4 minute read
Editor’s Message
A Career Worth Mentioning
This season marks the end of an era for Pennsylvania State University turfgrass research, education, and outreach. Mr. Tom Bettle, manager of the Joseph Valentine Turfgrass Research Center in University Park, has announced his pending retirement. Tom’s retirement from The Pennsylvania State Univ. is fittingly apropos, as it was here that his educational training was conferred 47 years prior.
Let’s briefly describe his experiences since. In 1977, with Golf Course Management Certificate in hand, Tom headed to Westmoreland CC in Export to begin his career as the assistant superintendent. Six years later, Tom secured the WCC superintendent position and began applying his professional experience managing the 18-hole facility and training the next generation of golf course superintendents.
In 1990, Tom took the reins at the newly renovated Quicksilver Golf Club in Midway and continued to build his reputation as a superintendent who delivered meticulous playing conditions day in and out. He continued training assistant superintendents while navigating changes in ownership to groom the ‘open parkland’ course into what local patrons admirably coined ‘the Monster of the Midway!’
A little more than a decade later, Tom was tapped to growin Birdsfoot GC in Freeport. Unbeknownst to many, this golf club’s namesake is the perennial legume birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.), the predominant component of the hayfields that preceded this links-style course. And for those familiar with Birdsfoot GC, it’s easy to imagine how great a challenge growing-in this undulating layout must have been. But not for Tom, who stewarded the highly acclaimed facility to an immaculate state of maturity.
Having accrued 30 years of golf course management at this point, Tom switched gears and joined the Harrell’s team in 2007. There Tom learned all about technological advances in fertilizer and continued building relationships with regional turfgrass professionals. He also forged friendships with his Harrell’s teammates, e.g., PSU alum and future PTC President Rick Catalogna, who to this day endearingly refers to Tom as ‘The Bettle to the Metal.’
And while Tom reflects positively on every stage of his career, the early morning hum of mowers and smell of freshly-cut, dew-speckled grass proved too critical to his drive, mission, and pursuit of happiness. Thus, he returned to golf in 2009 as a supervisor with ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance. To date, Tom has trained countless professional turfgrass managers and led both the Greater Pittsburgh Golf Course Superintendent’s Association and the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Councils as President.
And just as soon as he believed the necessary appreciation for umbrella management of golf facilities was possible, the facility manager position at the Joseph Valentine Turfgrass Research Center opened. Tom applied and has been here keeping it green and professional ever since. The most notable aspect of Tom’s supervisory style, in my opinion, is commitment. He must have told me ‘We’re here for you. Tell me how we can help you.’ no less than 10 times in 2013. It was a refreshing attitude I appreciated, and it hasn’t faded a bit.
Since then I’ve gotten to know Tom well. I think it is safe to characterize Tom as a genuine man of action. In the time it takes someone to wax poetic about the status quo, Tom has already crossed eight tasks off his ‘to do’ list. But there is only a net reduction of six, because he was listening all the while and added two tasks that will invariably change the status quo for the better. I know many of us on the PSU Turfgrass Team appreciate Tom and what he has done, both as our research center manager and as Director of the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council. If you aspire to forge insightful innovation in your workplace and professional organizations, then you should too.
Thank you Tom, and wishing you a long, rewarding, and relaxing retirement!
Maxim Schlossberg, Ph.D.
Pennsylvania Turfgrass Editor
