Member Spotlight on Ben Ellis

Golf Course Superintendent at Fort Belvoir Golf Club and MTC President

Now in the second year of his term as MTC President, Ben Ellis has led the association through one of the most challenging years in recent memory. Despite unexpected hurdles due to COVID-19, Ben, along with the MTC Board, has helped keep turfgrass professionals across the state connected and growing. We sat down with Ben to talk about his work and future plans for MTC.

What is your work history and what path led you to your current position?

My turf industry story is a little interesting. Currently I’m the golf course super here at Fort Belvoir, and we run the 36-hole property with a crew of six at the moment. For those who know about golf, that is an unheard-of, low number. It’s a lot of work for sure. I’ve worked in Maryland for the last 10 years. I was at the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base. When I was at Paint Branch Golf Course, a little over a year ago, and was told that I would be reassigned to doing either sports turf or lawn and landscaping, that wasn’t my passion. Anybody who has even talked to me briefly, knows that I’m a golf course guy. So for me, I had to make the choice to leave.

Fortunately, I landed here at Fort Belvoir, which is actually the golf course I grew up on. My first grounds crew turf job was on this golf course back in 2003. Some of our guys who are here are the ones who trained me how to mow greens, how to change cups, and I came back several years later as their boss. It’s been a very good welcome home.

How did you decide on a career in turfgrass?

When I was in high school, I got hired here at Fort Belvoir, and I thought I wanted to be a golf pro. I wanted to play golf, I wanted to give lessons, I wanted to run a pro shop. I never knew what a golf course superintendent was. Even though I was working for one, this was my second day working here, and he asked me “What do you want to do?” I explained to him, and he just started laughing. And he’s like, “Man, all they do all year around is pull sweaters.” There’s always the joke there. I went home and I’m like, “What is a golf course superintendent? It’s plant science and being outside with soils and environmental. That sounds pretty cool, I want to do that.”

I had the opportunity to go to Maryland for college. Unfortunately, I lived in Virginia, and Maryland is out-of-state tuition. So although Maryland was the closest school, I couldn’t actually do that. I got my two-year degree from a local college, and then I got my turf degree from Penn State.

What are some unique challenges of the job you’re doing right now?

I think for all of us in the turf field, it’s weather. Weather has a huge impact. The turf science to me is enjoyable, but the biggest challenge besides the weather is personnel management on my end. For a lot of the lawncare guys, they’re restricted in counties with laws and regs that golf courses are normally exempt from. Pest management, different chemicals and things like that, we’re exempt from because we are golf courses, but a lot of homeowner or lawncare companies are starting to get hit really hard with laws and regs. That’s what MTC and a lot of us are trying to help fight in ways that we can.

What made you decide to get involved in leadership with MTC?

Originally, I was at the MTC Annual Conference, which was held at Maryland at the time, this was many years ago. I had always liked to help, I always wanted to be involved, but never really knew how to, and then the question was asked: we need people to be on the board, is anybody interested?

A week or so went by and I emailed Vernon, our Executive Director, and said “Hey, if you still need help with something, let me know. I’m here, I’m willing to help, just let me know.” I received an email back, and that was the start of it and being on the board. For me, it’s not to put on a resume, it’s because I want to legitimately help out the turfgrass industry. It’s an industry that’s given me a lot and it’s given me the career that I have. I have met some amazing people through that too. So that’s my way to give back in any way that I can. We’re all in this as a team, whether it’s lawn care, sports turf… all of us are still trying to grow grass in a really difficult atmosphere. We all have similar challenges – the weather, the pests, and nobody’s out to get anybody else. We’re all here to help each other out.

What changes and challenges did you face as a result of COVID restrictions?

Virginia golf courses as a whole never closed. Unfortunately, my golf course is a military course, so we fall under different rules and regs. We shut down March 23rd of last year. I spent the entire month on the property by myself. I sent the crew home because they were in lockdown for weeks and I was here for about a month by myself. The only person on a 350-acre property, mowing grass. I mowed greens on one golf course one day, I’d go spray after that and then the following day I’d mow greens on the other golf course, then back to spraying.

