Description:
Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 170.
Today we’re talking with Tyler Lewellyn, Equipment Manager at Spring Hill Golf Club in Wayzata, Minnesota. Spring Hill is a private 18-hole club set on 220 acres, and Tyler oversees a mixed fleet that’s primarily Toro equipment with a two-person shop.
Tyler shares how a college motorsports program led him into the turf industry. After growing up turning wrenches, he found a career that combined his mechanical background with the satisfaction of seeing the finished product on the golf course, even if he doesn’t play golf himself.
They talk about the realities of the job, from early mornings and time management to balancing life outside the shop with a busy family and three kids at home. Tyler also reflects on his time with Turf Works/Jacobsen in Omaha, including the unique challenge of helping recover equipment after catastrophic flooding.
The conversation covers favorite tools, training assistants, and the mentors who shaped Tyler’s career. Tyler also shares one of his biggest shop tips: creating detailed winter rebuild checklists so nothing gets overlooked before the season starts.
They wrap up by discussing Tyler’s passion for strengthening the equipment manager community through the Minnesota GCSA, organizing events, sharing tech tips, and introducing young people to the profession through First Green. It’s a great conversation about preparation, mentorship, and giving back to the industry that’s given him so much.
Transcript:
Trent Manning 0:56
Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we’ll learn tips and tricks. I’m your host, Trent. Manning let’s have some
Trent Manning, CTEM 1:17
Welcome to The Real Turf Techs podcast, episode 170. Today, we’re talking to Tyler Lewell, equipment manager at Spring Hill Golf Club in Wayzata, Minnesota. Spring Hill is a private 18-hole course, limited membership, that sits on 220 acres. Tyler has one assistant in the shop. He has a mixed fleet, mainly Toro, but he has some Jake and Cushman Turfco Kubota UTVs, John Deere tractors. Let’s talk to Tyler
Trent Manning 1:48
this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company’s line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play
Trent Manning, CTEM 2:29
Welcome, Tyler, to the Reel Turf Techs podcast. Thanks for coming on.
Tyler Lewellyn 2:33
Yeah, thanks for having me, Trent.
Trent Manning, CTEM 2:35
Yes.
Tyler Lewellyn 2:35
Glad to be a part of it.
Trent Manning, CTEM 2:37
It’ll be fun. It always is. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.
Tyler Lewellyn 2:42
I didn’t even know the industry existed, to be honest. So I went to college and locally a marine motorsport and power equipment program. And then from there I met a dude who had a interesting nickname, and we’ve been in the industry together since college. But a superintendent walked in, local superintendent, walked in looking for somebody to be their equipment manager, and the professors brought him right over to to me, and said, “This is the guy you wanna talk to.” So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 3:14
Okay
Tyler Lewellyn 3:14
me and my buddy went and said hi and interviewed, and he applied for it and stayed there, and it was a little further drive than I wanted, but then ultimately a few months later I ended up just down the road from him anyways, okay. And I’ve been here ever since, so enjoying the industry every day.
Trent Manning, CTEM 3:30
That’s awesome. So growing up, did… what kinda wrench turning did you do?
Tyler Lewellyn 3:37
Well, I didn’t do I didn’t do too much wrench turning until in my teens really, mm-hmm. But yeah, I was making motorcycle mopeds out of snowblower engines and an old frame or trying to get an old Rupp motorcycle cooking or a go-kart frame. Just kind of piecing some stuff together, but otherwise I wasn’t too heavy wrenching till I kinda got driving, when I got my driver’s license,
Trent Manning, CTEM 3:58
okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 3:59
That’s when I came into working on cars, doing brakes, buying and selling cars, snowmobiles. All that stuff. So I was in, into the the motor sports, mm-hmm. The snowmobile up here in Minnesota, and then the four-wheelers and stuff like that. So I kinda wrenched on that stuff a little bit, but nothing till I could buy it and sell it myself. That’s when the- Yeah that’s when the bug bit me,
Trent Manning, CTEM 4:21
okay. Yep. That, that kinda happens. That’s true. Yeah. It happens that way, yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 4:26
Yeah. And it was either auto or marine motor sports. I figured if I wanted to go work on something, I wanted to have fun when I was done with it. So I was like, “I gotta go for boats and ATVs.”
Trent Manning, CTEM 4:37
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 4:38
But now I’m here in, in turf, which isn’t always the funnest thing to work on, but you get your, You get happy when you go out and look at your cut, so you get your reward Oh,
Trent Manning, CTEM 4:46
Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 4:48
With your
Trent Manning, CTEM 4:48
cut Right, yeah. It can definitely be super rewarding, yeah, seeing the quality of cut and after cut appearance out on the course. And yeah, golf courses are beautiful. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 5:00
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:00
And peaceful out there riding around.
Tyler Lewellyn 5:03
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:05
So Did you ever play golf? No.
Tyler Lewellyn 5:08
No. No? Never played and still hardly do. I got clubs sitting right here next to my desk, and I haven’t used them probably ever since my time in Nebraska. So that was- Okay probably seven years ago. So and I have not- Okay used them since. So they’ve seen approximately, I think, nine holes of golf so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:26
Wow. Okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 5:28
Yeah. Big shooter over here.
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:29
Yeah. So
Tyler Lewellyn 5:30
I, I gotta slow down a little bit I think.
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:32
That’s funny.
Tyler Lewellyn 5:33
That’s funny. I- yeah. Don’t know much about the game of golf, but, I ask a lot of questions and I learn it. So not very good at playing. But-
Trent Manning, CTEM 5:41
No, nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I don’t, personally I don’t play either, and I know a lot of people, mechanics or equipment managers in the industry that don’t play. And I mean- Yeah there’s a handful that do and really enjoy it, and more power to them, but it never was my game of choice, and that’s okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 6:00
No. Yeah. My, my game of choice is wrenching, so that, that’s my
Trent Manning, CTEM 6:03
game. Yeah, there you go. Yep. There’s nothing wrong with that So what’s your least favorite part of the job?
Tyler Lewellyn 6:12
Probably getting up in the morning. So that’s probably my least favorite part. Okay. Yep. So we don’t start too early. We’ll start… Our n- our day-to-day here is about 6:00 in the morning. Tournament time it’ll be 5:00, 5:30. Mm-hmm we don’t really worry about getting ahead of golf. We’re not public or anything like that. It’s just those early mornings. For whatever reason, I, if I sleep more than eight hours that I cannot get up. Like, 6:00 to 7:00 is my goal. So anything more than that, I’m like, “Eh.” Just five more minutes. Five more minutes.
Trent Manning, CTEM 6:40
Right, right, right. Yeah. It can be a challenge, for sure.
Tyler Lewellyn 6:44
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 6:45
Yep. Do you at least get off early?
