Howard Horne is the equipment manager at Bear’s Best Atlanta Golf Club. This farm kid from a no-red-light town in Florida made his way to metro Atlanta after getting hooked on the game of golf playing with friends. Howard transitioned from his first career as a meat-cutter through the storied mechanics program at Lake City Community College, working at several premier Atlanta area courses over the course of his 27 year (and counting) career. Trent and Howard discuss the challenges of outdoor equipment storage, fabricating brushes for triplex mowers, and classic golf course maintenance pranks among a slew of other topics and good memories. What a pleasure to listen in on two good friends.
Transcript
Trent Manning:
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 36 today, we’re talking to Howard Horne. He’s the equipment manager at bear’s best Atlanta. Golf club. Bear’s best is a semi-private 18 hole golf course. Howard is the sole technician in his shop and has mostly Toro equipment. I go back quite a long time with Howard. I couldn’t tell you exactly when we met. And obviously I heard a Howard because what a good technician he was in our local area, when we really became friends is when I started volunteering at east lake and he was the head technician there, the equipment manager. And, we just kinda hit it off, had a lot of the same. Interests. Grew up. Similar. With a lot of the same background. And he’s a great person, so I hope you enjoy this interview. welcome Howard to the real turf tech podcast. How you doing today?
Howard Horne:
Good, man. How are you
Trent Manning:
Great. Thank you so much for coming on.
Howard Horne:
Allowed to be here?
Trent Manning:
should have had you on probably a lot sooner. Me and Howard go way back and have had a lot of fun over the years. And I appreciate you being here.
Howard Horne:
No, I appreciate you too. I mean, you’re always a person that can call for anything that I need and I hope you feel the same way.
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, tell us how you got into the turf industry,
Howard Horne:
Yeah, that goes back a while. Actually I grew up in north central, Florida just outside of Gainesville. I grew up on a medium size farm down there, you know, a couple hundred acres or so my dad actually worked for Southern bell and when I was in high school, I got a job at a grocery store across from our high school and started learning how to cut meat, you know, growing up on the farm and stuff. I never even ate a piece of meat out of the store till I was.
Trent Manning:
right? Right.
Howard Horne:
we butchered our own, we raised our own cattle. We did everything. So I started cutting meat that way. And that was actually my first career. I was a meat cutter. I went from there, cut meat at Winn-Dixie for a while. Cut meat at Publix for about 10 years and that’s actually where I kind of started getting into golf, was playing golf with some guys there. And then some guys that I grew up with at a small country club, you know, I’ll push up greens, you know, wide open fairways, you know, and just start playing, really it’s like, man, you know what I of, you know, I enjoyed playing it, you know, just got hooked. And that’s really what got me into this industry is just got hooked on the game of golf.
Trent Manning:
Well, and for the listeners, Publix is a large grocery store chain. That started in Florida and has worked his way up through the Southeast.
Howard Horne:
Yeah, kinda like Kroger, just a big grocery store
Trent Manning:
Yup.
Howard Horne:
So you know, it went from that to playing a lot of golf and then really one of the guys I played golf with, and then I went to high school with, he was actually just got into the program, the superintendents program at lake city
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Howard Horne:
know, lake city, community college, which is Florida gateway college now. And he’s like, yeah, you know, I just enrolled there, you know, going to school for this. I’m like, Hey, you know, and I was already had a full-time career, lots of married, been married for about probably four or five years then And just did a whole big career change, decided, you know what, I’m going to go do this, I liked the cutting meat. But there was a lot of politics involved in it, just like with everything else. So I decided, Okay. I’m going to go for this. So I enrolled in the role in the program and the mechanics program at lake city, community college. And back then to get accepted into that, you had to have golf course experience. Anybody just couldn’t go down there and say, oh, I want to do this. So take me into your program. No, you had to have golf course experience. You had to have like a years. I think it was almost a years or something hours worth of golf course experience. So you even get accepted into the program.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Howard Horne:
So I’m like, well, dang. Okay. Then I decided that I’ll get a part-time job at Gainesville golf and country club, small country club dirt shop. I mean, we had no Florida shop. It was in a bar.
Trent Manning:
That’s why drew remain in for maintenance.
Howard Horne:
yeah, exactly. So I get a part-time job there while I’m still working. Full-time at Publix get accepted into the program, you know, it’s a great, great learning experience there at the school, you know, was the only one at the time around that even offered anything like that back in, you know,
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Howard Horne:
back in the early nineties is when I went through there and graduated from there. And just went from there. Where I grew up at, in small town, down there, there isn’t no golf courses around that area that you’re going to work at it and make any kind of, decent living or anything. I mean, it was only one country club and that was it. So for me it was move. So it was either moved down to south Florida or move about north somewhere, you know? So I got connected with, they would connect you with some people that were looking for jobs and stuff, looking for McCain technicians and they all back, man. And I went around to a bunch of places and the interview, in Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina a lot of nice courses back then and ended up taking the job at. At that time, it was golf club of Georgia, which are built white columns. And that’s what I got put on with white columns at that time. And just went from there. To me, I think I just got really, when I was going around the interview and guys, and this is the way I look at it, when I go to the interview, I don’t look at them interviewing me, I’m interviewing them,
Trent Manning:
Yeah, that was a good way to look at it.
Howard Horne:
you know, and that’s pretty much what I did. I mean, I could’ve made more money at some of the other places or, whatever been close to home or this or that. But when I went for the interview and I’ll just talk and the guys back then Kyle Marshall and Randy Walgreen and a bunch of them guys that graduated from lake city,
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Howard Horne:
know, so they, they all knew. Kind of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to head to. And I knew that they were going to have probably had my best interests, you know, to look out for, me.
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Howard Horne:
So that’s one main reason why actually, it was fortunate enough, I think, to hookup with guys like that that just had to drop in the industry to do better and to want me to do better.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah.
