Description:
Welcome to Episode 119 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast! 🎙️ Today, we’re chatting with Terry Appel, Equipment Manager at Overbrook Golf Club in Villanova, PA. Founded in 1900, Overbrook Golf Club boasts a rich history as an 18-hole private club.
Typically accompanied by one assistant in the shop (though currently on the lookout for a new addition), Terry primarily manages a fleet consisting of John Deere equipment with a sprinkle of Toro.
Terry’s journey into the turf management world began at the tender age of four, where he learned early lessons about where to draw on the golf course (not the carts!). From placing scorecards and pencils to navigating the maintenance crew, Terry’s passion for golf and mechanics eventually led him to SUNY Delhi for his bachelor’s degree and a start down the superintendent track. With experience in golf course construction and renovation, including projects at historic Oakmont Country Club, Terry found his niche in the shop beginning as an assistant mechanic and never looked back.
Outside of work, you’ll find Terry exploring the great outdoors through hiking, camping, or hitting the gym for a good workout.
In this episode, we dive into the challenges of optimizing preventative maintenance programs, the quirky things found upside down on golf courses, the intricacies of backlapping, and the delights of zoysiagrass. Terry and Trent also explore the historic maintenance facility at Overbrook Golf Club and the importance of prioritization in a job where ‘emergencies’ abound. Plus, don’t miss out on some of Terry’s coolest fabrication projects!
Transcript:
Trent Manning: 0:05
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 real 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 Foley Ready for play Welcome to the real turf text podcast, episode one 19. Today, we’re talking to Terry apple. Equipment manager at Overbrook. Golf club and Villanova, Pennsylvania. Overbrook golf club is an 18 hole private club founded in 1900. He usually has one assistant in the shop. But currently is looking to fill the position. He has mostly John Deere with some Turo. Let’s talk to Terry. Welcome Terry to the real turf text podcast. Thanks for coming on. How are you doing today?
Terry Appel: 1:37
I’m good, Trent, man, how about you? I’m good,
Trent Manning: 1:39
great. I am. I’m ready for, I had an interview last night and we had a lot of fun and I know we’ll have a lot of fun tonight. I say it all the time, but this is definitely my favorite part. Getting, you know, getting to hear everybody’s story. And I mean, everybody has a different story. You know, nobody went to high school and said, okay, I want to be a golf course mechanic when I grow up, you know, it just, it just, it just happens to us.
Terry Appel: 2:05
it’s not one of those things that anybody really thinks of.
Trent Manning: 2:08
That’s right. So tell us your story. How’d you get in the golf course industry? Oh,
Terry Appel: 2:15
barely walking four ish, and my first job was putting scorecards and pencils in a public golf course golf carts. My dad was a bartender there, we played golf as a family, and he’d show me where the pencils went, where the scorecards went, so I would trickle around and, and pop them in there, take naps on the pool table, and all that good stuff, and Second job on a golf course was cleaning those carts because I figured out that the pencils and those nice white Yamaha three wheel golf carts were a perfect canvas to do all kinds of drawings and stuff on. So I had started watching golf courts when I was about four and a half years old. So
Trent Manning: 2:51
Yeah. That’s crazy. That’s funny.
Terry Appel: 2:53
So, played golf my entire life, my family started working at a golf course in the bag room, in the pro shop, cleaning clubs, carrying bags turned 16 to get out on the maintenance staff and run some equipment. So I started doing that. Superintendent that I worked for had gone to SUNY Del High in New York State and I thought that I wanted to be a superintendent. So off I went to SUNY Del High and got my four year degree, got my bachelor’s, everything all hooked up. Started working at Marion for my internship. Was there for, uh, six months or so for my internship. And Matt Schaefer said why don’t you try doing golf course construction? So McDonald and Sons was there. We were doing some projects on the golf course and started talking to them and started working for them following my internship. So I went from turf internship to be a superintendent to golf course construction renovation. Did that for for a couple of years and decided to part ways and kept in touch with the guys.
Trent Manning: 3:56
Were you doing a lot of traveling on the construction side?
Terry Appel: 3:59
Not as much as the guys are doing nowadays. I kind of got stationed at Oakmont for the renovation out there for the open. But before that and after that it was, you know, a couple days here, a couple days there, a week here. So there’s a little bit of traveling on the front end and the back end, but I was pretty much at Oakmont for, for the duration of that project. So for my, most of my time with McDonald and Sons. So,
Trent Manning: 4:21
Yeah.
Terry Appel: 4:21
Yeah, I ended up leaving there and kept in touch with the guys at Merion. Got in contact again with Scotty Bordner and he said, why don’t you stop by on your way up from Maryland? We got a job opening. Didn’t know what it was. Said, sounds good. I’ll see you in a couple hours and drove up and they had a assistant mechanic spot open up and I was like, great, let’s give that a shot. So started working there. The equipment manager that was there, Eric Martin, happened to be one of the guys that I worked with at the first golf course that I had ever worked at. So I knew him, him and I got along, we started rolling through. He ended up leaving and Matt brought in Jay Rear from down at Augusta. So I trained under Jay, cut my teeth under Jay for, for about two and a half years, three years or so.
Trent Manning: 5:07
Okay. So when, yeah, like what year are we at? Was Jay an assistant mechanic or
Terry Appel: 5:15
Jay was, yeah, I’m pretty sure he worked for Fred. I think Jay was pretty much in charge of the walkers and everything like that. So,
Trent Manning: 5:22
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome.
Terry Appel: 5:25
Yeah. Got my teeth under him. And then sorta left Marion. My wife was doing her graduate year at Cornell, so I went up and I worked on Cornell’s turf staff for like three or four months and stocked shells at Wegmans in the wintertime and
Trent Manning: 5:40
Hmm.
