Episode 172: Jeff Gustafson, CTEM

Today we’re talking with Jeff Gustafson, CTEM, Equipment Manager at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield, Michigan. Oakland Hills is a private 36-hole facility with a rich history in golf, including courses designed by Donald Ross. Jeff leads a three-person shop supporting a fleet that is primarily John Deere equipment.

Jeff shares how growing up around a small golf course in Bemus Point, New York, eventually led him into the turf equipment world. After a short stint at the Golf Academy of the South in Florida, a mechanic pointed him toward the trade and the long-term job security that comes with it. Jeff learned the ropes, including reel grinding and preventive maintenance, and eventually found himself managing large equipment fleets.

He talks about some of the twists and turns in his career, including moving from Colorado to be closer to family and adapting from Toro to primarily John Deere equipment. He also shares a pretty unforgettable story from his time in St. Thomas involving a golf cart and a cliff.

The conversation covers favorite tools like an ultrasonic cleaner and infrared thermometer, lessons from mentors Mark Swoop and Frank Pittman, and the importance of communicating with the crew and treating people with respect. Jeff also talks about using ChatGPT and oil analysis to help solve problems and improve maintenance practices.

They wrap up with Jeff’s thoughts on autonomous equipment, including the potential for rough and range-tee mowing to improve consistency while helping address the ongoing challenge of finding enough people to do the work.

It’s a great conversation about career paths, adapting to change, learning from the people around you, and finding new ways to make the job better.

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Transcript

Trent Manning 0:56

Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we'll learn tips and tricks. I'm your host, Trent. Manning let's have some Welcome to The Real Turf Techs podcast, episode 172. Today we're talking to Jeff Gustafson, equipment manager at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield, Michigan. Oakland Hills is a private 36-hole facility with a rich history in golf. Jeff has two assistants in the shop. He has mostly John Deere equipment. Let's talk to Jeff 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, Jeff, to the Real Turf Techs podcast. Thanks for coming on

Jeff Gustafson 2:30

Thanks, Ryan

Trent Manning 2:32

Tell us how you got into the turf industry

Jeff Gustafson 2:35

Well, I started, basically I grew up in a golf course. Liked to golf as a young kid. I started mowing grass actually as a young teen for, a summer job. I worked basically mowing rough, cutting trees down, just helping out here and there. Then I went to Florida. I went to the Golf Academy of the South. I thought I wanted to be a golf pro at one point in my life. Realized when I got there I wasn't that great at golf. So, I went and met the superintendent. One thing led to another. I was mowing grass there for a while. I, you know, I met the mechanic, and he actually was the one that said, "Hey, maybe you should look into mechanics, that there's a shortage of mechanics." And this is back in the '90s. There was a shortage of mechanics way back then, and he told me then, like, job security, there's nothing better than a golf course mechanic, 'cause they always need them. And I didn't know anything really about mechanics and golf courses, so I was like, "Well, I'll give it a shot." And he taught me how to grind reels. basically I started out changing oil, checking height of cut or the quality cut, height of cut here and there, but mostly just changing oil, servicing. I was a PM tech. and then I went to Orange County National, which I was there for about two years before they went through about three or four head mechanics and for whatever reason, the director said, "Do you want a shot at this? You're here every day." So that's where I started and 45-hole facility, I mean, it was a huge property. I had 13 fairway units, nine triplexes, 40 greens walk mowers. I mean, it was,

Trent Manning 4:26

Okay

Jeff Gustafson 4:27

it was a lot for somebody in my 20s to try to handle. But yeah he gave me a shot and I went with it. It was

Trent Manning 4:37

say, the rest is history, right? So

Jeff Gustafson 4:39

it's been a long travel, but yeah, the rest is history.

Trent Manning 4:44

Tell, tell me yeah, how did you you said you grew up basically on a golf course. Was that in Florida? Where at?

Jeff Gustafson 4:51

No, I was in upstate New York, Bemus Point, New York. It's a small, small town. We had a little nine-hole course that we lived on. Basically it was nine holes and then they had a extra set of tees in the back to make it if you wanted to play 18. No irrigation except for greens. I mean, it was just a little tiny goat track course, but awesome, really.

Trent Manning 5:12

Okay. Yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 5:13

know, whenever I got in trouble as a kid and I got grounded, the only thing I was allowed to do was golf.

Trent Manning 5:20

Well, that, that isn't, that isn't too bad, is it? That sounds like sounds like a pretty good deal there

Jeff Gustafson 5:25

No, I just grew up around golf. I loved golf, and I just wasn't really good. I mean, I was good in high school, I thought, until I went to Florida with those guys, and yeah, they were really good.

Trent Manning 5:38

Do you still play a lot?

Jeff Gustafson 5:39

No, I, I play, when I have to, like a, like a member-employee tournament or,

Trent Manning 5:46

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 5:47

We work a lot, so when it's time to go home, I just, I just wanna go

Trent Manning 5:52

No, I, I know. I, I get that. I mean, I've never really been a golfer, but that's the other thing, being at the course all day long, I wanna change the scenery, go somewhere else.

Jeff Gustafson 6:02

exactly. And when you play golf at your own course, you're looking at things and... Which is good and bad, see some stuff maybe when you're golfing that you don't see just driving around checking guides

Trent Manning 6:14

Oh, yeah. It's for sure beneficial to get out on the course and see it from the golfer's perspective. But again, yeah, you're criticizing yourself the whole time or the crew or somebody. Like, "Ah, I need to do that. I need to do this. Ooh, I should look at that piece of equipment." Yeah. It's kind of hard to turn it off, especially at your course.

Jeff Gustafson 6:35

Yeah, it's not relaxing.

Trent Manning 6:37

Yeah. Right, right. Well, I mean, even like if I go to like a sports field or something, I'm looking at, quality of cut, after cut appearance, I ain't worried about the game that much.

Jeff Gustafson 6:49

Right

Trent Manning 6:49

At least, yeah, it's funny. It's ingrained in us, I guess.

Jeff Gustafson 6:53

Yeah

Trent Manning 6:56

So how did you get to Florida from New York?