Howard Horne:
And so, I just picked up the whole wife, no kid at the time and, moved up here. It was a big time culture shock for me. I’m coming from a town that still doesn’t even have a red light to this day. They just have a caution light. There is no red light in the town.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Howard Horne:
And we moved up here, Alpharetta area, just north of Atlanta and I’ve never stopped at a damn green light. In my life until I moved up here and I stopped at a green light and traffic system. And I’m like, what is going on?
Trent Manning:
Yup. Yup.
Howard Horne:
I’m stopped at a green light.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. That’s a bully. Yeah. Atlanta traffic for the listeners that don’t know, come to Atlanta and you get the joy or pain. You stop on the interstate. You stop at green lights.
Howard Horne:
Yup. Welcome to Atlanta
Trent Manning:
Yeah. It’s crazy. Well, what kind of led you to the mechanics ad?
Howard Horne:
I would say probably the, you know, I started out, I was what would start out, taking them the term part of it. You know, Growing up on the farm, I’ve worked on, know, stuff tractor’s been around welding. My dad, you know, he all, I mean, we had a bulldozer, we had tractors, you know, we had everything. So I kind of grew up working, you know, learn. And a lot of that you know, change them all and all working on my own truck that I had, you know, just that kind of stuff. So I knew I was mechanically minded. So I think that’s pretty much what led me down to the road as as like going that route. I kinda thought that I would have a lot more freedom to do what I wanted to do, as my way of doing things or something like that, and a lot more personal time,
Trent Manning:
Yeah. True. Gotcha. Well, you did good. Might a good fit for sure.
Howard Horne:
I hope had know, I consider myself really fortunate to be around, you know, the guys I’ve been around in the industry and learn who I’ve learned from. And I’m a real firm believer in, you know, if you’re, whether he’s your balls or not, you know, you’re working or at least somebody you know, your director of agronomy or your superintendent there’s a lot of things that after working with sunlight for so many you, you pick up their habits
Trent Manning:
Yup.
Howard Horne:
you can pick up good ones or you can pick up bad ones. And that’s what you got to determine is what’s good and what’s bad, what habits you want to take from them and what haven’t you don’t want to take time on. you know, that’s pretty much what I’ve done my whole you know, I’ve learned, I’ve learned a lot from a lot of guys and, you know, worked for guys that had bad habits. And I worked for guys that had really great habits it’s just that you know, knowing what to take and what not to take.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, you take all those good habits and collectively put them together. This makes you a lot better and a lot better working environment for sure.
Howard Horne:
Yep. For sure. Yep.
Trent Manning:
you work with Don landing?
Howard Horne:
No, because I actually went over there and jumped out during the tournament a little bit. I’m the idiot back then they held a nationwide tournament there at the golf club of Georgia. And then I was pretty much it, well, I called them and then I was there with call Marshall and the Crossway, you know, at the time in the shop. And I guess it was probably Early to mid nineties, I guess when Kyle decided, okay, he actually got the opportunity to go a property called bars, the gardens, a resort, 18 hole golf course. She had fancier design wanted me to go with him. So that was my first head job,
Trent Manning:
Okay. So you were just an assistant
Howard Horne:
I’ll just, I’ll just an assistant. I ended up taking the assistant job because I knew that’s where I wanted to be at
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
you know, like you’re going back to the car, being around the right kind of know, that I could have taken a head job, you know, there was plenty of them out there, but I’m like, you know what? I think this would be my best opportunity to get started off on the right foot.
Trent Manning:
Well, yeah, I think it was a really smart move and for the listeners, I’ll do think that’s great advice. If you’re single or maybe you’re married, but you don’t have kids and you’re in the position, it might not be a bad idea to take an assistant job at a really good location where you can learn the ropes from a senior guy and fill things out. And even if it’s just a location, you know, if you’re happy with that area, you know, by and everything.
Howard Horne:
that that was one thing here, you know, I love coming from You know, We didn’t have any change of seasons or nothing like that. So moving up here to you know, and having a fall and having a spring and having a summer and, you know, in Florida, it’s just frigging hot. That’s All it is. You know, January through freaking December is
Trent Manning:
Yup. Yup.
Howard Horne:
it’s hot, it’s hotter. And then it’s freaking
Trent Manning:
Yeah. I got you. That was funny.
Howard Horne:
you know, So then I went, you know, I started at barns, the you know, went through the whole construction thing there. And that was a really good experience learned experience there as as, you know, going through construction of a golf course and a construction of a resort, you know, with all the cabins being built there and everything. I learned a lot as far as construction side you know, there yeah. and I was there from day you know, the first day they started knocking down trees. I was one of the first guys that, you know, he hired
Trent Manning:
That’s awesome though.
Howard Horne:
so I was right on property, right from the get go You
Trent Manning:
you could ride around and shoot deer and
Howard Horne:
oh my gosh. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
God
Howard Horne:
Cause I mean, I don’t know if any of the listeners know, but that place is located up in the middle of. I mean, especially back then. And that you know, in Arizona, it’s it’s out in the middle of nowhere. I mean there’s no homes till this day built around that course, neither. So there was no homes around and it’s not in a subdivision, there’s no subdivision around it. really, It’s still special to me. I mean, that place is just, it always be my home course to me. I mean, because that’s where I cut my teeth you know, I was there for almost 10 years, you know, so from you know, I ended up being the wife, we just had our son back then and kind of wanted to go back to Florida a little bit you looked at some courses down there and black diamond was an opportunity that came up. So John Cunningham was the superintendent there. And our director of golf and then Carlos Araya superintendent. So I went down there and interviewed with John and ended up going down there and staying down there for probably about four years, five years, maybe.
