Description
Welcome to Episode 111 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast! We’re in conversation with Jeff Lumaquin, the Equipment Manager at the California Golf Club of San Francisco.
Join us as we explore the ins and outs of maintaining this private 18-hole gem nestled on 200 acres in the picturesque Bay Area. Jeff, a father of five and a veteran of the United States Air Force, gives us a peek into his world, sharing insights into the challenges and triumphs of managing equipment for a top-notch golf course.
With a seasonal assistant and a fleet dominated by Toro equipment, Jeff’s journey takes us from the high-flying days as a crew chief on an F16 to the ground-level impact of irrigation system updates on height of cut. Get ready for a deep dive into the intricacies of time management, the theory of operation’s impact on workflow, and the looming challenges posed by upcoming regulations in California.
Jeff’s passion extends beyond the golf course, delving into his love for restoring classic muscle cars and playing the crucial role of logistics coordinator for his wife’s baking business.
It’s an episode that combines the thrill of military aviation, the precision of turf management, and the sweetness of family and hobbies. Tune in for a great chat with Jeff on the Reel Turf Techs Podcast.
Transcript
Trent Manning: 0:07
All right. Now we’re live. So pronounce your name for me. Your last name.
Jeff Lumaquin: 0:05
Lumaquin.
Trent Manning: 0:07
Lumaquin. All right. I’m sure I’ll screw it up. Lumaquin.
Jeff Lumaquin: 0:11
It sounds just like it looks.
Trent Manning: 0:13
okay. Lumaquin. And do you go by Jeff or Jeffrey?
Jeff Lumaquin: 0:19
Jeff.
Trent Manning: 0:20
Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 0:21
Jefferson just seems a bit too formal for me.
Trent Manning: 0:25
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 0:26
So Jeff is a lot easier.
Trent Manning: 0:28
I got you. No, I don’t. So my first name is Marcus. And my whole life, my parents, you know, everybody called me Trent. That’s my middle name. And it can be a pain at times, you know, going to dark doctors and all that stuff. But I like it because Marcus is more fun. Formal and I’ll tell you a quick story. So I worked with this guy, his name was James Ronald Satel, Jr. And he went by Ron, but his dad was, you know, was James Ronald Satel, Sr. So he, he was big Ron and then the guy I worked with was Ronnie. But anyway, sometimes I would drive the truck. Sometimes he would drive the truck. So if I was driving, he would call me Marcus. And if he was driving, I’d call him James. You know, like we’re a butler or something. I don’t know. It was fun. Dumb story, but try, try to break the ice here for you.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:26
Yeah. Well, I mean, all my kids have a middle name. But they, everybody calls them by their first name. And I’m literally the only one that calls them by their middle name.
Trent Manning: 1:37
Ah, okay. Yeah, that’s a little different. Yeah, that’s cool though. Very cool. 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 this episode are Reel turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company’s line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Ready for play Welcome to the Reel turf Techs podcast, episode 111. Today, we’re talking to Jeff. Limerock one. Equipment manager at California golf club of San Francisco and San Francisco, California. Also known as Cal Club. Cal club is a private 18 hole course on 200 acres and the bay area of San Francisco. Jeff has one seasonal assistant helping him in the shop. He has mostly Toro equipment. Let’s talk to Jeff. WElcome Jeff to the real turf text podcast. Thank you for coming on.
Jeff Lumaquin: 3:21
you for having me.
Trent Manning: 3:22
Yes, sir. I’m really looking forward to that. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.
Jeff Lumaquin: 3:28
Uh, it’s pretty cut and dry. The short story is a Craigslist ad.
Trent Manning: 3:33
Way.
Jeff Lumaquin: 3:34
yes. Uh,
Trent Manning: 3:36
been a few years ago because I feel like, I feel like Craig’s list is not as popular as it was 10, 15 years ago.
Jeff Lumaquin: 3:45
No, this was, uh, I’ve been at Cal Club for 10 years now, a little over 10 years. But the long story is I had recently got out of the military. I was in the air force for 12 years. I
Trent Manning: 3:59
Thank you for your service. Say that right, right away. We, we love our veterans here. It’s awesome, man.
Jeff Lumaquin: 4:05
Thank you for the support. So I got out after 12 years, I worked on F 16s, C 17s, C 5s, and KC 10s. And I came back home, didn’t know what to do, ended up going back to school. And I got my ASC certifications, A1 through A8. And as I was getting close to graduating, I had decided that I did not want to work in an auto shop. All my buddies were mechanics, and day after day, I would literally hear the horror stories with customers and service advisors and that. And so, I jumped on the Craigslist and looked for a Job that kind of could utilize my newly found skills and found the ad for a golf course mechanic Didn’t say the name of the course like most Courses a lot don’t put their name out there, especially on craigslist But it ended up being California Golf Club, which is literally five minutes away from where I live, right down, right down the hill from the community college I was going to.
Trent Manning: 5:20
No way.
Jeff Lumaquin: 5:21
Yeah, yeah, so super close. Didn’t even know this place was here. Alright, I grew up in the Bay Area all my life and the only time I’ve been away was when I was stationed in Utah while in the military.
Trent Manning: 5:33
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 5:33
so I come down this thoroughfare that goes through South San Francisco and I basically saw this place every single day and not knew what it was.
Trent Manning: 5:45
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 5:46
I come in for my interview and it’s not even an interview. It’s literally, This is what you’ll be doing. These will be your hours. And we’ll go from there.
Trent Manning: 5:56
Oh, okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 5:57
just off my resume alone, got me the job.
Trent Manning: 6:03
That’s awesome. So cool. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 6:06
you know, when you say, hey, I used to work on, you know, 40 million jets.
Trent Manning: 6:10
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 6:11
A golf cart isn’t, isn’t that much more difficult. So,
Trent Manning: 6:16
No, the, you know, we, we say it every day. This isn’t rocket science
Jeff Lumaquin: 6:19
yeah,
Trent Manning: 6:20
it’s definitely, definitely not running on jet fuel. So no, that’s so cool. Can you talk a little bit about that experience working on jets?
Jeff Lumaquin: 6:30
so I started off as a F 16 mechanic and I was a crew chief. So I was in charge of the entire plane. And it’s subsystems. So basically, uh, day to day, we would go over our forms, make sure the jets were ready to, to fly. And as they came back in, we would do our inspections, anything that we saw, we would call the appropriate, uh, I guess you could say department. depending on if it’s a weapons system issue, uh, uh, electrical and environmental, avionics. So I was basically the main guy who had to delegate all the smaller jobs.
Trent Manning: 7:10
Oh, okay. Okay. And then, so you had other guys under you or whatever that. Focused on area Pacific stuff, or is this outside contractors?
Jeff Lumaquin: 7:22
no, it’s all military. Me being active duty was all military, uh, you know, on a fighter jet or any aircraft, there’s all these subsystems and for one person to know every single subsystem would be incredibly impossible.