Jeff Gustafson 6:59

Well, it's funny, my, my mom I didn't know what I wanted to do out of high school, I didn't know what career path I was gonna choose. One day my mom came home and was like, "I found this school in Florida to go to golf school. Do you wanna do that?" I was like, "Sure." So it was the Golf Academy of the South, where they taught you how to be a, basically a teaching pro. So I made it one semester before I was like, This isn't for me," I was just I, I saw where it was going, where you're folding shirts in the pro shop and just I couldn't be inside. I'm more outside kind of person. So I made it a semester. It was like, "I don't think this is working," so I, I met the superintendent and I said, you got any openings on the grounds crew?" 'Cause that's what I've done, and that's where he hired me in there. He said, "Sure." They were hurting. So I went from parking carts at night to, mowing grass. I was mowing greens, rough, fairways, whatever. And then, yeah, it was I met the mechanic, and that's where I, like I said, he, he told me, you're here every day." That was a big thing back then, people just didn't show up. There was like no call, no shows, and he's like, "You should really look into this," and that's where it kinda got me started. Like, I'll never forget the the first time he told me to grease my PTO blower. I had no idea how to grease something. So I He handed me the grease gun, and I grabbed it, and I, I took the grease gun, and I took the end of the tip, and I just wiped it on the grease zerk. And he let me do it for a few of them, too. And then he stood back. He's like, "You've never done this before, have you?" I'm like, "No, sir, I have not." I had no

Trent Manning 8:52

That's funny. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta learn sometime, right? Yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 8:55

know?

Trent Manning 8:56

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, especially if you don't, grow up on a farm or something like that as a kid. Yeah,

Jeff Gustafson 9:02

Yeah, I have no idea.

Trent Manning 9:05

Yep. I thought of a, a funny story, but I'll save it for another day.

Jeff Gustafson 9:11

Yeah

Trent Manning 9:12

Not about greasing, but yeah, something else. So you were working at this course in Florida. Yeah, had you done any kind of mechanical stuff before?

Jeff Gustafson 9:23

I was a

Trent Manning 9:23

Worked on your own cars or anything, or

Jeff Gustafson 9:26

nothing. I mean, I was young. I was like, 16. I guess I was probably about 15 when I actually started at a golf course, but I left home right after I graduated high school basically to go to the golf academy. So I really had no mechanical knowledge except for, if a lawnmower went bad and they wanted to just get a new mower, me and my buddy, we'd take the engine off and try to make a go-kart out of it,

Trent Manning 9:53

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Jeff Gustafson 9:54

around and stuff like that. Wasn't thinking that was mechanics, at the time. I really didn't know what I was doing Just trying to make a go-kart.

Trent Manning 10:04

Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember, yeah, as a kid taking my bicycle apart and repainting it, 'cause I wanted it to be a different color and I wasn't thinking about it, mechanic work or whatever. But it was a good bit of disassembly and parts and keeping things organized and hopefully putting everything back together so I don't crash That's awesome. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Jeff Gustafson 10:30

Well, I mean, I love my job. The only thing that... It's like the just the summers. The summers where I'm at right now and where I've been for a while, 'cause I was in Colorado where, summers are our go time. Summers are tough not to be able to go out and do what I wanna do, like travel or, just go fishing for a week or just stuff you miss out on in the summers. But on the other side, I work in Florida where you work 365 days a year, and that's, I think, I'd, I'd prefer what I do right now than that.

Trent Manning 11:10

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 11:12

At least we have the downtime.

Trent Manning 11:14

yeah, I've thought about that for, not that y'all, I mean, that's the other thing, like everybody that's not familiar with the industry, they say: "What do you do in the wintertime? You just sit around? You, what, what are you doing? The golf course ain't open." And I mean, I get it, and there's, yeah, plenty of things to keep you busy all winter long, but the pressure's not there. And that's how I don't see how the people in Florida deal with it, 'cause it's, like you said, 365 days wide open. And even the clubs that close in the summertime for cultural practices, I mean, that's when they're doing all their aerification and top dressing. I mean, it's still a ton of work going into the course,

Jeff Gustafson 12:00

Yes

Trent Manning 12:00

even if you don't have members out there.

Jeff Gustafson 12:02

Yeah. Yeah, grass is still growing.

Trent Manning 12:06

That's right. It doesn't stop What's your favorite tool?

Jeff Gustafson 12:12

I would say my favorite tool is the ultrasonic cleaner. So we... I got one, I don't know, it's been probably 15 years. But back in the day, cleaning a carburetor, you just spray it with carb cleaner, take it apart, spray it, blow it out and all that. Might work, might not. I tell you, the ultrasonic cleaner for me, you throw one in there taken apart, nine out of 10 times that thing is gonna run again

Trent Manning 12:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's impressive

Jeff Gustafson 12:45

It is. I, I love it. Like, for, We change our spray nozzles every year anyways, but for somebody that, maybe a lower end club that can't afford to sp- spend that money on their spray tips every single year, that ultrasonic cleaner gets those things so clean. You get the temperature right and, you're not melting anything, but it, it cleans every orifice inside and out, like, so good.

Trent Manning 13:12

That's awesome. Yeah, I hadn't thought about the, the spray tips. Yeah, what what kind of temperature do you

Jeff Gustafson 13:19

We're like 150, 150-ish. Yeah. And there's a timer on it, so you can dial it in pretty good. It's good for everything, but you just gotta change the fluid, which is cheap. I get it on Amazon, it's

Trent Manning 13:32

Oké, ja

Jeff Gustafson 13:35

and you use just a little bit with water.

Trent Manning 13:37

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 13:38

and then after you're done, you just, like, rinse it off with hot water, blow-dry it really good with an air gun, and put it back together

Trent Manning 13:48

Yeah, that's funny story on the concentrate that you buy off Amazon. I was not paying attention and just poured it in there and didn't dilute it with water, and I put a carburetor in there, and it didn't melt the carburetor, but it, it looked terrible. It definitely degraded the aluminum quite a bit. It's like, "Well, I might have messed this one up," but... So yeah, definitely look at the directions and instructions. But that is one of the things with Amazon. Sometimes it's not very clear on...