Trent Manning:
Several guys working for you in
Howard Horne:
yeah, and that was a big operation, 54 holes, know, mills top 100 golf you know, That was a big on taken for me coming from an 18 you know, facility, and I only like the most guys that have it in the shop at Barnes Sigma been like two guys at a time, So going down there, Yeah. we had had six guys not including myself.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Howard Horne:
know, so, you know, it was a well run, you know, Old I mean, if that’s one thing I could take from John Cunningham is that he’s probably the most organized person I think I’ve ever seen. As far as, I you know, having stuff laid out, I mean, it was so crazy. Him and Carlos could literally took vacation. I could have ran the whole show by myself because everything is documented. Everything was laid out what to do when to do it. I mean everything.
Trent Manning:
Wow. That’s awesome.
Howard Horne:
and that’s one thing I did you know, from him, you know, a lot about was the organization and no CYA cover your know, document you, you want people to do it. Right. You know, write a, in a documentation, you know? I mean, I had written guys for how he goes to check reels. I mean, it was step by step, you know how to do. So that you know, I could have responsibility, you know, I had two guys that did Nelson, but ground rules, 40 hours a week. I mean,
Trent Manning:
There’s a lot of ground. And then you got to have another guy replacing reels 20 hours a week.
Howard Horne:
yeah, I mean, that’s all, that’s all they did had, We were fortunate enough to you know, both Foleys near the bed knocked around or in the real grind or an, you know, express anger angle master. So we you know, which to me, I think is like the perfect try them, threw them up on the foliage and you can spin around them on express still. So that’s kinda what we did is we would, you know, had a system where all the rules were numbered and sets. So when a set went out, we, we put a check mark by like, in this book. So after a set went out so many times, like it was like three or four times, then that time we would spin them, you know, are not spin the put them the Foley. And then after the next, so times then would, you know, in between that would be spinning them on express dual, but then we’d put them back and throw you know, in the Foley, know, having that worked out like that. But John knows that know cause John, and to hit, you know, he wanted to know that he was getting a good quality of cut all the
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Howard Horne:
So a set of reels would only go out X amount of times before they got changed. No matter what,
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
you know. Yeah. They could have kept going maybe another three or four times. Yeah. If he went over he always knew he had a fresh cut, no matter what I mean by doing it this way, he always knew that everything was good, you know, he always had a good quality of cut. so he left from there and went up north and and I stayed there for probably not much longer, maybe another six months maybe, and ended up taking the head job at golf club of Georgia, where I started out at, you know, I just did a full circle. So I ended up moving back up here, Georgia, and he worked at a golf club at Georgia Randy Waldron. know, From there, I stayed there a good nine, 10 years there. And you know, a lot of stuff went down there with a membership and everything you know, had looked for something different and ended up knew the guy at east lake David Flowers, you know him,
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah,
Howard Horne:
he called me up. He knew what I was going through at golf, the majority of what the company was going through and everything. And he’s like, Hey, you know, I’m going to be leaving. I was wondering if you’d be interested. you know, And I’m thinking, well, that’s one of the places that I love, you
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Howard Horne:
So I’m like, well, yeah. so went down there. I mean, I’ll pretty much a shoe in, I you know, talk to Ralph, Ralph interviewed and ended up getting the job. Stayed there for three years, you know? you know, And finally you finally just got it really got to me as far as, you know, cause I live 65 miles north of there
Trent Manning:
Lana
Howard Horne:
know, and having the drive through a lane of traffic. and you know, it, wasn’t going to move the family down you know, any closer. you know, I didn’t like living in Atlanta.
Trent Manning:
Boy grew up on a farm. You want to be
Howard Horne:
yeah, exactly.
Trent Manning:
outside the perimeter,
Howard Horne:
Yeah. So, yeah, so I mean I can look out my window right now and there’s deer in my yard.
Trent Manning:
right. That’ll happen now that he’s like, do you ever see a deer at he’s? Like the whole time you were there,
Howard Horne:
maybe if he’s got a Bulletproof vest
Trent Manning:
right? Yeah, exactly.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. So I ended up staying there learn a lot, you know, there, as far you know, the terminal you know, what it all takes to run a know, championship, you know, like you know, And it’s a people people really don’t know, especially people out of the golf course business and probably a lot of people in the golf course business don’t really know what it’s like to put something on like that every single year,
Trent Manning:
Oh, Yeah,
Howard Horne:
know, it’s not like hosts, you know, slot, not like some forces host tournament. Maybe once every five years now you gotta put, you gotta do this every single year,
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
you know? And it’s a lot of work. But I mean Ralph and them’s credit. I mean, they got it They they know what to do. They’ve been doing it for a long time. He’s been doing it forever. And they they’ve got it down, pat,
Trent Manning:
yeah. Was another weldable machine for having
Howard Horne:
oh yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning:
the stuff that you end up doing. I remember some of my first year I volunteered down there was with David Flowers and we get in, you know, a John Deere, one of the little Gators, and it’s got a 55 gallon drum in the back and I’m like, well, what are you doing with this 55 gallon drum? And he says, diesel fuel. He said, come on, we’re going to go fill the reefer trucks up. I’m like, what? That’s mechanic work? Fill it out. The refrigerator trucks, the clubhouse. Yeah, it is. And so when I was there this year Chris, I said, he’s still filling the trucks up. Oh yeah. Yup. Fill the trucks up, but I need to fill them out tomorrow. So it was just one of those crazy things that, you know, you wouldn’t expect that the golf course mechanic or technician is filling the refrigerator truck.
Howard Horne:
Fill in that refrigerator, truck, hooking up water meters on fire hydrants. I know you pray. I think
Trent Manning:
Yeah, I was there. I know one time when y’all were doing that.
Howard Horne:
first, the first time you came down here and volunteered the very first job I gave you, do you
Trent Manning:
Nope. I’m not remembering.
