PSU Internship Visits

May 23, 2022 in Articles

Last week I had the opportunity to visit three students during their internships in California and Arizona. The clubs included Bel-Air Country Club, The Links at Spanish Bay, and Pine Canyon Club. The visits revealed some positive aspects related to the current status of the industry. Here are some highlights of this first round of visits.

Work Schedules

I think that all three facilities had a similar employee work schedule and I wasn’t sure where this came from. Someone told me that this was a “west coast thing.” All three courses worked their students every other weekend, but on the weekends they worked, they also had a day off during the middle of that week. This seemed like a positive way to keep the interns and employees fresh. I will be curious what kind of schedules I will see from other internship visits in the next few weeks.

Leadership Opportunities

During the trip, I had the opportunity to meet with interns from other clubs in the Pebble Beach system as well as some local assistants. While at Pine Canyon in Flagstaff, AZ, I had a similar opportunity to meet with employees and interns to discuss what the future may hold for them in the form of leadership opportunities. A few things were consistent in these discussions.

Everyone seemed genuinely excited about the future opportunities they were going to be exposed to. All three superintendents were praised by their crew in terms of how they exposed them to all aspects of the facility in an effort to prepare them for future leadership positions. We talked about my Twitter thread where I indicated the impact that assistants’ attitudes had on discouraging potential future leaders in the industry and it appears that this has completely flipped. All of the assistants that I spoke with were enthusiastic about their future in the industry.

Watch out for the Blinders

The students were all enjoying their internships so far and getting a lot out of the experience. With another 4 months of work remaining, they will be hitting the grind of the season too. Advice that I give students during their internship is that once you get comfortable and know how things generally operate at the facility, don’t let that put blinders on you. Make sure you’re constantly looking at all that is happening on the course and not ONLY focusing on the task that you’re assigned. Think about all of the things that the superintendent and assistants must be aware of daily and watch how they deal with it.

Next up will be two visits to NC and GA. Stay tuned.