Terry Appel: 5:41
Left there. Went to WantaMoisette out in Rhode Island and been an equipment manager ever since.
Trent Manning: 5:47
That’s awesome. No, that’s good. It was a great story. And like we were saying, everybody’s story is different, you know, it’s yeah, it’s so crazy. Well, what’s your least favorite part of the job?
Terry Appel: 5:59
Admin work, sitting in front of the computer, entering data, not turning wrenches, just all that, that mind numbing data entry. I cannot stand being in front of a computer like that.
Trent Manning: 6:12
Yeah, I think we can, it’s safe to say that no golf course mechanic, equipment manager, whatever you want to call us. Yeah. Starts doing this to set behind the computer. If we like setting behind the computer, we’d be doing something else.
Terry Appel: 6:27
yeah, exactly.
Trent Manning: 6:29
And yeah, one of the maintenance software programs I’ve tried. I mean, this was, I don’t know, seven, eight years ago, probably. That’s all I did was set at the desk, open work orders, fill out work orders, close work orders. I’m like, this is so dumb.
Terry Appel: 6:47
Yeah, that’s, that’s my nightmare right there.
Trent Manning: 6:49
Yeah, can’t do it. Well, what’s your favorite tool?
Terry Appel: 6:53
I think I have two of them. I think springtime, I’ve got a Milwaukee 90 degree drill that I use for changing heights because once we start coming through verification, we’re changing heights constantly. So that thing just speeds up the process a whole lot faster than turning a wrench. So I love that guy. Anytime we’re doing height changes, that thing’s just a risk saver and a time saver. So I love that. I think any other time. I love you. Standard old 3 8’s impact, just turning screws and getting stuff done as fast as you can and getting it out the door.
Trent Manning: 7:25
Yeah, no, I love it. And on the 3ACE Impact, do you take stuff apart and put it together? Yeah,
Terry Appel: 7:35
Ingersoll 3 8’s and it’s got a little dial on the back so I can have different. Torques to it if you will. So it’s got full throttle for taking it apart and it’s got a hand tight wrench tight and a low setting on it so I can finesse it a little bit more than anything else.
Trent Manning: 7:51
no, that’s awesome. Yeah, and I would say it’s one of those things. If you’re experienced using the tool, you know, you can make it work. But, you know, if, if you don’t have a lot of experience, I mean, I see these guys coming in the shop and, you know, they don’t think about it. So they just, they’re hammering, you know, going in, you know, a steel bolt into aluminum. Like, hang on.
Terry Appel: 8:17
Yeah, if we’re, if we’re doing different metals, I’m definitely doing stuff, stuff by hand. But,
Trent Manning: 8:21
Yeah. Right. Right.
Terry Appel: 8:22
it can, once you learn the art form of feather and that 3A, you can get pretty good at it. Not to say that it doesn’t, I’ve, I’ve broken my bolts, a few
Trent Manning: 8:29
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Terry Appel: 8:30
you know, it happens. But it’s, yeah,
Trent Manning: 8:33
yeah, it’s like, it’s those Little three eights headed bolts. I guess they’re probably quarter 20. I think on the Toros that hold the cutoff bar, the adjustment for the cutoff bar and the shield is that same bolt. If you hit those with the impact, they’re gone.
Terry Appel: 8:50
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 8:51
if you take a wrench and you kind of break them loose, slow and kind of work them back and forth, back and forth, you can usually get them out. Not always. Sometimes you’re going to break them regardless, but
Terry Appel: 9:01
I, I found that out taking apart PGMs way back in the day with 3 8s and putting them back together. I was told not to put them back together with that 3 8s, but of course I knew everything and I didn’t listen and you start stripping those cases out and you are in a world that’s Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 9:17
What do you do to relax or find your balance?
Terry Appel: 9:20
We do a lot of hiking, camping.
Trent Manning: 9:22
Okay.
Terry Appel: 9:23
I’m big on working out and training and everything like that. So having a, having a bad work day coming home and getting a good sweat rolling kind of calms me down. Helps me relax a little bit.
Trent Manning: 9:34
Yeah. I don’t, it’s, I don’t know. I shouldn’t say it’s weird, but it’s definitely different how working out or going on a hike or, you know, any of these things that we do really changes our mental state.
Terry Appel: 9:52
Very
Trent Manning: 9:52
you’re saying, you know, if you’re having a bad day or this isn’t going right, you know, if you get outside or you get in the gym or you know, whatever, whatever it is that you enjoy doing, it just really changes your.
Terry Appel: 10:05
Yeah, I mean, at work, it’s leave the phone, leave the radio in the office and jump on the car and go for a ride. Just no contact with anything,
Trent Manning: 10:13
Mm hmm. Yep.
Terry Appel: 10:14
anything to get away from the tethering of the phone. Just clear your mind and keep going.
Trent Manning: 10:20
Yeah. So is there a lot of good hiking around there?
Terry Appel: 10:25
Yeah, there’s, there’s quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 10:26
Okay.
Terry Appel: 10:27
a bunch of state parks and everything like that, so.
Trent Manning: 10:30
Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome.
Terry Appel: 10:31
of trails.
Trent Manning: 10:33
Very cool. What’s been one of your biggest challenges in these years at the golf course?
Terry Appel: 10:40
Trying to find the right preventative maintenance program. I have tried Many different ways to do it, you know, not grinding in the winter, waiting till the, after the spring cuts to, to get everything grind grind. As long as everything’s cutting in the wintertime or in the fall, kind of letting it ride to the spring for those first cuts, you know, best times to do oil change, oil change services, and just trying to tweak that PM, trying to find the right thing. Just being a different golf course, different golf courses, everything’s, everything’s different. Every superintendent’s different. So what you have to have ready. It’s that I think my biggest challenge is just trying to tune everything
Trent Manning: 11:22
Yeah. So yeah. What, what do you, what have you kind of settled in on at your current low? Yeah. Your current location.