Howard Horne:
I was kind of embarrassed to ask you. Remember I had you put on a toilet seat.
Trent Manning:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah, we do it all. Whatever it takes. Yeah. No, I definitely remember that now. Yeah. Cause I was like, what do you need help with? And he’s like, ah, I don’t really want to tell you this, but we need to put on this tall. It’s like, I’m not too good for anything. I don’t care. That was a really good one.
Howard Horne:
So, after I left there, I came to where I’m at now, I’m at bear’s best, which is a club small, 18 holes. Semi-private just myself, by myself in the shop. So I don’t have to worry about anybody screwing up anything, but me, I just hollered myself and reprimand myself. I really like it here where I’m at You know, I get to work pretty much my own schedule, you know? It was time for, I kind of really wanted to downsize, slow down the pace. You and this gave me the opportunity to do it. And plus it’s close to home and only takes me 20 minutes to get to
Trent Manning:
Yeah. That was an ASP.
Howard Horne:
I mean, that was a, that’s a real big plus there,
Trent Manning:
I haven’t been able to set your schedule and.
Howard Horne:
yeah.
Trent Manning:
through Thursday and then like half a day, Friday or
Howard Horne:
Yup, Yup, Half day on Friday and I don’t work any weekends. You hear a lot about, all of the management groups and everything, but it just depends on what course you’re at. You know, and club court does a good job of maintaining their courses and their equipment. I mean, like I’ve got a decent budget work with, we get pieces of new equipment every year. I mean the one thing I really liked about my shop now is I’ve got an air conditioned Grindr.
Trent Manning:
oh yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. Which we need down here, even though we have four seasons, we still
Howard Horne:
It still gets
Trent Manning:
Yeah. That’s
Howard Horne:
definitely.
Trent Manning:
Kind of walk us through your daily shot routine during the busy season.
Howard Horne:
The guys usually come in, it all depends on the tee. Tom start anywhere from five 30 to six. I usually get there 45 minutes to an hour before they do. So I’ll go around and, unlock, the gates and stuff. And turn on all the lights just go, make sure nothing, I got a flat tires or nothing like that. I mean, we really don’t have a lot of equipment. And we don’t have a lot what’s set for us if we don’t have a lot of storage space, a lot of our stuff is stored outside. No, most of our mowers and sprayers stuff restored inside, but then everything else is pretty much outside. All our, people, mover, carts, all that. So utility vehicles, all that stuff is outside of the weather. So that’s really, struggle there to keep that stuff, you know, in decent shape. But Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty much what I do is go around and check everything now, before they get there if there’s any kind of parts ordered and then I need to do, or that kind of stuff, I usually try to do that first thing in the morning like that when I got, nobody bothering me or anything And then I kinda like, go through my head, you know, what I’m looking at doing for the day, what’s new, what’s my test for a day that I’ve got lined up. And then I just pass that along to my system. Can you usually sit in every corner drinking coffee?
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah, yeah. If y’all don’t know Howard likes to joke and have a good time. When he first game on tonight for this interview, he’s wearing a t-shirt and it. That he was looking sharp and his tie. So hopefully when we get down to the, the questions, the like strangest things at work, I want to hear about some of your pranks. You used to play on
Howard Horne:
Oh my goodness.
Trent Manning:
The relief ground.
Howard Horne:
Yes I do on my fairway That’s the only thing I do really frowned on is the fairway units only do it in the winter time, you know, so I put the 90% relief on there during the winter time. Now I’ll spin them in the summertime. Cause I really don’t have the downtime to go back and cut relief volunteer in the summer. But just me by myself. So, so I usually do a lot of relief in the But yeah. I never used to be a firm believer in relief at all. Yeah, because back in the day when I was coming up in the Gaza, I learned underneath, I mean, we all used to express dupes, not as it, you know, that was the Michigan and express duel. You flat ground, you cut with no contact and then you go on about your business. Yeah, there, wasn’t no relief around there. Wasn’t there laughing from the guys I learned from at all. And then over the years, like I say, you learn, you know, you just, over the years that you’re in the business, you learn what works and what’s good for you and your situation at your
Trent Manning:
right? Yep. You found out what works.
Howard Horne:
yeah, exactly. I mean, cause it ain’t the same, all the courses I’ve been at, it’s all different. Like down at black diamond, I mean, I didn’t have to, we didn’t laugh or didn’t do anything. I mean, God, I had guys around the rules all the
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right.
Howard Horne:
I’m not against laughing well know because I do it myself, you know, on some fairway units You know, that’s cause I couldn’t relief on them so I can laugh.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
That’s pretty much what I do as far as Brian
Trent Manning:
tell me about I remember a conversation we had, and it has been several years ago, but, and I think it was when you were at black diamond and you were talking about your triplexes and one real would wear more than another reel. And then you ended up rotating the reels on your trap legs to try to keep them all similar. You tell me about that again.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. So we did try Plex, you know, greens a We walk modem a lot too. So down there, what I would usually do is rotate those cause on a triplex, your center real is always just cutting this, in the
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Howard Horne:
So what we would do is we we rotate them around. So you’re wearing. That real down more evenly, and then we would also what we would do again, of course we’d have them as set. So every set is, numbered as a S you know, there are a set. So we would just make sure that they were all the same, the same diameter from set set set.
Trent Manning:
And I got ya.
Howard Horne:
But as far as that, where, the real more evenly, that’s kind of what we would do is we would rotate them, the middle real to the right front or to the, just clockwise, rotate them
Trent Manning:
I got you.
Howard Horne:
and keep them more even plus, I mean, doing a lot of top dress and stuff like that, Vertica and, you know, all that kind of I It just wears them more even than it keeps your quality code a lot more, better, a lot better.
