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About this blog

Patrick Andrews, 2022 graduate of The Ohio State University, blogs about his experiences and travels while interning at Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland and then Tara Iti Golf Club in New Zealand.

Entries in this blog

After four years and six internships, this is it!

This is it. My time at Tara Iti and in New Zealand is done. Just about four years since beginning the process for my bachelor’s at Ohio State and six internships, including Bob O’ Link, Merion, Muirfield, Vineyard, and Adare Golf Club. After six months of working, I am in my last internship and final moments at Tara Iti Golf Club.  Working at Tara Iti has been an unforgettable experience, and I had unlimited opportunities for learning thanks to Brian Palmer, Dylan Griffin, and Hayden Stuthr

Tara Iti thrashed by Cyclone Gabrielle

Cyclone Gabrielle is considered the worst recorded storm in New Zealand's history. Gabrielle brought constant 40mph winds and another 10 inches of rain to wet soils and dropped over 500 trees at our course. This storm shut down North Island for a week, making commuting for the staff impossible. All of North Island was in the middle of it.  Some of the estimated 500 trees that fell during Cyclone Gabrielle.   Trees sitting in water drop

Member Tournament Prep at Tara Iti

Tournament week here at Tara Iti. The Kayne Cup is a 40-hole member-member tournament. It has four different formats. Two nine holes better ball, Chatmin 9 hole, nine-hole scramble, and a four-hole shoot-out. This is the first Kayne Cup since 2018 since COVID. My favorite part of working on a golf course is seeing a beautiful sunrise. If you look close enough, you can see the Waxing Crescent moon. Starting the week was the 2023 women's Kayne Cup that started on Sunday-Tues

A week at the Links...

This week I am taking you on a journey to Te Arai Links... the newly opened south course, designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and the currently under-construction north course, designed by Tom Doak. Brian Palmer (superintendent at Tara Iti) set up an intern swap with CJ Kreuscher, Director of Agronomy for Te Arai Links, where I went to Te Arai, and Austin Eggers, previously from Sand Hills, came to Tara Iti for a week.  Similar to Tara Iti, both courses at Te Arai are next to the ocean

An ocean of green at Tara Iti...

Instead of a sea of red as at Adare Manor, Tara Iti is an ocean of green. I have worked with John Deere equipment at Merion, Bob O' Link, and a few pieces at Vineyard Golf Club, so I am well familiar with how to operate these John Deere units. In this blog, I will introduce the mechanics and show you the shed and break room. Starting with the maintenance section, the mechanic Josh Murdock keeps everything in working order. Josh has an occasional assistant Greg Tailby who is a greenkeeper bu

Fine fescue greens management at Tara Iti...

There are 32 greens totaling 6.4 acres at Tara Iti, all comprised of fine fescue grasses. As mentioned in my previous blogs, working with all fine fescue is new to me. The fescue greens provide excellent playing conditions for the membership and guests. Even after aerification, Brian likes to say, "It won't win any beauty competition, but it sure plays well.” Texture of fescue greens after overseeding. The greens are sculpted from the native dune sand from around the prope

No trees, storm cleanup a breeze...

This week we received about six inches of rain, four inches of that coming within a few hours on Friday. Monday started the week off being dry and windy. When using a moisture meter, the greens were reading 4-5% after the weekend. It would be scary if they were bentgrass greens, but since we have fescue, they have good tolerance to heat and lack of moisture at the top three inches but there is plenty of moisture below that. With the dry and windy weather, the sand from the bunkers was

Hiking and Caving on Rare Weekdays Off

Spring aerification is finished and I had Monday and Tuesday off , allowing me to explore New Zealand. Typically I would not have  weekdays off, but I swapped a weekend. Our crew is split into three teams to work alternating weekends. On Monday, I went north to the Waipoua Forest to visit the largest known living kauri (Agathis australis) tree, named Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest). Standing about 150' high and with a girth of about 50', it is named for Tāne, the Māori god of forests and b

Hitting the ground running at Tara Iti...

With it being only the second week here at Tara Iti many things were going on, including reshaping and seeding a private green and aerification throughout the course.  Me with assistant Hayden Stuthridge, assistant Dylan Griffin, and Hamish Harding. Angela Moser, who works with Renaissance Golf, shaped the private green a while back. I did not see the green shaping, but I added some final touches: leveling out sand-blown areas and picking up rocks. With all debris cleaned

Tara Iti, half a world away from Ireland...

After finishing up my internship at Adare Manor in Ireland, I started my new adventure at Tara Iti Golf Club in Mangawhai, New Zealand a week ago. It still amazes me that I was in Ireland a week and a half ago, and now I'm now a half a world away in New Zealand. Since Adare Manor is a parkland course, Tara Iti is the first links course I have ever worked at. there are many new things for me that I will introduce through the upcoming blogs. Tara Iti is the first links course I've

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