Terry Appel: 11:31
it’s high end oil and high end oil filters, you know change oil once a year check it You know, once a week, twice a month, making sure oil levels are good, but trying to save time on the back end of cutting down on services, on pretty much everything once a year. And it depends on what we’re doing in the fall, but usually I’ve, I’m kind of settling in here to the same thing where we just, as long as everything is cutting after our final cuts of the fall, just kind of let everything go and. Get going in the spring, once we get those first cuts in and start breaking stuff down. And once we get through sand and all that fun stuff of spring airification, we can get back in and get going, so. Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 12:20
and we never close or I say we never close you know, there is times if it’s, you know, and single digits will be closed or whatever, but it’s really, that doesn’t happen very often. And if it does, it’s very short periods of time. So, but the way I kind of learned and just like I think most of the people do up north is in the wintertime you break it down, you grind everything, you replace all the bearings, you know, you do all this stuff in the wintertime. And so one thing that I have going against me for doing that is we overseed our fairways with ryegrass, so my fairway mowers are running year round. You know, they don’t run as much in the winter. But they, I’ll say they don’t run as much in the winter. They make up for it in the spring because we mow six, seven days a week on rye grass. And I’m starting about now, which we’re recording 1st of March, and it’ll be that way through May and part of June until the Bermuda starts taking off.
Terry Appel: 13:22
yeah, all those years of just breaking everything down and grinding everything just to go out there and get destroyed on the first 10 feet of the past year just didn’t make sense to me. So, I
Trent Manning: 13:32
Well, and that’s the other thing that I was getting at. So like my rough units. I don’t, I send them out at least three times, maybe four in the spring. Then I’ll bring them in, then I’ll grind, then I’ll do whatever I need to do. And I’m fortunate enough to have enough staff in the shop that we can get all that done, plus the other normal stuff that we’re doing. But what really got me, so we got Bermuda greens and we cover the Bermuda when it gets, you know, to a certain temperature with but you know, tarps. And they have these stakes that they stake the tarp down with and then they don’t pick all the stakes up. So every spring, our 3100s, they find, you know, 10 or 15 stakes. So I really hate to take a brand new fresh ground reel out there and find these stakes with it. You know, it’s just one of those things. So if I can prevent that I’m gonna wait.
Terry Appel: 14:36
Yeah. It just doesn’t make sense going out there and fighting sand and rocks and sticks and yeah.
Trent Manning: 14:41
Well, and that’s right. That’s the other thing, you know, I mean, the ground settles, things move, you know, drain grates, you know, all these things that we run into. So, yeah, I’d rather find those with reels that are not in the best shape. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at work?
Terry Appel: 14:58
I’ve seen sand pros upside down in bunkers, golf carts upside down in creeks, carts in ponds. I think one of the The funniest ones I ever saw was I was working at Philly Cricket and guys were out mowing greens on militia and they trailered their mowers on that side. And a guy came in with just his cart and said he lost his greens mower. I said, what do you mean you lost your greens mower? And he goes, coming down the hill and I got to the green and I didn’t have my greens mower. I’m like, well, where’s your trailer? Well, I lost that too. I’m like, Oh, okay. So. Half in the cart and we go out and said, where were you coming from? Where were you going? He goes, well, I was up top and I was heading down to 14. I was like, okay. So we started driving down the hill and there’s a lot of fescue area on Militia Hill at Philly cricket. And all of a sudden we just saw two tire tracks. All from the fescue, so we just kind of followed the tire tracks down, down the hill, down into the creek, and there was a mower on the trailer, tow bar was buried in the creek side, and you couldn’t see it. We walked around, we were walking up to it, we could not see it until we were actually standing on top of it.
Trent Manning: 16:03
Wow. That’s funny.
Terry Appel: 16:04
that was one of the best things that I’d ever seen.
Trent Manning: 16:07
Yeah. I
Terry Appel: 16:09
idea where this grease mower or trailer was, we had to go track it down, and it was, it
Trent Manning: 16:14
yeah, that’s awesome. Well, and it reminds me of, so number four at our course is on a river and it’s pretty close to the river and it’s a steep bank there, and I don’t know what this greens mower operator was doing. And this was several years ago and it was before the bail system. You know, operator presence and all that. I don’t know if he just let go or what, but the mower went right through the fringe, right through the collar, through the rough, into the tall fescue, this like knee high and down this hill. And I mean, what, what happened? You know, you had to just let it go. You know, I don’t know how that happens, but you know, it’s crazy that it was that far.
Terry Appel: 17:00
I’ve seen guys fall asleep on fairway mowers and go through the step cut and get 15 feet into the rough before. Reels clumped up and shut down on him and woke him up. Yeah, I’ve seen lots of that.
Trent Manning: 17:12
Yep. It’s good stuff.
Terry Appel: 17:13
I,
Trent Manning: 17:18
do you have a mentor in the industry?
Terry Appel: 17:21
mean, probably Jay I worked with Craig Cassidy at Philly cricket for quite some time. I actually, I knew him from Marion too, when I was there as an intern him and I worked together and shot for six years. So, Those two. I mean, there’s guys that I call. I’m not afraid to pick up the phone and call. So I guess you could call mentors. But yeah, there’s a few guys.