Trent Manning:
That’s awesome. I just found that interesting. When you were telling me that story and something I’d never even really thought about, but we don’t try play screens either, so,
Howard Horne:
Yeah, and I, we do, we do where we’re at We did a lot this summer just because of help. You know, not being able to get help. I mean, we have, we got tour at 1000 walk mowers and we two Toro is That we’ve met with, that were in the greens with, but here lately we’ve been mainly triplex. And so, pretty much kind of viewed the same thing there too.
Trent Manning:
Tell us something you’ve fabricated lately.
Howard Horne:
I would say that would probably be the brush Vermont TriFlex units. My green is more units. I did. Big brush out front and brush just all the way across, not three separate brushes. I think I did post pictures of that on Twitter. I
Trent Manning:
Yeah, I think I remember that.
Howard Horne:
think I So that’s pretty much, you know, a fabricated that and I kind of had the idea from, I mean, this idea was from years ago from Don landing. I mean, I remember seeing this, like this is in the nineties. And so it’s the little ball joints that. Torah uses on their triplexes, to hook the, the big front
Trent Manning:
Yup.
Howard Horne:
up. So basically I use them and their studs to make this framework out of, for the brush. And that’s how I made the brushes down at east lake too, on there on the John Deere’s is I use the same, the same, Yeah. So I made all of them down there that they’re still using down And that’s pretty much how it did this, I kind of used that. same thought,
Trent Manning:
Gotcha. How does it raise up and down?
Howard Horne:
Same way on the buckets on the front of the triplex. It’s just got two little hooks you hook on there. So when the real lifts up, it lifts the bucket up and lifts the brush up at the same time. And then it flips up for transport. So like you can unhook it from the buckets and flip it all the way up against the front of the triplex and hook it For when they’re going from green to green, drop them around. So that way Dan out in front of the machine, It works really good.
Trent Manning:
you also do the cup cutter setter gauge.
Howard Horne:
Yes.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. I don’t know what exactly what you would call that we’ll have
Howard Horne:
So yeah, that was like, after the first year I was down there, I don’t even know if they made one, then I know they do now. I’m not sure if they made one back then or not,
Trent Manning:
think they did because when I saw yours, I said, I’m making one of those. As soon as I get back.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. So, pretty much for, tournaments and stuff, the cups are set to a different dip. And plus it depends on, if they’re standing on a mat or something, which I do when they’re coating cups, I’ll be staying on, on a mat. So you got to add in the thickness of the mat, everything. And then you have a check cut, cut, or debt every single day, you sharpen it, you shut it up every single day.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
So to make that easier and quicker, I made this joke. Flat piece of stock on the bottom square flat piece of stock on the bottom, and then threaded rod on all four corners coming up flat piece of stock on the top, and then a torched, a hole in the center of it. So that way your cup coder could fit down in there. You could adjust it to the debt you wanted for that outer sleeve. And if you’re, you know, if your cup cutter shale, wasn’t touching the bottom, then you knew you weren’t
Trent Manning:
right. Right,
Howard Horne:
So then you would adjust your outer sleep.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. No, it was super slick idea.
Howard Horne:
So it was just a lot simpler and a lot faster instead of using a measuring tape, trying to it around it.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. And especially when you’re during tournament and your sharpen, it had every day and
Howard Horne:
yeah.
Trent Manning:
to measure every day in four points and yeah. If to got a time for that, when you get ready for trailers to be filling up with diesel field,
Howard Horne:
exactly. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
What’s your favorite tool and why?
Howard Horne:
Oh, my gosh, man. Yeah. I thought about this question and you know, I don’t know. I mean, I would say probably anything freaking cordless.
Trent Manning:
Yes. Yeah. The days of pulling an air hose are over just about,
Howard Horne:
Yes.
Trent Manning:
put air in a tire.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. I mean, that’s like Eric Dunkin, you know, I’ll see his little ratchet, Milwaukee ratchet, little videos he put
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah,
Howard Horne:
that he puts out every once in a while on Twitter and I’m like, Yeah, that’s me. I mean, I’m, you know, I’m a firm believer in cordless. Yeah, And I would have, yeah, I would say Milwaukee cordless impact is probably my, like, that’s my go-to for everything.
Trent Manning:
yeah. Yup.
Howard Horne:
I mean, I’ve got a relationship with it.
Trent Manning:
Up close and
Howard Horne:
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
You like best about your job?
Howard Horne:
I would say, I mean, it’s not as much now, but what I’ve done in the past the training, guys underneath me and teaching guys new things and just seeing their face of when they actually get it You know, and just the joy of watching somebody be like, oh my, I figured it out.
Trent Manning:
right.
Howard Horne:
like, actually going through the steps of fixing something and, I mean, to me, that’s, that’s my joy that I get out of it, it’s just, teaching people stuff and, just training the guys that worked underneath me and seeing them go on and a lot of make careers out. that’s really, that’s really the joy of me.
Trent Manning:
A Williams. Got a big tournament going on right now this week.
Howard Horne:
a little darker sent me a text today. He’s like, you got to watch us on the golf
Trent Manning:
Yep.
Howard Horne:
so flipped over there, because he, I want to go out there. He keeps egging me to come out there and see him and stuff. And I mean, that’s a property. It looks amazing. And it’s a huge facility. I mean that the stuff that he does out there, what they go through out there on a daily basis is it’s, it’s crazy. The amount of equipment they have is just insane.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah.
Howard Horne:
yeah, man, you know, just guys like that, Fuck him, going on and doing something his greatest, what he’s done with his career, I mean, that’s that to me, and I’m sure. it’s the same way with you. I mean, you get satisfaction, same way, seeing these guys come out of your shop and go on with their career and, stuff like that,
Trent Manning:
Like one Charlie left and then he went and worked over there with Corey for a couple years. And then they took the job at Hawks Ridge and for the listeners Hawks Ridge. I think they’re ranked six or seventh in the state of Georgia and some really high end nice operation. And the course I’m at, I think we got dang for some reason, there’s a new club opened up for some, and we felt the 11th this year, which I’m not happy about, but we’re easily, 10, 9, 10, we stay
Howard Horne:
Y’all didn’t the gas state dinner and you only took him out for pancakes.
