Professional Golf Turf Management School Two Year Certificate Program
Ray Waddell: Superintendent, Elmhurst Country Club Taking Control: See What Good Leadership Can Do When Ray Waddell became superintendent of Elmhurst Country Club in Moscow, PA, in 2005, the golf course was in bad shape. Large areas of the 5 greens were dead, memberships were down, and many members were embarrassed by the condition of the course. Luckily for Elmhurst, Waddell was acquiring technical skills and management expertise at the Rutgers University Professional Golf Turf Management School that were necessary to turn things around. The course, now host of the prestigious Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Northeast Pennsylvania Classic, wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for Ray Waddell’s leadership. Two-Year Turf Means Long-Term Success Waddell began his turf career in 1998 at Glenn Oak Country Club in Waverly, PA. He started out cutting grass and “really enjoyed the work,” and he eventually worked on irrigation, obtained his pesticide license, and even became a crew leader. But when he applied for an assistant position at Glenn Oak, the Club told him he would need a formal turf education before he could move up into management. Living in eastern Pennsylvania, Waddell considered receiving his turf certification from both Penn State and the Rutgers University NJAES Office of Continuing Professional Education’s (OCPE) Professional Golf Turf Management School. The Rutgers Program offers Three Week and Two Year Certificates. The two year program runs for a total of twenty weeks, allowing students to work fulltime for nine months and attend two ten–week class sessions per year. This schedule accommodated Waddell’s professional aspirations, and so he chose Rutgers. After completing his first year of the two-year program, Waddell got a job as an assistant at Elmhurst. His assistantship didn’t last long, though; with only half of his training completed and just four months under his belt, Waddell was quickly promoted to superintendent. Suddenly, getting the course that had seen better days back in shape was his responsibility. A quality turf education is vital for superintendents, and Waddell was able to turn the course around using what he learned at Rutgers. “I thought that it [the program] was very practical. It was a pretty intense program,” he says, recalling his instructors and the disease management section of the program as especially challenging. But the people he met in the program proved to be just as valuable
The Office of Continuing Professional Education
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