Jeff Gustafson 14:24

Sir

Trent Manning 14:25

Yeah, not, not the best instructions you get with the, the Amazon stuff

Jeff Gustafson 14:30

Sure

Trent Manning 14:32

No, that's a good one. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Jeff Gustafson 14:39

I, on my days off I like to just chill around the house. We, we have a pretty big property here, so I do yard work, which isn't super relaxing, but I like to mow out in the yard. My biggest thing probably is cooking though. To-

Trent Manning 14:52

Ah, okay

Jeff Gustafson 14:53

I like to cook, I like to barbecue. I built a couple smokers,

Trent Manning 14:58

Nice

Jeff Gustafson 14:59

that's one thing I brought from Colorado when I moved out here is like, I, I couldn't sell it and I, I built that thing and it's money. I can do a pig, I can do 30 racks of ribs. I love that thing and I, I do that, for the crew. I try to do it quite a bit if I can.

Trent Manning 15:17

Yeah, super cool

Jeff Gustafson 15:18

I think it's a good morale booster cooking for

Trent Manning 15:22

Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, so what kind of pit did you build?

Jeff Gustafson 15:26

It's actually a trailer smoker. So I built it out of a, it was a water expansion tank that we had at the one place I worked first in Colorado. We had a bunch of them, and I, as soon as I saw it, I was like, "Oh, that's a smoker."

Trent Manning 15:43

Right. Yep

Jeff Gustafson 15:44

So I basically put it on an axle, cut it open with a plasma cutter, and just made it a smoker. It's so

Trent Manning 15:50

so it's

Jeff Gustafson 15:51

right now.

Trent Manning 15:51

It's like an offset

Jeff Gustafson 15:53

No, it's not. So I use wood and charcoal, so I'll start the charcoal on the bottom and it's not offset, but I, I put the wood and charcoal on one side of it 'cause it's big. So I'll put all the wood and charcoal on one side, and all the heat kinda goes over to the left side where the meat is.

Trent Manning 16:11

Okay.

Jeff Gustafson 16:12

Um,

Trent Manning 16:13

Is that where your exhaust is?

Jeff Gustafson 16:15

Yes. Yeah.

Trent Manning 16:17

Okay. Gotcha

Jeff Gustafson 16:18

And like when I do a pig, I just put water pans under it

Trent Manning 16:22

Okay. Yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 16:24

hitting it. No, but I love that thing.

Trent Manning 16:26

Yeah, that's awesome. That's so much fun. I had barbecue last night. I'm a big lover of barbecue for sure. And it doesn't matter if it's Kansas City or

Jeff Gustafson 16:35

Yeah.

Trent Manning 16:36

East Carolina or Memphis, Texas, I don't care. I like it all. I don't discrim- I don't discriminate on barbecue. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 16:44

Absolutely.

Trent Manning 16:46

What's been one of your biggest challenges to date?

Jeff Gustafson 16:49

Probably the move from Colorado was my biggest challenge. It was, it was tough. I, I loved where I was at. I had a great job, loved the area, had good friends. But you know, I was, I'm just trying to get closer to family, which is in upstate New York.

Trent Manning 17:05

Okay

Jeff Gustafson 17:05

So, that move was very challenging 'cause we had a big house full of stuff, and I don't know if you ever had to move everything you own you know, 1,500 miles. It, it was a challenge. It was, it was a lot of work and, selling our house, buying a new house. It took... I finally... I've been here almost two years now. It's my second season. I finally feel pretty comfortable where I'm

Trent Manning 17:31

Okay. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 17:33

mean, it, it took a full year of... we were back and forth quite a bit. It took three trips of U-Hauls to get us here. You

Trent Manning 17:41

Right, right. Yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 17:42

it was a challenge, to say the least. And then, I've, I've been Toro my whole life, basically growing up. Every place I've been has been Toro. And then here we're 100% John Deere. Well, 99% John Deere I'd say

Trent Manning 17:59

yeah. You got a 648 probably in the barn. Everybody's got one of those. Yep

Jeff Gustafson 18:06

We got a couple 3100Ds.

Trent Manning 18:08

Aha, ja

Jeff Gustafson 18:10

the rest is all, John Deere, which, you know, to me it's, it's pretty much all the same. It's, it's cutting units and keeping things serviced. It's...

Trent Manning 18:21

Yeah. Yeah,

Jeff Gustafson 18:22

But, they're, as it's the opposite. Setting heights in the Contact,

Trent Manning 18:27

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 18:28

took me a minute. We got the QA5s, and I still, I don't set reels every day. I got two guys in the shop that do most all the reel setup. When I go out setting heights, I'll turn it to the right. Oh, other way. So, it's

Trent Manning 18:43

Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, just, yeah, just habit of, yeah, adjusting those. Mm-hmm. Yep, for sure. What's one of the strangest things you've seen around the golf course?

Jeff Gustafson 18:56

Oh, I gotta say the, the strangest thing so I've I went from Florida to St. Thomas for a year. And I worked at, well, it's the only golf course on the island, Mahogany Run. So my first week there, it might have been like the fourth day I was there, the superintendent went on vacation to like Puerto Rico or something, and that Saturday morning I get a call saying they had a cart down in the ditch. So I go out there, and this cart went off a cliff by the 13th, I think it was the 13th green. It's a little par three. maybe 50 feet down this cliff, upside down next to the green with the reverse buzzer on. So I'm like, I don't even know who to call 'cause I didn't know anybody there yet. So I called the GM and I explained the situation. And long story short, well, I rappelled down to turn off the reverse buzzer 'cause I was like, I came from that wouldn't be okay next to a green kinda place. So I turned that off, and then we actually had to get a crane. Like, it was quite the process to get the crane where it had to get to get that thing out. I thought they were just gonna leave it there at the time, so I'm like, "I don't know how you get this out of this thing.

Trent Manning 20:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. That isn't something...

Jeff Gustafson 20:18

a cliff."

Trent Manning 20:19

Right. Not, not something a tractor's gonna pull out or something like that. Yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 20:23

I've had plenty of those, Sidewinder upside in a bunker,

Trent Manning 20:26

mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 20:27

Seen a lot of little stuff, but that was the biggest for sure

Trent Manning 20:31

Well, yeah, somebody told me a story the other day about one of the big Dakota material handlers that was coming up a hill, and the operator thought that at midway up the hill it'd be a good idea to downshift, and missed his gear and jackknifed and ended up in a lake. And I mean, everybody was okay, but they had to hire one of the semi tow trucks to come out there and pull it out 'cause you got, you got a material handler full of sand and a tractor and yeah, that's not good.

Jeff Gustafson 21:08

No.