Trent Manning:
that’s right. That’s exactly what happened. But for Charlie to get that job at that NASA golf course,
Howard Horne:
Oh
Trent Manning:
happy for him. I mean, yeah, it makes me proud. He’s like one of my kids or something and he’s, I don’t know, almost 10 years older than me, but a lovely guy. And he does a great job up there.
Howard Horne:
yeah. He’s a good guy. Really good guy.
Trent Manning:
Well, tell me a funny story, a prank or something that y’all did back in the.
Howard Horne:
Oh my So when will, which is who we’re just talking about that.
Trent Manning:
So we’re talking about William Watson wheel
Howard Horne:
Yeah. Well Watson
Trent Manning:
clubs yet it’s in
Howard Horne:
the Ellucian Ellucian
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Howard Horne:
out in Arkansas. There. Yeah, there it’s on the golf channel. I think this week one of the collegiate tournaments. So yeah, he worked with me at golf club at Georgia him and another guy, and then Travis, Travis thingy, I don’t know if you
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah
Howard Horne:
But all my gosh, we used to be pranksters all the time. So everybody loves, the anti-seize, you gotta love and he sees, I mean, it’s just amazing stuff. I not only does it make stuff come off easy, but it dang sure don’t come up to you.
Trent Manning:
Right, right.
Howard Horne:
So, so at the time there was an assistant superintendent there. I won’t say his name. But we were like putting NDCs we’re we’re only any CS prank that time we would put it on the doors outside to get the salesmen when they come in. So anyway, he comes in there and we had put Amy sees So it goes over there and grabs the door and he has it on his hands. He doesn’t realize, so he grabs his apple and he gets it all over his apple. Now he’s already stressed out because we’ve been working like 70 hours a week, you know, as always back then. And, you know so he just starts cutting his cousin rant and rave were laughing. So they, well, I didn’t know this, but will it put any seeds up in the napkin holder thing? So we’re there to wash his hands and wash the ABC’s office. Apple grabs the paper towel and it’s got any C’s on it. He’s wiping NDCs all back over his apple and his hands. Literally the same. We were ducking the apple band throne.
Trent Manning:
Slowly.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. it was always something back then, as far as like doing that and air fresheners. I remember Tom, we had air fresheners, you had little spritz things, you hang on the wall. So the guys decided to bring in some, some like Bates spray
Trent Manning:
Oh, okay.
Howard Horne:
spray on your worms and stuff, you don’t smell the
Trent Manning:
No, no, no. It’s thanks. Yes,
Howard Horne:
and put it in the assistance office and their little air freshener thing.
Trent Manning:
that was a
Howard Horne:
And they come out there and asked us if we could go in there and search for a dead rat
Trent Manning:
Yeah, Yeah,
Howard Horne:
was something dead in there. And it was the air freshener thing. yeah.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. I’ve saran wrap gas vehicles, you know, with the wrapping saran wrap that you’d read pallet. So if I’ve done the whole entire vehicle.
Trent Manning:
It’s a good one. I remember Travis tell me so we had a salesman. He was a lubrication specialist, I guess you would say, and I’m not gonna mention his name. And I don’t, honestly, I don’t know if he’s still living, so I don’t want to talk too bad, but every time I would see him pull in the parking lot, I would take off and run. Yeah. And well, and this is why the story’s getting you. So it’s the same guy that, so Howard’s assistant Travis is telling me this story and I’d brought this guy’s name up. You know, how I always would run from us shop. And Travis was down. They used to run from your shop. Yeah, whenever you’re you show up. And I think, you know, there’s a lot of us that would, and, but anyway, Travis was saying that he told him, said, no, just stay right here. He’ll while. And yeah. Thank you. Just stay until you got back. had to deal with it.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. I’d come back like 45 minutes later and he’s still there now just see Travis and wheel over there, snickering, like I’m like,
Trent Manning:
yeah, those fully
Howard Horne:
And then I used to have like, in my office, there was a window there looking out into the shop. So I’d be in there know, and all of these places hire these good looking women a lot of times to be their salesman. It’s part of it. So there was this one lady. I can’t remember what company she worked for, but yeah, she should have worked for a model agency or something because she was really nice looking. So anyway, I’m sitting, she’s sitting in my office facing me and I’m looking out the window and I’m trying to hold a conversation with her while we’ll and Travis is back there doing all kinds of profanity sign signs and everything. And I am trying not to like, just,
Trent Manning:
yeah. Lose it. Yeah. Try to be professional.
Howard Horne:
So, yeah, we used to do crazy stuff all the time, but that
Trent Manning:
of fun for sure.
Howard Horne:
yeah, we did it made the day go by
Trent Manning:
What’s one of your pet peeves around the shop around the house.
Howard Horne:
I would say probably my biggest pet peeve was, when I had any, when I had guys at work with me in the shop was just show up on time, I mean, literally I would hire, I would hire guys And, I’ve actually let guys go for not showing up on top. And I’d actually want to have her, somebody that’d be like, 90% of the battle of me is just to be here on top,
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
you know? Cause if that’s one thing I learned from my dad growing up was. if you’re going to do anything, you need to be all the time, you know? And it’s
Trent Manning:
is, what is really on time? May D
Howard Horne:
10 minutes before time.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Howard Horne:
My wife goes crazy about that because literally, like, I will be early for everything. She’s like, we’re 20 minutes early.
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Howard Horne:
I’m like, well, I don’t want to be
Trent Manning:
right. Yeah.
