Reel Turf Techs Podcast
Reel Turf Techs Podcast
Episode 173: Ryan Bickham
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 173.
Today we’re talking with Ryan Bickham, Equipment Manager at Loraloma. Loraloma is a private 18-hole course, and Ryan runs the shop with one other technician, supporting a fleet that’s primarily Toro equipment.
Ryan shares his unconventional path into the turf industry, starting with heavy diesel work before making the move to golf course maintenance. From there, he worked his way through grounds crew and mechanic roles before landing at a nine-hole municipal course where he wore every hat, including superintendent and GM. That experience gave him a little bit of everything before making the jump to his current role at Loraloma, a high-budget operation with new equipment and an in-house grinder.
They talk about what Ryan enjoys about the job, favorite tools, finding balance outside the shop, unusual things he's encountered on the course, mentors who have influenced his career, and the opportunity to volunteer at tournaments.
The conversation also gets into reel performance on Zoysia and Ryan’s approach to getting the most out of a reel. It’s a great conversation about building a career by wearing a lot of hats, learning every side of the operation, and growing from a nine-hole municipal course to a completely different level of equipment management.
- Tweet us @ReelTurfTechs and @MTrentManning
- Email us at ReelTurfTechs@gmail.com
- Check out our YouTube Channel
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 Reel Turf Techs Podcast, episode 173. Today we're talking to Ryan Bickham, equipment manager at Laura Loma. Laura Loma is a private 18-hole course. Ryan has one tech in the shop. He has mainly Toro equipment. Let's talk to Ryan
Trent Manning, CTEMAll right. Welcome, Brian, to the Real Turf Techs podcast. Thanks for being on
Ryan BickhamYeah. Thanks, Trent. Thanks for reaching out to me. Glad to be here.
Trent Manning, CTEMSo
Ryan Bickhamand talk with you for a bit
Trent Manning, CTEMfor all the listeners I don't-- Is it okay to talk about what's going on in your personal life for just a second?
Ryan BickhamYeah. Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEMOkay. All right. All right. This is what-- Yeah, I should have asked earlier, but, so anyway, this was put together kinda last minute, and Ryan agreed to be on the podcast, and he just happened to have pictures made today for his gender reveal. So congratulations.
Ryan BickhamYeah.
Trent Manning, CTEMRyan is having a
Ryan BickhamWe're having a boy. We're gonna have a little baby boy
Trent Manning, CTEMAll right. Congratulations. This is awesome. Yeah. Very exciting. So yeah, this is a excellent way to start out a podcast. So we're gonna go right into how'd you get into the turf industry?
Ryan Bickhamgoofily, I guess. I was working as a heavy diesel tech for Vermeer out in Midland, kind of working on, hydro vacs, stand-on trenchers, your RTX1250 ride-on trenchers, up, all the way up to kind of the 1055 big pipeline trenchers. Kinda ran into a tough situation there. Needed to come back home. Came back home. I was working as a bartender at night and during the day, you know, I was playing golf at the, you know, local muni nine-hole golf course right next town. And I was just getting my exercise, started walking out there, and I always saw the same old bald guy on a mower. You know, it was just him. So finally I just went in there, caught him one day for lunch, and just said, "Hey, man, uh, you need any help?" And he said, "Well, I need all the help in the world, but I can't pay you anything." I said, "Well, I'm not asking what you can pay me." I said, "Do you need some help? I got free time, so I'll be fine just playing free golf," which I think a lot of guys that get into the industry kind of run into this, and the paycheck's pretty nice, too. And so I started working at Independence Golf Course in Gonzales with, uh, Marty Ficken. I was there for a year and nine months. It was just me and him. Kinda learned all the ins and outs. Learned how to make magic with pretty much nothing. And then from there,
Trent Manning, CTEMincredible
Ryan Bickhamyeah, from there I went to school to TSTC in Waco. I was pursuing a degree in machining, so I was doing that. Met my now, at the time, wife. Met her. She wanted to move in together, and I decided, well, I'm not really making any money, so I need to go get a job. And I got on Facebook on the golf course maintenance group, looked for Waco, see who was around that area. Messaged all of them. Kinda told them my experience, my situation. And then Fred Mew at Cottonwood Creek in Waco, he reached out to me and said, "Hey, come on for an interview." And started there. Started there as just kind of the regular grounds crew. Did that for about a month total, and then I came into the shop one day at the end and he was working on a green sprayer on a 1750. And our prior mechanic had just kind of had enough, walked out, left. And, just kinda asked him, said, "Hey, man, what are you doing?" He said, "Oh I'm replacing the clutch." They say, "You wanna give me a hand?" I say, "Yeah, that's no problem." And so I helped him change out the clutch real quick. Didn't ask anything of it. Figured, hey, he's got a pretty good handle on it. If we're putting in a clutch, probably needs a clutch. So get the clutch replaced. We go and fire it up. And then he's just, Gosh dang it, it's still doing it." And I was like, "Well, what, what was the problem, man?" And he's like, "Well, as soon as he let off the clutch, it's just smacking around." I started laughing. I was like, "Well, if it was-- If you had your clutch pressed and it's catching, and then you let go, your clutch is probably working. So let's throw it on the lift real quick, take a look, see what's going on." Well, the, the drive shaft going back, it it had sheared the bolts on the drive shaft. So he just put in a brand-new clutch when it just needed a new drive shaft. And so from there, he was just kind of like, "Well, man, you got any experience doing mechanics?" I told him I had a little bit. And he's like, "Well, let me talk to, let me talk to JD, see if he can get you in the mechanic position." So I took over that spot. I was there for a year and three months, and it kind of started on twelve on, two off, and then it kind of turned into thirteen on, one off. And I was-- I just kind of got burned out, wasn't really making any money. I mean, so I left doing that, did one other thing for a little bit, got into Lance Air Van, uh, for a little bit. And wife hated that because I was gone Monday through Friday. I'd come in at Friday at about eight o'clock in the evening, and then Monday morning, I was gone at about four in the morning. So she wasn't really happy with the schedule on that. And my old boss, the original boss, Marty Ficken, uh, Gonzales just called and said, "Hey, uh, you got any interest in taking my job?" And I said, "Man, what are you talking about?" Said, "You love that place. You know, that course is your baby." And he said, "Well, you know, me and Kirby, we got married, and we got to move." And I was like, "Well, yeah I'll take it." You know, it was twenty minutes from home. Kind of personal, but my mom had had a stroke, you know, a little bit before that. So I was, I was kind of looking for a way to get home, and that kind of opened my door. So I took over as the head superintendent, general manager for the nine-hole course, and I was there for just a little bit over two years. Loved what I was doing. Uh, it was just me and the guy that actually had replaced me years ago, Billy Pletz. It was just us two. Ton of work. Not really much to work with, but you know, we did a good job.
