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Chris Lewis, equipment manager at East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, GA got his start at the golf course in the cart barn. It didn’t escape the superintendent’s notice when Chris got a messed-up ball picker working, and the rest is history. This former motorcycle mechanic hopes to pass on his love of dirt bikes to his two young daughters. Go behind the scenes with us and get all the details on the wrenching side of hosting the TOUR Championship. Interested in volunteering? Email Chris at clewis@eastlakegolfclub.com.

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 real turf text podcast, episode 41. Today, we’re talking to Chris Lewis. He’s the equipment manager at east lake golf club in Atlanta, Georgia. East lake is the home of legendary golfer, Bobby Jones, and one of the oldest courses in the city of Atlanta. Since 2005 east lake has been the prominent home. Of the tour championship. Chris has one assistant working with him in the shop. And a bunch of volunteers, Darren tournament time. And we’ll dive into that. Let’s talk to Chris. Welcome Chris to the real turf tax podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Chris Lewis: 
Well, I was a motorcycle mechanic for about eight years. And when the economy went to crap in oh eight and stuff, it’s kind of a luxury item and people really weren’t getting stuff worked on We sold out to a corporation and I became a number and really wasn’t happy. You know, I was younger, so I didn’t get as much work as the older guys. Okay. Game on to another mom and pop dealership and they ended up going under and I was on unemployment for a couple of months and got a job at a local golf course. Then the cart barn, just given carts to guys and. Started was the ball picker messed up and I started working on it and superintendent noticed I got it on. I was like, Hey, you don’t want a job in the shop. And I became an assistant. I worked at that was crystal lake and McDonna.

Trent Manning: 
okay.

Chris Lewis: 
Six months and then they moved me over to Eagle’s broke down and locust Grove. And I worked there for another, probably six months and it was private owned and ended up going under. And

Trent Manning: 
You’ve had bad library that.

Chris Lewis: 
had just had a golf lift and installed that. I got through Greenville. And when I. Put it together. The reservoir had a hole in it. So Terry came down to do a warranty claim and the superintendent there was like, Hey, you might need to ask him if he knows anywhere hiring. And that’s when he introduced me to David and I came up here to east lake to do an interview. And David hired me, never even heard of east lake. When I came, I didn’t know anything about it, not a golfer,

Trent Manning: 
right,

Chris Lewis: 
a. That’s kind of how I ended up at east lake.

Trent Manning: 
That’s awesome. So Terry Criswell,

Chris Lewis: 
Yes.

Trent Manning: 
Okay. That’s awesome. Such a small world. How long had David been there when you started?

Chris Lewis: 
Year and a half to maybe not very long,

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah. I was thinking he probably hadn’t been there that long.

Chris Lewis: 
maybe a year.

Trent Manning: 
That’s awesome. We’ll kind of walk us through your daily shot routine.

Chris Lewis: 
I get here about five 30 and of course I check the boards and make sure they ain’t changed nothing from the day before when they told me to have ready and

Trent Manning: 
That w that wouldn’t happen at east lake?

Chris Lewis: 
No. no, never happens. Everything goes as planned.

Trent Manning: 
That’s like the Abbot’s everywhere, no matter where you’re at.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. And then we have a full staff meeting in the morning. Once we, everyone rolls out the shop, head out and start checking mowers and cut, probably spend about 45 minutes out. On course it’s not longer sometimes. And then come back in and try to get a game plan, but the game plans never go as planned.

Trent Manning: 
Yup.

Chris Lewis: 
I got an hour and a half drive in and I think about stuff every morning and it never goes the way I planned it in my head.

Trent Manning: 
Exactly.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Crazy how that works. Does Eric ride around with you?

Chris Lewis: 
Yes, we ride together. Yup.

Trent Manning: 
No round how’d they get other, so Eric’s for the listener is the assistant at east lake

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
that helps Chris out. How long has Eric.

Chris Lewis: 
He’s been in the shop for, I guess, going on close to a year. I think he came in off the crew. He was a crew member. And when I left for those eight months during COVID, he jumped in my position in the shop with Anthony.

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Gotcha. Do you relief ground?

Chris Lewis: 
We do now to just fairway units. I don’t do drains. Let me just spin them too much to really worry about doing The release, but fairway units in our a 3,100 Torah.

Trent Manning: 
Well, I think this is really good. So you’re familiar with not relief ground and the big reels. And now, you know why relief ground is like, what’s your opinion on the relief grind? Does it make a difference or not?

Chris Lewis: 
Yes, that makes a big difference, especially on the fairways and just the amount and how fast you can spin them versus the non relief. Real.

Trent Manning: 
Well on how fast you can ground them.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. I grind them. finger on him.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. I got you. This Quaker removing, cause you’re not removing is not material and that kind of stuff.

Chris Lewis: 
Right.