Tyler Lewellyn 6:48
Yeah. Yep, some days when I want to,
Trent Manning, CTEM 6:50
right, right.
Tyler Lewellyn 6:51
Yeah. I’ll get off at, we, we end our day at 2:00. Most of the time I’m sticking around till 3:00, 4:00 and then heading home. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 6:58
Mm-hmm
Tyler Lewellyn 6:59
Friday, and then we have to work every other weekend, so it’s nice getting up early on the weekends. So your whole day is ahead of you. Instead of sleeping in till 9:00, making pancakes, you’re up, you’re moving, you’re back home by 11:00.
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:11
Yep. Not a bad deal, really.
Tyler Lewellyn 7:13
Yeah. As much as I hate it I love getting up early in the morning. I just hate doing it,
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:17
right. Right. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 7:18
I love the effects, but I hate opening my eyes that early,
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:21
mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you think that’s something you’ll ever get used to?
Tyler Lewellyn 7:26
Maybe. Maybe.
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:28
Maybe.
Tyler Lewellyn 7:29
Yeah. It comes with the seasons, right. I find it easier to wake up daylight savings, when the clock moves moves back an hour. Then I can get up early. It’s like my internal clock- Right at, like, 6:00, 7:00.
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:40
Yeah. Yep. What’s your favorite tool?
Tyler Lewellyn 7:43
Oh, my favorite tool is probably my Streamlight flashlight. So I never leave home without it no matter where I go or what I do. Oh. So the o- USB rechargeable penlight, so that, that’s gotta be my number one.
Trent Manning, CTEM 7:56
So- The Streamlight Stylus Pro?
Tyler Lewellyn 8:00
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:01
Yep, okay. Yep. Yeah. Like
Tyler Lewellyn 8:03
they- There you go Favorite tool’s gotta be the one on you all the time, and that one’s on me all the time.
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:08
I understand completely.
Tyler Lewellyn 8:10
Day in, day out. It’s on my nightstand with me,
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:12
that’s been one of my go-tos, yeah, for a long time. And then I switched to the Wedge. Yeah. Not because there was anything wrong with the Stylus Pro, and then I switched to the Wedge XT or something. It’s a little bit- Right shorter. It’s this guy.
Tyler Lewellyn 8:32
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’ve been eyeballing this.
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:35
Yeah, I don’t- I’ve had this for, I wanna say going on three years. Yeah, and I mean, I carry it every single- Yeah day.
Tyler Lewellyn 8:43
Yeah. I got turn the camera and pick it up. I got backups for my backups.
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:48
So Oh, yeah. There you go. That’s awesome. I love it.
Tyler Lewellyn 8:51
Yeah. Generational Streamlights floating around my office,
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:54
yeah, I got one- But
Tyler Lewellyn 8:56
yeah, I’m looking at that Wedge, so
Trent Manning, CTEM 8:58
I got one of those Stylus Pros. The button to turn it on and off died. Yep. And I- Yep ordered one on Amazon, and the flashlight I got is orange but the cap’s black. Yep. That’s what they had on Amazon, so anyway, it’s the-
Tyler Lewellyn 9:17
You’ll know it’s yours. That’s the key.
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:19
Yes.
Tyler Lewellyn 9:20
That’s- anybody else looking for the orange one, you’ll know the one with the black cap’s yours
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:24
That’s a fact. That’s a fact. It’s hard to beat. Yeah, we’ll definitely have to tag Streamlight in this one. They got- Yeah yeah, really good products.
Tyler Lewellyn 9:32
Yeah. Sounds like a partnership going on there.
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:36
Yeah, that’s what I… I need a sponsorship is what I need from- Yeah Streamlight. Good luck.
Tyler Lewellyn 9:43
Yeah, pretty much.
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:44
I did have them retweet one of my posts one time on- Wow X, and I was like, “That’s pretty cool.”
Tyler Lewellyn 9:52
Yeah. Yeah, yep. Makes
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:52
you
Tyler Lewellyn 9:52
feel special inside.
Trent Manning, CTEM 9:54
Yeah, that’s right. Yes. Yep. What do you do to relax or find your balance?
Tyler Lewellyn 10:01
Really just kinda hang out with the kids and just sit around and do nothing. So it doesn’t happen often, but it sure is nice when it does happen. So just find a chair, light a campfire, light a bonfire, and just sit around, maybe drink some beers,
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:15
just- Okay. Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 10:17
so that, that’s probably probably what I do. If the kids are running around or they wanna sit and enjoy or do whatever they wanna do, that’s all fine and dandy by me, as long as they’re behaving and not arguing like kids always do, siblings always do,
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:30
yes, of course. How many kids you got?
Tyler Lewellyn 10:33
Three. Three kiddos.
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:35
Okay. Awesome.
Tyler Lewellyn 10:36
So five, seven, nine, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:38
All right. All right we’re doing
Tyler Lewellyn 10:39
all right. So next year will be interesting. Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:44
I would definitely say yeah, just enjoy it. Everybody tells you how quick it goes by and you say, “Yeah,” and you kind of believe it, but it i- it’s the blink of an eye. It’s
Tyler Lewellyn 10:53
a blink and it’s done. It’s like, whoa- Yeah hold on here. Where’d all this time go? Yeah. It’s gone.
Trent Manning, CTEM 10:58
I know my youngest is graduating high school next week, and I just can’t believe it. It’s, I mean, it’s unbelievable. Yeah I mean, it’s like the other day she was at the shop helping me set up Reel Mowers on a Saturday.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:13
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:13
Yeah. When she was, like, seven.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:16
Yeah. Yeah, 36 inches tall. Just-
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:18
Yeah. Exactly, yes.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:20
Yeah. Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:22
Yep.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:22
No it’s interesting. It’s interesting. So our youngest was she was born during COVID, and we were down in, in Omaha. So Mr. Jay Roth down there helped us with that one.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:34
So- Ah, okay. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:35
Yeah. So he he watched our two older ones while I was able to run to the hospital and be there for our youngest to be born.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:41
No way. That’s so cool. Yep.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:43
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:44
Yeah, very cool. Yeah, Jordan’s awesome.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:47
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:47
great guy.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:48
He- Oh he’s one of the best
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:49
yeah, he makes me laugh too every time I talk to him.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:53
Oh.
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:54
Yep, super fun guy. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 11:55
Definitely one of the-
Trent Manning, CTEM 11:56
So did you work down there in his area for a while?