Trent Manning 21:08

And a lot of us, we've been around the equipment so long, we take a lot of that for granted. But I mean, it's... mistake can happen in a hurry and it can be very dangerous.

Jeff Gustafson 21:18

Oh, for

Trent Manning 21:19

So yeah, definitely have to be careful around there. Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Jeff Gustafson 21:27

I do. Well, yeah, probably

Trent Manning 21:29

More than one?

Jeff Gustafson 21:30

I've probably got several. I've learned a lot from a lot of different people that are very smart. But I would say top two, Mark Swoop, the guy that actually told me about equipment. Back then there was no equipment managers. We were mechanics.

Trent Manning 21:45

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 21:45

I wasn't yet, so, I would have to give him credit for that 'cause I wouldn't even know about this if it wasn't for him.

Trent Manning 21:52

Mm-hmm

Jeff Gustafson 21:53

And then Frank Pittman was my mentor at my first equipment manager position 'cause I definitely wasn't experienced enough to take that position. But he helped me through it 'cause he, he, he worked there for a little bit, and then he went to be the service manager at WESCO Turf was it's... That was our distributor in

Trent Manning 22:15

Oké, ja

Jeff Gustafson 22:17

So any time I had an issue, I would just call him. He'd always answer, talk me through it, and, got me through a lot of tough times 'cause I had no idea what I was doing at the time.

Trent Manning 22:28

Yeah. No, it's really important to have connections. And I mean, even now, you've been doing it a long time, you still run into stuff or maybe you just wanna call and vent. I mean, I had that with my good friend Howard Horn, who's been a EM or tech or mechanic in the golf industry for a long time and just call him like, "Man, you believe what this guy done today?" Or what, what, whatever it was. Or just your daily stresses. I talked to him the other day, he's like, "I really do not like working on fans." And like sub-air systems and, s- some of that stuff. It gets us out of the shop, but maybe not our cup of tea or something that we really enjoy doing. So yeah, anybody else that you wanna name or comes to mind?

Jeff Gustafson 23:19

I mean, I've had so many I, I couldn't even start. I mean, it seems like I've learned something... Well, I know I've learned something every different place I've been.

Trent Manning 23:29

Oh, for sure. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 23:30

and it might be something that you should do or some-something you shouldn't do, you learn that way, too, like maybe don't ever do that.

Trent Manning 23:39

Ja

Jeff Gustafson 23:39

but yeah, I mean, I've, I've been through a lot of different superintendents, and each one of them has been different, I'd say. So we do cultural practices differently maybe. But to me, I, I can go with the flow pretty much wherever I'm at. I, I'm pretty easygoing for the most part. I, I don't get things under my skin, at least I try not to.

Trent Manning 24:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Gustafson 24:07

Back in the day

Trent Manning 24:08

a challenge too

Jeff Gustafson 24:09

started, yeah, I might not have been as good as that when I first started, with operators doing something stupid, and you wanna yell at them, but you, you do that, and you're just hurting yourself,

Trent Manning 24:22

yep, for sure. What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Jeff Gustafson 24:29

Well, I mean, if it was a thing, I would love to build and organize equipment maintenance shops.

Trent Manning 24:37

Ah, oké. Ja, ja

Jeff Gustafson 24:39

I would I love it. I've actually been able I've been blessed to do it twice.

Trent Manning 24:44

Mm-hmm

Jeff Gustafson 24:45

where I... When I got in here most of it was already done as far as design. Like, it was all done, design being built, but I got to organize it, the way I thought it would be good. When I was in South Carolina I worked for the Ginn Company. I don't know if you know them. Ginn down in that area. But we, we had a 27-hole facility where the maintenance shop was the first thing to be rebuilt because they sold lots where the old maintenance shop was. So we

Trent Manning 25:19

one way to get a new maintenance shop is sell the property. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 25:22

Yeah, it was awesome. We, we got to have... I mean, it was like the Taj Mahal of shops back then. It was awesome. And all the clubhouse wasn't built. The golf staff was working out of a tent. We had this huge shop, and I was able to, with help, I mean, I, I was working under somebody at the time kind of, but I was able to organize it the way I wanted it, and I just love doing that, like tooling it, put the lifts where they're supposed to be. Like, just kind of think about the flow, the workflow of the shop. I love that kind of stuff,

Trent Manning 25:57

Yeah, no, that's awesome. That's fun too

Jeff Gustafson 26:00

If that would be a thing, I would love to do that. My sec-

Trent Manning 26:03

Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, that was really cool

Jeff Gustafson 26:06

second choice would be to tour the-- with the PGA and barbecue for all the staff.

Trent Manning 26:11

Oh, there you go. That would be awesome

Jeff Gustafson 26:14

I, I don't think that would pay the bills, but I think it'd be so fun to just travel with tournaments and barbecue for all the volunteers and

Trent Manning 26:23

Mm-hmm

Jeff Gustafson 26:24

go place to place. I think that'd be fun

Trent Manning 26:28

Yeah, I don't know how it would pay the bills, but it would definitely be fun and super rewarding too. And I mean, all the people you'd get to meet too. I mean, yeah, it would be that'd be really cool.

Jeff Gustafson 26:40

Yeah

Trent Manning 26:41

I'm definitely a huge fan of volunteering. I'm I did the US Open this year, and I'm going to Missouri to do the BMW Championship here in a couple weeks. So, or actually one week from today, I'm gonna be headed out, headed out there. I'm really excited about that. Just so much fun. What technician would you like to work with for a day?

Jeff Gustafson 27:07

Well, I, I actually learned this from one of your podcasts, and I'm pretty sure I may have met him back in Orlando, but Jim Nedin

Trent Manning 27:16

Ah, okay. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 27:17

I would like to just get some of his knowledge. That guy, wow. I mean, he knows so much, and he's just a wealth of knowledge. And actually after this, I, I would like to somehow, if he's watching, hopefully he can reach out to me, but I would like to have him come out to our shop and do a class of some sort,

Trent Manning 27:40

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 27:41

someday. We did that... We had a couple shop tour kind of things this year 'cause our shop was just built last year.

