult job. I had time to really dive deep into things, and I I enjoyed it. So it was not a, it was not a bad 12 years. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 8:10

Yeah, that's that's a long time to, to spend at a place. So did you go straight from there to congressional?

Dan Haxton 8:16

No, I went to Woodmont Country Club, which is it's very similar to Congressional actually. It's a 36-hole big property, five, 500-acre piece of property in the middle of, like, the most suburban area you could imagine. It's in Rockville, Maryland.

Trent Manning, CTEM 8:35

Okay.

Dan Haxton 8:36

a call. So it's funny that the mechanic that I worked for at Queenstown, name is Rob Wilson, great guy. I worked f- you know, when I worked for him well, when I started-- when I was at South River, I got a call from Pete Wendt. So he's the director at Congressional now, and he had talked to Brandon Collins, who Rob was now working for at, I think it was Country Club at Woodmore at the time. And they're like, "Yeah I know a guy that might be interested in a bigger job." And so I went ahead and took the call and interviewed a couple days later, and then I, yeah, had a new job. So probably one of the best things I ever did. Yeah. That's a... That was a special place. I was there for five years. So Really special place. Just still like I love-- I don't go back there very often anymore, but when I do it's not, it's like eight miles away from Congressional.

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:44

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 9:44

it's just a beautiful property, amazing facility, great shop.

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:49

Okay.

Dan Haxton 9:50

it was an old cattle barns and,

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:52

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 9:53

stuff like that. The ESD room. So like the washroom is in an old milk parlor.

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:59

Oh, really?

Dan Haxton 10:00

Yeah that we like wedged in an ESD machine, seven thousand in it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:05

Right.

Dan Haxton 10:06

and yeah, it's just it still holds a special place in my heart. I love that place, so.

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:11

Yeah.

Dan Haxton 10:12

But I was there for five years, and Pete got the job at Congressional and called me a couple years later to interview, and rest is history,

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:21

Gotcha. Yeah. No, very cool. Well, yeah, what inspired you to go ask the mechanic at your first course about the assistant job?

Dan Haxton 10:32

That's a great question. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:34

yeah, did you grow up working on stuff? You said you worked at a bike shop for a little while, so...

Dan Haxton 10:40

Yeah, so I mean, I worked on bicycles. I my dad was always like, he did all the maintenance on his cars. He would fix them, some-- like he would always do brakes in our driveway. Like, I remember the, what-- he had like a little old Harbor Freight jack, and he would jack his car up with. I remember it fell on him one time. The car fell on him. Yeah, he was okay. He was fine. He's a tough guy. But no, I would help my dad, but honestly, I wasn't that interested in it. I never saw myself becoming a mechanic and when I started working as one, I realized, like, n-naturally it came easy to me. And I did find it, like, really enjoyable and satisfying. You know, I don't wrench a lot outside of work. I don't really come home and wrench on things very often unless I have to. Fix a lot of stuff, but I, And I do enjoy it. It's just always been something that's, like, come easy to me. But yeah I don't really... I never saw myself becoming a mechanic.

Trent Manning, CTEM 11:45

Mm-hmm. But yet here you are.

Dan Haxton 11:47

And I didn't really know what I was gonna be at all, so I mean, had to do something.

Trent Manning, CTEM 11:52

Well, yeah, no, I get it. And yeah, I still hadn't figured out what I wanna do when I grow up, you know? I mean, seriously. But this is fine for now, right? So let's keep on doing it. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Dan Haxton 12:06

that's a good question. So it's funny, my, my most favorite and least favorite is working with people. So like

Trent Manning, CTEM 12:15

Okay.

Dan Haxton 12:15

I love when, And when I say with people, I mean more, like, specifically with assistants and stuff. Like, I love training guys.

Trent Manning, CTEM 12:25

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 12:26

watching them grow and move on and get jobs. Like, that's a-- There's so much pride in that when you see your guys go on and get jobs. But also, like, when it doesn't go right, which it doesn't always go right, it's and that's really hard. That is a really hard time, the uncertainty of those times and being f- like, possibly being short-handed and trying to figure out how to make things work with people that maybe aren't fully dedicated to it, or maybe that job's just not for them. That's hard. And that, that's-- I-- I-- Without a doubt, some of my most stressful times at work have been related to personnel.

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:10

Yeah, I could see that for

Dan Haxton 13:11

But I also, I lo- like, I love it too. Like, I love working with people and training people. But yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:18

No, that's a good point. I mean, it is it's challenging though,

Dan Haxton 13:21

it is.

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:22

certain employees and their work ethic and things that happen,

Dan Haxton 13:29

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:29

that are out of your control. But yeah, it is super rewarding too, when you have a person doing really well and you get to see 'em go on to the next thing.

Dan Haxton 13:40

Yeah, there's Nothing be- nothing better in the business from my perspective. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:46

Yeah.

Dan Haxton 13:46

I love...

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:46

sure. What's your favorite tool?

Dan Haxton 13:51

Ah, so I thought about this one. Yeah, I'd say it's probably... I got two, okay? So, One a caliper is really good.

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:03

Okay. Maybe you're hanging out with John Patterson

Dan Haxton 14:06

Yeah, to--

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:07

pretty sure that was his, yeah, favorite tool.

Dan Haxton 14:10

I'll give John, I'll give John credit for that one. That was definitely, But really, like, so

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:15

What do you... So hang on, back up. What do you find measuring the most? What are you using that caliper for? Is it front face thickness? Is it bed knife length? Is it...

Dan Haxton 14:29

I don't find myself using it for that nearly as often as, like, if I go on McMaster-Carr. Have you ever heard of McMaster-Carr?

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:38

yeah. Yeah. No. Yes. This is my

Dan Haxton 14:40

I go on McMaster-- Yeah, it is the, the-- It is like a paradise for mechanics. Like, so if I go on there and I need a washer or a bearing or anything, like, I got the caliper in my hand. So I'm, either I'm checking journals to to make sure I get the right bearing or I'm just measuring the washer diameter of something. Like, that's typically where I find myself, Am I-- You know, I'm not using it on bed knives nearly as much. We have like-- We kinda, like-- I don't go by the numbers as much when you're grinding bed knives. I typically do it by look and feel. And not to say we're not a... You know, my assistants might disagree because we have a spreadsheet of every reel,

Trent Manning, CTEM 15:33

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 15:33

i-in our entire fleet that has both the diameters on each side on it. But but yeah, no I just use it to order parts mostly, make sure I'm getting the right size.