Trent Manning: 
Well, cool. Tell us something you’ve fabricated.

Chris Lewis: 
I haven’t.

Trent Manning: 
Oh,

Chris Lewis: 
I haven’t no, no fabrication.

Trent Manning: 
Well, I mean, yeah, they all do a little stuff around there from time to tell me your favorite tool and why.

Chris Lewis: 
Favorite tool. I can’t, I got this from you a couple of years ago, it’s going to be the pocket size Crescent ranch. You

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah.

Chris Lewis: 
me that and gave me that idea. And it’s turned into my favorite tool too, because out in the field and you know, it works pretty much for anything you need to do out in the field on, you know, quick.

Trent Manning: 
That’s very cool. Is it the blue point? No.

Chris Lewis: 
It’s not a blue points.

Trent Manning: 
Well the one thing, and I, I’m not familiar with the Crescent. But the blue point will open up to 16 millimeters or five eight, which is really handy for Toro. If you know, if you’re working on a Toro out in the field, you know, if you, I mean my life forget a ranch or whatever. And I go out to adjust grammars or something like that. I got it right there and his handy and it works.

Chris Lewis: 
Right.

Trent Manning: 
I would not recommend trying to change how to cut with it or anything like that. That would roll into one of my pet peeves about not using the right tool for the job and rounding heads off of bottles and stuff. What do you do to relax or find your work-life balance?

Chris Lewis: 
My work life balance. I like to go fishing when I can, or just be outdoors.

Trent Manning: 
Right, right, right. What about the babies?

Chris Lewis: 
the babies? are spending time with the girls. Of course. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Another girl, dad here. I’m happy for you and your wife.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Nothing like being a girl, dad.

Chris Lewis: 
A lot of work.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah, no, it was a lot of work. Have you have you been able to bring them to the shop?

Chris Lewis: 
I haven’t yet.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. They’re little though for everybody. So

Chris Lewis: 
yes.

Trent Manning: 
I seen a picture today Joe, Moreira up at like talks away. I seen it on Twitter. He’d brought his kids and I don’t know if it was over the weekend or whatever. And one was a, rather than the floor Jack. That was one of my girls’ favorite things today. This brought back some, some good memories.

Chris Lewis: 
Awesome.

Trent Manning: 
What is the strangest thing you’ve seen at work?

Chris Lewis: 
And it happened Darren tournament. Maybe three, four years ago, but at the same time tournament was going on. Atlanta motor Speedway had this big, like rave Fest and we come in and there’s a guy propped up against our fence outside in a T-Rex. Costume, like he was, he was really drugged out. Didn’t know where he’s from. He was from South Carolina. Didn’t know how he ended up here all the way from Hampton, all from landmarks, fairway all the way up in Atlanta. But That was pretty crazy. Yeah. It took a while for it security to even get them aware of his surroundings.

Trent Manning: 
Never know what you’re going to see.

Chris Lewis: 
No, especially here.

Trent Manning: 
limits of Atlanta are inside the perimeter. What would be your dream job or opportunity you? Thank you. There.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah, but my dream would be, what if I, probably can do it now with the family, but to be a motorcycle mechanic for like a professional race team, like a doorway very soon.

Trent Manning: 
yeah. I, again,

Chris Lewis: 
my dream back in the day. So it’s still would be cool to do,

Trent Manning: 
So when you were working in the motor cycle shop, was it mainly Darby?

Chris Lewis: 
It was dirt, whites, motorcycles, ATVs, watercraft, you name it there. We sold it. We had all four Japanese brands. So we sold them all. It was good times.

Trent Manning: 
Do you still have any motorcycles?

Chris Lewis: 
I do. I have a dirt bike. And then I got my girls dirt bikes, but my oldest don’t want nothing to do with it. So I’m hoping my 18 month old will get on it soon.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Chris Lewis: 
She’s more crazy.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, that was my experience. I think my younger daughter has a little bit more of a wild.

Chris Lewis: 
Right.

Trent Manning: 
I don’t know if it’s the birth order or what, but the first kids kinda calm and reserved. What do you know now that you wish you’d known on day one?

Chris Lewis: 
Patients not trying to rush through things and taking your time, you know what you’re doing? Because when I was younger, I used to get aggravator myself and it was basically cause I was probably trying to rush through things instead of taking my time and paying attention to what I was doing instead of having to do it, you know, do it once. So having him do it twice.

Trent Manning: 
No, I thought that’s was super good at us. And I think patience is something you can do. Because just like you’re saying, I remember when I was younger, I was easily irritated and you know, we’ll get my ad working on stuff. And over the years it just comes easier now to calm down, take a deep breath and, and work through it. What’s some latest tips and tricks you’ve seen or used that you want to share with us.

