With the number of Spanish-speaking employees working on golf courses, a bilingual superintendent has a huge advantage; Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA) student Marvin Martinez put his language skills to use this summer. Martinez, a second-year student majoring in Turfgrass Management, completed his internship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
Using his Spanish skills, Martinez has become an important member of the crew because he communicates effectively with all crew members and employees. Although Martinez has worked on the course for 4 years, his new internship duties focused on spray hawking greens, spraying fairways, hand-watering, and performing daily course set up.
Congressional Country Club is ranked in the top 100 golf courses in the world, and provided Martinez with valuable experience preparing for professional tournaments including the U.S. Open in 2011, the AT&T Tournament, and the Quicken Loans Tournament this summer which is a stop on the PGA Tour. He performed the course set up for the latter tournament.
Martinez says this internship was very important because he was able to experience working at a top 100 golf course with an amazing crew. The opportunity to learn how courses like this are managed provided him with valuable skills he hopes to apply when he becomes a superintendent in the future.