Trent Manning, CTEM 15:44

No, I love it.

Dan Haxton 15:45

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 15:45

kept one in the shop and also kept one in the right top drawer of my desk,

Dan Haxton 15:53

That's a great

Trent Manning, CTEM 15:54

just for that, 'cause you're on Ma- and McMaster-Carr's... We're not sponsored, so if anybody knows somebody at Ma-McMaster Carr, I would definitely like a sponsorship because I talk about them all the time. I do the tips and tricks class, and half the class is about McMaster-Carr and how great they are. But what I wanted to say is they have a really good website.

Dan Haxton 16:18

It is the best. It

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:19

is the best. And whoever de- whoever designed Grainger's website Needs to be fired, and they need to hire the guy from, or gal from McMaster-Carr

Dan Haxton 16:32

Yeah, I know. I

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:32

say, "We just want this."

Dan Haxton 16:34

of sponsorship on this now. But no, I agree, and it's funny 'cause I go up to the clubhouse. Like, we have a gigantic clubhouse operation. Like, it's massive. It's the biggest clubhouse in the country. And I talk to the engineering department all the time, like... And I see Granger everywhere. I'm like, "You gotta get rid of this stuff and you gotta talk to McMaster-Carr. It'll change your life." But

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:57

No.

Dan Haxton 16:58

McMaster-Carr doesn't have sales guys going around selling stuff, so that's... At least not in my area, so

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:04

No, not in ours either. What the...

Dan Haxton 17:08

a new thing where they deliver, to me at least, they deliver overnight. So, like, every package I order, I-- is on the doorstep when I get into work every morning. Comes at, like, 3:00 AM.

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:21

Well, I'm very fortunate because there's a warehouse in Atlanta, and if I order before 11:45 AM, I get it the same day.

Dan Haxton 17:31

That's amazing,

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:32

I order it any time... Well, the latest I put a order in, I think, is 9:30 PM, and I would have it at 6 o'clock the next morning. I mean, it's just, it's incredible.

Dan Haxton 17:46

That is incredible,

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:47

yeah. The price of shipping is very reasonable. Yeah. It's like this is legit company.

Dan Haxton 17:55

I ordered... I actually ordered it. Here's a special tool that I like also. So I get preset torque wrenches for certain jobs.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:07

Okay.

Dan Haxton 18:08

so one, like tightening bed knife screws. So, you know, we used to have a Toro fleet of equipment, so I had a preset, I think it was 18 foot-pounds. John Deere's a lot less. I think it's I think it's, like, five, 5.5 or something like that. I think there's a range there. So I ordered a preset torque wrench. It has a really short handle on it, and we keep the same socket on there all the time for tightening John Deere bed knife screws.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:36

Wow. Okay. That's cool. Very cool. Well, I didn't mean to cut you off, and

Dan Haxton 18:42

yeah, no.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:43

on the thing. What was the second tool?

Dan Haxton 18:45

As a milling, milling machine.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:47

Oh, okay. All right. Why will it change my life?

Dan Haxton 18:52

So I say the biggest thing-- Well, one I mill all my rotary blades on it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:58

Okay.

Dan Haxton 18:59

and I've been doing that for 10 years about. I built a

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:04

Yeah. Where did that idea come from?

Dan Haxton 19:06

so this is getting-- we're getting deep here, and we're

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:10

I like it, man. This is why everybody tunes in to the Reel

Dan Haxton 19:13

we're

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:13

podcast

Dan Haxton 19:14

were you a member of Golf Techs back in the day? Do you remember that? It was a forum.

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:21

Yeah, it's still around,

Dan Haxton 19:22

it's still around.

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:24

yeah, I still

Dan Haxton 19:24

been on there I haven't been on there in a long time. But Golf Techs, there was a post, I don't know when it started, I don't know who started it, about milling blades. I think it was about grinding blades, and it turned into milling blades.

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:42

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 19:43

there was a mechanic actually really close to us. I don't know if I've ever met him. His name's Jim Sawyer, I think, I believe. Sorry if I pronounced his name wrong. But he's at Ca- Caves Valley Club, and it's north of Baltimore. Unbelievably nice property. and he posted something about milling rotary blades, and he had been doing it for a long time, and he showed pictures of a fixture he made. And I was still at South River at the time. We definitely didn't have the funds to buy a milling machine, but it was something I always wanted to do, and I saw, like, the value in it. And I-- when I got to Woodmont, I think I had a milling machine. I bought a milling machine within, like, you know, a year or so. The first capital r- went around, maybe sooner. And they were cheap then. Like, you could find a milling machine in New York or Jersey for two grand. I mean, it might... They're all old, you know, but you could find them pretty cheap. COVID changed that, everything. They're really expensive now. Machining equipment's expensive. But but yeah. So I started m- I mill all of our rotary blades except with a few exceptions. We might not mow a push mower blade that has, like, a crazy shape to it or something like that, like a mulching blade. But if it's, if it has a relatively flat geometry, I mill it. and it works particularly well on John Deere blades. The Toro ones, you can do it if you have the combo blade on it, but you gotta think about how you're doing it. It's faster. It is cleaner. The product is better. I mean, just super sharp. They seem to stay sharper longer, maybe 'cause the angle's a little bit more accurate a lot more accurate. You know, the blades, I think the blades last longer when you do it 'cause you're taking off a good amount, but you're taking it off, taking off the right amount, but you're taking it off very evenly. So you don't have... You know, when you're grinding, u- unless you got a guy that's just, like, great on a grinder, Whether it's an angle grinder or one of the old bench style grinders typically, you know, I feel like they'll, it-- they'll get really crooked or they'll more narrow towards the end of the blade

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:01

right.

Dan Haxton 22:02

where it... Yeah, whereas this, like it's pretty easy. And we've got it set up. I've-- Like I said, I built this fixture. You just throw it on there. There's stops for everything. You put two clamps down. I got a digital readout, and you hit the power feed on the X-axis, and you just watch it eat.