Trent Manning: 17:42
Very
Terry Appel: 17:42
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 17:44
Any valuable lessons that you learned from some of those guys? Hmm. Mm
Terry Appel: 17:50
learned a lot of good things. A lot of bad things. You know, you pick up, you know, good and bad from everybody you work with and work for. I think one of the most valuable lessons that I. I heard, but I didn’t understand right away was actually from, from Matt Schaefer was mechanics life is nothing but dull reels and broke shit. And I didn’t understand that at first. And I was like, all right, you know, whatever. And it’s kind of is what it is, but it’s not really as long as you, it’s one of those expected things. So, you know, things are going to break and that’s what you’re getting paid for. And you gotta love digging into stuff and doing it. Yeah, I wish I wish I would have understood that a lot sooner than I did now. So
Trent Manning: 18:30
Yeah.
Terry Appel: 18:30
that would be the one, the one big thing.
Trent Manning: 18:32
No, that’s yeah, that is a good one. And I remember, so I was 16, you know, just working on the crew at the golf course and it was in the winter time. Me and my buddy that I went to school with would come in and we would cover a couple of greens. Back then we were bent grass and we had some weak areas at 16 to 17. So we’d come in and cover those greens. And I remember seeing outside the shop. We had a case uniloader back in that day. I don’t know if you ever run across one of those, but really a hunk of garbage, but it did the job, you know, but so anyway, we come in and the cabs off of it, not that it had a cab cab, but you know, open cab it’s off of it. And I don’t know if the engine’s out of it. I mean, it’s like in a million pieces and we come in the very next day. And they’re using it in the parking lot and it just blew me away. Like, how did they get this thing back together that fast? You know, I’m like 16, 17 or whatever. And I mean, it just blew me away thinking about, you know, how could they do that? This mechanic must be really, really good. And he was, and he was definitely a mentor to me and, and taught me a lot of things, but, you know, I told that story where I want to go with this. Is he was a really good mechanic and he, his dad was a machinist growing up. He kind of grew up on a farm and he had that farming mentality of, you know, whatever we can do to get it running, we’re going to get it running. And, you know, grew up, you know, I don’t want to say poor, but you know, it wouldn’t Probably not quite middle class growing up in, you know, North, North Alabama. And he had to do what you had to do. And same thing, like he his dad says, I’ll give you a couple hundred bucks and you can buy this car that doesn’t run. And then you can fix it and then you’ll have a car, you know, so that’s just all he knew. So anyway, really good mechanic, but the golf course stuff, he could do all that. And I don’t know, you know, if he was taught the wrong way, but, you know, some of the, the real grind and cutting unit stuff. And I think it has, and you can verify this too. I think it has progressed over the years. But, you know, back then, all we done was lap. We lapped everything, you know, greens mowers. We never put on the real grinder. And we had a real grinder. We didn’t have a bed knock grinder.
Terry Appel: 21:14
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 21:15
Can you speak to any of that?
Terry Appel: 21:17
Yeah, because that’s how, that’s how Jay was when I was at at Marion. It was just lap everything, lap it in, even if it touched the grinder, you still lapped it back in, make sure you mirrored everything up. And that was like one of the things working with all the guys were you find things that they do, you find things that somebody else does, and you kind of put everything together, and then you find your own way once you get your own shop and you kind of figure things out. So I took a little bit of lapping to me, but when it went to one more set. And then I started getting more comfortable with my preventative maintenance schedule for there and how to keep everything sharp and keep everything moving and going. And I phased it out over a couple of years that I was there and it was, you know, you find whatever makes things easier for you and for your golf course and whatever situation you’re in, whether it’s, you have to lap, great, you have to lap. If you can get away with just clutching up bed knives every two weeks, great. You know, it’s. Yeah, it’s whatever, whatever you get into is how you can get into it.
Trent Manning: 22:17
Oh, yeah. And I’m not, yeah, I don’t want to call anybody out. I still lap today. We lap fairway mowers. And, you know, right or wrong, this is my thought process behind that. You know, and Toro says it all the time in a lot of their literature. They recommend lapping frequently, but light. And that’s what we try to do. Before the reel ever gets dull, you know, just a minute or two on each reel, you know, on a fairway mower. And it
Terry Appel: 22:50
And it works.
Trent Manning: 22:51
yeah, it does work. But with that being said, so for years and years, I’ve been on Bermuda and, and we have two courses and I’ve talked about this plenty, but at our other course we have Zorja Fairways. And that lappin does not work on Zorja Fairways. It does not.
Terry Appel: 23:12
It was at Philly Cricket 2, the St. Martin’s course had the, the Meyers and it was, it couldn’t, we had to grind it twice, twice a month. We had to touch that thing up because it just, what happened, it did not work, not at all. So
Trent Manning: 23:26
My member no, this was, yeah, whatever, 12, 13 years ago at East Lake, my buddy was down there, David Blowers. I’ve had him on the podcast too. They were like, they were grinding every third mow on fairway units.
Terry Appel: 23:43
yep,
Trent Manning: 23:44
Every third mow. I mean, that’s crazy amount of ground.
Terry Appel: 23:47
yeah, yeah, so I should brutal,
Trent Manning: 23:49
Yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s nuts. So yeah, and like everybody says, there’s, there’s more than one way to scan a cat and whatever works for you.
Terry Appel: 23:57
Whatever works for your course, works for your course, yeah.
Trent Manning: 24:00
But back to the mentor thing. I do think a lot of people in the industry are misled and taught some not so right way of doing things. Yeah. And I do think that’s something that we need to overcome as an industry and have a better, you know, education. You know, I mean, however, I don’t know what that looks like. I would love to find the solution to that problem. And I’m not the first guy to say this problem needs to be addressed and hopefully we’ll figure it out one day.