Trent Manning: 7:40
Oh, right,
Jeff Lumaquin: 7:41
you had other basically, I guess you could say mechanics, that worked on those subsystems specifically.
Trent Manning: 7:47
Oh, okay. Yeah. That’s so cool, man.
Jeff Lumaquin: 7:50
Yeah, but the good thing about being the crew chief is that you get your name on the side of the plane and all the other guys don’t. So,
Trent Manning: 7:57
that’s even cooler. Yes. Yeah. So cool. And you did that for 12 years.
Jeff Lumaquin: 8:04
uh, so I worked on F 16s for six years, and when my first enlistment ended, I had switched over to the reserve side, came home to California, got stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. And I switched over to C 17, C 5s, and KC 10s.
Trent Manning: 8:24
Okay. And
Jeff Lumaquin: 8:25
out my seven years there.
Trent Manning: 8:27
the C5 is the biggest one.
Jeff Lumaquin: 8:29
C 5 is the biggest one where the front nose lifts up and then the rear tail goes down so you can load cargo from both ends.
Trent Manning: 8:38
There’s, they fly C5s out of Dobbins here, just north of Atlanta and those things, I mean, when they’re coming in to land and taking off, it just looks like they’re just going to drop at any minute. They’re just so huge.
Jeff Lumaquin: 8:51
Yeah. And the engines on things, those things compared to the airframes, extremely small.
Trent Manning: 8:57
right. right. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, I watched one it was a ways away from the air force base and I don’t, it was making a turn, you know, like a 90 degree turn and it literally looked like it was just stopped there and was just barely moving. I’m like, this thing’s going to fall. There’s no way it’s going fast enough. The.
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:17
you ever
Trent Manning: 9:18
in the air.
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:19
If you ever get a chance to go inside one during an air show, I mean, you could literally play football inside one of those things.
Trent Manning: 9:26
Oh, I’m sure. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I’ve been in like C one thirties at an air show. And I mean, that’s a decent size plane.
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:33
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 9:34
And I imagine you could fit one of those inside a C five
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:38
Oh yeah.
Trent Manning: 9:38
minus the wings.
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:40
Yeah. I think maybe one or two if it’s
Trent Manning: 9:43
Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 9:44
disassembled properly and created up correctly. Yeah. Those things
Trent Manning: 9:48
that is so cool. Well, again, thank you for your service and thank you for sharing that part. Cause hopefully I know I find it super net interests and I’m sure the listeners do too. Well, tell us what your least favorite part of the job is. And is that sand? Okay. Awesome.
Jeff Lumaquin: 10:06
actually not sand. Fortunately for me, we actually don’t top dress as often as other courses do. If we top dress at all in the season, we definitely top dress for erification and that’s mainly the only reason why sand goes out here. So I’m fortunate enough to not have to deal with that. But my least favorite part of the job would probably be the numerous height of cut changes we go through in a week. Yeah, that’s as busy as I am to be stopped to drop 10 15 thousandths on multiple cutting units and then have to do it again in an hour or two, depending on what they’re using it on. Can be quite frustrating if
Trent Manning: 11:02
Oh yeah. I’m sure. So why the frequent, how the cut changes?
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:08
Uh, well, recently we had a major upgrade to our irrigation system. So we replaced, I want to say upwards of 600 sprinkler heads.
Trent Manning: 11:21
hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:22
And a lot of the areas that had to get patched up just needed to be cut it down so that it could root properly.
Trent Manning: 11:29
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:30
So yeah, we’ve just been doing a ton of height changes every other day, just to get it caught up with the rest of the fairways.
Trent Manning: 11:38
Yeah. Yeah. Have you, are you close to getting it dialed in?
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:42
We are now, but with the, now that we’re in winter season and everything’s slowing down, we’re actually going to be raising them up next week.
Trent Manning: 11:52
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:53
Is this so? Yes.
Trent Manning: 11:54
What kind of grass do you have on the greens?
Jeff Lumaquin: 11:57
Uh, so we have bent a one, a four on the greens and fine fescue on the fairways. And we have a right grass tea for our driving range.
Trent Manning: 12:06
Okay. Yeah. I’m in the South down here and it’s Bermuda everywhere, but I’ve dealt with bent grass greens and that kind of stuff. I was just kind of curious. Cause yeah, we top dress every week, whether we need to or not. It’s every week we’re
Jeff Lumaquin: 12:21
Yeah, we were. We were that way the first couple years I started working here but I want to say the past two or three years we’ve actually cut down on a lot of it,
Trent Manning: 12:33
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 12:34
Which is great for me, I mean, less grinding, less wear and tear on the reels but now we’re just, we’re just pretty much getting dialed in and kind of Keep it consistent. So
Trent Manning: 12:45
Okay, sweet. Well, yeah, and I’ve kind of got off track. I got, uh, shiny objects, F 16s, thinking about that. But so how long have you been there?
Jeff Lumaquin: 12:56
I’ve been here for a little over 10 years. Uh, 10, my tenure mark was back in April of this year.
Trent Manning: 13:04
All right. Congratulations on 10 years. That’s a good deal. So, and this is the only golf course you’ve ever worked at?
Jeff Lumaquin: 13:12
This is the only golf course I’ve ever been at. Yes. Uh, well, yes and no. I did some side work for another golf course while they were. Looking for a new mechanic,
Trent Manning: 13:23
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s cool. That’s awesome. Well, tell us what your favorite tool is.
Jeff Lumaquin: 13:29
that’s probably one of the hardest questions to ask a tool junkie because all his tools would
Trent Manning: 13:35
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 13:37
As of right now, with the current project that I’m on, my mag drill and my powered rivnut insert tool is my favorite right now.
Trent Manning: 13:51
Wow. Well,
Jeff Lumaquin: 13:54
nope.
Trent Manning: 13:54
just, just saying that I’m like, I’ve never seen a mag drill at a golf course and I’ve seen a lot of shops and never seen a mag drill and it’s on my wishlist, but there’s not that many times, you know, that you need it. So I hadn’t got one. Yeah. And the, is it a pneumatic? Not sir. Or,
Jeff Lumaquin: 14:16
It’s you put it on the end of a drill or impact driver and you basically just run it down and it just pulls it up.
Trent Manning: 14:23
okay. I got you. Yeah,
Jeff Lumaquin: 14:25
So I’m currently basically I’ve got our 500 gallon hydro seeder completely torn apart. We’ve cut out all the rust spots. side panels, and I’m debating if I want to cut into the floor of the front compartment to replace that sheet metal. But, it’s basically, the mag drill has made every single hole that I need to drill in with ease.
Trent Manning: 14:53
Oh yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 14:54
I’ve gone through at least 150 rivnuts inserts.
Trent Manning: 14:58
Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 14:59
And I’m probably on my fourth carbide tipped blade for my metal cutting circular saw.
Trent Manning: 15:08
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 15:08
So, yeah, it’s a big, a big project to take on.