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah, so limited limited equipment and you were mowing and
Ryan BickhamYes, sir. Doing everything. Yeah. And Billy, I think Billy was sixty-three. I think he'd already had both knees replaced and a hip replacement, so I was doing my best to keep him happy, keep him on a machine. You know, "If you can handle some of the mowing, I'll take care of everything else." Took care of all the spraying, all the budget, dealing with city council meetings irrigation, mechanic. If the pump was down, let's go fix the pump. I also learned a lot
Trent Manning, CTEMThat's so cool.
Ryan BickhamYep. And then I-- There's a course up here, neighbor course for us now Travis Club. I'd applied for that, for the head equipment manager job there, got an interview, didn't hear anything back, and then me and my wife, we were, uh, we were actually at a volleyball tournament in New Orleans, and on the way back, I'd gotten an email from my director now, Stu Nogler, just more or less saying, "Hey, I was referred to you by a friend at Travis Club, said that you're looking to get into the mechanic game. I've got a assistant equipment manager job open, so I'd love to have you come out to the course and just check it out, see what you think." So came out the very next day. We came back on Sunday. Monday I took off. I was like, "Hey, I gotta go see about this interview." Came out. We rode around the course. He told me what his plan was. I asked him what heights that he wanted to get to. They were pretty lofty, but, I like chaos, and I just, I said, "Heck yeah, man. Let's make it work." And by the end of it, he said, "All right. We'll get you an offer letter sent over." And I was like, "Really?" And
Trent Manning, CTEMWow, okay
Ryan Bickhamit's-- So it was same day interview, and I think two days later, I had an offer already. So I was-- it was pretty exciting. Went from, I think our total budget at the course was maybe three hundred grand at Gonzales to, I don't know that I'm really able to say the numbers, but
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, no, it's all good.
Ryan BickhamIt's, uh, definitely a lot higher. Came into a course with, we've got Toro wall-to-wall irrigation. We've got ten eighteens for greens mowers. We've got thirty-three twenties for our triplexes, fifty ten Hs for our fairways. We've got a seven thousand for a rough unit, and then we've got two Sidewinders and then some other equipment, blowers, and we've got some Harper sweeper. So it was pretty cool, opportunity to go from just rundown equipment that I'm stringing along to brand-new equipment. I've actually got a grinder and can actually fix things the right way instead of just jerry-rigging it, kicking the can down the road.
Trent Manning, CTEMRight, right, right. 'Cause at the other place what were you doing with your cutting units there? Were you sending them out or just bag lapping only?
Ryan BickhamSo I had a guy that I had contracted out to do some reel grinding once before, and he did okay. One of the reels, he kinda left me in a bad position, which, no big deal. I can fix it. As long as the reel was ground, that's all right. He got that done. But outside of that, man, just nothing but back lapping. And I'd go and back lap it, and then as soon as it was done back lapping, I'd reset it with a feeler gauge, the bed knife to reel contact, and I'd give it one more back lap and make sure it was cutting as good as it could all the way across and set it up and let her eat.
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. It's crazy, you gotta do what you gotta do in those situations. And that's, for a long time, that's how a lot of people done it, and it worked okay. But the standard today is a lot different than it was in, I mean, even 10 years ago, it's a lot different than what it was. But especially you go back to '60s or '70s or something like that, I mean, they just, they didn't really care. They just wanted to get outside and play golf.
Ryan BickhamAbsolutely
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. No, that is I mean, that's cool that you like to play golf and seen a bald guy on a mower and said, "Hey, can I work for some golf?" Yeah. No, that's so cool, though. Cool way to get into the industry, and it sounds like you progressed pretty quick to where you're at now.
Ryan BickhamYes, sir. I'd say it was, You could almost call it a meteoric rise, I guess. Took a lot of work. Thankfully Stu trusted me. Busting my tail for him. If he told me he wanted to get something done, I didn't care if it took me staying till 2:00 or 3:00 o'clock in the morning, we were gonna get it ready to go out the next day, and it's... The expectations were high, and I just wanted to keep pushing past that.
Trent Manning, CTEMWell, I don't-- I mean, I had... So I told you I interviewed Brian Epland last night, and we had the similar conversation. If, no matter what club you're at, if you put your head down and are willing to work hard, and it isn't just in this industry, I mean, I, I really think anywhere in life, if you put your head down and work hard, you can succeed in whatever you wanna do. Nothing's gonna hold you back. But I do think it's maybe easy to get places in this industry if you're willing to work for it.
Ryan BickhamYes, sir. I believe so
Trent Manning, CTEMjust like a lot of the superintendents that I know or, and anybody that's listening, the greats, as far as superintendents go, they didn't become the greats because they were sitting behind a desk and pushing a pencil all the time. They were out there working just as hard as the people on the crew and driving everybody as hard as they were driven, and some people couldn't hang, and that's okay. But that's how they made names for theirself,
Ryan BickhamAbsolutely.
Trent Manning, CTEMpr-pretty, pretty impressive. What's your least favorite part of the job? Or do you just love it all? You just like it all?
Ryan BickhamI'm crazy, man. I like the chaos that comes with, our position, 'cause one minute I'm, got reels torn apart and the next, maybe I get a phone call and, "Hey, we flipped a top dresser and so now let's go check that out." Or, you know, "Sprayer's not working over here on seven." And, you know, it's, it's all pretty exciting for me. I mean, it's easy to say that, you know, my least favorite part is sand, but understanding the benefits of it, you know, I encourage it. Just if they'll come to me and say, "Man we're about to, just blast the greens with sand. Sorry what it's gonna do to your reels." And I'll just tell them like it's fine, man. So we're gonna get the mowers good. They're gonna be good while they're mowing. They're gonna be good the next time that they go out, so don't worry about that. You do what you need to do to get that golf course ready, and I'll make sure everything gets taken care of." So
Trent Manning, CTEMThat's, that's unfortu-unfortunate, but that's what you gotta do, you know? I mean, it's just, just part of it. And you're right. We, we gotta top dress. That's the only way we can have pristine playing surfaces. Not any way around it. So you just gotta grin and bear it and keep on keeping on
Ryan BickhamYes, sir
Trent Manning, CTEMWhat's your favorite tool?