Trent Manning 27:49

Mm-hmm

Jeff Gustafson 27:49

in May. So we had a couple things where Hector came out for one. And I mean, for Hector's we got... There was almost 80 mechanics/assistants. There was assist- superintendents mechanics, superintendents. Um,

Trent Manning 28:05

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 28:05

but we had 80 people in the room which stuff like that I think is invaluable to our profession. You get in a room with a bunch of people and just, you're just talking. You're not like trying to figure stuff out. You're just talking. And the things you might learn from that, I think you just can't beat it, you know?

Trent Manning 28:25

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like they say, like to be a fly on the wall and hear some of the conversations that go on when you get all these like-minded people in the same room is really impressive. And when we get off of this, I will send you Jim Nedden's number. Yeah, excellent guy. And I s- said something about volunteering at the US Open this year at Shinnecock, and I was fortunate enough that Jim Nedden was there volunteering with us in the shop. And it was awesome to be able to pick his brain and, and I've known him, I guess, long enough and talked to him enough that I'm like, "What was that story about this?" That I'd heard and forgot. So, got to relive some of those stories. And yeah, and it really doesn't matter what it is. I mean, he's really good with cutting units aerifiers, sprayers. I mean, just a wealth of knowledge.

Jeff Gustafson 29:21

A lot.

Trent Manning 29:22

yeah, yeah. Yeah, a lot. Yeah, I wish I had a memory like Jim Nedden,

Jeff Gustafson 29:28

Right?

Trent Manning 29:29

know? Yeah, I don't see how he remembers all that stuff. Pretty impressive.

Jeff Gustafson 29:34

Reels

Trent Manning 29:35

but yeah, it's interesting some of the people you meet that have memories like

Jeff Gustafson 29:39

Yeah, I know. I don't know.

Trent Manning 29:42

no, I don't either. We used... When I worked for Jerry Pate, the Toro distributor down here, there was a guy in our shop, William Albertson, and he was like that. And I mean, he could just remember, part numbers off the top of his head, just, crazy stuff. He was our hydrojet guy, so anytime hydrojet, he'd done all the rebuilds on that. And, but he was so funny. He was like, you'd ask him a question and he said, "In 1974, I was working at the Ford Tractor Company." I mean, that's how every one of his stories started out. So, you didn't call William if you were in a hurry to get an answer, 'cause you had to hear the, the rest of the story like Paul Harvey, I guess. But I mean, awesome guy and so knowledgeable on all kind of things What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Jeff Gustafson 30:34

Well, I should have paid more attention to Spanish class.

Trent Manning 30:39

Ah, yeah, that's

Jeff Gustafson 30:40

back in school, I, I took two years of high school Spanish, and thinking back, I just remember saying, I'm never gonna live in Spain. What do I need to know this for?" And granted, you're conjugating v-verbs and it, it just wasn't really... I don't know. It just wasn't interesting to me at the time. But, as the years gone through, we have a majority of Hispanic workers where I can understand golf course terminology. Like, if I meet somebody on the street speaking Spanish, it ain't gonna work. I can kinda get my point across and communicate at work, but I wish I could, like, actually speak and understand, somebody ins- instead of coming in with a weed eater saying, "No bueno," and throwing it down and walking away.

Trent Manning 31:27

Yeah,

Jeff Gustafson 31:28

And, "Hey, maybe it was making this sound, and then it did this and did that." It's very helpful.

Trent Manning 31:34

Yeah, I was fortunate enough, I had a couple guys working for me in the shop that were bilingual,

Jeff Gustafson 31:41

Yeah

Trent Manning 31:42

that made a world of difference. Because even if you can s- speak a little Spanish like, I can, I mean, very little. I'm assuming we could probably speak about the same amount of Spanish. So you can, get your point across and communicate somewhat, but it's totally different when they're talking to somebody that's fluent in their language. I think they open up more and, yeah, and they can explain, yeah, exactly what was going on. And speaking of that, I do think a lot of people maybe not a lot of people, but you can get the wrong idea mechanic, operator, when I'm asking questions not to, like, drill somebody or, try to blame them doing something. I'm just curious on, I want the most information I can get from that operator. And sometimes they're like, eh, I think

Jeff Gustafson 32:37

Yeah

Trent Manning 32:38

I'm a little over the top sometimes maybe trying to get to the bottom of the story

Jeff Gustafson 32:43

Right?

Trent Manning 32:43

or find out the rest of the story. But it can be very helpful and you know what it is. I remember I was troubleshooting, it was a D5 dozer when I worked for this construction company, and they would say, "Oh, it just, you're running, it just shuts off. It just shuts off." And, I have no idea what's going on, I think we're losing fl- fuel or something like that. But it ends up if you got it on a steep slope and you were going to the left, that's where the fuel pickup was in the tank, and the water would run back there and get picked up.

Jeff Gustafson 33:22

So

Trent Manning 33:23

that was the only time it would happen, all the other times you're going, so if I would've known that from the operator right off the bat, that would've saved me a lot of troubleshooting time

Jeff Gustafson 33:33

Yeah.

Trent Manning 33:34

to know that that's what it was. It only happened at, certain angles going uphill, whatever and then more on the being able to speak Spanish, I know GCSA, they got Emilio Ruiz, he's a EM at Edgewood, Lake Tahoe. he's bilingual and he's translating some of the study guides. And Jason Fontana, he is at Medina in Chicago. He's also helping translate some of those stud- study guides. So it's awesome that GCSA is doing that to hopefully get more Latino-speaking people in the workforce,

Jeff Gustafson 34:20

Yeah. No,

Trent Manning 34:21

us out. Yeah, yeah, for sure

Jeff Gustafson 34:24

Yeah, I've had a couple Hispanics in the shop, and it's... It was just like they would go to Rigo with everything, and it was actually very helpful for me 'cause I was doing my own thing, and he could troubleshoot the weed eater that was broken instead of saying, "No puedo." It's... He, he would figure it out really quick. It's very helpful

Trent Manning 34:44

Yeah, super helpful. How do you deal with that person on your crew?