Trent Manning: 15:13
that is a really big project. Do y’all ever think about farming stuff like that out? Hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 15:21
for a project this size, it was just more cost effective. For us to do it in house, especially because I know how to use our MIG and TIG welder. We have a plasma cutter. So I don’t mind it. I actually like doing fabrication more than wrenching and diagnosing.
Trent Manning: 15:40
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Jeff Lumaquin: 15:41
Uh, I’m not a great, great, great welder, but I can make it stick. And look pretty decent with a grinder afterwards. So,
Trent Manning: 15:49
Why don’t, so this old welder told me one time I was, well, I think I’ve told this story, but I’ll tell it again. I was welding a new shanks on a Kobelco 200 X big excavator. And I told the welder comes through out on the job site, doing another job or whatever, and stops because I’m welding. And I’m like, yeah, I’m not a welder stuff. You know, it looks like crap. And, uh, he said, looks never held anything. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta valid point there. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I like for it to look good, but looks never held anything.
Jeff Lumaquin: 16:25
Oh yeah. And you know, metal filler is only a, a store trip away. So,
Trent Manning: 16:31
No, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That’s that’s true too. Well, it reminds me. So we have, it’s a. T900 Hydroceter. It’s a 1988 model and very similar. It started rusting out, but what rusted out on mine was the pipes that come out of the back that go to the centrifugal pump. So, I ended up having to cut all that out and re weld it, put the new Victrolic couplings in. And that was a super fun project. And I used to have a question on here, what have you fabricated lately? Uh, because I do think a lot of technicians in the golf industry, we really enjoy the fabrication. You know, if, if you set up one cutting unit, you’ve set them all up. If you ground one cut unit, you’ve ground them all, you know, not much variety there, but you get into a good fab project like that. It’s a lot of fun.
Jeff Lumaquin: 17:27
Oh yeah. Yeah,
Trent Manning: 17:28
So did you get the mag drill just for this project?
Jeff Lumaquin: 17:32
Yes. Well, it’s always been on my wishlist and I always try to add another shop tool with every project that I’m assigned or. Decide to take on so, you know, that’s it’s kind of the only ways I can kind of add on to what we have here at the shop is if I budgeted into a project and just let the super know, like, Hey, I’ve called a couple places. This is what they’re quoting to do. You know, I’ve made some phone calls and I priced it out that if we do it in house. be a lot cheaper. Plus it gets me a couple of shop tools.
Trent Manning: 18:09
Yeah. No, that’s cool. I love it. I love that strategy. I’m, I’m the same way around the house. You know, if I got to do something, I need, you know, whatever, miter saw, you know, nail gun, whatever it is. Yeah. That’s another reason to buy a tool.
Jeff Lumaquin: 18:23
I’m still trying to figure out how I can work in a CNC plasma cutter until the budget. So
Trent Manning: 18:29
There you go. Let me know if you figure that one out. Cause I want that secret to what do you do to relax or find your balance?
Jeff Lumaquin: 18:36
- Okay, so I have five kids. I have a 19 year old daughter, a 9 year old son, a 7 year old son, a 5 year old son, and a 2 year old daughter. So I
Trent Manning: 18:50
so so you do nothing to relax.
Jeff Lumaquin: 18:53
do nothing. Uh, unfortunately. And on top of that, my wife has her own cookie business. So, on weekends, she goes to pop ups and food events and vans there. And, you know, I’m, I’m the logistics, so I have to pack up the car, make sure we have everything, bring her over, set everything up, and then stick around for breakdown
Trent Manning: 19:18
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 19:19
So, yeah, I literally, I literally have no time for anything. So,
Trent Manning: 19:26
Well, what, what did you like to do before the kids?
Jeff Lumaquin: 19:31
So I, before the kids. I had restored a 66 Mustang, the paint and metal work. But I basically, I tore it down, rebuilt the engine, redid the suspension, redid custom wiring so you couldn’t see a wire anywhere you looked, and did that. I also had a 67 Camaro before that, that I used to wrench on all the time. Never got to do a full restoration on it, but was able to keep it running and drive it every once in a while. So working on cars is a big, big passion. But unfortunately now I just don’t have the time nor the money to afford it. So,
Trent Manning: 20:14
Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that. What’s been your biggest challenge to date?
Jeff Lumaquin: 20:20
Lately, it’s been time management. I had a part time assistant for the past two, three years. So I still, he’s still around, but his schedule isn’t as consistent as before. But him being here allowed me to do a lot of the bigger work or diagnostic work depending on what was broken. So he would handle reels, prepping it for grind, all the oil changes and PMs. And then deal with all the two stroke equipment
Trent Manning: 20:53
Oh, nice. Yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been looking for a two stroke person for years and I’ve yet to find one.
Jeff Lumaquin: 20:59
and so he was wasn’t a mechanic before he’s retired. Uh, he’s a retired glazer And so he was just looking for a part time job and loved to play golf And he was a friend of another employee here And so it’s like, Hey, I’ll give you a chance. I’ll train you in what you need to know and what you need to work on. And we’ll see how it goes from there. Well, three years later, he’s still around,
Trent Manning: 21:25
That’s awesome.
Jeff Lumaquin: 21:26
loves what he does here, but unfortunately he recently had moved out of state. So, he still has some stuff to take care of here, so he, whenever he’s in town, he’s here in the shop.
Trent Manning: 21:40
cool.
Jeff Lumaquin: 21:41
but just managing my time now that I don’t have him on a daily basis, has been a bit of a struggle. Especially with the, uh, the big Hydroceter project I have going on right now.
Trent Manning: 21:51
Yeah, I can definitely understand that. And I think a lot of the guys, you know, in the industry that’s listening to the podcast and the gals. You know, we just get pulled in so many different directions all the time. You know, I mean, we’re trying to do this and somebody breaks that or they’re having an issue with this. And yeah, you’re just running back and forth like a chicken with your head cut off half the time. So
Jeff Lumaquin: 22:15
that’s a daily basis. I always, I always try to go into work with a plan. And the minute the morning meeting is over, that plan is just straight out the door. So,
Trent Manning: 22:27
Why don’t one question? I forgot that I asked since you You know, your, your background being, you know, mechanic and that kind of thing. And you show up at the golf course to be a mechanic assuming you’d never even seen a real,
Jeff Lumaquin: 22:42
uh, nope, never. No, I mean, I knew of. You know, the normal residential rotary push mowers.
Trent Manning: 22:52
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 22:53
And I was like, great, you know, it’s like, that’s what I’m going to be working on. And we have one here, but unfortunately it only goes out once a week and it never is a big issue. It’s everything else. So yeah, I’ve never seen a real, nor have I ever officially stepped on a real golf course until I came here.
Trent Manning: 23:13
Wow. Wow. That’s crazy. Yeah. So how did you learn about reels and cutting units and all those things?