Ryan BickhamFor me, it's probably my Milwaukee 16-millimeter flex head ratchet wrench. It's always in my pocket.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, okay.
Ryan Bickhamyeah, it's just, you know, on most Toro cutting units, I can adjust them just fine with just that one tool. I love it. It falls out of my pocket whenever we're eating lunch with vendors or anything, and, you know, my superintendents they'll, they'll give me a bunch of shit for it, 'cause I've just always got something in my pockets. But that, and then also the... I wanna say it's the M12, the quarter-inch ratchet, electric ratchet. That thing is killer. That is an awesome tool. Whenever I first got in here, you know, 'cause I wanted to start getting into the Reels, that was kind of what I was put on my main duty, and I was just like, Man, it's okay, taking off the bed bars with a 10-millimeter ren- wrench or a, regular ratchet," I said, "But electric ratchet would sure improve this." And so we got one, and it... that's a lifesaver. Absolute lifesaver for me.
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah,
Ryan BickhamBut
Trent Manning, CTEMI mean, that was, yeah, definitely my go-to is quarter-inch ratchet. And I mean, definitely for cutting units, but for so many other things too, it fits in small places and just, it's a real game changer. And yeah. And I don't care, yeah, what model you have, but if you can afford one, definitely buy a quarter-inch ratchet from somebody. And I mean, even if it's, you know, you get one from Harbor Freight or something, and so what if it only lasts a year? You got your money's worth out of it,
Ryan Bickhamyeah, I was actually looking into getting the Hercules branded from Harbor Freight, a quarter-inch ratchet, but then I kind of started to think, I was like, "Well, our battery platform here is Milwaukee, so might as well just go ahead and get a Milwaukee, just keep it a little bit easier."
Trent Manning, CTEMOh yeah. For sure. That's-- I mean, I think it really kinda locks you into the battery system, to whatever electric tools you wanna use, so if you got Milwaukee, you might as well just get all Milwaukee 'cause yeah who wants 10 different battery chargers and 10 different batteries and, I mean, yeah. Life's hard enough, right? Without yeah, changing all that up back and forth. Yeah. Not fun. I mean, I was thinking the same thing. So, you know, I got a lot of Snap-on stuff and all my electric stuff is Snap-on. And I was thinking the other day, I really need... 'Cause I broke my Snap-on drill and long story. I didn't get mad and throw it or anything like that. Nothing crazy like that. But I was actually working on a roof and I dropped it and, uh, it broke and... But anyway, it, it was the older style 18-volt battery and I upgraded my impact, my half-inch impact to the new battery platform. And I was like, "Man, I really don't wanna spend the money to buy a Snap-on half-inch drill, you know, when I could go buy this than-- but the batteries," you know. So I still haven't bought anything. I don't know what I'm gonna end up doing. Yeah, it's, it's a hard pill to swallow
Ryan BickhamYes, sir
Trent Manning, CTEMwith the Snap-on stuff do you do to relax or find your balance? And whatever it is, you better do it as much as you can between now and the time the baby's born
Ryan BickhamAbsolutely. Really whenever I'm not here at work, which is not as often as I'd probably like, but just spending time with my wife. Pretty much any weekend that we have free, we're going somewhere.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, nice.
Ryan Bickhamback to Shiner to see my family, go to Waco to see her family and friends. My brother's living in Corpus. We haven't been down there in a while, but I mean, we're just... We're always on the road. So just getting out of the house, getting out of town for a little bit, get away from the course so I can just go into not work mode, that's probably the most relaxing thing. That, and just I really enjoy just being able to go home, cook dinner for my wife, sit down and eat, and we'll just hang out, watch TV or something, or just play with the dogs and then roll over to sleep and go at it the next day,
Trent Manning, CTEMyep, go do it again. That's right
Ryan Bickhambut I guess if, I mean, if I had a choice, I'd probably choose to be in summertime and go put my butt in a tube on a river. That's that's really my ideal way to spend time. Just doesn't happen as often as I'd like
Trent Manning, CTEMRight. No, I hear you though. That's awesome. Good stuff. What's one of the strangest things you've seen around the golf course?
Ryan Bickhamman, I don't know. I guess golf carts and tanks whenever there's definitely no reason for them to be in tanks. My last course came across a stray pistol on the course.
Trent Manning, CTEMOkay. Well, I mean, we, it is Texas, right? So
Ryan Bickhamwell still, but being a municipal golf course, uh, in a, you know, a city park is what we were classified as, you can't have any firearms, so that, that kind
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, okay
Ryan Bickhamruffled some feathers on that.
Trent Manning, CTEMMm-hmm
Ryan BickhamI mean, it's just kind of, kind of more so things like that. I never really attribute too much of anything weird with equipment, 'cause it's just like, huh,
Trent Manning, CTEMthat, yeah, yeah
Ryan Bickhampretty rough shape reels after they've hit something. I'm just "What the heck did you do?" They said, "Well, I didn't get that close." I was like I think you did."
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. Yep, you must have.
Ryan Bickhammm-hmm
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah, that's... Yep, always something Do you have a mentor in the industry?
Ryan Bickhamman, a- as far as from the grass side, I'd say Marty Ficken. Just, and just in life, he's just a heck of a guy. He works his tail off. Pardon my language, but if there was a shitty job that we were gonna have to do, he was gonna be the one getting in elbow deep,
Trent Manning, CTEMOké. Ja
Ryan Bickhamit would've been real easy for him to pawn it off on me,
Trent Manning, CTEMУгу
Ryan Bickhamspectacular guy.
Trent Manning, CTEMYou really gotta appreciate people like that, it's, yeah,
Ryan BickhamYeah, and I'd probably say a lot of my work ethic kind of centered around what he was able to show me and teach me. But as far as the mechanics side, man, if, if I have an issue, normally it's calling you or it's calling Chad Braun, and
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, yeah.
Ryan Bickhambetween y'all two.
Trent Manning, CTEMwell I appreciate the kind words there. Chad definitely deserves them. He is one of the best, yeah. And if it's Toro related, I mean, he's a Toro encyclopedia.