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:20

Okay.

Dan Haxton 22:21

once it hits zero, you shut it off and you go back the other way. So it's loud, and it can be intimidating 'cause you, you're hogging off like hardened steel with carb- with a carbide shell mill. But,

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:35

I was gonna ask you what kinda cutter you had.

Dan Haxton 22:38

Yeah, I use a like a f-- I think it's a f- four-inch, three or four-inch round carbide indexing cutter. So it has round bits to it, so it makes like a nice profile when it comes to the end. Yeah, it's great.

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:53

Okay, that's

Dan Haxton 22:54

yeah. I mean, so I've, I... Go ahead.

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:57

what else do you use the milling machine for, or is that its primary job?

Dan Haxton 23:03

yeah, I'd say that's its primary job. Next is I-- 100% next is getting bolts out. And that's where... So if you have a part particularly aluminum parts or something, you can fit it on the milling machine.

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:17

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 23:18

will just... Y- there's no bolt you can't get out, basically. You take a carbide end mill or a high-speed steel end mill, and you just center it up v- very carefully, and you can get it right in the center of that bolt and just peel the threads out if you have to. Yeah, so you basically, you're milling the bolt out of it, and it works great. Obviously, you can't put a machine up there, so it's not gonna help you much there.

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:47

Right.

Dan Haxton 23:48

but no, so stuff like that. And then for repair work, it's, you know, it's great. If you have... You know, somebody told me a long time ago, if you have a lathe, a mill, and a welder, you can fix anything.

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:03

That's, yeah, pretty much true. And McMaster-Carr.

Dan Haxton 24:06

That McMaster-Carr, yeah. So it, and it's true. Like it-- You really can. There's, you know, if you have a shaft that's worn out, you can build a shaft back up and turn it back down. If you got a surface that's wallowed out, you can weld it back up and mill it back down flat. like, like you ever get a tine holder on a 648 or like the three-quarter inch by four tine holders that just won't hold Just will not hold a tine anymore. They just don't wanna do it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:37

Yeah.

Dan Haxton 24:39

You can just put it in the mill, put it in the vise on the mill, and just like shave five thousandths, ten thousandths off of that, Clamp, it clamps tighter,

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:48

I

Dan Haxton 24:48

it works.

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:49

before. Yes.

Dan Haxton 24:50

Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:51

I'm trying to think what else. Oh the Toro, the 3320s is what I had, but it's got the alien knuckle on the front that holds the cutting unit with all the ball joints. I've took that aluminum bracket, whatever you wanna call it, taken it off and milled some off of it, so it would hold the ball joint better.

Dan Haxton 25:15

Yep, I know exactly what you're talking about.

Trent Manning, CTEM 25:17

yeah. And that... Yeah, that worked pretty good.

Dan Haxton 25:20

They're just great, and they're not-- Look, instead of-- I'd say if you're building a shop or you're starting a new course and you need to build a shop, don't-- save your money. Don't buy a drill press, you know. Just go out and find a used milling machine.

Trent Manning, CTEM 25:35

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 25:37

they do all the things. Like, we use ours. In the wintertime, we make all our own stakes. So we'll go... I'll-- There's a exotic wood dealer not too far from my house that sells ipe and rhino wood, and we'll buy that in bulk and then just cut everything down, and we use the milling machine to drill all the holes. And I set up a fixture. Yeah, I'll set up a fixture for the guys so they-- all they have to do is put it in there to a stop, pull down on the quill, and drill the hole, and it-- anyone can do it. Whereas if it was a drill press, the table would be flopping all around, and it just, it wouldn't work that well.

Trent Manning, CTEM 26:17

Right, I gotcha. No, that's good stuff. I like it.

Dan Haxton 26:21

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 26:22

What d- what do you do to relax or find your balance?

Dan Haxton 26:26

Well, I don't that much these days. No, I've got three kids and they're all at like a really busy age. I think 11, one's almost 13, and 16.

Trent Manning, CTEM 26:38

Okay. Yep.

Dan Haxton 26:39

we're heavy into sports and camps and all the things. So when I come home, I'm usually either making dinner or I'm heading to some practice somewhere. And yeah, my son plays soccer three seasons out of the year, so we're just, we're busy. But I like the w-- I did start, a couple years ago I started, waterfowl hunting, and I finally found a hobby that fits my work schedule. So it's all, yeah, it's all winter, so I l- I love it. I got a friend of mine that kinda got me into it and we've had-- I've had a lot of fun doing that. And I've always liked to fish.

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:24

Okay.

Dan Haxton 27:24

Used to fish a lot at Queenstown. Queenstown has some amazing bass ponds out there. So I've always liked to fish. I actually-- We moved into our house about five years ago, and there's a great pond in our neighborhood that I'll go down there, yeah, I sneak away

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:40

Yeah.

Dan Haxton 27:41

it. So,

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:42

Oh, that's cool. Very

Dan Haxton 27:43

but yeah. So spending time with the family hunting and fishing,

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:47

Hey, all right. Just like any other redneck it sounds like,

Dan Haxton 27:51

Yeah, I guess.

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:52

right there in DC. Yeah, it's crazy.

Dan Haxton 27:55

Hey, I'm not from DC, by the way. I live, So I live on the Eastern Shore. So I live-- So Maryland's split by the Chesapeake Bay,

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:04

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 28:04

the E- the Eastern Shore is very rural, agricultural

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:08

Oh, okay.

Dan Haxton 28:09

Yeah, and I grew up over there, so, I I just go to DC to make money, and then I come back every day.

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:17

Hey, I don't blame you. That sounds like, a good spot to be in, for sure. I mean, it's just, I mean, most of the people that I know, even around the Atlanta area, we live north of the city, and we commute towards the city to make the money, and then we go back north, you know, to try

Dan Haxton 28:36

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:37

But the city just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and you don't really know where it ends anymore.

Dan Haxton 28:42

Mm-hmm. Yeah, unfortunately, that's I think that's a big part of blue-collar work. I think a lot of... I mean, I live on an island. It's a big island. It's called Kent Island. And there is-- It's a huge blue-collar community, and it's a lot of electricians pipe fitters, and they all go to DC every day, work, and then come back. So I think that's just part of it. If you're a blue-collar worker, you gotta drive to where the work is.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:11

Yep. No, that's a good

Dan Haxton 29:12

what we do. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:15

What's one of the strangest things you've seen around the golf course?