Jeff Lumaquin: 23:22
Uh, so the previous mechanic had taught me about it. And when I first started here, I told myself coming out of my military background, I was like, okay, I’m going to learn everything I can about this system because. Hydraulics is the same, you know, same principle from a jet. Engines work the same, you know, jet engine. And then me with my ASEs, it’s like I knew gas and diesel. Hydraulics, Newdraulics, Pneumatics. Like I had that all down.
Trent Manning: 23:56
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 23:57
Reels. Was just something new that, you know, like, wasn’t necessarily a hard concept for me to grasp. It was just like, okay, how do I sharpen these and how do I set them properly? It was just something new. At that time I had. I had purchased the big book from the IGCMA, which I still have to this day. And I basically just kind of browsed the internet, looked on forums, read the big book and just kind of took whatever scrap reels or spare reels that we had, broke them down, put them back together and just learned that way.
Trent Manning: 24:37
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome, man. That’s so good. But I do think that’s one of the challenges for people coming into this industry, even with a mechanical background. And like you said, there’s not really anything hard about reels and cutting units, but I do think it intimidates some people because they’re not familiar with it. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 25:00
Oh yeah. And living in the Bay area, in the Bay area, there’s no schools that. You know, other than the community college nearby that does automotive, there’s nothing like you have, you know, on in the Midwest or on the East Coast that deal with. Golf or turf equipment. So
Trent Manning: 25:22
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at the golf course?
Jeff Lumaquin: 25:26
I don’t have any major crazy stories of people driving into lakes and whatnot. We don’t have any water hazards at all on our course anymore.
Trent Manning: 25:37
that’s the only reason you’ve never seen anybody drop into a lake, probably.
Jeff Lumaquin: 25:41
So they got rid of those. At the big renovation in 2007 before I got here in 2013. Nothing too crazy. I mean, we’ve had a top dresser on its side. Uh, we’ve had our chipper almost fall down a hundred foot hill. Nobody’s ever been hurt. But I have seen a few decapitated cat heads around the course,
Trent Manning: 26:10
Oh, okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 26:11
is,
Trent Manning: 26:12
Yeah. What’s that about?
Jeff Lumaquin: 26:15
So we’re pretty much lined with all residential homes, and there’s a few random cats that kind of go in and out the fence line. But we have a pack of coyotes that I want to say live on the course. I haven’t seen them lately. We do know that they have a den, uh, beside our driving range. And so the only thing I could figure out is that they got hungry one night or a couple of nights, and they basically found these wild cats.
Trent Manning: 26:46
What tournament did y’all have just recently?
Jeff Lumaquin: 26:52
Uh, major or big tournament for us.
Trent Manning: 26:55
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 26:56
We had the Californian, which is our, I believe it’s a member. Guest? Yes, our biggest member guest, uh, tournament that we have yearly. a
Trent Manning: 27:12
Well, no, I thought then y’all host like a major or something last year.
Jeff Lumaquin: 27:17
No, we are a completely private non profit here at the California Golf Club.
Trent Manning: 27:22
Well, I know, but I was thinking y’all didn’t have like a PGA event.
Jeff Lumaquin: 27:27
No, we’re not allowed to.
Trent Manning: 27:30
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 27:31
Yeah, not us.
Trent Manning: 27:33
Club, but maybe now it was in Los Angeles, I think.
Jeff Lumaquin: 27:38
oh, it’s LA Country Club. That’s
Trent Manning: 27:40
Yeah, that’s what I’m, yeah, I’m getting confused, but I have heard of Cal club and my superintendent has played there and talked about how great it was when, uh, the show was in San Diego, he ran
Jeff Lumaquin: 27:52
awesome, awesome.
Trent Manning: 27:53
And played, but anyway, that was sidebar. So on to the next question. Do you have a mentor in the industry?
Jeff Lumaquin: 28:01
I want to say Nelson Wood, who was a previous mechanic before me.
Trent Manning: 28:06
Where did he go?
Jeff Lumaquin: 28:08
he stayed and retired here. After his retirement, he stuck around and bartended for a few years. And unfortunately, he had passed recently. But basically, you know, him being my My mentor in learning reels and grinding we became very close.
Trent Manning: 28:28
I bet.
Jeff Lumaquin: 28:29
so it was, it was, it was real sad to hear so it was real sad to hear that. And then also, Thomas Bastis. Who I’m sure a lot of people would recognize the name. He was the superintendent that hired me
Trent Manning: 28:46
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 28:47
and his way of running things. I guess you could say it’s unconventional
Trent Manning: 28:53
Okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 28:54
doesn’t train assistants, he trains superintendents.
Trent Manning: 29:00
Oh, okay. Yeah. It makes
Jeff Lumaquin: 29:01
so that’s how he always looked at it. He wasn’t training an assistant, he was training them to be a superintendent. and just his, process of thinking out the box and finding solutions. of gave me this whole new perspective on how I should be working on a piece of equipment or diagnosing it because you can only go through so much of a service manual and what you know going into, you know, Diagnosing an engine or a fuel system whatnot. And just his way of thinking just showed me another, another perspective on how to look at things.
Trent Manning: 29:44
Yeah, sure. That’s awesome. And I think that helps so much having a different point of view on things, you know, it just, it helps us learn and it’s, uh, keeps it interesting too.
Jeff Lumaquin: 29:59
Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Trent Manning: 30:01
for sure. What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Jeff Lumaquin: 30:05
I mean, realistically, I don’t see myself leaving from here. I don’t know if that’s. I consider it my dream job because I never thought of myself being a golf course equipment manager. But I mean, I don’t, I don’t really see myself doing anything else these days. I mean, I’ve already been here 10 years. I mean, I thought I would stay, I would have stayed in the military to do my full retirement. But it’s not like I grew up with passions of working on planes either. So, um, I think, I think I would really see myself just either not being here specifically, but I would like to stay in the golf industry
Trent Manning: 30:49
No, that’s awesome. Yeah. Very cool.
Jeff Lumaquin: 30:52
yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t. I’m not a golfer.
Trent Manning: 30:55
That’s okay. I’m not either.
Jeff Lumaquin: 30:57
so it’s when people say, you know, ask me where I work, they’re like, Oh, so do you play golf? I’m like, I spend enough time as it is working here. I don’t want to spend my off time here.
Trent Manning: 31:09
Right. No, I understand that. I was actually interviewing a guy last night and he loves to play golf, but he didn’t play at his club very often. It goes somewhere else just to get away from his club for a little while, which I mean, I can relate to that too. And I always thought the same thing. I mean, not that I ever picked up the game I tried and was not good and it just wasn’t my thing, but yeah, I’m ready to leave and see some different scenery.
Jeff Lumaquin: 31:37
being military, most golf courses have their own golf course or are associated with the local golf course. And the group of guys I worked in always wanted to go golfing. And I’m like, oh, I’ll go to go. And, you know, I’ll, you know, I’ll walk around and drink a beer, but I don’t know if I’ll play. And so the one time I picked up a club, and this is even before my first beer that day, I had went to tee off and everybody knew that I didn’t play golf and have never played before. So they all stood behind me and to the left or the right. for some reason, some, I went to go hit the ball and it shot back and to the left and took a guy’s knee out.