Ryan BickhamThat's what I was gonna say. He's a walking encyclopedia. He can recite just anything and tell you about any, any kind of update or whatnot, and he's just, he's spectacular. Plum
Trent Manning, CTEMthat's, you know-- And I would be totally fine if Chad just replied with, whatever the answer was to a question. But he almost never replies with an answer. He replies with the service manual or the parts manual or the tech manual, to your problem, which
Ryan Bickhamand it's always in two minutes, and it's like, dude, where, where do you just have this stashed to where you just have a quick reference
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. Yeah. Well, I told him one day I don't remember the whole story, but he was looking for a photo in his phone, and he's like, "Let me find the picture of that." And I mean, he pulls it up just that quick. And I'm like, "How did you find that that fast? I'm going through photos for days trying to find the picture." And he says, uh, "I got them all labeled and categorized." I said, "Of course you do, Chad. You make me sick, man." It's just, it's crazy. And I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the dude, and that is so awesome that he does that, and I just wish that I could-- I aspire to, to do something like Chad and, uh, yeah, categorize all my pictures, but I don't... My brain, it just don't work that way. as much as I would like to do it, there's just never enough time in the day. I'm re- diving off a rabbit hole somewhere else doing something else to do a project halfway before I jump onto the next project. That's kind of the way my brain works a lot of times What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Ryan BickhamI think right now I'm pretty much in my dream job.
Trent Manning, CTEMThat's awesome to hear. Heck
Ryan BickhamI- ideally I'd love to get to a situation where I've got three or four techs underneath me, and maybe I could spend a little bit more time at home on the weekends. Make sure that we're good on Friday, that's where, our guys can cover during the weekends. But I mean, this-- where I'm at now, it's just, it's spectacular. It is one heck of a course. I work with a really good team. The agronomic team is just rock solid, really good guys. They all bust their butts. We all hold each other accountable. But outside of that, man I think probably, I don't know how to say this. I don't know if Mike Rollins ever got paid to go do the consulting or, helping with the PGA events and whatnot, but that's what I'd really love to do. My passion is really through the reels the cutting units. I love that. Like I'm a freaking nut. My wife gets very mad at me, you know, 'cause I'd spend too much time here at shop 'cause I'm trying to make it perfect. That way everything's good the next day. But just being able to kinda go to other courses and help support and teach and learn and that, that would kinda be my ideal job. I don't know that it is one, and I don't know if it pays much, but that'd be, a pretty sweet gig,
Trent Manning, CTEMyeah. Well, if if you figure it out, let me know 'cause I'm gonna ride your coattails. Because I'm, very similar. I just, I love tournament golf, and I love volunteering for tournaments and all the people you meet and the friendships that you build. I mean, there's, you know, there's nothing like it. And I told you before we got on, I'm flying out tomorrow to go to the BMW Championship at Bellerive. And trying to think. I've ne- you know, I've met a couple of the guys that's gonna be there, but I've never really worked with any of those guys. And it's one thing to meet people in the industry, it's another thing to work a tournament with them. I mean, you know, you're spending a lot of time and over a week, 'cause you're getting up early, doing morning shift, you're doing evening shift taking naps during the day 'cause you're not sleeping at night. And I mean, you know, just really grinding it out. So you really become close to those people and really make some, some good friendships. And I don't, I just, I love it. I mean, yeah, I don't know how. Wish there was a, a stronger word for how much I enjoy doing it. I was-
Ryan Bickhamyou don't mind me asking. So I've always had the interest in trying to go and volunteer for these tournaments and whatnot. I have no idea which way to go about that, how you get your foot in the door, 'cause that's something that I'd love to do, something that I think I'll be in the position to do probably in the near future. I mean, who knows? But, that's, that's-- to me, that's what really kind of drives me in this industry, is making those relationships as well, 'cause we're all kind of fighting the same battle,
Trent Manning, CTEMOh
Ryan Bickhamgetting there with your peers that, whether they do it at a high level, low level, you can learn something from anybody.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, 100%.
Ryan BickhamI think that's a really cool thing too, is going to some of these other shops, seeing these guys and just picking up little tips, tricks that they have.
Trent Manning, CTEMMm-hmm.
Ryan Bickhamthat, it's where you can get a little bit more refined and so I think that's really cool
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, yeah. I mean, hands down. And, you know, I do the tips and tricks presentation at the national trade show with Austin Wright. And yeah, try not to drag this out, but I met Austin Wright at Bellerive in 2018 for the 100th PGA Championship, and we volunteered advance week, which, uh, volunteering advance week is getting more popular or maybe not, maybe not more popular is a word, but used to, it wasn't much of a thing. You know, you didn't get a lot of volunteers advance week. I mean, for one, you don't really get a whole lot of notoriety, if you will. And honestly, that's when all the work happens, advance week. Tournament week, everything should be pretty dialed in. And I mean, I ain't saying we're not busy, but there's still a lot of moving parts when the tournament's going on. But advance week's when they could almost use h- more help than they do tournament week. But anyway, to close that story up, I met Austin there, and now we're doing this tips and tricks that we've been doing for the last, whatever, four or five years Just about, I mean, or 90% of the tips and tricks that I have in there, probably 95% of the tips and tricks I have in there, I got from someone else. So, you know, it ain't like it's all my idea or Austin's idea. Uh, you know, there's 5% me and Austin, and then everything else is stuff that we've saw in our travels. so like you're saying, visiting other people's shops, you can just learn so much, and it doesn't matter what level of club it is either. I mean, you can pick up a lot of good ideas from C and D level courses. But to, uh, try to answer your question, how do you volunteer for these tournaments? Occasionally you will see something online where they're looking for volunteers. Um, but most of the time, those, that type of volunteer is, uh, more of crew work, you know, so, you know, whether it's mowing or raking bunkers or backpack blowing or whatever it is. You don't see a whole lot for volunteering in the shop, and it does definitely helps to know people, at the, in the industry. I mean, the way I got into the US Open last year, I knew somebody. The way I got in the US Open this year, I knew somebody. So basically you just figure out what tournament you wanna work and what course it's at, and then find somebody that knows that equipment manager
Ryan BickhamMm-hmm.
