Matt LaWell, writing for Golf
Course Industry, says three top minor-league baseball groundskeepers share
tips from another corner of turf maintenance.
Golf and baseball aren’t all that different. Both require a
sweet swing. Both go just a little better with a beer or three. And both are
played on beautiful blankets of green grass. Course superintendents and
ballpark groundskeepers aren’t all that different either. We talked with three
top groundskeepers — starting with Matt Parrott, who moved south from the
Double-A Bowie Baysox to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights in 2016, and who has
been named the best groundskeeper in his league five times in the last nine
seasons — for stories from another side of turf maintenance.
I built a pitcher’s mound at my house when I was 12 years
old. That’s how I started.
I’ve played golf my whole life, I’ve just never actually
worked on a golf course. I got into this to go down that path, but when I was
in school, I made the decision that I enjoyed playing golf too much that I was
afraid working in the industry would jade me a little bit.
I went to Appalachian State and didn’t know what I wanted to
do so I got a business degree — figured it would be beneficial — and all
through college, I worked on fields. I decided to go straight from my business
degree to N.C. State. I got my associate’s degree in turf and the rest is
history. Twenty years.
You get out here and start working, and you learn real
quick.
It’s not as much you as it is the people you surround
yourself with.
Read it all here