Trent Manning: 32:29
Oh, no way.
Jeff Lumaquin: 32:32
So I’m like, yep, I am done for the day. I don’t think this is my thing. And it was just one of those, those things I’m like, yeah, just not for me. So.
Trent Manning: 32:41
That’s funny. That’s a good one. What technician would you like to work with for a day?
Jeff Lumaquin: 32:46
I think any other technician would be a great opportunity.
Trent Manning: 32:53
That’s a solid answer.
Jeff Lumaquin: 32:55
I mean, literally, like I said, first course. you know, other than Nelson, who had taught me what I needed to know, and my assistant, I haven’t really had a chance to work with anybody else. I do visit other courses. You know, I do talk to other equipment managers, but I haven’t really gotten a chance to actually work beside them in the shop. So, you know, you can only do, you can only learn so much by talking to somebody, but you can learn a lot more when you work beside them. So,
Trent Manning: 33:28
Yeah. Just, I mean, little ins and outs that they do different than you do. And yeah, it’s really, really good. What do you know now you wish you’d known on day one?
Jeff Lumaquin: 33:38
If I had known that it would have been as hectic as it is. I think I would have came in with a stronger way of thinking of being more organized and more time managed.
Trent Manning: 33:57
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 33:57
I mean, like you said, you know. Our day to days are never the same,
Trent Manning: 34:02
Right.
Jeff Lumaquin: 34:03
and when you have a crew of 20 to 25 guys literally in and out of the shop, and they’re in a rush to get something done before play gets too heavy, it could be overwhelming at times,
Trent Manning: 34:17
yeah, for
Jeff Lumaquin: 34:18
you know? And luckily for us, we have backups to our backups,
Trent Manning: 34:23
That’s
Jeff Lumaquin: 34:24
but at some point in time All those backups are gonna be broke, and now you gotta play catch up. And it’s just It’s just the worst one that happens during tournament season.
Trent Manning: 34:35
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Crazy. How do you deal with that person? You got that person on your crew?
Jeff Lumaquin: 34:44
I think everybody has that person on the crew. But, I think I have more than just one person. And the crazy thing is, is that obviously nobody ever confesses to breaking something. So I don’t, you know, I can’t put the blame on anybody because, you know, if I didn’t see it happen, I don’t know who did it. Right. And
Trent Manning: 35:09
hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 35:10
I just try my best to give my crew every means possible. To let me know or let somebody or one of the assistants know that something’s broke. Right? So
Trent Manning: 35:24
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 35:24
I have physical red tags that they can put on the steering wheel. I have the equipment side of task tracker where they can literally leave a note on the equipment. And they can literally just leave it by my door and I’ll know immediately if it’s not in the tool cage or the piece of equipment’s not parked where it needs to be and it’s in the shop or it’s by my door and hey, thank you for at least taking it out of service and not just leaving it there for somebody to find the next day. When they need it and find out that it’s broke.
Trent Manning: 36:01
Yeah, yeah, and that’s kind of, I mean, that’s the least they can do because it is so frustrating. I was walking through our parking lot the other day and we got removable fenders for a equipment trailer because I got the two properties and we move equipment back and forth, you know, verification and stuff like that. Anyway, we took the fenders off of the trailer. They’re removable, easy to come off to put the tractor on it. And we had them setting next to a curb and I walked through the parking lot and somebody drove over one of them and not said a thing. And I mean, this trailer’s two years old, it’s diamond plate, aluminum fenders, and they look all nice. And this whole corner of it is crumpled over. So I get on the video camera and find out who it was and confront him about it. I said, I saw you drive through here. You know, I know it was kind of tight, you know, did you not notice that you run over that? Oh, I thought I run over a rock, you know? And I don’t think he was, you know, did it intentionally like, Oh, I’m going to run over this, damage it. I don’t think guys show up to do that on a daily basis, but. You know, just have a little bit of awareness about your surroundings and what’s going on. And I’m sure you got plenty of that in the military awareness and surroundings.
Jeff Lumaquin: 37:28
definitely. And now that we’re in a new maintenance facility, every square inch of each garage. The parking lot leading in and out of each end. I mean, literally, this entire facility is covered in cameras. So, even if nobody fesses up or leaves it by my door or what, I can literally just scroll back on the camera and see who it is. And, I used to be a big hothead with the crew. So I don’t even deal with it these days. I literally take that video clip and I email it to the superintendent and the two assistants and just let them deal with it. So it’s like knowing my demeanor, like I would probably just blow up on the guy, but
Trent Manning: 38:15
okay.
Jeff Lumaquin: 38:15
I don’t want to, I don’t want to create that tension in the crew because that’s how I used to be before. And I’ve had talks with the superintendent about it. And I’ve learned to adjust appropriately for it now. So now I just don’t end like, Hey, I’m going to send you this video clip. You can deal with it
Trent Manning: 38:38
No,
Jeff Lumaquin: 38:39
you
Trent Manning: 38:40
thank you for saying that, because I think a lot of us struggle with that. And I’ve definitely got better over the years and I’m not as explosive as I used to be, but it’s extremely frustrating
Jeff Lumaquin: 38:55
it is, it is.
Trent Manning: 38:56
but I think it’s important that you notice that maybe it’s better to let somebody else handle this.
Jeff Lumaquin: 39:04
Yeah, like I said, I don’t want to create that tension where now I have to see you every day. And just be like, I’m going to red tag your vehicle just cause you made me mad. Like, you know, kind of deal. So it’s like, I don’t, I don’t want it to be where the guys can’t literally say anything to me and then just hide equipment that’s broke. So it’s just like, okay, let me just pass this off and let the superintendent deal with it. And I’ll just go on about my day in the shop. Kind of
Trent Manning: 39:34
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Take a deep breath. Let it go. Move on. No, that’s yeah, that’s that’s that’s really good. Why don’t I met this guy and he said he actually went to anger management counseling and he said it really helped him. to go through that. And when he was first telling us, I kind of thought he was joking about doing it. And he’s like, no, I really did it. That’s really, really good. So for the listeners, you know, if, if you struggle with stuff like that, maybe it is worth doing a class or getting some, uh, counseling because I’m sure it didn’t, you know, it doesn’t just happen at work. It happens, you know, in all areas of your life.