Trent Manning, CTEMand reach out to them or get somebody else to reach out on your behalf or, you know, whatever. Just like, and I, I shouldn't give away all my secrets because I won't be able to, uh, volunteer 'cause everybody's gonna fill all these spots up. But I don't wanna be s-selfish either. But this year when I was at Shinnecock at the US Open, um, I asked somebody, I was like, "Where is it at next year in the US Open?" And they said, "It's at Pebble Beach." And I was like, "No way." So I get my phone out, I'm texting Michael Henderson. I'm like, "Hey, man, I'm in Shinnecock. You need any help in the shop next year?" And he's like, yeah, we could probably we could probably use some help." And I'm like, "Put my name on the list." So, No guarantees, but hopefully that works out. Yeah, and I mean, you know, it's like Michael, I've, I've stopped by his shop just... I was, uh, traveling through and stopped by Pebble Beach just to check out his facility. I'd met him through the C10 process, so, you know what I mean? That's how I got his number, and we kinda knew of each other, whatever. I met him at the trade show, and then after the trade show in San Diego, I'm driving up the coast and send him a text like, "You mind if I stop in, just say hey," whatever. And then, you know, he spends half his morning touring me around his facility, showing me everything there. And I mean, it's just so cool, Meeting all these people and getting all these ideas that, you know. And, and it-- I could care less that it's Pebble Beach, you know. It's, you know, this like-minded in- individuals, but on top of everything else, it's Pebble Beach, which is, is pretty cool. Right. Yeah, so cool stuff. Sorry, I didn't mean to get on, on a rant there.
Ryan BickhamThat is awesome
Trent Manning, CTEMAnd I will say, yeah, anybody that's listening if you, you know, if you can't get away maybe for a tournament, just try to find, you know, a tournament in your area. You know, if-- I was very fortunate, being in Atlanta that we had the Tour Championship every year at East Lake. So I went down there, I think the first year I went was 2011, and David Blowers was the equipment manager. And then I went a couple times while David was there. He left. Howard Horn was the equipment manager. I went every year Howard was there. And I knew Howard before then, but now Howard's one of my best friends. We're members at the same gun club down the road. We go shooting all the time. You know, I'll go hang out at his house on the weekend sometimes with nothing going on, and that all started by volunteering at a tournament. So, you know, it's just, uh, it's really cool what volunteering at tournaments can do for you. But what I was trying to go with that, if you do have a local tournament to your area, just, yeah, reach out to them, a superintendent, assistant superintendent, somebody who works at the club, and see if you can get in the foot in the door.
Ryan BickhamMm-hmm.
Trent Manning, CTEMthen once you're in. It's it's kinda like, you're looking for your first job and everybody won't hire you 'cause you don't have experience. But once you get the first job, you got the experience and you can go anywhere.
Ryan BickhamYes, sir
Trent ManningSupercharged course maintenance with Task Tracker, the leading golf course maintenance software in the industry. Built for precision and efficiency, Task Tracker simplifies daily operations, optimizes water usage, and keeps your team on track. With real time updates and streamlined workflows, It's the essential tool for modern superintendents. Learn more at www. clubessentials. com backslash task tracker. Let's get back to the episode.
Trent Manning, CTEMWhat technician would you like to work with for a day?
Ryan Bickhamman, there, there's quite a few. Obviously I'd like to work with you. I know you're running with Stack now, so that might be a little bit harder to do. But
Trent Manning, CTEMthat just means now I can come work with you for a day, and that would be right up my alley.
Ryan BickhamYeah, I mean, there ain't much shade, but it gets hot. But no, I mean, to be able to go and spend a day with Chad Braun would be really cool, kind of refine some stuff on Toro. Another guy that I think would be really cool would be Terry Apple,
Trent Manning, CTEMOh,
Ryan Bickhamkind of see some of the robotic stuff that he's got going on, you know, 'cause I took his class at Orlando this past year as well,
Trent Manning, CTEMOkay
Ryan Bickhamkind of chatted with him, you know, off and on, and he's kind of right up my alley personality-wise, and
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah.
Ryan Bickhamthink he's a great dude, and I think it'd be a lot of fun to go work with him. Man, yeah, I still haven't met Brian Eplin. We're kind of somewhat in a close-ish circle
Trent Manning, CTEMMm-hmm.
Ryan Bickhamas other people. I still wanna go meet him and pick his brain too. My buddy down the road at Big Easy, Danny Diaz, I, I enjoy going and shooting the shit with him. They've ha- they've held a couple events for the, uh, GCSA events, chapter events over there, but just being able to go spend a full day with him and see how he operates, 'cause he's got a heck of a fleet and a really big crew and good crew underneath him. Just kind of see how he handles that, what his day-to-day looks like, and learn a little bit more, especially 'cause he runs John Deere, and I don't know a ton about John Deere. I've only had one mower, so it'd be cool to kind of learn a little bit on that as well,
Trent Manning, CTEMRight, right. No, that's good stuff. Yeah, and I mean, that's the other thing. There's so many really good technicians in our industry. I don't-- I mean, obviously I know a lot of technicians in our industry. I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of people and have a lot of people on the podcast. But I mean, There's not very many that wouldn't go out of their way to help you in any way they can, and pretty much any day that you call is, Incredible. And I mean, I definitely think that it's something that kinda makes us who we are and why we're in the position we are. I mean, we like fixing things. We like helping people, that's, yeah, why we're doing what we're doing. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?
Ryan BickhamJust do your best to have a positive attitude in any situation, even if it sucks. Being positive. If somebody messes something up, don't blow up at them. Just tell them, "Hey, it's okay. Let's go check it out. We'll get it fixed. You know, don't worry. Let's try not to repeat this." but just be a good person. Just be there to support, 'cause ultimately that's what we're doing. We're supporting the golf course and the agronomic team. just having a really positive attitude and then also just cut line is king. That is a huge thing.
Trent Manning, CTEMyeah.
Ryan BickhamI'd have-- If I could've learned that earlier and, the last place that I was at, I really kinda delved into the, the, PDF, read it, but I didn't have a grinder, so I was-- it was kinda outta my control, you know, and it was all just kinda theory until I got here and was able to kinda put it to practical knowledge, and
Trent Manning, CTEMУгу
Ryan Bickhama game changer for me, for sure
Trent Manning, CTEMThat's awesome. Yeah. Very good stuff. Cool.
Trent ManningGet ready for tips and tricks
Trent Manning, CTEMWhat kind of tips and tricks do you wanna share with us?
