Arkansas Turfgrass Association – Member Spotlight, Mark Brown

June 8, 2020 | Arkansas Turfgrass Association | PODCAST

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Arkansas Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

The Turf Zone: Welcome to The Turf Zone. In this episode of Arkansas Turfgrass, we’re talking to Mark Brown, ATA Board Member. Mark, thanks for joining us and thanks for agreeing to talk to us a little bit about your work in the turf industry. Let’s start with your position on the board. How long have you served?

Mark Brown: I am going into my third year now, just started my third year.

TTZ: In thinking about the association and what you guys do, what has been a big priority in your time on the board? I know there’s been a lot of education and event focus. What have you been most involved in and most proud of in that role?

MB: One of the big things that we’ve tried to do over the last few years, even maybe before I got on the board, just trying to carrying that on – we’re trying to grow the association here in the state. We’re not a huge state here in Arkansas. We have quite a few turfgrass professionals, golf course guys, and lawn care guys and sports fields. We’re just trying to get them, get more to come to our shows, to get actively involved. So we’re really trying to increase our numbers and just get more people active in the association so we can grow the association. So we’ve gotta let everybody know that the turfgrass association is a benefit to them, there’s a lot of things we can get out of it, so that’s what we’re trying to do, trying to grow awareness that we’re here and get more people active in the association.

TTZ: That involvement and that support seems important now more than ever, and we have to talk about the elephant in the room – a lot of our turf professionals are not working or working different capacities. What do you think is the general attitude among ATA members and professionals in general, even who are not members, in the state right now [during COVID restrictions] while we’re having to work so differently, especially in the spring?

MB: It’s definitely a change for them from what they’re accustomed to. I’ve talked to some of them and they’re really itching to get back out there and ger everything back to somewhat normal, but they understand some things are going to change. You know the turf industry is, not to say that it hasn’t really been affected, but it’s probably taken a little bit less of a hit than the other things. Still, it has its challenges of finding enough work, getting enough work for everyone. I do know a lot of the golf courses are busy, which is good, so they’ve got that going for them. But the lawn care guys, this thing kind of hit at a time of the year, where they’re starting to get rolling, especially now. So hopefully we’re past the biggest hurdle of this right now, so a lot of them are itching to get back to work.

TTZ: I’ve seen on social media some really good-looking sports fields out there, that it’s awful sad to see them empty.

MB: That is. You know you look at all the baseball fields and the complexes at the city and state level and the guys – it’s tough on them because they’ve worked so hard on them all through the fall last year and keeping them going during this winter. And with any overseeding that they may have done to get ready for spring sports, now we don’t have those spring sports. But you’ve still got to maintain them, so they’re trying their best to maintain them, they’re just not having people out there to enjoy them right now.

TTZ: Absolutely. Here’s hoping that we can get the kids back out on the field sometime soon. Let’s shift gears and talk about your career in turfgrass. How did you get interested or get started in the industry?

MB: I originally, I lived in Austin, Texas and was working down there. I wasn’t in the turf industry then, but I started playing golf, that was kind of the first time that I had started playing golf and I really liked it, so I said, “Well, this could be a good career for me.” I was a little bit older then, I was already in my mid- to late-20s at that point, so I was really looking for something that I would enjoy, so I found that. My original plan was to go into golf course design, or golf course architecture. That was really what I wanted to do. Well, as I got into that, and then I found the maintenance side of it, and just being out there every day on a completed golf course, that turned my shift to doing that. From there I enrolled back in school at the University of Arkansas, got my turf degree in Turfgrass Science and went to work. While I was in school I worked on the sports fields for the university at Baum Stadium and at Razorback Stadium. When I got out of school, that’s when I entered the golf course industry, it’s kind of what I was shooting for to begin with. I got into golf courses, was an assistant golf course superintendent a couple of places. At the Alotian Club here in Little Rock. From there I got kind of transitioned back into sports fields, I was a sports turf manager at Dickey-Stevens, which is the minor league baseball stadium here in Little Rock. Did that for a few years and then went a little bit different direction and went into the academic side of it where I worked for the University of Arkansas Research and Extension, where I worked as an agent here in the Central Arkansas area helping out the lawn care guys, golf course guys with any problems, plant diseases, weed control, things like that. But then an opportunity came back and I got back into golf courses as a golf course superintendent, so I’ve done a little bit of everything. After golf course superintendent, then I was a director of campus grounds for the University of Arkansas Little Rock, so I was over all the sports fields, intramural fields, campus-wide. So I’ve been from one end to the other. I’ve seen a little bit of everything that the turf industry has to offer.

TTZ: You just led me right to this… I’m not trying to pick a fight, but if you had to pick a favorite sector that you were in – golf, sports turf, education, admin role with the university – what was your favorite —

MB: Well, each one of them has a few great things about it, but if I had to pick, I’ve always been a golf course guy. I enjoy being out on a golf course. Now there are some, working in the academic field for the extension research had great benefits, which you may not have in the golf course business. The sports fields was great, but it was very very long hours. I thought golf course had long hours, but minor league baseball and those types of arenas have even longer hours. It always goes back to golf course, that was my first real job out of college, and just something that I really like to do is being out on a golf course.