Jeff Lumaquin: 40:19
Oh, definitely. And, you know, being prior military and being in a high stress environment working around expensive jets, same deal. I mean, we had those guys. You know, who broke stuff and, you know, kind of, you can’t really hide it on a 40 million jet that has one pilot,
Trent Manning: 40:39
mm
Jeff Lumaquin: 40:39
Hey, this pilot’s life is in your hands. Like you have to say something if something breaks. And go through the proper channel. So we never really had that. I mean, obviously crew chiefs just tend to be more, more prone to being angry because of the fact that we’re just under so much pressure to get these
Trent Manning: 40:58
hmm. Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 40:59
up and ready to go. So, I mean, I know all my other crew chief buddies are the same exact way that they will just blow up on somebody. But at the end of the day, it’s like, Hey, don’t bring it back into work because we, you know, we’re not here to be mad at people. We’re literally here. And make sure these planes are safe enough for the pilot to fly and do its thing. So,
Trent Manning: 41:25
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, I mean, that’s gotta be a whole nother level of stress because you’re maintaining a piece of equipment that, you know, can be fatal if it’s not correct.
Jeff Lumaquin: 41:37
oh yeah, and you know, these are fighter jets, they go off to war.
Trent Manning: 41:42
Right.
Jeff Lumaquin: 41:43
they’ve got to be, they’ve got to be fully 100 percent fighter mission capable every single minute of the day.
41:50
Get ready for tips and tricks.
Trent Manning: 41:55
What kind of tips and tricks you got?
Jeff Lumaquin: 41:57
I don’t know if I have any tips and tricks
Trent Manning: 42:01
Buy a mag, buy, buy a mag drill on your next, uh, fabrication
Jeff Lumaquin: 42:06
you know, budget and good shop tools. For your next project. Now I mean, most of the tips and tricks I use in the shop, I’ve pretty much either pulled off of Twitter from other equipment managers, off of Golf Text, you know, off of TurfNet. I don’t know if I have one for the shop, but one tip that I do know, I think a lot of people kind of skip out on. Is user resources you have available to you. So, you know, some manufacturers literally put out every single service manual out there for free
Trent Manning: 42:49
Hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 42:50
and others, you know, charge a pretty penny for a PDF file,
Trent Manning: 42:54
Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 42:57
but in those service manuals, not only does it give you the procedures to do the task, but it also shows you how that system works.
Trent Manning: 43:08
Hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 43:09
Theory of operation can literally dictate your entire diagnostic and repair workflow.
Trent Manning: 43:18
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 43:19
So if you’ve got multiple machines, you know, under this one service manual, then you know you’re obviously going to be working on it a lot. And knowing how to read that theory of operation and interpreting it into a efficient workflow Is going to save you a lot of time in the long run.
Trent Manning: 43:41
Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I think that’s, yeah, a great point, you know, use the resources you got at hand and picking that cell phone up and calling your buddy down the road. That’s a resource too. And Seth Shelton at Oakland Hills, I think he said it really good. He said he spends five minutes trying to diagnose a problem. And if it’s longer than that, he’s picking the phone up and calling somebody because he’s just wasting time. And that’s a good way to look at it. I don’t know. I need to work on my ego some too, I guess, because I’ll sit there for hours, just, you know, beat my head against the wall, trying to figure out, you know, whatever it is, electrical, hydraulic, any kind of problem. Just because I really like to fix stuff and not that I’m too good to call somebody else or you know I definitely don’t think I’m better than anybody else I know there’s a lot more smarter people than me out there, but I like to figure stuff out on my own So I definitely struggle with it.
Jeff Lumaquin: 44:43
You know, I wish some of these service manuals have, I guess you could say the format in which the military sets up their manuals. literally like second to none. It you step by step on what you need to do. Like a lot of these service managers are like, remove this part. And I’m like, well, this part is buried under 50 other parts. Okay. So I’m just supposed to just go in there in between everything. Like, you know, they could literally, I don’t want to put manufacturer’s names out there, but there are some manuals that literally just say, remove this part. And, but like I said, there’s like. 50 million things right in front of it. Like, how am I supposed to just this part?
Trent Manning: 45:29
right and then yeah, I’ve seen you know other things where it says remove this part But it doesn’t tell you how to remove that part. And that part is press fit in there and you need a special tool or need, you know, a slide hammer, you know, whatever the case is, you need a bunch of specialty stuff to remove it. And the manual, it just says, remove it well, okay. I know it has to come off, but could you elaborate a little bit more on the easiest way to remove it?
Jeff Lumaquin: 45:59
yeah, that would be a lot, extremely helpful, especially in some of these tight, you know, cramped engine bays and, you know, you’ve got hydraulic and fuel hoses in line everywhere. You’re just like, how? What? So,
Trent Manning: 46:16
Yeah. Well, I was installing an engine on, I won’t mention the name, but I was installing this engine, new engine. The old one took a crap and they sent an instruction manual and it was like 10 sentences. And I was like, really, this is all you’re getting. You know, I was like, I could have figured all this out on my own, you know, unbolt the old engine. Okay. Yeah, I understand that. But yeah, just pretty crazy. I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into that. Well, what else do you want to talk about?
Jeff Lumaquin: 46:57
So a lot of your other interviewees, you Like, their local chapters a lot, are a lot more active than here in the Bay Area. And it just amazes me. I mean, especially Like TTAC in the Carolinas, like they’re just from what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard on your podcast. It’s like they are super active.
Trent Manning: 47:21
Yeah. Yep.
Jeff Lumaquin: 47:22
And like here, the GCSAA chapter of Northern California, there’s not even an equipment manager, like classification. In their, I guess, I don’t know what it is, like their bylaws or
Trent Manning: 47:38
Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 47:39
So it’s like, and as many golf courses as there are in just the Bay Area, I’m extremely surprised it’s just not more active. How do you go, I mean. I’m already pressed for time as it is, with my five kids and my wife’s business and
Trent Manning: 47:59
Right. Right.
Jeff Lumaquin: 48:00
I mean, like, how does one go about, getting something set up for equipment managers in their area?
Trent Manning: 48:08
Yeah. I think you just, yeah, you got to go out on a limb and do it and it’ll start off small and then it’ll start growing and I do, I mean, it’s a huge challenge because like you said, you’re already strapped for time with work and life and how do you devote the extra time? And I mean, the only thing I can say that definitely helps is more the merrier. So if you can talk to the guy down the road and then he’s got a friend down the road from him and there’s three or four or five of you doing the work, that’s a whole lot easier. But normally, I mean, just what I’ve seen from, you know, they got a good thing in Nebraska going now. Wisconsin’s got some stuff going. I mean, TTAC’s been around for 20 years. They just celebrated their 20 year anniversary. But a lot of these, you know, smaller groups. It’s usually one person that kind of gets the ball rolling and your local GCSA chapter should be able to help get the ball rolling. And if they don’t, that’s kind of on them too, because I mean, like the old saying, you can lead the horse to water, you can’t make him drink, you know, I mean, you can only do so much from, uh, when you’re working a full time job and you got family responsibilities and, and all that stuff. Here in Georgia, we’re really lucky that, you know, our superintendents association, you know, our director. Of the Georgia chapter. She’s awesome and helps us get together all the education. We kind of have to help her with ideas, but she’s like, I’ll make all the phone calls, I’ll line these people up, you know, and it’s really nice having somebody that can do all that stuff. Cause I mean, that eats up a ton of time when you’re sending emails and texting and calling people, trying to get them lined up to speak at a seminar. So. The more you can spread the work out, the better, but I would definitely reach out to, uh, your local chapter and then I would reach out to I can’t remember the gentleman’s name. That’s the field staff for the California area with GSA, you know, he works for corporate GSA, but you have a field staff representative down there. And, you know, I’ve been thinking about this for a while because I see a lot going on in the rest of the country and I don’t hear anything about California,
Jeff Lumaquin: 50:43
No.