Tyler Lewellyn 11:59
Yeah, I I worked for Turf Works, the Jacobsen dealer-
Trent Manning, CTEM 12:03
Okay
Tyler Lewellyn 12:03
down here. I started at the Minneapolis location, and then I Jordan wa- worked with him, and then he moved on to the golf course, and I went down there, kind of filled his shoes a little bit. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 12:13
Okay
Tyler Lewellyn 12:14
I got to know Jordan in my time down there. I think I was only down there three years, three seasons, something like that. And then, Yeah our youngest was born, and she had some health concerns to start with and stuff, so it got too much to be too far away from the family at that time. So- Right we needed to go back to to the colder weather state here, so- Mm-hmm moved back up to Minnesota. But yeah, ran into Jordan down there, and we had a few few fun nights. So he shows up with some beers, and we drink some beers and BS about stuff. And then he helped us with watching our two, two kids at the time, so I could go- Mm-hmm go in and introduce our third. And then there’s the he said it on the podcast when he was on about the flooded machines- So when it was like 2018 time down there, and they had floods and there was a… It’s like a mom-and-pop type course up in Ashland. That superintendent- Mm-hmm I think recently retired, but they got three, three feet, three, four feet of floodwater, so encompassed the water. Oh, wow. And they were, I think at the time they were probably 70% Jacobsen. I think something like that, rough mower, Eclipse greens mowers. And then but yeah we went down there, or up there because it’s north, but we went up there and I was there with Jordan. We were there till, like, 1:00 in the morning just getting equipment, just water out of it, draining hydraulics, draining engine oil. So there was I think there was five of us up there at the time. Wow. So him, the superintendent, his kid, me and Jordan, and I think there was another guy up there. So yeah, it was interesting. So one of the first times that we’ve seen a hydrolock sprayer. I think he had a a 57 or 58. I’d like to say 58, but we had to pull a glow plug and the water just shot 20 feet up. So that, that will always forever be ingrained in my brain. So just- Yeah crank it up and just whoop, just shoots way up. Like, holy buckets.
Trent Manning, CTEM 14:06
Mm-hmm. That’s crazy. So- That’s funny.
Tyler Lewellyn 14:09
Yeah. Yeah, that was a good time. That was a really good time. So I know the superintendent really really appreciated it. It was good. So good to help out when we can, so if we got the skills to do it, we do it.
Trent Manning, CTEM 14:22
Were you able to get most of the equipment running?
Tyler Lewellyn 14:25
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, he had some long-standing trouble with a few pieces just from water being in connectors.
Trent Manning, CTEM 14:32
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 14:33
Because when it floods like that, we learned that you got to take apart every single connector. So water gets in everything, everywhere, mm-hmm. There’s no way to do it all. Yeah, he… Couple years past that, and he was still running into corroded connectors and stuff like that. So connectors you don’t even think twice about, they’re just rotten. So leads to costly repair.
Trent Manning, CTEM 14:56
Yeah, do you take them apart, blow them out, dielectric grease?
Tyler Lewellyn 15:01
Yeah we did what we could at the time. So- yeah. But yeah, pretty… I mean, either way, it’s an impossible task. You’re never gonna be 100%,
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:09
but yeah. But
Tyler Lewellyn 15:10
all the equipment got up and going, so he was able to mow. So and then he had silt and had to seed again, and so that superintendent had a hard couple years, I think. But it grew back really good,
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:22
mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 15:23
For what it was great.
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:25
Yeah, the course I was at, we experienced flooding From time to time. And the worst one I remember, we had a skid steer in the fairway removing silt. I mean, it’s just crazy- Yeah the amount of silt that can wash onto a golf
Tyler Lewellyn 15:41
course. It’s heavy,
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:42
yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 15:42
Water.
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:44
Mm-hmm. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 15:45
he had to do the- Yeah do the same stock. He had eight inches of silt in some areas, wow. And it was just
Trent Manning, CTEM 15:51
crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it is crazy. And then the other thing, yeah, we’d be wearing rubber boots and that’s of course in the wintertime when you’re out there washing silt off of fairways, washing it back down the drain like that. It’s freezing out here.
Tyler Lewellyn 16:06
Yeah. Yeah. Good experience, but not something you need every year,
Trent Manning, CTEM 16:11
no. Good stuff. It’s yep, experience once and hopefully never have that happen again.
Tyler Lewellyn 16:16
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 16:17
What’s been one of your biggest challenges?
Tyler Lewellyn 16:21
Oh, my biggest challenge might be might be time management and teaching a new assistant, yeah. So people that are green to the industry. It’s definitely a challenge to understand them and how they learn, and, how they see the world. Everybody’s brain is different, so it’s trying to teach them on a level that they can understand it. So and then managing that time along with my time, so that’s probably the number one struggle,
Trent Manning, CTEM 16:46
yeah, I could see that. And it’s, yeah, it’s the trade-off of I could do this job in five minutes, or I could spend 20 minutes to teach them-
Tyler Lewellyn 16:59
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 16:59
how to do it.
Tyler Lewellyn 17:01
Yeah. And then the next 20 minutes you gotta let them do it, it’s like they gotta make their mistakes too, that’s how- Yes us mechanics learn. We learn by doing and making mistakes. Mm-hmm. So you gotta, you gotta make a mistake, go do something and strip something off. It’s like, “Well, been there, done that,” and you just solidified your next two hours of work,
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:18
right, right, right. Yeah. It’s like
Tyler Lewellyn 17:20
it is what it is, and like, “Oh, I feel so bad.” It’s like, “Yeah, don’t worry about it. It happens to all of us,” so yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:28
Yeah. If you’ve not stripped a bolt, bolt out, you hadn’t been doing this very long. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 17:32
yeah. Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:33
I mean it’s gonna happen. Yeah. You’re
Tyler Lewellyn 17:35
not living. You’re not living. Just- That’s
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:37
right go strip a
Tyler Lewellyn 17:37
bolt real quick,
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:38
yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 17:39
Yeah. Yeah, I just like the, get the assistants in the Reel Grinder in the grinding room every now and then, and they mess up a little reel or something, and they feel so bad about it. Mm-hmm. It’s like just one more corner, one little edge. And you’re like, “Oh, sorry.” It’s like, “Don’t worry about it. There’s 13 other blades to cut that blade of grass. We’re, we’ll be okay.” Yeah. It’s okay. You
Trent Manning, CTEM 17:59
know?
Tyler Lewellyn 18:00
So it’s like I’ve ground hundreds of reels. You guys are on your third. Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big
Trent Manning, CTEM 18:07
deal. Yep. No worries. Yeah. What’s one of the strangest things you’ve seen around the golf course?
Tyler Lewellyn 18:13
Oh, I don’t think I got a good answer for that one. So the in my dealer days the flood. That, that was very interesting to be a part of. So with the golf course flooding and helping with that equipment. Not any course that I’ve personally worked at, but, helped them out. So that, that’s probably one of the strangest things is to just see the flood, see the damage and stuff like that.