Dan Haxton 29:19

Oof.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:21

Any good stories?

Dan Haxton 29:23

That's a tough one. I had an an am- an antler shed go into a tractor tire one time,

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:30

Oh, that's interesting.

Dan Haxton 29:31

that was, It didn't, actually, it didn't leak. It just came back. They drove it all the way back in with the shed in it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:38

Huh.

Dan Haxton 29:38

I think I got a picture of it still

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:40

Yeah, that's cool. That's

Dan Haxton 29:42

But yeah. No, I I mean, working at Congressional, you see your share of politicians. I've seen Obama quite a few times.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:51

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 29:53

Yeah. So, and that actually that was true of Woodmont too, so you see that a lot. One thing that is cool about working in DC is we see a lot of Black Hawks and Os- the Ospreys the marine

Trent Manning, CTEM 30:06

Oh yeah.

Dan Haxton 30:08

flying by all the time. A lot of presidential flights going by and stuff, so we see that a lot. When I worked at Obama I saw... It was a couple times he came out when he was president. So seeing the Secret Service come out when the president comes out, that's pretty cool.

Trent Manning, CTEM 30:25

yeah. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 30:26

Yeah, it, it-- they put on quite a show, so

Trent Manning, CTEM 30:29

Oh,

Dan Haxton 30:30

that, that was a lot of fun. They actually, they took a... So we would always have to get c-carts ready for them, and we'd clean up some Gators, some eGators, and we'd clean up some Pro Gators for them. We, they'd ha- they would always tell us how many. And what they do is they, in the Pro Gator they put together this like ballistic steel box and it's... Yeah. So it's not that big, but I guess it's just big enough to throw a president in just in case something happens and drive away real quick. yep, Oh, yep, and one

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:04

That's

Dan Haxton 31:04

a Secrets, Secret Service agent left a magazine in one of our carts too,

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:08

Oh, nice. Whoopsie. Yeah, I wonder what happens to him

Dan Haxton 31:15

Yeah I hope he got it. I think it turned out okay,

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:17

yeah. Yeah. No, that's super cool though. I would I would love to see that, all the workings of Secret Service.

Dan Haxton 31:25

was fun. It was fun.

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:27

cool. Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Dan Haxton 31:32

You know, I thought pretty strongly about this one, this question also, and I really, I think my, the people that have influenced me the most are the people on the forums, the internet forums back in the early 2000s when, you know, I was kinda on my own.

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:49

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 31:49

I, there wasn't a lot of... I didn't know a lot of people in the business at the time, so I didn't really learn anything new unless it was from that. So as far as what other people are doing in the business social media kinda does that now. I'm not a huge social media guy, so I don't, you know, I... But my boss is and all the assistants and superintendents are,

Trent Manning, CTEM 32:14

Okay.

Dan Haxton 32:15

But yeah, I'd say all the guys that were on Golf Techs and the Turfnet forums back in the early 2000s, tha-thank you. You guys taught me a lot of stuff. There were, there was some very wise people on there. I wish I had their names so I'd give them a shout-out right now, but there was some incredibly smart, wise people there then

Trent Manning, CTEM 32:35

That's cool. Yeah, I think it's maybe coming full circle too now with, you know, I mean, YouTube and all the other things. There's a lot more things out there for people than there used to be.

Dan Haxton 32:51

YouTube is, I've learned a lot from YouTube. Basically every-- I don't wanna say all the welding that I do I learned from YouTube, because I took, a welding class, but I didn't learn much in that welding class. But YouTube has taught me a lot.

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:08

Oh yeah.

Dan Haxton 33:09

Welding tips and tricks. That guy Jody, he's great.

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:13

Okay. Yep.

Dan Haxton 33:15

a lot of, there's a lot of machining content

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:19

Oh

Dan Haxton 33:20

on the internet, and I basically learned everything I know about operating a mill and a lathe from YouTube. Like hands down. There's some, so there's some, just some great ones. There's like an old guy, I think it was like Mr. Pete that, this was a long time ago. He, Yeah. it, yep, yeah, he has like a, in his basement he's got like a little milling setup somewhere in Illinois. Yeah, and there's just lots of great machining now. I still love it. I still watch, I watch YouTube more than than TV, that's for sure. There's a an Australian guy, Cutting Edge Engineering, if you

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:56

Yes. Yeah. He's a good one. Yep.

Dan Haxton 33:59

yeah, he's amazing. I look forward to his videos every week. There was one, it was a guy called Ox Tool. He... It's a guy that works at, he works at like Lawrence Livermore Lab in California.

Trent Manning, CTEM 34:14

Okay.

Dan Haxton 34:14

And, but he has like his own shop at his house where he's got a mill and a lathe and a surface grinder and all the things. And he just builds things and kind of putts around in the shop and films it, and it's just great. It's a great way to learn stuff,

Trent Manning, CTEM 34:30

That's cool.

Dan Haxton 34:32

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 34:32

a lot about machining from Blondie Hacks. You ever run

Dan Haxton 34:37

I have. Yeah, I don't watch a lot of her videos, but

Trent Manning, CTEM 34:41

she's got some really good content on more of a how to basic, this is how you run a lathe, this is how you run, you know, and all the things. I think I've watched all her lathe and milling machine stuff. Yeah, just crazy what all you can learn out there.

Dan Haxton 34:59

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:00

What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Dan Haxton 35:03

Well, that, that kind of changes as your life evolves,

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:06

Oh, sure it does. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 35:09

I will say this, there was... When I was working at South River, you know, 15 years ago or whatever it was, I certainly knew about Congressional, and I knew about high-end clubs, and I knew that I wanted to work at a place like that.

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:23

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 35:24

so the fact that I work at Congre- Congressional, I'm very proud of. And it is-- I think if you're if you work there at the right time in your life, y- you can do a ton of stuff, and you'll never get, you'll never get bored.