Chris Lewis: 
My trick it was cool to me. It was a couple of years ago. I seen someone do it, but it’s the do say like your your big Springs on your ground following going like 6 48. So on the turf guard as big Springs, instead of using pliers, you take, say like a shoelace rope and place it through where it hooks over and then Tai nod and that she likes, and then you just pull the rope instead of trying to latch on. With pliers or something, they slip it off. You just got to handle it. You just pull the spring and release. It works a lot of different situations.

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Yeah, I got you. That makes total sense. Yeah. So you could use, start a rope or anything like that

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. Depending on the size of the spring, you fuse too thick, then you get trapped in there in between the stuff. But Yeah. So they’re like transport or players. You just bake as long as you own are short and just get you a handle.

Trent Manning: 
Awesome. Well, I guess we’ll talk about third championship. How many years have you worked as a two or Tampa?

Chris Lewis: 
I do believe. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Starting in, I guess 2011 or 2012 or something

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
is awesome.

Chris Lewis: 
yeah,

Trent Manning: 
Does it get old? having the tournament there every year?

Chris Lewis: 
no, I think it’s a siding. I look forward to it. It’s very stressful. We not to it, but it’s worth it in the end when that week comes.

Trent Manning: 
Right. And when you’re in that way, could you kind on cruise control by that time,

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. I feel like, yeah, we definitely are.

Trent Manning: 
as far as your grinding program and all that kind of

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah, this year is a little different, cause we kind of changed stuff? up right at last minute with the grinders and putting reels in two weeks before tournament. And so dial on in took a little bit longer, but typically the advanced week is when we like to be, you know, where we need to be on the grind in cycles.

Trent Manning: 
How long was Mike Rollins up helping you out?

Chris Lewis: 
He was here for, I won’t say it was three weeks.

Trent Manning: 
That’s what I’m saying. I thought that was pretty incredible for,

Chris Lewis: 
There was a lot of help

Trent Manning: 
A vendor to come up and give that much support.

Chris Lewis: 
right?

Trent Manning: 
I don’t think a lot of vendors are doing that. He might get a few days out though, but not three weeks.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Well, I, don’t not a walk me through leading up to. The tour championship, like some of your practices through the summer, I’m assuming y’all do a lot of air fine Berta, cutting that kind of stuff.

Chris Lewis: 
yeah, I’ve already got weekly and top dress on weekly. That starts firing right after a redo or a bay closure air. Fine. Which is the beginning of July. That’s basically when we start our prep, we do all our scalping. And once we go in that, we’re kind of like prep mode trying to dial everything in. So yeah, So far to Kaiden weekly ultra grew and circle which agreements. Weekly or we can and all that and trying to get down to the height if we want to be at tournament,

Trent Manning: 
when you go out and scout. Well, I mean, what kind of hots are you talking then?

Chris Lewis: 
say T’s and the may or major scalpel. T’s rough and callers and approaches. I think we are our approaches. We scout down to 50 for approaches and callers and the same for teas. I do believe it was two 50. I had a fairway unit completely bottomed out, and I think it was right around two 50 to 75,

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Chris Lewis: 
To scalp our teas. That’s what we use.

Trent Manning: 
that’s crazy.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
And y’all do that every year.

Chris Lewis: 
Every year. Yeah. Yeah. We had to step it down. Say for collars, we use three mowers and about probably 75 to a hundred increments, one guy would go around scalp and then he’ll have another mower and he’ll go around and so forth. So

Trent Manning: 
I don’t. So do you grind before you.

Chris Lewis: 
Uh, Yes.

Trent Manning: 
ground and after you scalp.

Chris Lewis: 
Oh, yeah. Replacing bed knife. So everything.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, that’s crazy. I mean, that’s almost as bad as the aerification or something. I would think.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. This year effication we did 708 time blocks on 6 48 with three quarter inch Sandrich times. We did that one time and then turned around and came back with a five eights SanJac times on that. And then did a dry inject process after that.

Trent Manning: 
Wow. Does that not soften the grains up, get wood, but they’ll do an amazing job to get them. Cause I’ve walked on these grains plenty and there are farm.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah. Well, we come behind that with a one-time roller and roll the greens after all that,

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, get all your saying that and then rattle. What do you like best about the tournament?

Chris Lewis: 
Seeing my work on TV and to see her and, you know, players’ reactions and stuff like that. And, you know, just really, it’s the, I think the funnest time is just having all the volunteers in here. I think it’s the finest time is when the actual week comes and you got all the volunteers here that may have never done it before and just seeing their reactions to the course, seeing it for first time.

Trent Manning: 
No, I understand that. And coming from a long time, volunteer myself. I think I volunteered about as many as you’ve worked, some like that we were talking about.

Chris Lewis: 
I want to say your first year was my first year.

Trent Manning: 
yeah. So something like that. And it’s kinda cool how that works out. How valuable is it to you to have volunteers in there?