Trent Manning, CTEM 18:36
Yeah, I could definitely put that up there for sure. Yeah. And it is amazing how far a diesel engine will squirt out of a glow plug hole, squirt water out. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 18:48
It, if it has a ceiling, you’re gonna hit it. You’re gonna hit
Trent Manning, CTEM 18:51
a
Tyler Lewellyn 18:51
ceiling every time. Oh, yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 18:52
Yep. So speaking of that my dad had a stump grinder, and he turned it over, and somebody was there with a Bobcat and helped him get it back on the trailer. So we backed the trailer in my garage, and it’s whatever, like a nine-foot ceiling or something, and it’s got insulation. It was like a basement garage. And so anyway, I pull the glow plugs out not thinking, and I turn it over, and it blows oil all over the insulation. And still to this day there’s oil on the insulation in the house.
Tyler Lewellyn 19:26
Oh, hanging on.
Trent Manning, CTEM 19:28
Yep. Yeah. So they’re not… They like you can wipe that off, but yeah- No there’s oil everywhere. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 19:34
It’s there for life. It’s there for life. Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 19:36
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 19:38
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 19:39
Do you have a mentor in the industry?
Tyler Lewellyn 19:42
Not so much anymore. My, the mentor I had he was here in this position, and as the equipment manager at Spring Hill. And then he was here for 20 years. He retired in 2020. So I worked with him for three or four seasons here. Mm-hmm. So he was in the industry for, like, 40 years as an EM. Wow. So he worked in Florida, came up here, and yeah he knew a lot, so he taught a lot. He was kinda one of those how do you put it? Grumpy old men. Mm-hmm. They’re everywhere in the industry, but but yeah he had a lot to, he had a lot to teach, so I learned quite a bit from him. So quite a bit of what I do is based off of what he does. And now being in this position, I look back on some of the stuff that I was doing with him, and he was having me do, and how he did it. It’s like, “Yep, now everything makes sense.” You- you’re like, “I’m gonna try it this other way now that…”
Trent Manning, CTEM 20:31
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 20:32
Try it this way. I know the way he did it. And then you try it your way and it’s like, yeah, no, I’m probably just gonna do it his way now.” So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 20:39
Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 20:39
it just works-
Trent Manning, CTEM 20:40
Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 20:41
works so much better, so yeah, he, he would probably be one of my mentors. Name of Glenn Sigmon. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 20:47
Okay he’s
Tyler Lewellyn 20:48
up here.
Trent Manning, CTEM 20:48
Yeah, what’s what’s one of the things that you learnt from him that you still do to this day?
Tyler Lewellyn 20:55
Well, probably quite a bit. But one of the things that I tell people is there’s a right tool for the job, and sometimes more often a puller than a hammer, so- Mm-hmm one of the things that he always did is it’s not take a hammer and bash that seal in. It’s bring it over to the press, find a more gentler way to put this in there. Using PVC as seal drivers instead of brass and a hammer. If you use PVC pipe, it’s soft, and so you’re less likely- Mm-hmm to mess up your seal, and stuff like that. So but yeah, it’s always just making sure that I’m using the proper tool, for the job, not just grabbing the biggest hammer I can find to bang on a shaft,
Trent Manning, CTEM 21:32
right, right, right, right.
Tyler Lewellyn 21:33
Shaft actually needs to be banged on with a big hammer before I do it,
Trent Manning, CTEM 21:37
yeah. No, that’s a good one with the PVC pipe. I mean, that makes a good-
Tyler Lewellyn 21:42
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 21:42
seal installer.
Tyler Lewellyn 21:44
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, there’s he has plenty of custom installers for Flex 21s, so for the oil seals and stuff like that. So I find them in drawers- Mm-hmm of the shop. I mean, he’s written on them, 21 seal, which puller, he’s good at labeling his tools,
Trent Manning, CTEM 21:59
oh yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 21:59
But yeah. Yeah, it was good.
Trent Manning, CTEM 22:02
Speaking of- Yeah the Flex 21, I remember I made a seal driver, and all it was like a one-inch square tube and I welded a washer on it. But it was- Yeah the right length to fit over the axle to drive that seal in. ‘Cause that was- Yep such a pain to put in there,
Tyler Lewellyn 22:19
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 22:19
with it still in the frame.
Tyler Lewellyn 22:21
Yeah, I bet. I still got the I’ve probably got the PVC labeled just for that seal that you’re talking about,
Trent Manning, CTEM 22:27
yep.
Tyler Lewellyn 22:27
In a, sitting in a drawer, so somebody got creative. He was milling he was milling PVC so it w- fit inside of each other and stuff, so that way he can make it longer- Oh, really? if, yeah, use it in different circumstances,
Trent Manning, CTEM 22:39
that’s pretty cool. That’s good stuff. What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Tyler Lewellyn 22:44
I might already have it, okay. I listen to the podcast, people answer this question and stuff, but I’m like, I might be living somebody’s dream job right now, spring Hill is a great place to be. We were in the top 100. We’re not anymore. I think we’re at 106 or something like that. Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM 22:57
yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 22:57
We’re number two in the state. It’s like, I like where I am, mm-hmm. So the only way they get me to move is is either to just do something on my own, complete freedom, or to be at a bigger facility in charge of different locations and stuff,
Trent Manning, CTEM 23:12
mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 23:13
That’d be the only way to even, for me to even think about moving on right now. But I’ve come to enjoy my my freedom, and the freedom that this position allows me. It’s not over, over the road service where I gotta drive places and be away forever and stuff like that. It’s, I can come in, I can do my job. If I gotta leave early, I leave early. If I gotta come in late, I come in late, it gives me ample opportunity to be with the kids, to really w- handle that home/work/life balance pretty effectively, as long as the equipment can go out and cut the next morning, my, my job is done, mm-hmm. So there’s always something to do, but, but at the end of the day it’s the quality that matters here keeping the equipment maintained to a high standard, and keeping the cut quality on par, and the conditions really good out there. And if all that’s met, I can go home at noon,
Trent Manning, CTEM 24:00
so- yeah. No, that’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s really nice to have, a lot of those freedoms to be able to- Yeah come and go, or go to the kids’ play at school, or, whatever it is.
Tyler Lewellyn 24:12
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 24:12
yeah, being able to break away and, come back, ’cause the golf course ain’t going nowhere. It’s gonna be there, yeah, exactly. W- whether without you. But-
Tyler Lewellyn 24:20
Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM 24:20
and
Tyler Lewellyn 24:20
since we’re a golf-only club, we’re not country club, so once we’re shut down we’re done. There’s no pools, there’s no tennis courts, there’s no social dinners, there’s nothing. We just plow a lot, and that’s our winter. Like, it’s all equipment from there. So- Mm-hmm it’s allowed me to volunteer my time w- at some first greens with our MGCSA to go to a career fair to do some presentation at some of our outreaches around the state. And then help build the EM community with, through the MGCSA that we’re trying to build here in Minnesota, and volunteer my time that way, too. It’s allowed me to get more more involved, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 24:57
Yeah super. No, that’s all awesome. Really good stuff. Do you have a technician you’d like to work with for a day?