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:42

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 35:43

you'll always have the resources you need to do your job. You always have the support you need. There's a constant conveyor basically of talent that roll through there in, in every, like it, through the assistants and the superintendents, the interns just the crew. Like, so it... I mean, we never get old. It never gets old, that's for

Trent Manning, CTEM 36:09

No. Yeah I understand that for

Dan Haxton 36:15

of, it takes a toll. So like Congressional for sure, like had at one point been my dream job. Not to say it's not anymore, but, you know, someday I'd always like, who knows? When my kids are grown and this is a long ways away, by the way, in case my boss is here. This when my kids are grown and maybe I'd like to go somewhere slower where there's more ducks and more geese to shoot and

Trent Manning, CTEM 36:41

Oh yeah.

Dan Haxton 36:42

and so... But I don't know where that is,

Trent Manning, CTEM 36:45

Why not... my good friend Howard, he worked at top-level clubs for a long time, and now he's at a little 18-hole course. He's the sole mechanic. He works Monday through Friday, half a day Friday. No weekends.

Dan Haxton 37:03

that's

Trent Manning, CTEM 37:03

he's living his best life. I give him a hard time about being semi-retired, but I mean, it's great for him. I mean, he put his time in, you know?

Dan Haxton 37:11

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 37:12

And they pay him good at this place, and it's, you know, no pressure. You go in and, yeah. Yeah, it's, It could be nice

Dan Haxton 37:21

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 37:22

de-depending on, yeah, your mindset. I don't... I mean, I always like the go go busy, you know?

Dan Haxton 37:30

Yeah. I like that too. And I mean, I think working at Congressional they say it's like- It's like dog years when you work at Congressional, every year is like seven years, and it's a-- and it really is a amazing place. It's just we host a lot of big tournaments. You know, we've got in 2020... So next year we host the KPMG. We're building a gigantic maintenance facility right now that has to be done before the PGA comes in for the KPMG. And then two years, three years after that, we host the PGA Championship, and then we host a couple more. And then in 2037, we host the Ryder Cup. So, I mean, the next 10 years are not gonna be a slow 10 years, so.

Trent Manning, CTEM 38:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 38:24

getting the maintenance facility knocked out and done will change everything, though, so.

Trent Manning, CTEM 38:30

How much involvement have you had in that, far as shop design and that kind of stuff?

Dan Haxton 38:35

I've been very involved in the

Trent Manning, CTEM 38:37

That's so

Dan Haxton 38:38

Yeah. From the very beginning. Thankfully, like Pete has allowed me to be involved in it. I'm super appreciative of it. Very overwhelming at first. It was very overwhelming. So like this is from like conceptual design all the way up to, you know, the start of construction, and now we're-- now I think I'm more involved in it than I have been. They actually today they laid out the shop. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 39:06

Oh, wow. Okay.

Dan Haxton 39:06

like this huge retaining wall that's gonna... it's a two-story facility. So it's a 265 by 75 foot deep building, and it's two stories high. And the lower story is all cold storage, equipment storage, and my shop. And then the upper story is admin, locker rooms, break rooms. There's some staff housing in there.

Trent Manning, CTEM 39:37

Mm-hmm. Oh, cool.

Dan Haxton 39:51

that's gonna like hold the, all the earth back for the second story, 'cause there's a parking lot in the back that's done. And they are gonna pour the pad for the shop area in like two weeks. So we've gotta do all of the sumps that are, or all the pits that are gonna have like the recessed lifts in 'em.

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:13

Oh, nice.

Dan Haxton 40:14

like spot on. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:15

yeah. And when is it supposed to be complete?

Dan Haxton 40:20

So our goal is February next

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:22

Okay. All right.

Dan Haxton 40:26

March and starts staging where all of our equipment is right now. We don't have a facility. We- they didn't just build a new one while we stayed in ours. They had to tear down the facility, and we're working. I have a nice little shop in the basement of our golf performance center, but all of our new fleet of John Deere equipment's sitting outside unfortunately right now. Yeah it's heartbreaking, but,

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:51

Yep.

Dan Haxton 40:51

eh, we always just say it'll be worth it in the long run. It's totally what's right for the club for sure. so well overdue maintenance facility. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it does seem like the maintenance facility is always the last thing to get upgraded or changed or any of that stuff.

Dan Haxton 41:11

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Congressionals was... it needed to be done a long time ago, and honestly, one of the reasons I went there was because I knew that Pete would push him to get it, and we'd build the right facility for a club like that. Mm-hmm. And we are. We are. It's gonna be

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:28

That's really exciting. I can't wait. I'm all, "I wanna come visit," for sure

Dan Haxton 41:32

come by anytime. yeah. You can come by for the KPMG if you'd like.

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:37

Okay.

Dan Haxton 41:38

That's in June next year.

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:39

All right. Definitely send me the info and I'll sign up for that right now. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, how does that coincide with the US Open? Is it before?

Dan Haxton 41:51

the US Open is, I wanna say that's after. So it's... No, it's probab- the US Open's usually early June,

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:59

Well, it's usually Father's Day weekend.

Dan Haxton 42:03

Okay. What date

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:04

That's like the third

Dan Haxton 42:06

Yeah, so ours would probably be after that. The KPMG would be after the US Open, yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:12

We'll w- we'll work out the

Dan Haxton 42:13

We'll work it out.

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:14

Yeah. No, I would definitely love that opportunity.

Trent Manning 42:18

Get ready for tips and tricks

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:21

Let's do some tips and tricks. What's some some of your favorite tips and tricks you've saw over the years?

Dan Haxton 42:27

So I, you know, I've kinda given away some of them already, but, like, the torque wrenches. So if you got a

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:33

yeah.

Dan Haxton 42:34

If you got a sta- a staff of people, so you've gotta figure out ways to standardize things, right? Like, if you got three guys in the shop, you wanna prevent them from making mistakes. Making them use torque wrenches has been the way that I do it. You have a couple drain plugs fall out 'cause they weren't tightened enough, you- You're gonna have-- We're using torque wrenches for every drain plug. So that's a big one. I use, you know... And if you get factory preset ones, they're not that expensive. It's not as expensive as an adjustable one would be. You can't change it. So for bed knife screws, that's great. Either whether it's Toro. McMaster-Carr sells them. They have a couple different styles. you can custom order them too. They'll have, like, your standard sizes of-- or excuse me, your standard torques available. But you can literally order them in any torque you want. So I think that's a great idea.