Jeff Gustafson 34:51

Well, I'm, I'm fortunate we don't have too many of that people here. The last couple places I've been, actually, we've had really good staff. But you know, I've, I've learned definitely through the years of doing this, you just talk to 'em, you don't get upset. You get upset and you start yelling at somebody when they bring something broken in, it's just, it makes your job way harder because they're gonna be scared to bring it to you,

Trent Manning 35:20

Or not bring it to you at all

Jeff Gustafson 35:22

At all... They'll just put it in the corner, so one day you go to weed eat the lake banks and you got 18 weed eaters and 16 are broken 'cause when they break, they put 'em in the corner and grab another one. I feel like our crew here and where I've been the last few times I've moved they're not scared of me. They say, "Hey..." They'll either say, "I messed up," or, "Hey, this is doing this," and before putting it away,

Trent Manning 35:47

yeah, yeah

Jeff Gustafson 35:48

It's the people that put it away that hurt the next guy in line grabbing a, any piece of equipment. But you know, just training, training and talk to 'em. But you don't have to be best friends with everybody, but you know, be a person, a good person to people. That's all you gotta do,

Trent Manning 36:07

ja. Ja

Jeff Gustafson 36:08

and I think they respect that

Trent Manning 36:11

Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, everybody wants to be treated with respect, right?

Jeff Gustafson 36:15

Yeah

Trent Manning 36:15

I mean, yeah. Get ready for tips and tricks What kind of tips and tricks you got you wanna share with us?

Jeff Gustafson 36:24

Well, I've learned a lot of tips and tricks along the way, but one recent thing I just found that has been pretty much game-changer is ChatGPT. I've been using ChatGPT. It's just insane the stuff you can learn off this engine. It's... I'm not a big tech guy really. I like it, but I'm not real smart with it. But ChatGPT, you put in an equipment problem, and it's amazing the stuff it'll spit out and the things it remembers. Like, for our fleet, just... I'm looking into doing a, an oil analysis. I wanna start doing a oil analysis program for all of our equipment. We do leasing of a lot of stuff, but we're talking right now about possibly purchasing equipment, and I feel like it'd be a good idea to do a couple tests. Like for example, like a 9009, we have a 10-year-old 9009. Maybe we should do a oil analysis on the hydraulic system and the engine. even like, as far as, like, the gear oil and the front axle and rear axle, whatever, see what kind of conditions that everything's in before you make that decision. And then maybe, you, you're getting somewhere new and don't know how it's been maintained. I feel like that might help you get a good feel of where things are at, too. It's like, people going to the doctor getting a checkup

Trent Manning 37:57

Oh, yeah, yeah. Right

Jeff Gustafson 37:59

You see what kind of wear metals we got going on here. I, I wanna incorporate that. I haven't really looked too hard, but I'm looking at some different labs like the Blackstone Lab. I don't know if you ever use them or have any info.

Trent Manning 38:15

time I did any of that was through ChemSearch,

Jeff Gustafson 38:20

Okay

Trent Manning 38:20

which I was buying some lubricants from them, and it was a service they offered. Yeah, and I mean, why not, if you can?

Jeff Gustafson 38:28

Yeah. I think it's gonna get a little pricey maybe. It's not that bad. It's like six... What I found so far, it's like 60, 40 to 60 bucks a test. You don't have to test every single piece of equipment you got. Like, like at Greensmore, I'm not gonna check the oil in the engine. I'm not gonna spend the money to

Trent Manning 38:46

Right, right, right,

Jeff Gustafson 38:46

test a little engine that if it goes bad, you just replace it or rebuild it. 'Cause actually it's cheaper to replace than rebuild it seems like a lot of things these days.

Trent Manning 38:57

Yeah, a ton of stuff is, yeah. I mean,

Jeff Gustafson 39:00

Just like the we had a track motor go out on one of our skid steers. So I'm thinking, "Well, I'll just rebuild this thing." So I did a parts list. It was like 13 grand in parts to rebuild everything in this motor, and I called our John Deere guy and got a price, and I think it was like 7,500 bucks for the whole thing brand new with the gear on it.

Trent Manning 39:24

Yeah, I know. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a no-brainer for sure. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that just easier to replace than, than rebuild

Jeff Gustafson 39:35

Which is pretty weird to me. I, I don't understand it. Like, how do shops rebuild those motors and resell them? 'Cause you couldn't

Trent Manning 39:44

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and unfortunately, a lot of those shops are going out of business. I mean, I used to know several hydraulic shops, in Metro Atlanta area, and now I know of one. Another, it was a shame. There was a guy, he'd been doing it his whole life, and he was pushing 80, but rebuilding clutches. Like, I mean, he, he had all the machine and tooling. He could grind flywheels. He could brad clutch material on plates. He reworked pressure plates. I mean, he'd done everything clutch-wise, right? And had done it for 50 years or over 50 years. And he went out of business.

Jeff Gustafson 40:30

Yeah, that's

Trent Manning 40:30

So it's like, who, who do you find now? But I used to love going and listening to, to all his stories too. And I mean, he would just, as soon as you walked in, he'd say, "Oh, that looks like a nine spline inch and three-eighths. That come out a tractor or something?" You know what I mean? Just crazy. Just by looking at something and he would know what tractor model it come out of. I love hanging out with people like that. But it is a shame a lot of those places going out of business. Same thing with starter and alternator shops. There used to be a ton of them around Metro Atlanta. Now there's just a handful that's still in business because we get all of our starters and alternators from China for super cheap.

Jeff Gustafson 41:13

Mm-hmm.

Trent Manning 41:15

Not worth rebuilding,

Jeff Gustafson 41:16

Yeah. But they might not last as long

Trent Manning 41:19

Oh, right. Yeah,

Jeff Gustafson 41:20

everything else.

Trent Manning 41:21

Mm-hmm. Yep, just like everything else. Yeah, any other tips and tricks?

Jeff Gustafson 41:28

No, I think well, the one other thing I had was like, the infrared thermometer. It's a good one. That's one of my go-tos. I haven't had to use it here yet. We used to have a big bat wing rough mower that the the motors would just get blown up. So I would go out there and I would check all the spindles with my infrared thermometer, and if you see one that's like way, way hotter than the other ones, just go ahead and rebuild it. Change the bearings then.

Trent Manning 41:58

Yep. That's a really good one

Jeff Gustafson 42:01

I haven't used it a whole lot here at-- Actually, I haven't used it here I don't think once. So we got newer equipment. But I had a lot of... I've been at places with some old stuff that I used to check pretty regularly especially spindles.

Trent Manning 42:15

Yeah. No, that's a really good idea

Jeff Gustafson 42:17

Yeah

Trent Manning 42:20

I bought a thermal imaging camera,

Jeff Gustafson 42:22

No, nice.