The crew finally came back about a month after they all took off — a lot of them were just really bored at home. We’re fortunate enough to be outside almost all day, so we’re socially distanced enough. Maryland golf courses, I know they shut down for a few months and they were open as quickly as possible. First ones to really be exempt from everything were the turf industry, lawn and landscapers, because we were essential workers, which I thought was fantastic. You don’t think of it in that way of – now you have to maintain all this stuff. If we went for two months in a lockdown, can you imagine how tall some of the parks would be, how much the ticks and the weeds would’ve just gone out of control?

What was it like going from you working solo on 36 holes to the boom golf experienced in the following months?

We were one of, if not the last golf course to open in Virginia. Our course didn’t open up until the last week of June, so we were closed for three months to the day almost. What do you do with three months of good weather and zero revenue? We were looking to have a bad year. Then all of a sudden it just boomed. Golf courses around us were doing booming business. Everybody’s waiting for us to open, and as soon as we did, all the golf courses took off and we had a successful year. It gave us the opportunity to kind of bring golf back.

Not only with golf, but what could people do? They go out to a park, they go outside. Not only are we as the golf course side doing extremely well on average, but everyone seems to be benefitting in a way from it. That is a positive that COVID has definitely helped us with. It’s hindered us a few other ways, but it’s definitely in the long run it’s helped us to show what the turf industry does.

What should MTC members be looking for this year in terms of events?

Last year we had our first virtual conference. We had a few glitches, but overall it was a very successful conference. We are still trying to have an in-person conference again at Turf Valley this December. With the vaccines out and a whole lot of us being vaccinated, it seems like there’s hope. Unfortunately, we can’t have a turf field day because that’s normally held at the college, and they are not allowing gatherings at this point. But the research with the turfgrass programs is still going on. That’s very hopeful.

As soon as the college is open to hire tenured jobs again, they’ll be allowed to bring on staff for the two positions available. The turf positions are the ones that get filled first. We’re in touch with everybody every month about what’s going on. The sports turf managers have their Best Management Practices coming out this year, both national and mid-Atlantic BMPs are coming out here soon, so we are looking forward to that.

What do you do outside of work?

I’m normally hanging out with my wife at home and just trying to relax. Trying to keep my head out of work is hard, but I try to exercise every chance I can. The job is almost the exercise itself.

One of the other agencies on post stores gym equipment here, and since we wanted to encourage our employees to be healthy, we created our own gym here in our shop. The healthier that we are, the better and more physically fit we are for the course. It’s a win-win for us all.

What would your advice be for people thinking about or entering the turfgrass industry right now?

If you’d asked me about three years ago, I’d have said don’t do it. There were more golf courses closing down than ever. Now we’re starting to see that steady decrease courses closing. Turf still needs to be maintained, but there’s a need for staff because there are not a lot of qualified people applying for these jobs. We’re looking for people applying to have jobs as assistant managers, grounds crew foreman – there’s not a lot of qualified candidates.

I’d love to see more people go to college or at least take the short courses. Maryland offers some great programs there. The IAA at Maryland has been an amazing program. They have a two-year program, a four-year program, and there are other options out there too.

We’re trying to encourage people to be professional and learn all they can. There’s a lot of literature out there too that we try to stay up on. I’ve read the Maryland Fertilizer Applicator book probably 30 times, at least, cover to cover. I’ve taken notes and I reference it all the time. Even working in Virginia, I’m still referencing Maryland because they are a little more strict.

Everybody’s got that niche of what they want to do and there’s so many opportunities out there – golf, sports turf, lawn and landscape, sod farmers. We have jobs that most people don’t even think of. I have a mechanic here full-time because turf equipment breaks down, turf equipment’s also expensive. So there are equipment people inside the turf industry as well. And I think that is amazing to have that many types of people, a broad range, in one industry.

Thank you Ben, for your commitment to Maryland Turfgrass Council and to the industry!

You can hear Ben’s full interview on TheTurfZone at Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit TheTurfZone.com.