Terry Appel: 24:34
yeah,
Trent Manning: 24:36
What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Terry Appel: 24:39
I would love to be on a multi court facility, but. Going back to what we were talking about before, I just, that just seems like it would be more computer work and more craziness that I don’t want to deal with. So I mean, not blowing smoke, but I, I’m kind of in it right now where superintendent that I’m working for, Brandon, just lets me do my thing and everything’s cut and everything looks good. And just what I’m doing now, getting to tinker around, play with stuff, do some fabrication, modifications. So I’m, I’m living it right now. Having the ability and the freedom to be able to have the shop and have it functional the way that I want it to be and make sure everybody’s happy and have my time to do my stuff too.
Trent Manning: 25:20
Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. So let’s talk about your shop. How old is this facility?
Terry Appel: 25:27
The facility is quite old. I believe it was the 1900s, somewhere in there. There’s a house. Not that good of a historical reference to be, to be speaking about it, but I know it’s, it’s quite old. And I know the the shop itself was multiple different things before it was a maintenance facility.
Trent Manning: 25:46
Well, yeah. Wasn’t there stables there or something?
Terry Appel: 25:48
I believe there were stables there at one point. I think the old coal shoes are still leading down to the basement and everything like that. I want to say that it was a firehouse too for the property at one point. I believe I’ve heard that story, yeah.
Trent Manning: 26:01
Yeah. That’s, that’s cool.
Terry Appel: 26:02
it’s got a lot of history in that shop. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 26:09
to Madonna and I think their shop used to be somebody hop in and correct me probably, but I was thinking it used to be a stable or something like that. I know it’s got some huge beams in it and it has some skylights that open. And the handles are still there for opening them up on the roof. I mean, it’s, yeah, it’s super cool. And when they redone that facility, Brian Ressler, he’d done an awesome job cleaning it up, you know, and they painted everything, but they didn’t destroy any of that. You know, they left all that intact and just kind of worked around it. And yeah, it’s an awesome place. Very cool. You got a technician you would like to work with for a day?
Terry Appel: 26:53
I don’t think I can think of one off the top of my head. I love going to tournaments because you can meet a lot of different techs at the same time. You kind of pick their brain. I don’t know if I could pick just one. I really don’t.
Trent Manning: 27:05
Well, yeah. You, you, you
Terry Appel: 27:06
worked at.
Trent Manning: 27:07
pick, pick a couple if you want to. Have you worked with any techs over the years? I mean, other than worked for, but like you’re saying at a tournament or something, any people you’ve met that sticks out? Mm-Hmm.
Terry Appel: 27:21
Got Mike Elliott. Over at Union League Ed Wojcicki is just one of those phenomenal guys that just knows everything about everything and he’s amazing. Scotty Virchak down at Wilmington. Just, I don’t, there’s, there’s too many, too many guys that I know that I would just, I would love to hang out with for a day,
Trent Manning: 27:40
well, yeah, that’s, yeah. I don’t anybody you can hang out with, whether they work at a golf course or not, that does, you know. I know when we’ll talk about it more later about fabrication and modifications and that kind of stuff. But, and I, before we got on, I was telling you about my blacksmith buddy. I got actually a couple of blacksmith buddies and you know, hanging out with those guys, I’ve learned so much.
Terry Appel: 28:05
It could be about anything, too, and then all of a sudden, yeah. Yeah. You just have this idea of, hey, I could do that, or hey, I could do this, and use some of that knowledge. I mean, if you hang out with anybody for a day, you’re gonna, you should be able to pick up something and use it,
Trent Manning: 28:18
Oh yeah, for sure. What do you know now you wish you’d known on day one?
Terry Appel: 28:22
Boy, I don’t know. Probably had a deal with urgency a little bit better. You know, everything that walks into the shop is important to that person, whether it’s a broken weed whacker or a downed fairway mower. Everything, everything is important, but picking and prioritizing the the urgency of what needs to happen first. I think I was, I wish I was a little bit better at that when I first started, instead of just getting all fired up and angry at something being broke down or somebody coming in with a weed whacker just magically bet in half for no, no known reason. but yeah, just having that, that mentality that things are going to happen and, and prioritizing a little bit better when a lot of things walk into the shop at the same time.
Trent Manning: 29:06
Yeah, it’s tough. It’s really tough to prioritize all that stuff. And it’s tough to not take it personal. Even though the person that destroyed a weed Whacker probably didn’t do it intentionally. You know, it wasn’t like they said, okay, I want to destroy this weed Whacker when they left the shop. So, you know, were they neglectful? Probably so.
Terry Appel: 29:31
Yeah. And like you said, not taking it personally. I mean, every tech that’s out there, every equipment manager. No, that’s, that’s our equipment. That’s, that’s my greens mower. You’re just renting it for the 4 hours that you’re using it kind of thing. Not taking it personally when something happens. That’s, that’s a good one. I like that one.
Trent Manning: 29:45
Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s so, it’s so hard and honestly, I wouldn’t want to work with a technician that didn’t take it somewhat personally. And I’m not saying that, you know, that’s all good. Cause it could be bad too, you know, I don’t know. I think that the technician, the EM, you know, should value all that equipment and they probably do, but if they didn’t, They’re probably not a very good technician if they’re not worried about that kind of stuff.
Terry Appel: 30:19
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 30:19
Do you have that person on your crew? In all the years have you ever worked with that person?
Terry Appel: 30:24
Yes. Yes. Currently do not. No. Do not have that person on the crew, but I have in the past. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 30:30
Yeah, I would stay there forever if you don’t have that person right now and hopefully you don’t hire him this spring. And any suggestions for how to address that in a positive manner?