TTZ: How’s your game looking these days?

MB: You know, it’s kind of funny, I play a lot more golf now that I’m not in the golf course business. I play a lot more now than I did when I was actually in it. I can hold my own, I’ve always got room to improve for sure. I’m like everybody else, I have good days and bad days, but I break a whole lot less clubs these days as I’m getting older. So, I’m getting better…

TTZ: That is one measure of success, I’d say. So let’s come back to our ATA members and what they’re doing out in the fields right now. What would you say has been the biggest challenge, just collectively in your career in turfgrass, in all the different sectors. What has thrown you the most curveballs?

MB: There’s really two things that I’ve experienced and probably everybody else has experienced is finding good help, finding good labor, good people you can count on and depend on that are willing to work these days. If you can’t find those folks, what happens is obviously everybody knows, that you get to where you’re working too many hours. Your home life suffers, your free time suffers, things like that. It’s gotta be getting those laborers and handling the lack of budgets, which most everybody has these days, which is a big thing. You’ve gotta somehow manage to find good people, keep good people. It just lightens the load on yourself, the whole staff, everything like that if you can get things done, and still find time for free time.

TTZ: I hear that a lot that the long hours are not always the most conducive to a lot of family time. So did you learn anything in your years that helped you maybe have a little more work/life balance that you can pass along to the younger guys?

MB: I’ve just tried to – you can’t do everything in one day. I’ve told people that. Youv’e got to manage your expectations of what we all want our golf course, our sports fields, we want every one of our lawns to look the absolute best, so you’ve gotta manage your expectations and along with that you have to manage the expectations of your customers. Whether it’s your members at the club or your city council or your customers that you’re maintaining their lawn. You can’t do it all, so you have to kind of draw a hard line and say, “I’m really going to focus on this today, and getting this done,” and once it comes time, then you’ve got to kind of leave it there. Go home, get away from it, escape it a little bit, and try to come back the next day fresh. You do that day after day and it’ll help you stay a little bit fresh, but it’s a whole lot easier said than done to just leave stuff there and it’s going to be there tomorrow, to have that mentality. It’s harder to do that than it is to say it, but you’ve got to find a way to incorporate that into your lifestyle.

TTA: So you have a family?

MB: I do. I’ve been married for 14 years. I have a 12-year-old daughter and I have a 9-year-old daughter. They keep me very very busy. I still try to sneak in a round of golf two or three, four times a month if I can. But we’re a sports family. Both of my daughters play sports, so we are constantly going, but I do try to balance everything and give everybody equal time as well.

TTZ: Have you tried to indoctrinate either of your girls into the golf game or is it too soon?

MB: I have, and I’ve even tried to get my wife out there. I bought her a set of clubs a couple of years ago. We go to the driving range, we’re a member of a local club down here in central Arkansas, so we go to the driving range, I try to get them out there and they’ll hit balls for about five minutes and then it’s boring to them, they’re tired. So I’ve tried and all they want to do now is drive the cart, so that’s the funnest thing to them is driving the cart, so I let them drive the cart around every now and then. At this age, it’s a little bit boring to them, and my wife, she could really take it or leave it as well. I’m going solo on this is looks like.

TTZ: I have to say I understand that, as a mother with kids about the same age. I totally get it, they’re used to more fast-paced sports and activities. For the people who are, like I asked earlier for your advice for younger people in the turfgrass industry, having a mentor and folks to help support them – is there anything else you recommend or want to address that I haven’t steered us in the direction of?

MB: I don’t think so. It’s a challenging profession, I do know that. I don’t know how numbers are of people getting into it, but I used to tell everybody when I was working with the extension service, when I’d come into contact with these guys, we would always try to get guys to get more education, get more training. Not only for the business owners on the business aspect of it, but I’d tell the guys –get your guys, enroll them in a class, enroll them in something, give them something to shoot for, give them something to look forward to, give them some training, give them a little bit more, and maybe you can get a little bit better guys, you can keep guys a little bit longer if you can give them self-worth or something like that in the industry. That helps them for sure to keep guys, retain guys and get new ones. I would always tell guys, Hey, we’ve got a training class, or I’m giving a talk here on this, we’re having a roundtable discussion, bring your guys and what’s going on out there in the industry. I really just tried to do that to the people that I came into contact with. As well as, when I was an assistant, my first superintendent I worked for, he was pretty tough, but I learned a ton of stuff from him and I got on that path, so find someone that can teach you. If you’re a young person coming into it, try to stay in places. I have moved around a few places, so longevity is key to – the younger guys may not be looking towards retirement obviously, but it is something you’ve got to look for. And the longer you stay at places, the better you sock away money, and build your retirement, things like that, that gets guys some financial training and make sure you’ve got all that in line as well as the turf knowledge as well. It all helps for sure.