Trent Manning, CTEM 43:33

Mm-hmm. No, that is a really good idea.

Dan Haxton 43:35

it really is just pro- like a protocol. You gotta make the guys do it. That way, you know, it's holding them accountable, and everybody's, you know, we don't have drain plugs falling out on, in the rough or on a fairway 'cause we didn't tighten it enough.

Trent Manning, CTEM 43:52

Right.

Dan Haxton 43:53

is a great one. That it'll, change your life really

Trent Manning, CTEM 43:57

I agree. I

Dan Haxton 43:58

you. can get any part you want as soon as you want it. You know, it's, it really is... it's just, it just makes everything easier, and they literally have everything. So, like, there's not much where I've been. There's not many times I've gone on McMaster-Carr and been disappointed.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:19

Oh,

Dan Haxton 44:19

have great cust- customer service too, so.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:22

Yeah, y- that's the other thing. If I order the wrong thing, they're like, "Just send it to me." I'm like, "You need a call tag?" "No, just send it." And they like, they figure it out and credit you and everything else. It's like,

Dan Haxton 44:35

Yeah. I actually, I ordered a custom torque wrench that was... And this is rare. It was, it was-- They had to factory set it. And I ordered it from them a month ago, and they weren't updating, like, the delivery time. It would always say, like, four weeks.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:57

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 44:57

So I went ahead, and I just ordered another one that they had in stock that was really close to the torque that I needed. It was a different style. And then, of course, they called me the next day. I asked them to cancel that order. They called me the next day, and they're like, "Hey, it's showed up today, just so you know. We can ship it out, or we'll just eat it." And they just ate it. I was like, "I'm sorry. I've, I would've waited if, you know, if you had updated it. You guys are great." But they were like, "No problem. We understand." And they put it on the shelf for somebody to order some, like, random torque

Trent Manning, CTEM 45:31

Wow.

Dan Haxton 45:32

preset wrench. So yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 45:34

That's cool. Yep, very good company.

Dan Haxton 45:38

good. Yeah. So, what else what other tips and tricks? So I will say having-- Look, I know this is a simple one, and you can dive into the data as much as you want. Like I said, we keep a Excel spreadsheet of every reel. My guys, when we're grinding, nobody gri- nobody grinds reel without measuring it first to check for cone, and then nobody grinds-- nobody puts it together without measuring it after they're done grinding, and then we record it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 46:11

Okay.

Dan Haxton 46:12

I have a lot of reasons for that, but one is just to make sure they're doing it and to make sure, you know, everybody's doing the right thing, and we got straight reels. Another reason, when tournament time comes, you know, you kinda wanna know where your reels are. I don't wanna send a set of reels out that are dramatically smaller than everything else or that's where you're gonna see the differences is it's the inconsistency, right? But yeah. So a height of cut board, I know this sounds simple like, but we have a height of cut board in the shop, and every mower has a height of cut sticker on it, and it does-- we will never change a height without changing that sticker. And all it is it's a black label sticker. I'm sure a lot of guys do this. It's a black label sticker I bought from McMaster Car. You write on it with a silver Sharpie, take a little bit of acetone or brake cleaner, and you wipe it off with a rag, and you change the number. And then we change it on our dry erase board too. It's a nice dry erase board, but it's not a simple dry erase board. We got a lot of heights of cut at Congressional. But just like the simple things like don't change a height on a mower unless you write it down,

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:31

Oh yeah. No, I agree with you 100%. Always wrote it down on the mower, or I didn't write it. We just used a label maker

Dan Haxton 47:38

Yeah, that's

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:38

printed out just 'cause, you know, like, it looks nice and neat, and

Dan Haxton 47:42

It looks great.

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:43

I have terrible handwriting. One of my guys had great handwriting. But I just like the labels. But going back to the dry erase board, I had a dry erase board forever, and then I started using Task Tracker, and you can keep track of heights in Task Tracker, which is cool, but our director, every time he would walk out of the office, he would say, "What's the greens heights?" You know, and this isn't every day, obviously. But he couldn't see it up on the board anymore. And I think there is definitely value in having it up on a board.

Dan Haxton 48:24

Yeah. It's like a poster in the

Trent Manning, CTEM 48:25

Yeah,

Dan Haxton 48:26

It's like... I mean, if you can do it digitally and have it on a, like a TV, that's great too. I certainly have a digital height of cut sheet that's a spreadsheet that I give to Pete during our weekly meetings every week. So he knows where we are. But when you got three or four guys in the shop, and everybody needs to be on the same page, and there's gotta be the one thing that everybody can trust, and it's the dry erase board it's the height of cut board. It's,

Trent Manning, CTEM 48:56

Right. Right.

Dan Haxton 48:58

whether it's a height of cut board or it's digital or whatever it is. But yeah, I think it's a simple one, but yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:07

Yeah, for sure. You wanna talk robotic mowers? Y- are all in on robotic mowers, or what all are you mowing with robotic mowers?

Dan Haxton 49:17

ah, we have... We talked about this. You called me a

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:21

Yeah, I called you to, yeah, to find out, yeah, what all you're mowing with robotic mowers, because my director said, "Hey, I think I wanna start looking into robotic mowers."

Dan Haxton 49:32

And so all in is there are some people that are way more all in than we are. We're taking it in stages, but we have... Right now, we have 20, 20 mowers, actually. 21, 2... Maybe 23 mowers out there right now. Mostly Cress. We've got a couple Husqvarnas out there still. We've kinda gone all, you know, back and forth on them. We think right now for us, Cress is working great. They're you know, I think it's gonna be like any piece of equipment. I think, you know, who knows, f-four years, Husqvarna might come out with a better product, and we'll be at a Husqvarna. It's just like the John Deere Toro swap. It's like that what's right for the club at the time. But yeah, we have 23 of them out there. we are mowing a lot. So the Gold Course is mowing I'm kinda guessing on this but I think it's maybe 12 or 13 of the 18 holes

Trent Manning, CTEM 50:31

Oh, wow.