Chris Lewis: 
Very, I mean, it helps out a lot and I have guys in here, I mean, you might not do much, but it’s definitely, you’re helping if you’re in here, you know?

Trent Manning: 
Well, and that’s, I mean, there’s been some years where I felt like, wow, I’m working a lot. And then other years you’re not working as much. This counter depends on the year. And what comes up. And I would say is kind of like a typical day at the golf course. You know, sometimes you’re, you’re wide open and then other times you can kind of take a deep breath and you’re not going so hard all day long.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
And from a volunteer. Perspective. I mean, on joy every year, hanging out, meet new people, get more different volunteers in or, or whatever. And I mean, just since I’ve been volunteering, you’ve had what, like four different head mechanics. Um, so you know, something like that.

Chris Lewis: 
before.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. So you know, working with people new and this year, Chad Kenzer came down and I, you know, my friends with him, I just spent last weekend at the Carolina show and he was my personal tour guide up there. And I mean, it was awesome. So just making those connections network and, and the stuff you learn around the shop, just looking at your shop and seeing how you do things. I can take back to my course and help myself out. So if somebody is interested in volunteering, how would they go about that?

Chris Lewis: 
They can contact me through email or Mandy, I think they they’d normally put it on like Twitter, Charlie Wilson out on Twitter, but yeah, they didn’t get ahold of me.

Trent Manning: 
And your email?

Chris Lewis: 
See Lewis at east lake golf club dot.

Trent Manning: 
So seeLewis@eastlakegolfclub.com.

Chris Lewis: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
All right. I will put that in the description of this episode, so we’ll have it there. How many volunteers do you normally take each year? Yeah. And then.

Chris Lewis: 
Oh, you know, Sharp’s not that big, so four or five would be, you know, okay. Can starts to get a little crowded, you know, the sharp tonight, the biggest.

Trent Manning: 
What about advanced week?

Chris Lewis: 
Van sleek. Yes. I mean, if someone wants to volunteer down or translate for sure. That’s when we’re really hitting that hard and trying to get things right. Really busy.

Trent Manning: 
Well, that’s kind of been my experience. It seemed like you need more help advanced week than you do tournament week. Not that that’s as much fun for a volunteer

Chris Lewis: 
right.

Trent Manning: 
to do that, but the options there and you, you know, gain as much, if not more knowledge of how the operations run that advance week. So I would encourage anybody listening to volunteer, whether it’s at these like, or anywhere else out there, you know, if you got a, a course down the road that is hosting a tournament, so you call them up, see if you can volunteer. Well, this has been great. Thank you so much, Chris, for coming on. I appreciate it. And I know the listeners will enjoy it.

Chris Lewis: 
Thank

Trent Manning: 
um, yes, sir. I will talk to you soon. I hope you enjoyed hearing from Chris. I can’t put a value on my time. Volunteering at east lake. I’ve learnt so much there. From the different equipment managers. From RAF Keppel. From Charles Aubrey. All the other assistants and superintendents that have been been there over the years. And the other volunteers I’ve got to meet. I’ve made some. True friends. Through that experience. So there’s a lot of value in volunteering. And I would encourage anyone. To go volunteer. Find out the local course, that’s having a tournament. If you don’t want to travel. And volunteer for a day a week. However long you can. And just love we talked about here. You don’t get all the kudos necessarily for advanced weak. But that’s really when they need you the most. Me and Corey Phillips. Austin or I and Patrick drunkard. Was lucky enough to go up to Belle Reve. For the 100th PGA and we went up advanced week. And. I can’t remember now how many reels we ground? But we ground every real. All property. And that one week. Um, changed all bed knives, the new bed knives. That week. We worked our butt off. But. We had a good time. We had a lot of fun. And we’re still friends. All of us. Talk on a pretty regular basis. This year at the tour championship, I got to meet Chad cancer. And since I am, we just hit it off. He’s part of our WhatsApp group. He was my personal tour guide. When I went to the Carolina show. And he’s a huge supporter of the podcast. And other industry. And it’s great to get locked minded people. Together like that. And that’s the, one of the greatest things about the WhatsApp group. All of us are locked minded. We all love the industry that we work in. And we’re promoting it. And we make each other better. Sometimes on a daily basis. We wish all our listeners a happy new year. We’re not even at a full year of episode yet. And I’m amazed every day at the support and engagement from this community. Thank you to all the listeners, whether you’ve been along for the ride since our first episode with Tony. Bevolo. Or you just found this. The energy from each of you listening is what keeps us going. And has us excited about 2022. We have some big things coming. Remember to fill out the survey and our Twitter bio and let us know who you want to hear from next. After all this is your podcast. I’m just the host. We wish everyone a safe and healthy new year. And whatever that thing is. You’ve been waiting to do. Dive in. Just do it. Don’t wait for circumstances to be perfect. We believe in you. Until next year. So you buy. 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.

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