Ryan BickhamI guess really about the only one I would say is just, I don't know if now would be a decent time to kind of talk about cut line. Just keen or grinding parallel. I know some people believe it, some people don't. Uh, it's hard to say anybody's right or wrong in it. I know it's worked for me. Just simply using the two mag bases. I've got two separate setups and two individual dial indicators, so I don't have to move around as much between two. But just a good dial base or a mag base and then a good stared indicator and you can... If you do it the right way, you can really kind of get your cutting units dialed in as well as, kind of like what Mike has kind of preached in there, figuring out what your bed knife angles are. Tweak it, go mow, see what the wear pattern is on your live, on your knife rather. Get that refined, because that's kind of the process that I went. I, before I had the dial indicators, I was just playing around with the angles and found what kind of worked best with us and made them a bit more efficient, then kind of got to that point and went, "All right, let's use this. Now let's start grinding parallel." And it just complete different ballgame for me.
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. So yeah, kind of walk us all through that. And let's start out that you got Laser Zorza?
Ryan BickhamYes, sir. Yes, sir. I got Lazer
Trent Manning, CTEMZorza
Ryan BickhamLazer on our greens and surrounds. We've got Stadium on our fairways and tees, and then we've got Zeon Zoysia on our rough. So it's, hell on the reels. I mean, every, every blade of grass that we mow out here is with a reel mower except for our native. We've got a Ventrac rotary mower, but everything else is a reel mower. So, you're-- don't really have a whole lot of room for error in the first place with a reel mower if you want good cut, especially on Zoysia, and it eats it like crazy. But just, yeah, I mean, for, at the start, kinda came in and Even though we were in the process of growing and just constantly throwing sand on the greens, the expectation was still we have to have a perfect cut. And, with my background of being superintendent, I understood why. You don't wanna get a bad cut whenever we're throwing a crap load of water on it, just trying to grow it like crazy. 'Cause yeah, I mean, then our disease pressure's gonna go up. And so I was kind of taking it on myself to, all right, let's get this tightened up a lot. And back then we had six greens mowers, 1018s. We'd send them out. The entire time they were going, after every hole that they mowed, I went and checked the mower, adjusted it if it needed it, and I just kept chasing all of our six around for the 18 and then our three practice greens, well, and then the nursery. And, uh, by the time it came back to the shop, it was kind of rough. It was beat up and all right, let's go ahead and pull the bed bars off. Let's get a grind on them. Just touch them up. If the reels aren't in good shape, let's grind the reels. And I mean, I went through a ton. We just-- Right now, this past week, we started the process of replacing our original six reels. We got three done this week, kinda hectic week during closure. This next week we'll get the next three, get a grind on all six of them before we get them back in rotation and keep rolling. And now the knowledge that I have now with Cutline is king. It-- The Reel Wear is gonna be tremendously lower 'cause, I mean, we were going, at best, we could get two weeks out of a reel before it needed to be ground, and we'd go through two, sometimes three bed knives within those two weeks. And so it was-- The cost on it for us was pretty exponential, to say the least, just from a material standpoint and then also the labor cost, and that was a ton of workload on us.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh,
Ryan Bickhamhoping, everything out on the course machine-wise was working good, so we didn't get pulled away from the shop 'cause we're pretty, pretty vast course, so if we get pulled away, I mean, it's gonna take us fifteen minutes, twenty minutes to get to the other side of the course, figure out what we need, come back to the shop, grab our tools, go out there, fix it, come back. That's gonna eat an hour and a half out of our time. But yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. So yeah, but how did-- Let's back up on the grinding the angles. You said you started at OEM spec, and then how did you end up where you ended up?
Ryan BickhamYeah, so I-- on the greens factory was three and three on the top, thirteen on the front. And so I just-- I decided, all right, let's go ahead and move it to four degrees, send them out, see what it does. Saw the wear pattern start to move a little bit closer to the edge of the bed knife. Let's bump it to five. Got closer. Went to six. It got really, really close. I went to seven, and it started to regress the other way. So I was like, okay let's roll six for our top. I haven't adjusted the front face on the bed knife for the greens. I did on our rough and our fairways. I went to twelve on our top and seven on our front for our fairways and rough. But just it was trial and error and just doing a visual inspection. I mean, my hands were on the mowers every day after they came in. I had no excuse to just look at it and say, "Oh, yeah, this is good. Let's just slap it on and keep going." I mean, it was just doing that visual inspection to get the, the top face angle, and that was really big to start off. And it paid off a lot because that's how we were able to get to basically two weeks out of our reels, because at one point, we were almost every third or fourth mow, we were grinding a reel. And it just added up.
Trent Manning, CTEMWell, I remember talking to you early on and yeah, you were grinding bed knives like every mow or every other mow or something
Ryan BickhamMm-hmm. Yeah, it, I mean, even on the fairways, we were... I'd g- get a good grind on them, put them back on, and then we were kinda back lapping until it just, the cut quality was not what I wanted to see. And that's really kinda what pushed me to go into the cut line and then push into grinding parallel, 'cause it was just, it just wasn't sustainable. I was gonna run myself into the ground. We weren't gonna get the quality of cut that we wanted. We weren't having the cut retention part that we wanted, so needed to try something. It was just kind of a last-ditch effort, and it paid off. Paid off in a big way.
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. No, that is awesome. That's so cool. And so after you got your angles dialed in to what you like, then you started measuring to the pivot bolts and grinding square, right? So yeah, how much, I don't... How could you quantify that that helped?
Ryan Bickhamwell, because the easiest way for me to put it is if I-- after getting the top face angle good and just rolling with that for the fairway, I could send out the mowers. By the time that they came in at the end of the day, there was a little bit of wear. All right, let's get a back lap on it. It's cutting good. The next day, it just kinda kept increasingly getting worse. As soon as I switched over and got one full set ground, I was-- checked it in the next day, it's cutting paper all the way across. We didn't adjust anything while it was mowing. And I was like, "Okay let's send it out again. Let's see how far we can stretch it," and it turned into two weeks, and I was like, "Okay I'm gonna pull the bed knives off. I'm gonna grind it." I was like, "This is..." I was like it's too good to be true." I said,
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah.
Ryan BickhamI'm getting sketched out."
Trent Manning, CTEMright.
