2 months I have been in Ireland and I realize I have not introduced myself. Sorry, but here I go. I am Peter Braun Jr, a recent graduate of The Ohio State University. My story starts back in 2009. At the end of my Junior year of high school I had to start thinking about college. While I had grown up working in agriculture on dairy farms and raised animals at my family's house I knew I did not want to be a dairy farmer. After a simple internet search of sports and the outdoors I came across turfgrass management. I was intrigued by the major as I look into it more. I could be a sports field manager, lawn care business operator, sod farmer, or golf course superintendent. So many choices. I decide this was my major, but what schools to go to; big or small, far-away or local. After looking into the numerous turf programs across the country I decide to go to SUNY Cobleskill, a small D3 college in the rural Schoharie Valley. There I would be able to get an Associate's as well as play college baseball. 

My first year really got me hooked on turf as I took classes under Dr. Ellram and Dr "ZJ" Jiang. I became involved in the turf bowl and turf club competing in the NYS Green Industry Show Turf Bowl and New England Regional Turf Conference Turf Bowl. All of this turf education and interaction made me think about where I wanted to be and what area I wanted to go into. I decided I would try out golf course maintenance. After sending out many letters to local golf courses Windy Hills Golf Club got in touch with me and I was hired on for the summer. 

Under the tutelage of Bob White, I learned more about golf course maintenance than I could believe. At a course with only 4 workers and then the super there was a lot of mowing and being flexible with jobs. In my first summer, I mowed everything, syringed greens with a hose and the irrigation system, worked on irrigation repairs, and did fertilizer/pesticide applications. I learned a ton in that first summer of golf course work and I was hooked. 

In my sophomore year I finished up my Associate's degree, went to GIS, and decided to apply to larger 4-year universities. I was accepted into my choices and chose to go to The Ohio State University to earn a Bachelor's degree in turfgrass science. This would be a big step for me to go hours away from home and to be away from my twin brother, who also attended SUNY Cobleskill. Before this new adventure I was to intern at Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY under Joe Alonzi. WCC gave me an insight to turf maintenance at a large private club. Here I was introduced to walk mowing, aeration practices, boom spraying fairways, and more projects every day. At WCC I was able to improve upon my turf skills and see first hand the management strategies for a club of this size with 50 employees. 

Following my summer at Westchester I started my new journey at Ohio State. For the next two years I became involved in turf club, joined Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, went to football games (Go Bucks!), and worked for Ohio State Landscape Services at Fred Beekman Intramural fields. The two years flew by, but I learned about turf pathology, golf history, sports turf among Ag Business classes. To complete my internship requirement I decided to accept a position at Vineyard Golf Club.

Vineyard Golf Club is a fully organic course located on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. This course gave me a great view of turf management on an organic approach. Jeff Carlson, the Superintendent, has been managing the course since it opened in 2002. He took on the task of growing in a course fully organic. Some said it was impossible, but the course has high quality turf. The summer at VGC showed me how strong turfgrass is when favorable traits are used to achieve better disease and drought resistance. The course did have a few weeds and disease showed up, but the membership knows this would occur and is fine with it. Here I learned cultural practices and how to use them to improve turf health during the stress of summer.  

Back to Ohio State for my senior year. As I was going through my final year Mike O'Keeffe, coordinator of The Ohio Program, gave a presentation to the Turf Club along with a few students who interned overseas the following summer. This got me thinking about what I would do following graduation. I had not had an international experience and was thirsting for a new experience so I contacted Mike to see about going abroad through the Ohio Program. We decided that I would go abroad for a year and undergo two internships. He referred me to the TurfNet internship because I would enjoy Ireland, Mt. Juliet is a great course and Aidan is a great Greenkeeper, and I would be able to keep a running blog for the summer. After contacting Jon Kiger about the position and an interview I was offered the internship. I accepted and was ready to leave immediately. Once graduation weekend came and I had my working holiday visa in my hand I could not wait to leave. 

I have been in Ireland for 2 months already, but it feels like 2 weeks. In my short time here I have seen how turf maintenance is different than back in the States. With a cooler, wetter climate than back home there is less disease pressure so less fungicides need to be applied. At Mt. Juliet we have a heavy topdressing program to keep the thatch down and improve drainage. The biggest change I have seen is that many practices are done by hand, such as topdressing with a shovel, fertilizing greens is like syringing a green so no spray hawk or boom sprayer is used, and hand watering greens in the morning when the temperature is going to rise rather than syringe in the afternoons after the irrigation ran in the morning. I look forward to the adventures ahead in Ireland and New Zealand and the management of the putting course at Mt. Juliet.