Terry Appel: 30:42
Just treat them like you would treat your kids in a way, you know, don’t get angry. Don’t get all frustrated and just accept it and it’s going to happen. It’s an inevitability and just, you know, thanks for telling me. And that’s, That’s one of the other things too, is just be thankful to them that they’re actually bringing it to your attention. I’m not trying to stick it in a corner downstairs for somebody else to find and say they found it like this. If they’ve, if they’re bringing it to you, then you should appreciate the fact that they’re actually bringing it to you and treat them as such and be thankful that they’re actually coming to you. So treat them well, treat them nice, you know, just, just be a nice guy
Trent Manning: 31:21
That’s
Terry Appel: 31:22
and be nice to them.
Trent Manning: 31:24
ones I’ve heard yet though. Treat them like they’re your kids. You know, obviously if you don’t have kids, you might not understand or can relate to that. But, you know, kids do silly things all the time. And it’s because they’re kids. Yeah. And it’s no real, not really any fault of their own. So I wish I was able to look at our operators and equipment like that a long time ago. Yeah, I would probably have more friends in the industry if if I’d kept that up. Cause I definitely took it way too personal. And I’ve shared that story enough, but yeah, it’s tough. It is, it’s a balance for sure.
32:05
Get ready for tips and tricks.
Trent Manning: 32:09
What kind of tips and tricks you got, you want to share with us?
Terry Appel: 32:13
The biggest one that I’ve been working on for a while now is setting up my tomorrow self today, making sure that. Tomorrow me has a nice, smooth, easy day, that I’m not leaving myself something dumb or silly that I could do in 15 minutes now, that I’m going to regret having to do it tomorrow, because I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring as far as the shop comes. So my biggest tip, biggest trick is making sure that I’m good to go for tomorrow. Everything’s locked up tight, locked down for the night, and then tomorrow is going to be a nice fresh day.
Trent Manning: 32:44
No, that’s really good. Yeah, that’s awesome. And yeah, I don’t know too many people that look at it like that. And yeah, I really liked that. And I mean, I think we’ve talked about it a little bit before, or I think it ties in with when you leave for the day, you know, cleaning your tools up and having things put away. And not that you have to do, and I’m guilty, you know, I leave tools. If I’ve got something tore apart and I don’t want to finish it today, I’ll leave it right there. But I think there is something to say for walking into the shop first thing in the morning and everything, you know, it was what are they selling? Say in the military left, right dress or whatever it is, you know, wherever they squared away. Not, you know, it just
Terry Appel: 33:27
into a clean canvas. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 33:30
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Terry Appel: 33:31
Yep, just a nice clean shop. You don’t have to worry about this or that or, oh, it’s going to take me 20 minutes now and it’s going to be five minutes yesterday. Just making sure tomorrow me is going to be happy when they walk in the shop.
Trent Manning: 33:42
Yeah, no, that’s really, really good. Any other tips and tricks?
Terry Appel: 33:47
That’s, that’s, that’s my big one.
Trent Manning: 33:49
Okay, yeah, no, that’s good.
Terry Appel: 33:51
set yourself up, set yourself up for success.
Trent Manning: 33:54
Really, really good. Let’s talk about fabrication, modification.
Terry Appel: 33:59
Okay,
Trent Manning: 33:59
Yeah, what, what’s what, what’s on, what’s on your mind? What’s some of the latest modifications you’ve done?
Terry Appel: 34:05
Not too many lately, but I was talking about modifications before. We were talking we made we made Brandon a party cart. His we turned his Hauler 800 into a party cart for him. We were we were at the show in San Diego, and we were at the Deere booth, and Brandon was pointing at the green underglow lights of all the, the equipment they had there, and he said, that’s pretty cool, that’s awesome. And I’ve had this thought in my head that I was going to do it anyway, and I, I had. the light kit and everything sitting in my cart, in my Amazon cart, just, just waiting for a reason to order it for him. So I found a LED light strip underglow kit that you can set up to music, that you can do different
Trent Manning: 34:48
Awesome.
Terry Appel: 34:49
and everything like that. And I’m like, as soon as he mentioned, I think he was joking a little bit about it when when he said it, but as soon as he said that, you know, I want one of those, boom, I hit order and it’s great.
Trent Manning: 35:00
Yeah,
Terry Appel: 35:01
And so he was out in San Diego a little bit longer than we were, so it was waiting for him when we got back. So my assistant at the time, him and I popped that thing in and then I was like, can’t have a party cart without speakers. So got some nice Bluetooth speakers, put those in there, mounted them up underneath the cupholders so you couldn’t see anything, put the put the party switch on the dashboard for him. And hit the switch and then the Bluetooth will kick on. It’ll hook up to his phone. The lights come on.
Trent Manning: 35:30
Mm hmm.
Terry Appel: 35:31
Just turned it right into the party cart for
Trent Manning: 35:32
That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s
Terry Appel: 35:34
that was a, that was a fun modification that we did.
Trent Manning: 35:36
Oh Yeah, for sure. So do you leave it on there?
Terry Appel: 35:40
Oh yeah, it’s still on there. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 35:42
Very cool
Terry Appel: 35:43
hopefully we keep that cart for a while so we don’t have to tear everything back out and put in a new one for him. But yeah, it’s still on
Trent Manning: 35:48
just yeah, just order more stuff Amazon’s cheap
Terry Appel: 35:53
Cheap.
Trent Manning: 35:53
Yeah, it’s cheap
Terry Appel: 35:54
And it wasn’t that bad to hook up. So it was pretty good.