Dan Haxton 50:31

them, all the rough. Yeah. So they're pretty productive. And the Blue Course, we've got some areas around the clubhouse, and then we've got one, two, and three. And I just set them up a couple days ago, actually, last, well, last week. I g- like I got them dialed in, and they're doing great. They, Yeah. So are we completely bought in? No. We didn't buy like a fleet of these things. We kinda, you know, we bought what we thought was appropriate for a capital budget this year. are great. I was skeptical about them on the blue course, 'cause the blue course is, has 42 acres of bent grass fairways. It's just gigantic fairways really wide and a lot of native area. So the native area we're not mowing clearly with the cresses. The tall fescue rough is r- there's not a lot of it. So, m- and it's kinda hard. It's like, it's weird. It's patchy. Like, you sometimes you'll have an area that you can't get to without driving over a fairway where the native area goes into bunkers, or it'll go straight into the fairway.

Trent Manning, CTEM 51:38

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 51:39

so there was small slivers basically of rough that we had to mow. And when I think of these robots, I think they are gonna do the best in, like, a s- basically a big square. You know what I mean? A big wide-open square. They're gonna be efficient. They turn around less. Their, you know, their lines are longer, so they're spending less time to turn around. They want a big flat rectangle. Like, that's why, like, a soccer field is, like, perfect for it. Where the blue course-- The gold course is very much like that. It has, like, big, it's your typical, like, '90s Mid-Atlantic golf course with lots of rough. But the blue course is not. Blue course is, like, a 1920s era restoration golf course. So there's just not a lot of rough, but... and we only mow at night with those, so we're, we don't... Yeah, the gold we mow all day. The blue we only mow at night. But they have done, in the last two weeks they've done great. There's,

Trent Manning, CTEM 52:44

That's awesome. So what's the plan going forward? Just each year buy a few more?

Dan Haxton 52:51

Yep, I think that's how we'll do it. We'll... we got 16 this year or 14. We had six already on property,

Trent Manning, CTEM 53:00

Okay.

Dan Haxton 53:00

not including some of the Husqvarnas. We do, like, some of the Husqvarnas we have out there, by the way, are still doing great. We have a 580 that mows the driving range. It's a great mower. And we have the all-wheel drive one that's mowing what we call Spectator Hill right now, which is that hill that right behind the clubhouse. It overlooks 10 and 18.

Trent Manning, CTEM 53:21

Okay.

Dan Haxton 53:23

it's where all the spectators hang out

Trent Manning, CTEM 53:25

Mm-hmm.

Dan Haxton 53:26

during tournaments. But, And it's a very steep, if I had to guess, it's like a 60-degree slope. It's

Trent Manning, CTEM 53:31

Wow.

Dan Haxton 53:32

In some spots. And but that thing mows it, no problem. We have zero problems

Trent Manning, CTEM 53:38

Huh, wow.

Dan Haxton 53:39

yeah. So yeah, we'll get some more next year, and we'll probably work our way. We'll finish up with the Gold, and we'll just keep working our way through the Blue, I think. You know, I'm not sure where these are-- like, what place these have in the industry. for us, like, we can afford them, and really, like, the bottom line is they just have a better quality of cut because they're maintaining. The grass just looks cut and very cleanly cut all the time.

Trent Manning, CTEM 54:14

yeah. You don't have to worry about the third rule,

Dan Haxton 54:17

Yeah. Yeah. So they're just-- It, they're-- Now, sometimes you gotta worry about the third rule too. If it gets stuck or you got an accident or it, like, it got stuck in somewhere and the grass starts growing. I took Terry Apple's, little presentation on robotic mowers and he says it great. Like, he says they're maintainers. They're not gonna hog off some grass. So don't sell your rough mowers yet, superintendents. I don't... Like, there's gonna be times where you're gonna have to send a rough mower out there. even... I mean, I don't know. I, I've-- When the technology, even as they, they keep improving and the technology keeps getting better, I still would be a little concerned about just selling all the rough mowers or not getting a new lease of rough mowers. Now, if you're leasing rough mowers and you only got 2,500 hours, 3,000 hours on them at the end of your lease, and you wanna keep them for another four or five years, you might be able to do that,

Trent Manning, CTEM 55:22

Yeah. Yeah. So,

Dan Haxton 55:23

if you got robots. So if,

Trent Manning, CTEM 55:25

so you might not be replacing them with robots, but you could extend your intervals, you're changing them out.

Dan Haxton 55:33

Yeah. on the Gold course they've helped a lot. Like, so the Gold course is, it's a great course. It doesn't have the resources that they put towards the Blue course. And, you know, the, to me, it's the first thing that is At least mowing wise, the first thing that you're gonna start to notice is the rough, right? Like it's gonna grow up higher and particularly if it gets a little uneven because you have like older varieties of grass, so you got a mixture of poa in there. So, so the robots out there have definitely helped out with that. The rough just looks better more, more often. So yeah. So, but I'm also like, you know, we spent, you know, a hundred and sixty something grand on these things this year, and it makes me think like, is this just a thing for high-end clubs because you can't get rid of your mowers, you know? I don't know if this is a r- a replacement for a rough mower, but I don't know. They, 'cause they're the ones that need it the most, right? Is the lower end clubs that can't afford the labor and

Trent Manning, CTEM 56:37

All right. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 56:38

So I don't know.

Trent Manning, CTEM 56:40

Yeah, I don't know. How hard was it getting power around the course where you needed it? Or is that something you already had

Dan Haxton 56:48

yeah, that, that

Trent Manning, CTEM 56:50

stuff?

Dan Haxton 56:51

not hard. Yeah. So the, on the gold, we had to do some stuff. Not to say we didn't have to put outlets out there, but the blue course is like an engineering marvel, basically. It was rebuilt five years ago, and it is there's power everywhere. There's, we have a subair on every green, so there's a panel on every subair controller. Now

Trent Manning, CTEM 57:18

Yeah.

Dan Haxton 57:18

it's high voltage, so we'll have, we have to sometimes get trans- little transformers out there. But yeah there's power everywhere. There's fans. We have 33 fans. So like there's... Yeah, it, you sometimes you gotta be clever about it. I think the biggest, the hardest part is hiding the mowers when they're not mowing because there's very few trees on the blue course. So we, we don't really have a lot of places like in the woods that we can go put 'em or anything like that. It's like, like I said, it's like a 1920s like link style golf course, so it's just big and open.