Tyler Lewellyn 25:04
Oh, Mr. Jordan Roth.
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:06
Oh, okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 25:07
I’ve… he’d be the guy I go visit, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:10
Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 25:10
I’ll hang
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:10
out For sure
Tyler Lewellyn 25:11
with him. And some of the stuff he, he does down there when I chat with him it’s crazy. So he can be a little, It’s not, it’s crazy in a good way. It’s not crazy in a bad way,
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:20
yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 25:20
But-
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:21
Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 25:21
welding, how he plays around and researches and some of the stuff that, that he’s had to do, weld bridges, weld pipe under bridges, just some of those- interesting jobs that I may never, I’m definitely never gonna see it here, some of the stuff he’s had to do. But I think some of it’s very unique, and then, Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:38
that’s super cool
Tyler Lewellyn 25:39
yeah. Yeah, I think he’d be a fun one to go hang around with,
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:42
I know he would be a fun one to go hang around with. I mean- Yeah Jordan’s just a fun guy to hang around with- whether you’re drinking a beer or-
Tyler Lewellyn 25:50
Yeah. I’ve only got four to six hours in. I’m ready for the eight to 10,
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:53
yeah. Yeah. No, that’s yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 25:56
good times. I think it’s a six, eight-hour day when I go down there and hang out with him, i’m
Trent Manning, CTEM 25:59
gonna… I owe him a phone call anyway. I need to give him a call, catch up and see how- Yeah his daughter’s doing. She’s learning how to drive, and I think it’s been a little bit of a struggle. Yeah. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 26:10
yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 26:11
Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 26:11
Yep. We all have those. We all
Trent Manning, CTEM 26:13
have those. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Yes, we do. What do you know now you wish you’d known on day one?
Tyler Lewellyn 26:22
I wish I knew that the industry was as expansive as it really is. There’s plenty of opportunity. There’s plenty of places. There, I stuck my nose down and I learned. I grind it out. I still grind it out, learning everything I can when I can, try and take every opportunity to learn, stuff like that. But just the expanse of the industry,
Trent Manning, CTEM 26:43
mm-hmm
Tyler Lewellyn 26:44
I would hope I would’ve ended up here regardless just ’cause it, it’s a lot of fun being here. But if I would’ve known, moving around and just the need, I might have had a little more fun moving around and being a little more nomadic than I was. Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning, CTEM 26:58
So
Tyler Lewellyn 26:58
Taking different opportunities if I knew what, what was out there, so coming from- Yeah having no idea besides the superintendent saying, “Hey, I need a mechanic,” and then that’s all I knew for three years,
Trent Manning, CTEM 27:11
yeah. Yeah, and I mean, until you get out, it’s you don’t know what you don’t know.
Tyler Lewellyn 27:19
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 27:19
Yeah, exactly. You’re stuck in your own shop, and it’s your own little world, and that’s all that’s going on. But there’s a, yeah, a ton of stuff going on outside around you. Yeah. And always make it a point to tell any of the young people that I’ve been fortunate enough to have work for me is you can go anywhere in the world, literally. Anywhere in the world- Yeah and we’re good to go.
Tyler Lewellyn 27:40
Anywhere. Yeah. You wanna go work overseas? I’d go for it,
Trent Manning, CTEM 27:45
oh yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 27:47
Yeah, no it’s been good. So I’m on my my third assistant here. So one was a retired guy but when I got here, he was here. And then Ian Nass, he’s the equipment manager over at Medina. He was with me last season. So he got the Melrose, so a really great opportunity for him, so which is awesome. And then now I got a new guy, so and that’s that I’m teaching. And I’m hoping he’ll get the Melrose too. I think it would be cool to have two Melrose guys from Spring Hill,
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:14
yeah. That’s super cool.
Tyler Lewellyn 28:16
Getting experience, seeing how- Yeah seeing what the industry is, and then going to the national show. So that’s one of my goals this year is to have him spice up his application Mm-hmm and he can get that, so huge opportunities, and I’m trying to push as much as I can, it’s like the industry’s massive, tons of opportunity. Go network, go learn, go meet these guys. Move to Canada, like whatever. Oh,
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:37
yeah. Whatever, yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 28:38
You may, but if there’s an opportunity they wanna take, I wanna make sure I’m there to help support them in that,
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:44
yeah. The Melrose is, I mean, it’s a great opportunity.
Tyler Lewellyn 28:49
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:49
That, yeah, anybody should yeah, try out for it.
Tyler Lewellyn 28:52
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:54
Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 28:54
that’s what happened.
Trent Manning, CTEM 28:56
Yeah, really good opportunity and, Time for someone to get to the trade show and see how big everything is, see how big the network is and how many people’s in it. And, I don’t remember last year in Orlando there were 12,000 people or something like that,
Tyler Lewellyn 29:13
sounds
Trent Manning, CTEM 29:13
right. Yeah. Which is, I mean, that’s a big crowd How do you deal with that person on your crew?
Tyler Lewellyn 29:20
I talk nicely to them, and I have the the senior assistant deal with it. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 29:24
There, there
Tyler Lewellyn 29:26
you go that the the crew is his to run, I got the equipment. So- Mm-hmm if anything happens, I try and talk to the guy and the person and say, like, “What happened?” “How was the piece of equipment? Was it an equipment issue or was it an operator issue?” ‘Cause if it’s an equipment issue- Mm-hmm that’s my problem. I need to make sure that brakes are working, stuff like that, if he rolled down into a pond or something, it’s like, “Was the brake set?” No.” It’s like, “All right. Can we not do that again?” Mm-hmm. I would be extremely happy if we just didn’t do that again. And then we got a pretty solid crew, so nothing crazy really happens. But yeah, that’s pretty much all it takes for the guys around here. It’s like, “Can we just not?” They’re like yeah. We’ll just not.”
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:05
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Lewellyn 30:06
It’s like, it works for me,
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:07
yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 30:08
yeah. So but-
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:08
Yeah, what kinda crew size do you have?
Tyler Lewellyn 30:12
We probably got 30, 35 guys day-to-day.
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:15
Okay. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 30:16
yeah. So I think we got 40, a little over 40 on our payroll so to speak, but day-to-day I’d say 30, 35 guys.
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:25
Okay. Yeah. Yep. Good stuff.
Tyler Lewellyn 30:29
Yeah.
Trent Manning 30:29
Get ready for tips and tricks
Trent Manning, CTEM 30:31
What kinda tips and tricks you got you wanna share with us?