Trent Manning 42:24

a cheaper one. And we had, what, we had 13 electric carts for the CushmanHauler pros for people movers, and they just plugged in with an extension cord in, in the shop. But I could take that and scan all the carts and see which extension cord where the plug needed to be rebuilt on the end, 'cause they were, if it got a lot hotter than the other ones and prevent a fire from happening and stuff like that. I mean... And yeah, you could walk and touch each one with your hand and feel, is that too warm or not? But safety-wise and it's just, yeah, really quick, convenient, super cool tool. And a, a lot of that technology is getting cheaper too,

Jeff Gustafson 43:12

It is

Trent Manning 43:13

know, where maybe you used to spend thousands on a A device like that, now you can get it for a couple hundred bucks

Jeff Gustafson 43:23

Yeah.

Trent Manning 43:24

But yeah, and going back around to ChatGPT, just an incredible tool

Jeff Gustafson 43:30

It is

Trent Manning 43:31

all kind of things. I've been using it a bunch lately. I mean, in the last year anyway, using it for all kind of stuff that I never thought I would use it for. Just, it's another tool in the toolbox.

Jeff Gustafson 43:44

it's crazy. Like designing a space, I've, I've done some stuff around the house where I, I can take a picture of something and then, say add this, add that, subtract this. Yeah, it's, it's crazy what you can do with a picture on ChatGPT

Trent Manning 43:58

Yeah. There you go. That's cool too

Jeff Gustafson 44:00

And the memory, like the memory it has, 'cause like with our... It's actually kind of scary at times. Like I started doing some stuff with our equipment and all of a sudden it knows where I'm at, like what course I'm at, what I'm doing. Our whole equipment fleet, which I don't remember putting it all in there, but maybe I did. But it'll give you like a whole recommendation service schedule of a 9009 Roughmore if you ask it.

Trent Manning 44:26

Yeah, crazy.

Jeff Gustafson 44:27

it's, it's insane and it just remembers what you asked, could be a month ago. It'll say, "Since you asked this question about this, here's this," and spits out some answers like whoa

Trent Manning 44:40

Yeah. It's it is almost a little scary sometimes.

Jeff Gustafson 44:43

Yeah. They're probably listening to us right now.

Trent Manning 44:46

Yeah, exactly. Yep. All the podcasts on ChatGPT Yeah. What else did you wanna talk about? I was gonna...

Jeff Gustafson 44:55

I'm really into Husqvar- it doesn't have to be Husqvarna, but autonomous

Trent Manning 44:59

autonomous mowing. Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 45:00

so in Colorado, I kinda did what I did here as far as driving range mowing. I just feel like it's the way it should be at every golf course, in my opinion. I'm sure people may disagree, but as far as rough mowing, I think if you're not using the autonomous mowers, it's just silly not to think about, 'cause, like, what we did here, we'd have three 9009s out there chopping balls 'cause the, range might not be clean picked. Usually wasn't. We had to spend time hitting balls out of the rough so we can mow it. And just the damage it did. And then, the three guys mowing rough, the six people getting the balls out of the rough and blowing the r- long rough. Now our mowers cut our, basically the rough gets cut every single day. It takes 15 to 18 hours to mow all of our rough. So it's just a constant, just rotate, and I don't think about it. I, I change the blades once a week on a Monday when we're closed, and we're mowing our driving range tee with it, which saves us labor in the shop from not having to grind our 3100D, mowing all the sand they put in for filling divots, 'cause it's a lot, we, they take some big divots here, and it's

Trent Manning 46:22

What, what kind of height of cut on the range tee?

Jeff Gustafson 46:25

So on the Range Tee, I got it set at 19 millimeters, which I think the effective cut is closer to probably half an inch.

Trent Manning 46:32

Mm-hmm. Okay

Jeff Gustafson 46:36

and we were able to get the rough mowing a little bit lower because for the ball picker, it kinda needed to be a little bit lower.

Trent Manning 46:46

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 46:46

And when I first started, we were mowing it once a week if we could, 'cause we were only closed on Mondays. So we were going from, it could be five, six inches tall down to the two and three-quarter, making an absolute mess. There was no consistency. Now it just looks money every day. It just looks great. And, maybe at first there was a couple hiccups here and there where it'd get stuck, stuff like that. But if you map it properly, it might take a couple times if you got a couple different wet spots or holes. Some ranges might be pretty holey. Ours is pretty good, so it's, it's pretty, it's not flat, but it's not full of, big dips and things it can get stuck in.

Trent Manning 47:31

Well, and that's the other thing. So if your range is, has holes in it or whatever, those need to be fixed anyway. So it's not like you're really going out of your way to make the robot work like it should.

Jeff Gustafson 47:46

Yeah.

Trent Manning 47:47

Yeah

Jeff Gustafson 47:48

Yeah. And it's, I, sometimes I even forget it's going 'cause it's literally just on a re- it just goes all the time. When it's done mowing, it goes and charges, then it starts again, and just keeps going constantly. It's got a ball pusher, so it pushes the balls out. So I've, I'd, I've tried them all. I, I did the Tress Lascama, and then the Toro, and they all have their ups and downs, so you just gotta choose whichever one works for you best, I think.

Trent Manning 48:18

ja. Det er sådan her

Jeff Gustafson 48:21

out there they do a lot of, like all their golf course mowing is done a place down the street, which I wanna go visit sometime 'cause I'd just like to see how they do it. But I think they have like 35 of them

Trent Manning 48:32

Wow, okay.

Jeff Gustafson 48:33

the rough.

Trent Manning 48:35

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 48:35

I'd be interested to see how they manage that.

Trent Manning 48:39

Well, I know John Patterson, that's-- he's got 36 holes and he's mowing all his rough with autonomous mowers. And I'm curious too on how he manages that. I was kinda thinking that they're changing blades every two weeks maybe,

Jeff Gustafson 48:58

You could. See, we mow our tee with it, so I, I could probably go two weeks. I just-- We got the budget for it, and I, I just want no bad cuts. We probably could. Like, if it was just rough, I would do two weeks. But mowing the tee, I want it a little bit... That's why I change them on Mondays, 'cause that's when we mow it. I'll, I'll double-cut it on Mondays and then at least on Thursdays, depending on how we're grown. I can get away with two, two days a week on the tee pretty much without making a mess

Trent Manning 49:32

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it's, it's super cool stuff and yeah, whether you like it or not, it, it's here to stay. It ain't going away, and more people are gonna be going to it, more courses are, and you might as well get on board and and learn what's the latest, greatest thing.