Trent Manning: 50:44
know, and I don’t, I’m kind of like, why? And then Roland McPherson, I’ve had him on the podcast and I apologize. Cause I can’t remember what club he’s at now.
Jeff Lumaquin: 50:53
at Almaden, I believe. he’s, is it Almaden? I know he’s down in San, the San Jose area. He’s probably like 45 minutes away from me. I’ve, I know Roland and I’ve even, when he moved to California, I helped him move into his new place. So, I mean, yeah, yeah,
Trent Manning: 51:12
yeah, Yeah. Well, very cool. But I had a conversation with him and he was telling me the same thing. He’s like, man, there is nothing out here.
Jeff Lumaquin: 51:20
It’s, you know, like in San Francisco in itself is not huge. It’s 7 by 7, 49 square miles. There’s, I mean, you literally have, Olympic club, San Francisco club. You have Lake Merced right outside of San Francisco. You have us, you have what is it? Green Hills. You have peninsula country club. I mean, there’s literally, you could throw a golf ball down the street and it’ll hit another golf course kind of deal. But, and I know my superintendent is in a group with other Bay area superintendents. And I think they meet like every two weeks or so they usually have like some Friday get together at least once a month. And it’s like, for me to get a hold of another equipment manager that’s local, like, I have to literally go through him to get, you know, that equipment manager’s number. I’m like, if all these superintendents who are within 15 miles of each other meet at least once a month, like, why can’t you guys set something up for equipment managers? Piggyback on that and do something kind of
Trent Manning: 52:29
Yeah. I mean, that’s a good idea to another thing I just thought about because there’s a lot of people doing this is starting a WhatsApp group just for that area. And then you can start talking and brainstorming and coming up with ideas. And one thing I started doing here in Georgia when I first kind of got back in the golf business in 2010 was. Call all my local guys, you know, whatever’s 10, 15 courses, you know, that’s not too far for me and set up, you know, a lot or not a launch, but it was more of a dinner and we would meet at somebody’s shop at, you know, four o’clock and hang out for a couple hours and order pizza, you know, and usually the club would take care of the food and we had a few, uh, salespeople like your lubrication. People that come by and they might sponsor 1. I’ll say, okay, I’ll, I’ll pay for the food and I’ll give away some products, you know, free samples or whatever, lubricants or grease or whatever it might be. So you can definitely do something like that on a, on a smaller scale, but. Doing, you know, anything bigger than that. I definitely think getting your local chapter and Bob’s, you know, help to help put that together. Cause that’s a lot of work to put on even three or four guys.
Jeff Lumaquin: 53:52
Yeah, definitely Yeah, it’s it’s crazy. You know, especially with California being as Strict as they are with you know air quality laws and whatnot this whole Under 25 horsepower gas engine band that’s coming in a few weeks,
Trent Manning: 54:12
Hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 54:13
you know kind of deal I’m like nobody especially golf courses Nobody’s gonna be nobody’s ready for it. I know now and my shop is It’s going on three years old
Trent Manning: 54:25
Hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 54:26
and it’s like, no, we, we don’t even have the means to charge half our fleet right now. What about golf courses that you know, don’t have updated shops or don’t have the budget for it? Kind of a deal. It’s like, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s mind boggling.
Trent Manning: 54:45
Yeah. So how prepared are you, or what, what does that mean when it happens next year? What, what are you going to have to do at your club?
Jeff Lumaquin: 54:54
I mean, as far as my club goes, it’s, it’s just a ban on new. New product under 25 horsepower. So you can still buy used all day long. If you can find it on the market. Um,
Trent Manning: 55:13
I mean, will be people be going out of state to buy that stuff? And
Jeff Lumaquin: 55:18
I don’t know how that’s gonna work because I know, so when they had banned, when California had banned flavored tobacco in all of the state, people were going out of state to buy like menthol cigarettes and whatnot. And Nevada had caught on where they were like, Hey, anybody who’s buying X amount of flavored tobacco in bulk, you have to take their information down.
Trent Manning: 55:44
Oh,
Jeff Lumaquin: 55:44
yep, they have the show ID. You know, or do they own a business that sells tobacco kind of deal? So I’m my guess is it’s not going to happen right away, but eventually neighboring states are going to be asking for that information, know, because it’s like, you know, for me however many Honda GX, whatever’s I have now, that’s like, Hey, one breaks. I can’t buy a replacement engine. I
Trent Manning: 56:12
hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 56:13
mean, I can’t even go to my local. I don’t know how right now I’ve been replacing all my Honda GX series motors with engines from Harbor Freight,
Trent Manning: 56:21
Oh, yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 56:22
just because one, they’re a lot cheaper and it’s, you know, the closest Harbor Freight to me is like 20 minutes away. So I can literally just, Hey, this GX 160 broke. Okay. Give me, give me 40 minutes to get there and back and put it in and done. Now, you know, it’s like, I don’t know how that’s going to be. That’s why I ended up stocking up an extra couple predator engines just in case. And we had bought extra backpack lowers and string trimmers because we know I don’t know how that works on two strokes, but I figure, hey, it’s under 25 horsepower. It’s a gas engine. We should buy it just in case, cause you can never have too many backpack blowers and string trimmers.
Trent Manning: 57:07
Oh, not at a golf course. Yeah No, no, never.
Jeff Lumaquin: 57:11
and luckily all our equipment is leased. All our core equipment is leased.
Trent Manning: 57:18
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 57:19
So we had worked it out with our Toro rep that, hey, once these leases are done, we’re just going to end up purchasing them. And that’ll give us at least two to three years to prep for going all electric.
Trent Manning: 57:37
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 57:38
So because we haven’t even priced out how much it’s going to be to be able to run all that extra power and PG& E, who’s our local electric company. Is two years out from transformer upgrades and replacements for anybody.
Trent Manning: 57:55
Wow. So, I mean you got to get on their list now
Jeff Lumaquin: 57:59
yeah, exactly. And then getting a generator, a backup generator is anywhere from three to four years from what I heard last, just permit wise. So it’s like, if you’re. we had planned it out while we were planning the build of this maintenance facility, we could literally just go about our normal ways and just roll over our lease into a full electric and be fine. But because This maintenance facility was built on membership assessments. They pretty much went the budget friendly route.
Trent Manning: 58:41
Well, right.