Tyler Lewellyn 30:36
I don’t think I got anything crazy. One of my things that got ingrained in me here with the previous E- two EMs ago Glen was the winter rebuild sheet. That’s been a great great tool to utilize, and so that would probably be my tip and trick. We got something called a off-season here. I don’t know if the South, understand that- Mm-hmm that term or not, but we get snow. Things shut down. So with the winter rebuild sheet, we- we’re able to go through the piece of equipment with a super fine-tooth comb. We’re ripping tires off and we’re checking bearings. We might even pull bearings and clean ’em out and check ’em. And we Anything and everything we think we wanna look at, wintertime is when we look at it. I’ll print out a a legal size, 8 and 1/2 by 14 sheet, and it’s just a big old checklist, my bumper-to-bumper checklist on every piece of equipment. And that, that keeps us going through the season, if there’s something that I know- Mm-hmm things that are only gonna last a season and a half, then it’s like I’m gonna replace ’em every winter. I’m not gonna wait till they go bad. I know they’re gonna go bad in July. I don’t wanna do it in July, mm-hmm. The equipment-
Trent Manning, CTEM 31:40
Right, right it
Tyler Lewellyn 31:41
won’t last to July. So I’ll do it in January when it doesn’t need to
Trent Manning, CTEM 31:46
mow
Tyler Lewellyn 31:47
the grass. Mm-hmm. So that would probably be my tip and trick is to throw together some kind of maintenance sheet for any kind of off-season or, if there is no off-season, it would probably have to be just a yearly sheet, and I’ll try and get to it in a certain slow time and get, give that piece of equipment a solid look over, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 32:04
Is all that stuff on the checkoff list, is that just off of experience or-
Tyler Lewellyn 32:11
Some of it is. Some. We definitely go through the manual, you know- Mm-hmm and go what the manual wants you to do. Grease the zerks and stuff like that. But otherwise the rest of it, if the manual doesn’t cover it, it’s gonna be experience. It’s gonna be pulleys I would see fail, it’s gonna be bearings we see fail, cables, belts, all that stuff that we know is gonna fail, so that’s when we- Mm-hmm work on it. And then experience tells us, after a year and a half of owning something, if a bearing goes bad, then we’re gonna, we’re gonna do it every year.
Trent Manning, CTEM 32:39
So- Oh yeah. Yeah so where are you at, like reel bearings? Are you replacing those every year?
Tyler Lewellyn 32:45
No. No, I haven’t had to do a reel bearing since I’ve been here. So we got a lot of TorO reels and bearings have been pretty solid on ’em so far. We got some new 1021 walkers. They’re going on their fourth season I think, and haven’t had to touch the reel bearings.
Trent Manning, CTEM 32:58
Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 32:59
But if one starts going, I sure am gonna be doing them all. So
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:03
we’ll run- Yeah, right,
Tyler Lewellyn 33:04
right season. I’m not waiting, so- they’re all getting replaced in the winter.
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:08
Yep. That, I, that was kinda my experience too. The TorOs, I mean, they seem to last the life of the reel.
Tyler Lewellyn 33:17
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:17
And I say that, I mean, we were doing a lot of grinding, a lot of top dressing, a lot of grinding, yeah. So I was replacing reels every couple years or something, yeah, right. Yeah. So you can get a couple years out of ’em. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So definitely a couple years out of… I don’t know, I just really like the sealed ball bearings-
Tyler Lewellyn 33:35
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:36
versus the tapered roller bearings.
Tyler Lewellyn 33:38
Yeah. They seem to do great. So the best part is you don’t have to grease ’em.
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:42
So- Yeah. I know. Yeah
Tyler Lewellyn 33:44
it’s got one of the best parts. You don’t have to worry about purging it, greasing it, the the little bit coming out after you use it, and wiping that out. Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:51
Right.
Tyler Lewellyn 33:51
So it’s definitely more of a user-friendly reel,
Trent Manning, CTEM 33:56
Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Tell me… Yeah, you got any other tips and tricks while we’re there?
Tyler Lewellyn 34:03
No, that, that’s kind of all I got.
Trent Manning, CTEM 34:05
Okay. No, that’s good. Tell me about some of the stuff y’all are doing in Minnesota for technicians, and what kind of technician group you got and some of that stuff.
Tyler Lewellyn 34:17
Yeah. So we got, we formed a EM committee with the MGCSA. So there, there’s four of us. So it started with me, Tanner, Chad, and Austin. Austin Reich from Hazeldean, Chad Braun from Town Country, Tanner Knutson from North Oaks, and myself. And then with the KPMG coming in town Austin wanted to focus on that. So then we brought in Hugh, well, Wade Huseman from River Oaks here in town. So- Okay maintain the number four, so it seems to work pretty well for us. And then Wade’s on our board of directors, so he can help facilitate things if need be. But we’re trying to grow a community of technicians, trying to get the community back together, so to speak. Mm-hmm the Twin Cities for a while I’ve heard it was split between, like, east and west side, no, no wars or nothing. No turf wars breaking out. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so different sides, different pockets kinda had get-togethers. We’re trying to bring it in as a whole. And then Minnesota’s kind of a large state, and up north trying to bring, build little pockets of communities up there with the outreaches. So the- Mm-hmm MGCSA does four outreaches a year, one in each corner of the state northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast kind of deal. And there wasn’t really a lot of mechanics involved in that. So we’re trying to get there and provide some kind of education. Never know what it looks like, but something out there to try- Mm-hmm and get these superintendents and the affiliates and so that to be like, “Hey, the EMs need to start getting involved in the area as well.” And trying to bring them in, create a group. We got a WhatsApp group, MGCSA WhatsApp group for EMs. I think there might be 25 postings on there now, as of, like, year and a half of ongoing. Okay. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 35:55
Yeah. You gotta start somewhere, man.
Tyler Lewellyn 35:57
Probably a group. Probably a group. But, Yeah but yeah. So we’re, we shoot for three, three events a year, equipment manager events. One in the fall, kind of some kind of shop talk or a little one-day education event. Mm-hmm. And then we the MGCSA does a mega seminar. So last year we did a half a day in the shop of the course I was hosting. Mm-hmm. And then we had, We brought in Mike- Yep with The Lion King. So that was- that was pretty good. Everybody still rants and raves about that. Everybody I talk. That’s awesome. So really good there. And then we had a spring event as well, education event. We try for three a year and then wintertime is the time that, that we really put forth effort into that. Mm-hmm. So summertime basically, keeps your head down. We got our courses, tournaments, schedules, maintenance, stuff like that. But otherwise when wintertime comes, then it, we really aim for the three. And maybe more and then the MGCSA also has a Hole Notes magazine, so online publication and then they do a podcast as well.
Trent Manning, CTEM 36:56
Okay, cool.
Tyler Lewellyn 36:57
Yeah. So we got a revolving tech tip in there. So I’ve done a few of ’em myself. The winter rebuild cheat was one of ’em in December. I did that little guy. But so with the committee we’re trying to get other people involved to do their own tech tip and put in hole notes- Mm-hmm and they record your voice for the for the podcast. Hopefully we’ll see more contributions grow in in that realm. But but yeah, I mean, trying everything we can to get equipment managers involved, first greens, that, that’s huge. I did my first one last year, and I think Chad and Tanner both did one this spring, I believe.