Howard Horne:
That’s probably my biggest pet peeve is just, being on time, I mean, I can, I can let go of a lot of stuff as long as you’re on top,
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Well, and that, isn’t the way you want to start your day off. Rolling in five minutes, late 10 minutes later, you know, whatever time it is.
Howard Horne:
And it’s not, and especially cause a lot at some big courses and a lot of other places, I mean, it can put strain on, the guy that’s in the shop if he’s only, got one assistant or two assistants and one of them is. late, he’s already got his day plan now, you know what they’re supposed to be checking superintendent just came up to him and said, Hey, we need this, hooked up to the track,
Trent Manning:
Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause that crap happened all the time. Yeah. We need four implements hooked up this morning and you didn’t know this yesterday afternoon. Now we just made a decision this morning. We need all this
Howard Horne:
You just hooked up the blower yesterday cause they needed it and now they need the freaking top dresser or spread or hook on the back of it. Yeah. So I mean and that’s always aggravated me is when somebody showed up like, for work.
Trent Manning:
What would be your dream job or opportunity? Are you there?
Howard Horne:
I thought about that question too, I was like, you know what? Yeah, I would say probably my dream job probably would have been what I kinda originally started out to do when I was young. I was going to be a game board,
Trent Manning:
Okay. Yeah.
Howard Horne:
Growing up in the country, did a lot of hunting, grew up hunting, fishing, shooting, everything, probably one of the reasons why I didn’t is, I had a good job. The pay was horrible for gaming world, starting out back then. And you had to go down to the Everglades and work in the Everglades, But yeah, I would probably say. Yeah, I’m just always salt down. I mean, you get to ride around in the woods.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah. Right.
Howard Horne:
I get to go check, check on people’s boats like you out there. Efficient.
Trent Manning:
Well, yeah, you get to check my fishing license while there is a pond team with 30 people on it and they’re all drunk and you’re going to check my fishing license because you’re worried about my $9 fishing license. And now these drugs, I mean, we, we could go on and on, but man, the fishing community, we get all fired up at the game ordinance sometimes on while they’re singling us out. And you got all these yahoos out there doing whatever they want to do. And they’re worried about a $9 fishing license drives us crazy.
Howard Horne:
For sure.
Trent Manning:
What do you know now that you wish you’d known on day one,
Howard Horne:
As far as career or life in general.
Trent Manning:
Either or, or both?
Howard Horne:
Oh my gosh. Yeah. let’s say far as career, I guess I would have paid more attention to like the safety aspect of it, as far as you’re hearing,
Trent Manning:
Yeah,
Howard Horne:
like where are your protection? You it was back in the day. I mean, I didn’t want her protection. I mean, you know, I’m, in working, doing impact tools, air tools and all that stuff and hot pitch noises, I mean that, it comes back to haunt you. I can tell you That for sure.
Trent Manning:
Was one thing I noticed, helping y’all at east lake and blowing paper out of rails. That’s so loud.
Howard Horne:
Yes. Yes. And yeah, and that’s why I have, I mean, I’ve got tinnitus at a year, And so I hear that ring in like 24 7, and that’s what it’s from. And, it was just from all over the years of them pockets noises, and it’s really not so much of the grinding. I wouldn’t say it’s, more, a lot of the higher pitched noises is what they tend to, say that it comes from a lot of maybe that’s from, who knows. I mean, I shot good Lord. I used to go hunt and shoot and go like all the time. I mean, you don’t wear your plugs shooting dope cause you’re hollering each other across the field.
Trent Manning:
right. Yeah.
Howard Horne:
So Yeah.
Trent Manning:
that’s a good one. Yep. Safety first.
Howard Horne:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
your ears. Protect your eyes.
Howard Horne:
I mean, heck my son, You know, he Actually, you know, he’s a mechanic at the Dodge, Dodge, Jeep dealership. So he came home the other day. He had stitches in his nose. I’m like, well, what the heck happened? You showed me a safety glasses, safety glasses cracked in half.
Trent Manning:
wow.
Howard Horne:
So basically luckily he didn’t have on safety glasses. He had a vehicle up in the air. He’s working with a 90 degree cutoff wheel And it unspun off of came loose out of the Chuck and happened to fly back and hit him right on the nose, right between yours and put four stitches right across the top of his nose.
Trent Manning:
Wow. Yeah. Good, good on him for wearing his safety glasses. And that’s the thing. I mean, we’ve done this a hundred times and not had an accident, but all it takes is that one time for something
Howard Horne:
all it takes. Yup. That’s all it takes. Yup.
Trent Manning:
what are some of the latest tips and tricks you want to share with us?
Howard Horne:
I think I put this on Twitter too, about the fuel caps. Everybody hates people putting diesel and gas and gas and diesel. So I ended up in the Toro actually used to have colored caps that you could get on the stove. Back in the day, they had green caps that were meant for diesel and red caps that were meant for gas. You don’t see that anymore. So I ended up, I’ve got a green handle on our diesel tank and then I ended up painting all of our diesel cats, green. I mean, it was not like we got a big crew.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, yeah,
Howard Horne:
But they do make mistakes. So I mean, to me that’s just another, way of maybe deterring them, when they see it and they’re like, oh, well, shoot, that you, that green goes with this green or, and they get the black handle and they’re like, oh, this has got a great path.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah
Howard Horne:
So probably like that. And I think me and you talked about this this year down at east, like we were down there as far as like Groton and reels and stuff on the Foley and, you know, try and get everything either precise on it. I actually mark, cause I’ve got the old six 30 Foley that you got to measure off each end of the reel with. So what I do is I’ve put, I’ll put it in mark at each end of that real on the real shit. So that way I’m grounding off the same exact spot every single time.