Jeff Lumaquin: 58:42
said, you know, do the bare minimum, get them a new shop, get them, you know, a break room, and proper storage for all the equipment, and then we’ll deal with everything. As it comes up. Well, once the shop was done in 2021, this law was already on its way. This bill was already on its way to becoming law and now it’s time for it. And now we’re just like, Oh, maybe we should get an electrician out here and get a quote and figure out, you know, what we need to do and I’m like. I brought this up when we planned the maintenance facility and you guys were just like, Oh, we don’t need it now. We’ll talk about it later.
Trent Manning: 59:20
Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 59:20
And so, you know, yeah, exactly. So we could have been ready to be turnkey all electric, but because, you know, this was expensive enough of an investment that they didn’t want to spend any more,
Trent Manning: 59:37
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 59:38
so they said, we’ll just deal with it when it comes up. I’m
Trent Manning: 59:41
Right. And I mean, that’s, that’s the way way it goes for a lot of us a lot of the times and unfortunately the, the maintenance crew usually kind of gets the short end of the stick. I mean, that’s the last place members want to spend money and I get it. But unfortunately, you know, for them, we got to maintain a golf course and without us, you don’t have a golf course.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:00:06
exactly. Exactly. It took.
Trent Manning: 1:00:09
golfers listening, please hear that we need help too.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:00:14
We went through multiple, I don’t know what the word is, but we went through multiple phases of trying to get a maintenance facility built. I mean, if you know the cow club and you’ve been here before the maintenance facility, then you were pretty much accustomed to seeing the circus tents all over the parking lot.
Trent Manning: 1:00:36
Uh, yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:00:37
And that’s what we had. We had five or six tents and we had a double wide trailer as the break room
Trent Manning: 1:00:44
Wow.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:00:45
was just in the parking lot. And it was like the old maintenance facility was the first building torn down at the renovation, and it was literally the last building put up. In 2021 and the renovation was back in 2007. So
Trent Manning: 1:01:03
a long time coming
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:01:05
oh yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:01:06
Yeah. And then to give you the bare minimum of a shot or, you know, a maintenance facility. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:01:12
I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s a great maintenance facility. It could have been tad larger, but living in California, construction costs aren’t cheap.
Trent Manning: 1:01:23
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:01:24
So, you know, I’m grateful for what we have now. I mean, compared to what I had before, like I said, I had a 30 by 60 that had two naturally made sunroofs in it.
Trent Manning: 1:01:38
Wow.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:01:39
So in the wintertime when it rained, I made sure to not keep equipment under that area or areas so my stuff wouldn’t get wet. So
Trent Manning: 1:01:47
Wow. That’s crazy. Yeah. I couldn’t imagine. So how, yeah. How long did you work out of a tent?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:01:54
Uh, 2010 to 2021? No, 2013 to 2021. So Oh, eight years. Seven and a half. Eight
Trent Manning: 1:02:05
must, you must really, really like, the golf course to work in a tent for that long.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:02:11
well, you being military and being overseas and in deployed areas. I was used to it.
Trent Manning: 1:02:20
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:02:20
just say that. I mean, now, if it was anybody else who just had come from, like, say, an auto shop or, you know, wherever else or another golf course, they would have been like, Nope, not for me. But me, I didn’t mind. I mean. I was, I was used to those type of conditions.
Trent Manning: 1:02:43
You ready to do some rapid fire?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:02:46
yeah, let’s do it.
Trent Manning: 1:02:47
All right What’s your favorite movie?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:02:50
It’s a shoot between Face Off and The Rock.
Trent Manning: 1:02:55
Oh, okay. Yeah, I love the rock that face off was that what’s the guy’s name?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:03:00
John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
Trent Manning: 1:03:02
Yeah, Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, that was a good solid movie. Yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:03:07
yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:03:08
What would be your last meal?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:03:09
I’m a sucker for steak, but if it had to be my last meal, I just recently found out about a two foot long over two pound Lobster roll in a little town outside of Orlando, Florida.
Trent Manning: 1:03:28
Oh, okay, well dang, next time shows in Orlando, you’re gonna have to give me the name of that place for
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:03:34
Yeah, definitely. I had, I was watching a random YouTube video and this guy who does like food challenges was like lobster roll over two feet long and over two, two pounds of lobster meat. I’m like, There’s no way.
Trent Manning: 1:03:47
yeah, that’s cool. Very cool. Well, what are you most proud of besides your five kids?
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:03:55
I’m most proud of as much as the pain as they are of the crew here at the Cal club.
Trent Manning: 1:04:02
Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, very cool.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:04:05
to come here and not know a single thing about golf and its equipment and to watch our crew stay dedicated and be focused enough to see. Our club hit so many lists and continuously climb up that list every year
Trent Manning: 1:04:27
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:04:28
is something to be extremely proud of,
Trent Manning: 1:04:31
Oh, for sure.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:04:32
and we always say that we don’t chase rank here and we don’t because when people come out to say, hey, we want to rate your course, it’s like, well, do you know a member? Because you have to come out here as a guest.
Trent Manning: 1:04:45
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:04:46
won’t let you come on and play. Cause you know, all the politics that’s involved with that. To see us just literally jump the list every single year on multiple lists is something that I never thought I could be a part of.
Trent Manning: 1:05:04
Mm hmm.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:05:05
Especially not being one into golf. But the fact that literally every year we just get better and better. It’s awesome.
Trent Manning: 1:05:12
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, that’s so cool. Yeah, and I mean that definitely has to mean something to you. Being at a club like that, that is prestigious and everybody knows Cal Club,
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:05:27
Yeah. And it’s,
Trent Manning: 1:05:27
I mean, it’s,
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:05:28
it’s funny because everybody says like, we’re the hidden gem of the Bay Area. Like, you know, of the other names in the area. And it’s like the minute you drop that name, you’re just like, Oh, you’re a member there. And then you bring up, Oh, I work for Cal club. And you’re just like, Oh, yeah, I definitely want to play there. But it’s like, it’s so hard to get in or like, you got to know somebody to know somebody kind of a deal. And it’s like, you know, that’s, That’s super awesome to hear, you know, when people say, Oh
Trent Manning: 1:05:59
Oh yeah, yeah.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:06:00
Yeah. You know,
Trent Manning: 1:06:02
Oh yeah. Yep. No, that’s, that’s cool. Very, very cool. Well, thank you so much for being on Jeff. I’ve, uh, thoroughly enjoyed this. This is a, it’s been a real good one. And every time I say that most of the time, I guess is how you probably say that to every guest. And I do say it a lot, but seriously, it’s been, been a lot of fun. Tell the listeners how they can, uh, get ahold of you.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:06:27
I am on Twitter. Uh, my Twitter handle is I believe it’s Cal club EM. I haven’t posted in a while. But you can get me there or, uh, you can email me at Jeff at Cal club. org.
Trent Manning: 1:06:43
Awesome. Very good. Well, thanks again. And, uh, I appreciate you being on.
Jeff Lumaquin: 1:06:48
Thank you. I appreciate you for inviting me.
Trent Manning: 1:06:51
thank 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.