Trent Manning, CTEM 37:33
Okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 37:34
Manning an equipment station. So just to have, Third graders just crawl all over equipment, so- Okay I didn’t tell them and it’s just mass mayhem, so- Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM 37:43
Yeah they’re
Tyler Lewellyn 37:44
like, “Oh, is that a golf cart? That’s so cool.” And they just climb all over it. They find everything. Yeah. If there’s a golf- Yeah tee somewhere they’ll pick it up and they’ll be running around with it. Mm-hmm. It’s like, “Yeah, let’s not do that here, guys.”
Trent Manning, CTEM 37:56
Yeah. That’s funny. They’ll take
Tyler Lewellyn 37:57
golf balls around and whatever they find. Their hands are… They’re, like, attracted to it. I don’t know how they find some of the stuff they find, but they just walk up- and they go, “Look, a hammer.” It’s like how about I take that?”
Trent Manning, CTEM 38:09
I’ll take this
Tyler Lewellyn 38:09
one.” So we’re like, “Can we drive it?” “No, sorry. Sorry.” Yeah. “Give it, like, 13 more years and-“
Trent Manning, CTEM 38:17
Right. Right. That’s funny. Yeah. Yeah, so what else do y’all do at those first green things, like the mechanic stations? It’s just equipment set up?
Tyler Lewellyn 38:28
Yeah, just equipment. So the few first greens I’ve been at the course will bring equipment. A big rough mower, a greens mower, maybe a roller. A golf cart’s always been kids’ favorites. And we just… They climb on it and we talk about it. So I try and talk about it at the beginning, but you got, like, 35 seconds of attention span- before, before they’re So you gotta make it really short and sweet, and then it’s like, “You guys have any questions? We’ll just answer it a- as it comes.” Okay. So every now and… every one, there’s been at least one or two kids that just surprise you. So they’re climbing on more and they’re like, “Is this hydraulic driven?” It’s like- You’re five. How do you- Wow like, how do you understand that?
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:11
Yeah, that’s so cool. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 39:12
it’s for them. Like, ah, well, that’s pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, it’s hydraulic driven, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:16
That’s so cool. Yeah. Would have never guessed, a five-year-old.
Tyler Lewellyn 39:21
I know. Sometimes they- I didn’t
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:22
know what hydraulics was when I was five.
Tyler Lewellyn 39:25
Yeah. I don’t even know if they know, but they said the word and they were right,
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:28
yeah, right. I
Tyler Lewellyn 39:28
give them the point, but yeah. Mm-hmm. There, there are a few kids just, that just kinda surprise you, but you try and give a spiel. It’s like, there’s the electric, there’s hydraulics, they all have tires, and they, none of them go really fast. So we’re not going on a road trip, you guys. No, you can’t drive it. Like-
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:46
Mm-hmm
Tyler Lewellyn 39:46
yeah, by the second group, you really start laying down ground rules, it’s like, all right- here it goes. Like, no, you can’t drive it. No, it doesn’t go fast.
Trent Manning, CTEM 39:54
Right.
Tyler Lewellyn 39:54
But yeah, I mean, that’s about it. We just try and talk about it. A lot of them, the First Greens I’ve been a part of is, like, late elementary, early middle school type First Green,
Trent Manning, CTEM 40:04
okay. Yeah. No, that’s cool. Very cool. I,
Tyler Lewellyn 40:06
I think there was a high school First Green th- this spring for high schoolers, kinda in that 10 to 12th grade range. And then I I went to a career fair, a college career fair, so that one was kinda interesting. A lot of kids asking a few questions about stuff there. So on that one I I ended up trailering equipment there with a trailer I got, and I went to the local course, loaded up equipment, and brought it to the career fair. So we brought a hybrid greens mower, a roller, a Workman, and then we were able to cut a few cups in some heavily rocky and clay soil. And that didn’t go real good, but… And then the the high schoolers were able to roll a greens roller. They were all surprised it was a true turf roller, so it had the stick, mm-hmm. And they’re all, “How does that work?” And it’s like, “It’s so weird. You sit sideways?” It’s like, “Yep.” Mm-hmm. “Yes, you do.” Yep. Yeah, and then I went to a yeah, an FFA deal, talking to kids, future, what is it? Future Farmers As- Association or whatever. They had a dinner. Mm-hmm. Through the MGCSA, our director reached out, and I attended that. And same thing, kids are just blown away by golf and turf. A lot of the First Greens and when I try and help out with MGCSA it’s more or less just spreading awareness, of like, hey- Well, yeah we are an industry. This is a career- Mm-hmm if you wanna work it. Mm-hmm. But yeah every time kids are just amazed by the equipment and how it works and everything else that goes along with it. So rolling sideways, Workmans, all that stuff. They’re just amazed. It’s like, well, if you wanna be amazed every day, come work at a golf course.
Trent Manning, CTEM 41:41
Yeah, there you go. That’s awesome, man. That’s so
Tyler Lewellyn 41:43
cool. It could be a tree, your additional lake. Who knows? Who knows what’s gonna happen?
Trent Manning, CTEM 41:48
You never know.
Tyler Lewellyn 41:50
You never know. Something different every day.
Trent Manning, CTEM 41:53
Yeah, I think that’s definitely something that drives a lot of us and keeps a lot of us going on the golf courses is it is something different every day. You never know. Yeah. You can plan your day, and that goes out the window five minutes in.
Tyler Lewellyn 42:06
Yeah. Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM 42:07
Yeah. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 42:07
there’s
Trent Manning, CTEM 42:08
no- Because the weather or whatever
Tyler Lewellyn 42:10
the only rhythm to the day is you’re gonna wake up in the morning, and you’re gonna go to sleep at night. So in between, who knows what’s gonna happen.
Trent Manning, CTEM 42:18
Yep.
Tyler Lewellyn 42:18
So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 42:19
Never
Tyler Lewellyn 42:19
know what time is lunch? I don’t know. Early, late, I don’t know. We’ll see.
Trent Manning, CTEM 42:25
Yep. No, that’s good stuff. And yeah, it’s great what your association’s doing, and the group you got going. Yeah. And getting together three times a year, I mean, I think that’s great. And it’s rewarding, to hear that there’s more places doing that, and more groups- Yeah getting together. But there’s still a lot of work to do ’cause I- Oh, yeah was talking to a guy yesterday in California, and he’s like, “There’s nothing here. There’s nothing.” Yeah. And yeah, we got more work to do, but it’s great that it is where it is now.
