Philip Pitta of Kings Park, NY, is a Sports Turf Management major at the University of Maryland’s Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA). With four years of experience in his local parks department doing maintenance, Pitta aspires to be a Stadium Field Manager for a baseball stadium in the future. More recently he has completed an internship at Laurel Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania.
While at Laurel Valley, Pitta learned to calibrate sprayers and set up the course, and he even was in charge of giving everyone their daily jobs along with setting up the mowers. He also had to water often which is one of the more important skills to learn in order to achieve the best quality grass. Pitta said that an important lesson he learned came from his boss who said “the only dumb questions are the questions not asked.”
Philip said that his internship experience gave him a “beginner’s view on turf management.” While most days were filled with hard work, Pitta said there were some funny moments, like when his coworker got his sweatshirt stuck inside of his cart. He found it when it caught on fire--it was funny after the fact. Pitta’s favorite job was mowing the approaches, which is the area between the fairway and the green. He also enjoyed changing hole locations on greens and was in charge of that job during tournament play.
Overall, Pitta enjoyed his time working and learning at Laurel Valley and he was given a great deal of responsibility. The knowledge like learning to calibrate spray equipment, properly water tees/ greens, and course setup are invaluable for a career in golf turf and sports turf.