Jeff Gustafson 49:51

Yeah. And I don't, I don't really think that it's about, replacing people either. Like, that's the biggest argument I see people complaining about is like, we don't wanna replace people with robots, but I feel like if you're using these mowers, you're actually getting that person to go do something more detail. They're never gonna be able to trim a shrub or, like fill divots or, move rope and stakes, that kind of stuff that's a little bit more detailed to the golf course. I feel like, we're not trying to replace people with these things. They're just helping.

Trent Manning 50:28

no, not at all. Yeah. Yeah, there's I don't know any golf course that has too many people,

Jeff Gustafson 50:36

Right?

Trent Manning 50:37

I mean, l- labor's so hard to find, and then if you're fortunate enough, you have the money to, to hire a lot of people, but still you can't get things done and meet member expectations, because expectations are through the roof now because everybody watches TV, and they expect those conditions at their local course, no matter what their greens fees are. But, they have super high expectations,

Jeff Gustafson 51:07

Yeah

Trent Manning 51:08

all that comes downhill to us in the golf industry maintaining courses. So yeah super cool stuff. And yeah, I think we'll just continue to see more and more of it. I really hope that we-- somebody comes up with something to rake bunkers,

Jeff Gustafson 51:27

Yeah.

Trent Manning 51:28

roll bunkers or, whatever, because it would be nice to have the autonomy to do jobs that people really don't like to do,

Jeff Gustafson 51:39

Yeah.

Trent Manning 51:39

Like rake bunkers,

Jeff Gustafson 51:41

I see there is one, like, 'cause we're actually looking at doing autonomy the ball picker.

Trent Manning 51:45

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 51:46

So that's one thing that I've been asked to look into for this next year. So we had the Toro out there, which it works good. It's just, it's not gonna work for us because it can't keep up with the amount of balls we have. So, we're looking at the PickR. I don't know if you've ever seen that. So

Trent Manning 52:04

Yep, yep. Yeah, I saw it at the show this past year

Jeff Gustafson 52:08

that, that looks promising. So we, we might buy that this year. I don't know. I'm actually putting all that together for the GM to look at here now, and I saw they have some sort of bunker rake attachment or something. I don't know much about it.

Trent Manning 52:25

Yeah, I saw it too at the show. I mean, definitely looks interesting. The course I was at, the bunkers that we had were not really good for machine raking, just the way they were designed, getting the, any kind of machine, in and out, so. But if you had something small like the robotic mowers, maybe it could go in there and, do its thing. Yeah, and I think there was some other company that had a bunker rake that was autonomous at the show. So I mean, it's coming. It'll get there, I definitely understand the mowers being first because of the residential market. And, you know, I know a lot of people that do enjoy mowing their yard at home, but if you don't, why would you not have an autonomous mower mowing your yard? And then I'll tell a story about Terry Apple. He's at Overbrook in Pennsylvania. Great guy. But he bought an autonomous mower for his yard, and he has two elderly neighbors so he's got it programmed to mow their yard too. And he's got it programmed so it runs during the day to mow their yard, and they'll, be out on their porch drinking coffee or whatever and watching the robot run. Yeah, really cool story when he was telling me the like-- telling me about that. I thought that's super cool of him to do. Yeah, why not?

Jeff Gustafson 53:51

Right? I'd love to have one here in my house.

Trent Manning 53:54

Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm definitely thinking about it. I'm working with Stack now, and we are a Crest dealer, so, I'm gonna be diving more into it and learning a lot more about it and the ins and outs and that kind of stuff. So I'm excited about

Jeff Gustafson 54:11

at your house to, you gotta watch it and evaluate it better at your house, so you should probably just let them give you one

Trent Manning 54:19

Yeah, yeah. I'll definitely be talking to the-- David Taylor, the owner of Steck, and seeing if I can get one for evaluations at my house. Yeah. That's a good idea. I like that. You ready to do some rapid fire? What's your favorite movie?

Jeff Gustafson 54:41

I just, I like action movies

Trent Manning 54:43

Okay. All right. Any other

Jeff Gustafson 54:44

in general. Like, I like the Top Guns, Mission Impossibles, like just action. I like the high action movies

Trent Manning 54:52

Yep, yep. Good stuff. What would be your last meal?

Jeff Gustafson 54:56

That's easy. It's a tomahawk medium rare with a lobster tail and some colossal king crab legs on the side.

Trent Manning 55:03

Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Let me know

Jeff Gustafson 55:06

side of mashed potatoes. I don't know if Eddie eats potatoes, but yeah

Trent Manning 55:09

Right. No, that's awesome. That sounds so good. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Jeff Gustafson 55:15

I'd say I'm just proud of, where I started and where I'm at today. I grew up in a small town, not really knowing what I was gonna do in life career-wise, and,

Trent Manning 55:26

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Gustafson 55:27

uh, here I am today at, Oakland Hills, where we have championship golf. And, I've been through the gauntlet to get here, and I'm pretty proud of, how I've made it through there, with just good morals and good upbringing,

Trent Manning 55:43

Oh yeah, 100%.

Jeff Gustafson 55:45

Like, these days, it's just tough. I grew up in the pre-cellphone era. It's just, it's a different time now for kids, and I feel bad for some of these kids nowadays 'cause, I feel like the way we grew up in our day was just unbeatable

Trent Manning 56:02

Oh, I agree. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how old you are, not gonna ask, but we're probably close to the same age. And I seen a boyfriend, girlfriend the other night, and they're both on their cell phones. I'm like, Really?" It's kinda sad, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, definitely grew up in a different time. Where, yeah, being outside and, whatever you were doing, building forts or, I mean,

Jeff Gustafson 56:28

exactly. Building forts.

Trent Manning 56:29

just yeah, had a whole lot of

Jeff Gustafson 56:32

doesn't happen anymore. I guarantee you there's no kids out building forts today.

Trent Manning 56:36

No, no. Nope. Well, thank you so much, Jeff, for being on. Really enjoyed it

Jeff Gustafson 56:44

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me

Trent Manning 56:47

Absolutely 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.