Ryan BickhamSo I ground those, and then the other three sets of the fairways that we had, I ground everything the same, put relief in the reels, ground to the bed knives to the pivot bolts. I went from March 3rd until, let's see, March, April, May, about June 7th,
Trent Manning, CTEMOK
Ryan Bickhamwhenever I finally said, "All right, we're kinda starting to get a little bit of a loss." Whenever we'd go and adjust the reels, well, it's not cutting great. It's just kinda pulling the paper. Well, not really pulling the paper. It just wasn't cutting as well as I would like to see. And so, I mean, I was getting three and a half, almost four months out of just simply mower went out, it mowed, came in. You know, it's cutting perfect except for maybe the very first spiders of the reel. It may just need a click. Give it a click, click. It's perfect. All right, let's set our height. We're good to go. And I mean, for me to be able to stretch it three months versus the very next day, especially being on Zoysia, I mean, that was, that, that was big enough of an indicator for me. I mean, my
Trent Manning, CTEMOh yeah. Hands down.
Ryan Bickhamwent down tremendously. So I guess that's the best way.
Trent Manning, CTEMwere you doing any lapping during that time?
Ryan BickhamNo. So during those three, three months, three and a half, four months, no lapping. Nothing. We- So I've actually got another mechanic that I work with and we just- I finally just told him, I said, "Dude," I said, "Do not back lap anymore, please." I was like, "'Cause as soon as you are, those angles that I ground on the knife is throwing it out the window, so all this work that I'm doing on the front end is just going adios." I said, "Just, just trust me." And, you know, about, uh, two weeks in he was just like, "Holy crap." He said, "They're, they're still cutting, and they're cutting really, really good." I was like, "I know. It's hard to believe I said, "but let's, just- let's keep rocking with it."
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. Yeah. No, that's that's really cool stuff. Yeah, 'cause we were-- I'm trying to think. I mean, we were getting
Ryan BickhamPardon me. Sorry
Trent Manning, CTEMtw- oh, you get 12 to 14 cuts or something like that on Zoysia fairways with Deere reels, I will say that.
Ryan BickhamYeah.
Trent Manning, CTEMAnd I have heard that is not as good as Toro. But that's just what I heard.
Ryan BickhamYeah. And I know there's-- I know Terry and JP, you know, they're definitely on the John Deere train.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh
Ryan Bickhamfor them is great, and maybe if I had Deere, I could get it to be as good as theirs. Maybe not. I said, but I'm working with what I have, and I love
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, yeah, yeah, for sure
Ryan BickhamI love Toro. Their reels are phenomenal. They're very easy to work with, and I love them
Trent Manning, CTEMI'm a big Toro fan too. There's no secret there. And yeah, I mean, I talked to Patterson and he was having about the same results on his John Deere QA7s mowing Georgia fairways. So that made me say, "Okay, I'm doing... Whatever I'm doing is okay." If I can hang in his hang out with him I'm happy yeah. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about, cover? I definitely think that was good to to get into that and, how that helped your operation 'cause-- and probably your sanity too, not just your operation, but
Ryan BickhamStress level for sure. My wife definitely noticed the change, especially whenever I was coming home at four o'clock, five o'clock instead of eight or nine,
Trent Manning, CTEMMm-hmm.
Ryan Bickhamand just saying, "Hey, I'm hopping in the shower and going to the bed."
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah
Ryan Bickhamshe was very happy that I did it too, but I would like to touch on whenever you are indexing or measuring to the pivot bolts the issue that I did run into, and I actually reached out to Chris Hyman because he had done something similar, and that's where I got the idea of using the dial indicator. Whenever I was initially creating my first zero on the left side and indicating there going to the right, adjusting with the carriage, you know, moving the carriage to get it to zero. Whenever I first started out, whenever I went back to the left, and if I was off by four thousandths, I made the error of in-feeding or out-feeding the actual grinding motor head go to zero. And then I was going there, and what I was seeing was... 'cause I think it was Julian that's been having this issue in the WhatsApp group.
Trent Manning, CTEMMm-hmm
Ryan Bickhamleft side of the bed knife was getting thick. The right side was coming out really thin. I was running into the same issue, and I called Chris, and I was just kinda like, "Man what's going on?" And then we kinda talked through it, and I figured out I was basically inducing sine error. And then, so then I switched to the correct way of setting your zero, go to the right, index, make your adjustment with your carriage head, come back. And then for me on the dial indicator, you can twist your face of it to get to zero while it sits in the same spot. And then keep making the adjustments off of that. Leave your grinding head alone, 'cause if not, you're gonna induce sine error, and you're gonna lead into a lot of different issues. You're gonna start to eat bed knives, and you're just throwing money out the door. So as that was a lesson I had to learn, unfortunately, but hopefully if somebody hears this and they wanna try it, please don't make that mistake. So
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah, and that's, so another thing while you're talking about that, because I've experienced it too, and it's mainly or it happens more often on the Toro bed bars because they have the longer ears, if you will, that go up for the adjustments, and they kinda hang over the motor, and they're kinda in the way. And I actually got the idea from Howard Horne, 'cause the first mount I made for my grinder was up close to the grinding head, and I would have to raise that up or down to be able to go in to measure perpendicular to the pivot bolts. And, uh, Howard told me, he's like, "Have you ever heard..." Or he didn't ask he's like, "Get some T-slot." And I'm like, "What the hell are you talking about? What is T-slot?" You know, I didn't know what T-slot was. So I go on my favorite place, McMaster-Carr, and I order like three feet of one-inch T-slot and a bracket or maybe a couple brackets or whatever. I mean, it was, whatever it was, it was like 20 bucks worth of s- T-slot material, and, uh, put it on the rear of the carriage so it's far enough back it'll clear those ears of a Toro bed knife, and I can go up to the height I need and measure on both sides and go in perpendicular. So the issue is if you go in at an angle, that creates an error too because when that bed knife flips up, we don't know that the pivot bolts are at the same level horizontally,
Ryan BickhamMm-hmm.
Trent Manning, CTEMso and we're measuring at an angle. So that's an issue too. And, the first time I done that and measuring at an angle, I'm just like you were saying, I'm grinding a ton on one side and nothing on the other side. I'm like, "What is going on here?" And I was seeing as much error as 30 thousandths. And on a greens knife, that's about all you got there anyway.
Ryan BickhamYes, sir.
Trent Manning, CTEMIt don't take long to grind away at greens knives. And as expensive as they are, we don't wanna be wasting those. So yeah, definitely do your homework before you just set up and think you're doing it right because you might not be.