Trent Manning:
Do you pick the spot, do you find a high and a low and get in the middle? Or how do you
Howard Horne:
of do but you know what, on the Midge, the edge series reels where that’s machine that on there, they’re fun. They’re really good. I mean, cause I’ve done that, check that? in there only you ain’t gonna find, I haven’t found one yet. That’s been more than 2000,
Trent Manning:
Okay. Yeah.
Howard Horne:
So what I’ll do, I, you know, I’ll just make sure that I’m grinding on that same spot every single so that way I’m either to me, I mean, it’s just, to me, it just makes me feel better. I mean, I know that I’m, doing it that way on that same spot, every single time that I’m
Trent Manning:
yeah, when I’ve fought with it and I’ve seen other guys fight with it too, where if especially the 14 bladed rails, cause it’s kind of aggravating to get that gauge up in there and you check the left side and then you turn it the check, the right side, and then you go back to the left side and you turn it again. And then, you know, before you know, it it’s just all over the place. That’s tried to teach my guys from day. One is try to at least don’t turn the real, but I was not doing like you’re doing with the mark. So now all our rails have marked.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. It’s just that consistency thing As far as new with anything, it’s about consistency,
Trent Manning:
well in anything that we’re doing repetition like that over and over and over again, if we can do anything to make it a little bit easier, that’s a better on us, especially mentally.
Howard Horne:
Yeah, definitely.
Trent Manning:
You got anything else you want to share with us?
Howard Horne:
I mean, not, yeah, not really. I mean, I would just say you to some, guys, it’s, just starting out in this field it’s a good field, it’s a good career. I’ve made a good living at Met a lot of good people. And I think there’s, to me, you know, I think our community wise, as far as technicians and golf courses is we have a really tight community. As far as what I’ve seen, over the don’t be afraid to call them a buddy.
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Howard Horne:
I mean, heck I’ll still pick up the phone and call whoever. I don’t care that, I’m not scared. I’m not too good to call somebody that’s for sure. And just stay humble, to me, I mean, that’s, I mean, that’s my thing. I don’t think I’ve ever really been on an asshole. I just try to be respectful and humble to everybody no matter what, no matter who you are, you, I’m going to treat you with respect and I’m going to be humbled,
Trent Manning:
yeah. Well, I know I’ve definitely been an asshole and I’m still an asshole today, but I do try to be respectful and I do try to be humble. I’m not better than anybody.
Howard Horne:
exactly. Yup. Yup. Yeah. And If, you stay that way and keep an open mind like that, you’ll learn a lot and you’ll go a long ways in your career, you
Trent Manning:
Yeah. if if you think you know it all, you better find something else to do
Howard Horne:
yeah.
Trent Manning:
because, so how long have you been doing this? Okay. Have you got it all figured out?
Howard Horne:
No not even close.
Trent Manning:
I know it’s, I mean, we learn something new every day and I think, you know, when we talk about one of the nice things about this job or this industry is learning something new all the time. Right now I’m tearing apart Kubota tier
Howard Horne:
yeah. Seeing
Trent Manning:
Yeah, out of a skid-steer and I’ve never, you know, changed quite a few engines, rebuilt quite a few engines, but I’ve never messed with a tier four, like this.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. And when you were talking, like when we were talking back about like getting started in this business and stuff, I mean, the way my mind works, I’ve always been this way too. Is nothing, a lot of technicians are this way. When I look at something, I’ll look at it. Like I’m looking at it through x-ray glasses. It’s crazy. My mind thinks that way, like when I see something working or running it’s like a see in an x-ray.
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Howard Horne:
Like I’m looking at the internals of it instead of the exterior of it.
Trent Manning:
brown. Now I know exactly what you’re talking about. Cause I’ll look at something and I’ll say, okay, this connects to that connects to that. And it turns this and that does this.
Howard Horne:
Yeah. So, Yeah, I mean, luckily I’ve been fortunate, as far as like, you know, partnership as far as like having a wife, I mean, good God, luckily my wife is stuck, we’ve gone, we’ve done a lot. She’s been behind me 110%, and I’ve been really fortunate that way.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, no. And I mean, I’ve met your wife and she’s great. She had to come in here and
Howard Horne:
Yeah. She
Trent Manning:
stuff to, to, get, get us talking today.
Howard Horne:
To strike me out,
Trent Manning:
That’s first year she keeps you straight.
Howard Horne:
If anybody ever has any questions about anything at all, I mean, definitely reach out and ask me, I’ll be willing to help out anybody. Sorry.
Trent Manning:
the listeners how they can get ahold of you. What’s your Twitter handle? Do you know?
Howard Horne:
It is H horn tick. So H H O R N E T E C
Trent Manning:
All right, you got it right there. H horn tech
Howard Horne:
So,
Trent Manning:
on Twitter. Thank you, Howard. It’s been a lot of fun. I always enjoy talking to you. And I was actually telling Kelly about this today. That I’m not a good friend, because you normally call me instead of me calling you and don’t be wrong for the listeners. Howard’s not calling to ask questions. He’s just calling to chit chat and I need to do better about calling and saying how you doing and that kind of stuff. But I want to say thank you for keeping the door open and always calling me and checking on me, seeing how I’m doing and, and all that stuff. You’ve been a good friend over the years, and I appreciate your friendship.
Howard Horne:
now we’re going to have to get out to the range.
Trent Manning:
Now we’ve got to go to the gun range and burn some powder. All right. Thank you. We’ll talk to you soon.
Howard Horne:
All right, man. Appreciate it.
Trent Manning:
hope you enjoyed hearing from Howard. I was a lot of fun for both of us. I think. what a great guy. And what a really good friend. And if you got a friend that you don’t talk to, as much as you should. Just pick up the phone. We all could probably do a better job about that and reaching out to. People around us that, we enjoy talking to. And bill next time. So, yeah. thank you so much for listening to the real 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 real turf techs.
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.