Tyler Lewellyn 43:03
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And some of it is, getting the EMs, but it’s getting some supers to realize I’ve noticed a trend in young superintendents, they don’t always value a quality EM. They get a job and then they assume they can take it on with no formal training. And it’s like, you gotta know something, and most of these guys take on- Yeah and they just don’t see the value in it, so then they’re a superintendent mechanic combo, and they have a hard time,
Trent Manning, CTEM 43:28
right. Right. Yep.
Tyler Lewellyn 43:29
So it, it’s interesting. It’s like a generational thing almost sometimes,
Trent Manning, CTEM 43:34
yes, it can be, for sure.
Tyler Lewellyn 43:36
Yeah. There, there’s a shift somewhere,
Trent Manning, CTEM 43:43
Are you ready to do some rapid fire questions?
Tyler Lewellyn 43:46
Yeah. Yeah, let’s have at it.
Trent Manning, CTEM 43:48
What’s your favorite movie?
Tyler Lewellyn 43:50
I don’t really have one, so mine’s
Trent Manning, CTEM 43:53
okay. Okay. No, it’s all- Okay it’s all good. What about- All good fa- favorite TV show?
Tyler Lewellyn 43:59
Can’t say I have a good one of those either. I just watch everything, there’s nothing I can, that I can think of that I can sit down and watch time and time again, or like it’s my go-to. It’s just I just don’t have one. Not
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:11
works?
Tyler Lewellyn 44:11
So everything. I watch everything, some oh what are they? Like, Pride and Prejudice The Loved Ones with the wife, if you wanna sit down and watch it, it’s like, sure, sit down and
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:21
watch it. Okay. Yeah,
Tyler Lewellyn 44:22
Yeah. That, some sci-fi, some comedy, some action. Like, whatever. If it’s got a poor storyline, sometimes I enjoy those too,
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:29
yeah. That’s okay. It’s all good. What would be your last meal?
Tyler Lewellyn 44:34
Oh, my last meal would probably have to be me smoking some ribs,
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:38
okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 44:39
Not found any ribs that I enjoyed better than my own, and just the meat. I don’t want no sides, just like half a rack of ribs right there. That’ll do it.
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:50
Okay.
Tyler Lewellyn 44:51
So pretty happy with that. And
Trent Manning, CTEM 44:53
I don’t want to, give away any secrets on the podcast, but yeah, how Is this you just rub, sauce, mop? What do you do to these ribs?
Tyler Lewellyn 45:06
It’s, It’s a little bit of a trade secret. Okay. It’s proprietary information, all right.
Trent Manning, CTEM 45:12
Fair enough. Fair enough. So- I know how people are with their barbecue.
Tyler Lewellyn 45:16
Well-
Trent Manning, CTEM 45:17
If I get up that way would you give me a rib?
Tyler Lewellyn 45:20
I’d share with you.
Trent Manning, CTEM 45:21
Okay. Just one. Just
Tyler Lewellyn 45:22
one.
Trent Manning, CTEM 45:22
One rib. One rib. Yeah, okay. One rib. Okay. All right. Just one rib. Oh, that works. I’ll take what I can get. Beggars can’t be choosers, right? So- what are you most proud of besides your family?
Tyler Lewellyn 45:35
I would have to say I’m kind of most proud of everything, everything of of where I am, what I’ve accomplished, the people that I’ve got to meet, and help along the way. Just kinda it’s the overall picture, that I’m proud of. Mm-hmm. There’s not one specific thing, like I’m proud of the desk that I’m working on or nothing like that. It’s just kinda all of it, you never know what tomorrow’s gonna bring you just make the best of the m- the best of today, and meeting, meeting the people, meeting Jordan, spending time with him in Omaha, mm-hmm. Chatting with you as I’m sitting on a golf course green troubleshooting some top changers, like, it’s all wonderful stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Some days can be a little troublesome. Other days it, it’s a breeze, and- Mm-hmm either way I’m really proud of where I am and how I got here and the kids, the fam, the, the whole shoot and shebang, so there’s,
Trent Manning, CTEM 46:23
you
Tyler Lewellyn 46:23
know, I’d like to do differently. There’s other places I wish I was today, but overall, I enjoy it, so-
Trent Manning, CTEM 46:30
That’s awesome. Yeah. You know- Good for you. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 46:32
I don’t-
Trent Manning, CTEM 46:33
Yep. Good for you. No, good stuff, man. I appreciate you being a guest, and until next time.
Tyler Lewellyn 46:42
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Hopefully there will be a next time.
Trent Manning, CTEM 46:45
Oh, yeah. No, this is good stuff. It always is.
Tyler Lewellyn 46:48
Gotta get more Minnesota boys on here. So-
Trent Manning, CTEM 46:51
That’s… I’m trying. I’ve had Chad on, I’ve had, Sure Tanner on, and A- Austin Wright. He was a Wisconsin- Yeah boy then, but I’ve had him on. Yeah. And-
Tyler Lewellyn 47:02
I’ll take what I can get.
Trent Manning, CTEM 47:03
Yeah. Well, send any guests my way. I’d be happy. Sure. I’ll interview anybody. It really doesn’t matter where you’re from.
Tyler Lewellyn 47:10
Yeah. I’ll go.
Trent Manning, CTEM 47:11
Or your experience level. That’s something-
Tyler Lewellyn 47:14
Yeah
Trent Manning, CTEM 47:14
that reminds me, but a lot of people, I’ll reach out, like, “You interested?” “Oh, no, I’ve only been doing this for, four years.” I don’t care. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing it. Y’all have to start somewhere. We all have different backgrounds and experiences, and I’m happy to talk to anybody.
Tyler Lewellyn 47:30
Yeah. At some point in our life, we’ve been only doing it for four years too,
Trent Manning, CTEM 47:34
that’s exactly right.
Tyler Lewellyn 47:36
All been there. We all know how it goes and, people listen to the podcast, they could be doing it a week, they could be assistant superintendents looking to be EM’s, and now they’re listening to equipment managers talk, mm-hmm. And then it could help them shift over, hearing perspectives from somebody that’s only been in it three, four years, on their own and had to learn it all. Never learned as an assistant, they just went and applied and now they’re wrenching on mowers that they didn’t know existed.
Trent Manning, CTEM 48:01
Right, right, right. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 48:03
Those are the ones you hear about the most, those would be the best ones.
Trent Manning, CTEM 48:07
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Tyler Lewellyn 48:08
I’ll have to try and round some Minnesota boys up for you. All right. And
Trent Manning, CTEM 48:14
have them join Sounds good. Be my,
Tyler Lewellyn 48:15
my goal this year.
Trent Manning, CTEM 48:16
All right. To add it to the list, right? The long list.
Tyler Lewellyn 48:20
Yep. Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM 48:21
Of things to do. All right. Whatever. Yep. Thank you.
Tyler Lewellyn 48:26
Yep. Thanks, Trent.
Trent Manning 48:32
thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you’d like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at Reel turf techs.