Ryan BickhamYes, sir
Trent Manning, CTEMYeah. Because we've all been there, right? I mean, we've all done it. This isn't just I know you're newer to the industry, but I've been doing this crap for a long time, and I screwed it up, so, I mean, anybody can screw it up. Doesn't matter who you are All right. Anything else you wanna
Ryan BickhamMan, not that I can think of right now, unless you got anything. I
Trent Manning, CTEMNope nope. That is I think that's a wrap. We'll do some rapid fire if you're up for it.
Ryan BickhamYeah, sure.
Trent Manning, CTEMWhat's your favorite movie?
Ryan BickhamOh If I wanna laugh, probably Longest Yard or Varsity Blues.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh,
Ryan Bickhamkinda football movies. Big sports guy, but I love
Trent Manning, CTEMthe, yeah, classics for sure. What would be your last meal?
Ryan BickhamProbably the shrimp tacos that me and my wife make.
Trent Manning, CTEMOh, I love it.
Ryan Bickhamyep.
Trent Manning, CTEMAwesome
Ryan Bickhamshrimp, shrimp, coleslaw fresh jalapenos, and some good tortillas. And we grill the shrimp with a bunch of garlic butter, and it just hits the spot every time, man.
Trent Manning, CTEMwhat time are we gonna have that when I'm coming into
Ryan BickhamHey man, you just let me know. I got a extra bedroom you can bunk up. You don't need to stay in the hotel if you want and so we can cook you shrimp, we can cook you some steak, whatever you want, man
Trent Manning, CTEMHeck yeah, man. Those shrimp tacos sounds... That's right up my alley. I mean, don't get me wrong, there ain't nothing wrong with a steak either,
Ryan BickhamNo sir. Yeah, that's it. Snake is...
Trent Manning, CTEMlately I like to eat What are you most proud of besides your new little baby boy that's gonna be born?
Ryan BickhamThe thing I'm most proud of is probably my wife. I've always heard it's probably the most important decision that you can make picking the right partner. I came from divorced parents, she came from divorced parents. I mean, obviously, it's still early on. We only got married in May, but she's been with me for five years. There's been a lot of moves. She's put a lot of trust in me. Not to say that she hasn't had her doubts, but I've always just told her, said, "Hey, I've made it work every single time. We're gonna make it work this time." So that's probably the thing I'm most proud of, is just finding the right partner. So I love her to death, so
Trent Manning, CTEMgood for you, man. That's so good. And yeah, I was listening to an audiobook a while ago and anyway, it was like Love's a verb, right?
Ryan BickhamYeah, I think
Trent Manning, CTEMit's not a noun, it's a verb. It is. Love's a verb. But anyway, in this book the, the guy was saying, you know, "I, I just don't love my wife anymore." And the author's like, "Well, love her." And he's like, "Well, yeah, you know, just the, the spark isn't there anymore." And he's like, "Love her."
Ryan BickhamYep
Trent Manning, CTEMYou know, and I mean, maybe it's, uh, easier said than done, but, uh, it just kind of puts it in perspective. You know, maybe it's our thinking up here about all the other things in the world, you know, that says, you know, we lost the spark. But yeah. So anyway, I wish you the best and, uh, I'm really happy for you
Ryan BickhamThank you, man. Thank you. Thank you
Trent Manning, CTEMAnd thank you for being a guest on the podcast. This was great. A lot of fun
Ryan BickhamYeah. Thank you for having me, Trent. I've been looking forward to it. I know the time prior I s- said I probably wasn't ready. I don't know if I got any more ready or not, but thanks for reaching out again and just, it's always good to talk to you, man, and always... Thank you for always picking up the phone whenever I give you a holler, cause it's usually whenever I'm in a bind, and you're always a really good, just source of information as well as a lot of the guys in the Reel Turf Tech group. And just thank you for everything you do for our industry. Thank you for what you do for me, and it's awesome
Trent Manning, CTEMThank, thank you for all that. But yeah, I mean, I just, I love it, you know? I do. I love it. I live it. I breathe it. And, you know, when you call and you got a question, I'm happy to try to help, that's just, that's what we do
Ryan BickhamYep. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Well, thank you again for having me on. And hope to see you here in December.
Trent Manning, CTEMYep, I will, uh, be there in December. I'm, uh, really looking forward to that one. Show show season is almost upon us as, uh, we say on this side of the industry. Yeah, 'cause it starts in about October and goes through March.
Ryan BickhamYep. Sorry. Now one more thing. So now since you're with STEC, are you gonna be teaching any more classes at GCSA?
Trent Manning, CTEMYes.
Ryan BickhamFor the sh-- Sweet. Perfect.
Trent Manning, CTEMnone of that. Um, yeah, and this-- I'm glad you asked 'cause that's good for the listeners, 'cause there's probably a lot of people that's got the, a lot of the similar questions. Um, none of that should change. And I mean, that was one of the, the deals with Stack and when I was talking to David Taylor, the owner of Stack. I mean, really the, his selling point to me was, "I want you to keep growing your brand, and I want you to grow my brand too." And I'm like, "What about all these speaking engagements?" He's like, "How many you wanna do?" And I'm like, "All right, man, this is awesome." Because, you know, working at the golf course, they never-- I mean, I was very fortunate at the club I was at, and the help I had in the shop that could cover things while I was gone, and how lenient they were about everything. But I always felt guilty about not being there at the shop. Even though, you know, I was loving what I was doing, being on the road and, you know, doing the classes and all that stuff, I just absolutely love it. But my mind was always back at the course like, "Oh, I hope those guys are okay," or, "Wonder what broke today?" You know, just always worried and felt guilty about the time I was away. So I didn't enjoy it as much if, if that makes sense. You know, and it's just like, I mean, all the listeners that are working at a golf course now, it-- you feel like you can't go on a vacation because when you get back, you know, nobody done the work for you, right? So it just piles up while you're gone. So it's, uh, it's kinda hard to, to get away. But, uh, I will still be teaching, yeah, and doing a lot more of it at the national show and all these other shows, which I really look, uh, forward to. Yeah, meeting more people and seeing more shops and so any opportunity that anybody's got that's interested in having me out, I would love to connect with you.
Ryan BickhamPerfect.
Trent Manning, CTEMAll right. Thanks, man
Ryan BickhamYes, sir. Thank you, Trent. We'll holler at you
Trent Manningthank 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.