It is definitely long overdue and now that the students are back on campus, I am taking the heat for not posting these earlier.  In any case, here is the summary of the fourth internship visit which took me out to Denver and then back to North Carolina where I visited a total of 3 students.

Dustin Weeks @ Denver CC
(Stop #10)
Being a pathologist, I have a thing about sending students out to the arid western United States.  So when Dustin Weeks selected Denver Country Club as his internship location, I put my biases aside and took it as an opportunity to see what a turf internship in Denver would be like.  I also used it as an opportunity to catch up with a few 2-Year alums at nearby courses.  Once I arrived at Denver CC and met with golf course superintendent Doug Brooks, I quickly realized the value of simply having a great internship and put aside my love of diseases for a moment. Dustin was off to a great start and getting involved in various aspects of management that you would expect to receive at a course with a developed internship program.

Daniel Carretero @ Pinehurst No. 2
(Stop #11) 

After a lengthy flight to North Carolina and lengthy car ride to the hotel, I managed to get a few hours of sleep before my morning meeting with Daniel Carretero at the famed Pinehurst Resort. Daniel is from the Canary Islands in Spain and was interested in gaining field experience with both cool and warm-season grasses and never deviated from his initial intent of Pinehurst.  Only half way through the internship, Daniel was able to gain a variety of invaluable experiences including the restoration of the No. 2 course by Coore & Crenshaw, the oppressive heat and humidity of 2010, and the changing of management with the resignation of Paul Jett.  All of these experiences in addition to the routine maintenance practices added to the overall learning of the internship.

Dallas Cockrell @ Eagle Point
(Stop #12) 

Following my visit with Daniel and a stop to visit one of our 2-Year alums at St. James Plantation, I headed off to Wilmington, NC for a meeting with my former boss Sam Green and current student Dallas. Being from Kansas, Dallas wanted to gain some practical experience with both cool and warm season grasses.  Having worked for Sam at Congressional back in the day, I knew that this would be a good fit.  Dallas showed me around the golf course which was holding up perfectly despite the intense weather that was wreaking havoc to other bentgrass greens in the region.  Exposed to a variety of tasks from spray-hawking to mowing to course setup, Dallas had likely selected one of the best possible places to complete an internship.

Click Play for more photos from this round of internship visits.