Trent Manning: 35:57
hmm. Yeah, that’s good
Terry Appel: 36:00
Fabrication. Fairway Dew Drags made a monster Fairway Dew Drag. Probably a little bit bigger than it should have been. Brandon showed me some pictures of one of his friends. They had this Fairway Dew Drag. And I was like, well, we can do it bigger and better. And he goes, okay. And I went a little too big.
Trent Manning: 36:18
Mm hmm
Terry Appel: 36:19
Couldn’t, couldn’t get it out of the shop, can’t get it into the shop when it’s folded up on the back of the cart, so,
Trent Manning: 36:23
Oh, wow.
Terry Appel: 36:24
little, little excessive on my end, but it works, so it was
Trent Manning: 36:29
Yeah. So explain that a little bit. What all, how’d you make this thing?
Terry Appel: 36:34
So, inch and a quarter steel tube I think it’s 40 feet when it’s unfolded all the
Trent Manning: 36:39
Oh, wow.
Terry Appel: 36:40
we can pretty much do a fairway in two, maybe three passes.
Trent Manning: 36:44
Okay. Wow.
Terry Appel: 36:46
it’s a reception boom basically on each side. So it’s, it’s pretty big chains in the middle, kind of take weight off of everything and bumper plates and used our existing do drag rope and just hooked it up to it and fold down one side, fold down the other side and take off and go. So yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning: 37:08
Oh, okay. I got you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Terry Appel: 37:13
It’s, yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 37:22
us tend to over engineer. And I don’t know, you know, where that comes from. And I told, I know I told the story when I was getting the, the bridge crane to go in our shop in midtown Atlanta,
Terry Appel: 37:38
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 37:48
that everybody does. You want to over crane, you know, he’s like, what, what are you lifting? Okay, how much does that weigh? Well, you know, it’s like 150 pounds. Okay, 500 is going to be really good for you. That’s, that’s all
Terry Appel: 38:01
I’d rather have it and then not need it though.
Trent Manning: 38:04
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yep. Nope. That’s we’ve all took that one for sure. Now, do you have a lathe milling machine? Don’t you
Terry Appel: 38:12
I have a mill, drill mill, I do not have a lathe, no.
Trent Manning: 38:15
Yeah. Drill mill. That’s right. Okay. Any cool projects on that?
Terry Appel: 38:20
I’d use that pretty much just for rotary blades. I don’t do a whole lot fabricating with it, but.
Trent Manning: 38:25
Okay. Just to, yeah. Sharpen them.
Terry Appel: 38:28
Sharpening up rotary blades. Yeah, keeping them cool. That way not ruining the temper and everything on them. Blades last a lot longer and don’t get hot. yeah.
Trent Manning: 38:46
you know,
Terry Appel: 38:47
I love it because I can just set it and it takes, you know, two thousands, three thousands off of it. And boom.
Trent Manning: 38:54
Did you make a custom jig to hold the blade?
Terry Appel: 38:58
a custom jig for it, yeah.
Trent Manning: 38:59
Yeah, that’s, that’s been, it’s been a couple years since I was by there, so I’m surprised I’m remembering all this stuff, but yeah, that’s awesome, man. That’s so cool. And I’m with you, you know, and I had that question in the lineup for a long time, you know, what have you fabricated lately? And I don’t know, I just kind of felt like it got a little old cause I’d asked it, you know, so many times. But I’m really glad you’re into fabrication because it’s one of my favorite things to do too. You know, nobody comes home after a long day at the golf course and said, Oh. I checked out my fairway mowers today and they were cutting good. You know, I mean, nobody says that That doesn’t you know, that isn’t what makes us tick for sure It’s always what we build or what we’re building or what we’re you know the fabrication
Terry Appel: 39:50
that with the the plasma table and everything like that, so you cutting out parts, it just makes cutting and welding stuff just so much easier and using it for, we make our own T markers and everything like that. So that plasma table is fantastic for fabrication stuff. So that, that table, it’s a biggest I can do is like two by two. Two foot by two foot,
Trent Manning: 40:09
Oh, that’s still I mean, yeah,
Terry Appel: 40:10
which,
Trent Manning: 40:11
that does a lot of stuff
Terry Appel: 40:12
we’re doing. Yeah,
Trent Manning: 40:14
And then
Terry Appel: 40:15
run into an issue with it yet, so,
Trent Manning: 40:17
Yeah, can you put any kind of plasma cutter on there? So, or is it a dedicated plasma set up?
Terry Appel: 40:26
so it’s, I mean, I can, I can disconnect the plasma cutter and just use it as a regular torch when I need to, but for the moment it’s, it’s dedicated.
Trent Manning: 40:33
Well, right, but I got, I’m not asking the question correctly. I guess the ones I’ve seen is you get the table and then you buy whatever plasma cutter you want to
Terry Appel: 40:46
Yeah, they, they did have a recommendation for one to go with it, but I already had the plasma cutter and then I got the table afterwards. So it was a lot of tracing wires and trying to figure out where everything was on this torch to get everything hooked in the right way. Had a, had a couple electricians kind of look at it and say, I don’t want to touch that. And I was like, well, I need to, so I got to figure it out. So I got down and dirty with it and finally got it figured out. So
Trent Manning: 41:12
Cool. What kind of
Terry Appel: 41:13
burn the shop down. So,
Trent Manning: 41:14
Yeah, that’s the main
Terry Appel: 41:15
The cup programs, fire control, and then it’s fusion 360 for the, for the CAD program.
Trent Manning: 41:21
Okay. Awesome. Yeah. That’s a super cool. And it’s so funny. The guy interviewed last night. He had just got a CNC plasma. He’s using. that same program fire, whatever it was and fusion 360. So it’s like, all right, this, this is awesome because then I was telling him, I just started to learn fusion 360 a little bit for my 3d printer.