Trent Manning, CTEM 57:57

Gotcha.

Dan Haxton 58:00

don't have that many out there yet, but I do think, man, we're gonna run out of places to put these things, these charging stations.

Trent Manning, CTEM 58:08

What are y'all doing on the driving range to pick balls up?

Dan Haxton 58:13

We have a, We have a robotic picker. I think it's the Relox picker.

Trent Manning, CTEM 58:18

Reel locks, okay.

Dan Haxton 58:20

yeah, I apologize if I said that wrong. It-- I think it's a Swiss comp- or a Swedish company, excuse me. Some Scandinavian company. It's actually been very reliable. The-- it's been a, it's been a really good machine. I'd say it's, it has a very different look than the Echo ones. The plastic kinda look. It's a little bit... Like, it's all aluminum, and it's cool. Like, its component box is, like, clear up top, and you see it. It's been pretty good. I think we've only had it break down a handful of times other than some, like, minor software glitches or something like that. They need to get a local distributor, that's for sure. 'Cause right now our service kinda comes from Sweden. So there's a lot of group chats and stuff getting this thing going.

Trent Manning, CTEM 59:08

Yeah, WhatsApp or something

Dan Haxton 59:10

yeah. and but they've done their part, I feel like, and it's helped us out quite a bit. So we have a Bermuda driving range. We don't have a lot of Bermuda out there. We're primarily a cool season course everywhere. But the driving range is Bermuda, the, like the, what we call the fairway, and then it's got tall fescue on the sides and zoysia target greens. So there's times of y- the year where Bermuda, you know, Bermuda in the Mid-Atlantic can be a little iffy, you know, in the wintertime. We had a big hit last winter actually not the recent one, the last one, where a lot of people lost a lot of Bermuda. So we try and keep as much traffic off of the driving range as we can, and we try and keep ball pickers off the driving range and cart kids off of it. And so I think that's helped. I think that has helped a lot actually.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:04

Okay. Yeah. That's good stuff.

Dan Haxton 1:00:06

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:07

Are you ready to wrap this thing up

Dan Haxton 1:00:10

Sure.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:10

and do some rapid fire?

Dan Haxton 1:00:13

Do it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:18

What's your favorite movie?

Dan Haxton 1:00:20

Oof. You know, I'm kind of a sci-fi nerd, so, my favorite movie right now is, like, the Dune series. I don't know if you've seen it, but it is amazing.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:33

Okay. No, I haven't

Dan Haxton 1:00:34

I've watched... I don't watch a lot of movies, but Dune II like, I think I've watched it three times

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:39

Wow! Okay.

Dan Haxton 1:00:40

yeah, it's just good. It's just good,

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:43

Very cool. What would be your last meal?

Dan Haxton 1:00:46

Oh. Well, I'm from Maryland, so I gotta g- I gotta say, like, crabs or crab cakes, right?

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:52

Oh, yeah.

Dan Haxton 1:00:52

Something like that. Probably

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:53

with either one of those.

Dan Haxton 1:00:55

Some key lime pie at the end there.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:00:57

Oh, yeah.

Dan Haxton 1:00:58

But yeah, crab cake, a good crab cake is there's nothing better.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:02

Oh, yeah. Good stuff. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Dan Haxton 1:01:09

I was gonna say my family. I was ready to say

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:12

yeah. Well, and

Dan Haxton 1:01:13

it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:13

that's the only reason we put that in there is, yeah, obviously everybody's proud of their family and if you wanna shout out your family, I'm more than happy to listen.

Dan Haxton 1:01:23

Oh, I'm unbelievably proud of my family. I mean, it's true. I am.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:26

Yeah. No.

Dan Haxton 1:01:27

not just my family. It's like what my wife and I have created together.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:32

That's so

Dan Haxton 1:01:33

we have yeah, we have a beautiful home.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:01:36

Okay. Yeah.

Dan Haxton 1:01:37

great kids and just a beautiful neighborhood, and it's all, it's great. So I've, I'm Very I am very proud of my career also. I think I, I have and this, I mean, I'm proud of the guys that I have worked with that have moved on. I'm very proud of the superintendents that I've made such good friends with over the years and that have moved on and gotten jobs elsewhere. There's just so many. I've, you know, I've been in, like, these guys' weddings before as groomsmen and, like, there's nothing better than... You know, I'm 40, 41. I'm kinda like, I don't go to a lot of weddings at this point in my life, but these guys are still getting married, so I get to go to their weddings, and it's just, It is. it's great. Yeah. So I think as far as my, the relationships that I have had, particularly in the last 10 years I'm very proud of. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:02:40

that's awesome. And I think you probably have a better opportunity at congressional, just like you said, 'cause it's a pipeline, people coming through there and stuff. And

Dan Haxton 1:02:54

It's incredible.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:02:55

awesome and so rewarding to be a part of those people's career.

Dan Haxton 1:03:01

Yeah, I've watched... I mean, I could think of or six guys in the last six years that have moved on and gotten superintendents jobs at really good clubs. Like like dr- dream jobs in their 20s, you know? And it's just to see somebody do that is yeah, it definitely makes you proud. I mean, I'm certainly not responsible for them getting those jobs, but I'd like to think I had my part in them becoming who they were to get that

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:03:32

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, maybe it wasn't a huge piece, but it was definitely a piece of the pie, right?

Dan Haxton 1:03:39

was something,

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:03:40

it was something. No, super cool. And obviously, if they're asking you to be in their wedding, they think a lot of you.

Dan Haxton 1:03:48

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:03:49

Yeah, maybe.

Dan Haxton 1:03:51

it was Matt's wedding, so if Matt listens to this, I don't know how high he-- how highly he thinks of me.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:03:57

just really needed an extra body

Dan Haxton 1:03:59

Yeah. Maybe that is the case. It was a placeholder.

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:04:02

That's funny. Good stuff. Well, thank you so much, Dan. I really appreciate you being on. A lot of fun as always. Until

Dan Haxton 1:04:12

No, problem, Trent. thank you

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:04:14

you so much.

Dan Haxton 1:04:15

It's an honor.

Trent Manning 1:04:23

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.