Terry Appel: 41:49
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 41:49
yeah, trying, trying to figure that out. And yeah, for all the listeners, if you have a 3d printer and you want to join our WhatsApp group, that’s devoted to 3d printing, let me know. Send me an email, give me a call, whatever. You know, I put that together because, you know, it’s something I enjoy doing and I’m trying to learn. And there’s several guys in the group that are already using a 3d printer. And ultimately what I want to do is get, get some files together for golf course stuff. Like what can you 3D print that helps out at your maintenance facility, whether it’s in the shop or out on the course or, you know, whatever it is. I just think that’d be an awesome resource to have. So that’s my plan. We’ll see.
Terry Appel: 42:38
the, that’s the next toy on my wishlist It’s gonna try to figure out how to use it for the shot, so, yeah, that would be good.
Trent Manning: 42:45
Well, yeah, and I just, I kind of went out on a limb and said, you know, I, it’s been on my wishlist for a long time. So I just pull the trigger and bought it for me personally. So it’s here at my house and if, you know, I thought about taking it to the shop cause I mean, I own a lot of stuff that’s in the shop, like the lay that I was telling you about and milling machine, you know, all this stuff, but I don’t, it’s just so dusty and dirty. And my shop that I didn’t really want to take it down there for all those, you know, for it to get contaminated. So I’ll just leave it here at home for now. And it is super cool because it’s hooked up to the wifi. And if I wanted to, I could print something while I’m at my shop on my cell
Terry Appel: 43:29
Oh, nice.
Trent Manning: 43:30
Yeah. Send it to it and it’ll start printing. One thing I have learned is make sure there’s nothing on the print bed before you start printing. That that can be bad.
Terry Appel: 43:40
would be, that would be a key factor.
Trent Manning: 43:43
right? Yeah. I mean I’m sure it’s the same way on, on the plasma table too. You wanna make sure you got the right material laying down there before you start cutting. Well, anything else you wanna
Terry Appel: 43:53
think we all done light kits and all that kind of fun stuff. So. Yeah, I mean, just normal stuff. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 44:04
Yeah, but it’s fun and it’s fun, fun to talk about too. You want to do some rapid fire?
Terry Appel: 44:12
Sure.
Trent Manning: 44:12
Let’s do it. What’s your favorite movie?
Terry Appel: 44:15
Oh, if I had to pick favorite movie to watch over and over again, it’d probably be Tombstone.
Trent Manning: 44:20
Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. We’re brothers. We’re brothers somehow. I love tube stuff. It is
Terry Appel: 44:26
that movie.
Trent Manning: 44:27
Yep. I’ve seen it a hundred times and I’d watch it tonight if it was on for sure.
Terry Appel: 44:31
I might pop in the DVD, I think I got the DVD, I don’t know
Trent Manning: 44:33
Yep. Yeah. That’s right. What would be your last meal?
Terry Appel: 44:36
nice big Jack Daniels marinated venison backstrap
Trent Manning: 44:41
Oh, okay.
Terry Appel: 44:42
homemade pierogies and some brussels sprouts.
Trent Manning: 44:45
Awesome. Okay. Yeah, I get down with that. What are you most proud of besides your family? And you can tell us about your family. Cause I know you said you wouldn’t come into Phoenix because you had a birthday party.
Terry Appel: 44:57
That’s right, yeah, it was my son’s birthday and he moved to show this year, so his birthday was falling in there. Yeah, my family, super proud of my wife, super proud of my boys, you know, I love all, I love them all most proud of how far I’ve gotten in the industry and, and. Everything that I’ve been through, come from proud of myself.
Trent Manning: 45:19
Yeah. No, you should be. That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s yeah. So how long have you been in the industry?
Terry Appel: 45:26
Well, if we count when I was putting scorecards and pencils in, it’ll be 36 years.
Trent Manning: 45:30
Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Ha ha ha ha.
Terry Appel: 45:32
No, I, when I started, I mean, I started working on the golf course when I was 16. And. On the tech side since 2008, so
Trent Manning: 45:41
Awesome. Wow. So cool, man. Yeah, I’m glad you’re part of the industry and I’m glad you’re enjoying it so much and I’m glad where you at today and thank you again for letting me come by and see you at Overbrook.
Terry Appel: 45:57
Anytime. Frame, man. Anytime.
Trent Manning: 45:59
I’m not going to blame you for blowing that tire out, but I’ll never forget that.
Terry Appel: 46:03
Nope. Wasn’t my
Trent Manning: 46:04
I live. Yeah, it wasn’t your fault. It was not your fault at all. And I should have seen the pothole that was eight inches in diameter. That was 10 foot deep. I don’t, it had to The deepest pile ever. Yeah, that was terrible. So anyway and I know I’ve told the story, but I’m going to tell it again. Anyway, first tire I’ve ever had to change on the side of the road. That was my own. Yeah, and my whole life, and that was, yeah, 43 years old, 44 years old, whatever I was at the time, never changed my tire on the side of the road. I’ve changed other people’s tire on the side of the road. Never changed my own. So yeah, that was crazy. Well, thank you so much, Terry, for being on. I appreciate it. And tell the listeners, you got an email. I know you’re on Twitter. I don’t remember your Twitter handle. We’ll tag you regardless if you don’t remember.
Terry Appel: 46:59
Yeah. It’s Twitter’s at T underscore Apple, A P P E L E M. And email is T apple at openbrookgolfclub. com.
Trent Manning: 47:11
Awesome. Well, thanks again. If I never do anything for you, don’t hesitate to reach out and thanks everybody for listening.
Terry Appel: 47:20
Thank you, Trenton. Podcast is awesome. Love what you’re doing.
Trent Manning: 47:24
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.