Mark Petrie (front row, far right) was among this group of EXCEL Leadership Program participants who gathered for a group photo at the 2024 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Phoenix. GCM file photo
Mark Petrie was aware of the First Green program and its mission to bring youths to golf courses for hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts and math education, but it wasn’t until he saw a First Green field trip in person that it fully clicked.
“I loved it,” says Petrie, a five-year GCSAA member who is nearing his one-year anniversary as superintendent at Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, Conn. “When you go and see one and participate in it … I loved it. I think it’s really good for golf. I never did anything like that as a kid. I got lucky and fell into this.”
Petrie’s firsthand First Green experience came during a facility learning tour at the 2024 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in Phoenix. It was his first in-person trip to CTS, after having participated in the virtual show in 2021.
While the whole event — from the education to the networking to the trade show and everything in between — left an impression, that First Green experience stood out.
“After that, I was really excited to hold a First Green trip here (at Hop Meadow),” Petrie says. “That was one of the first things I did. I had been here four months. We had over 300 kids, 10 stations, 10 different teachers. A lot of the members in the club were involved. My staff was into it. That was really cool. That was probably my biggest learning takeaway from the show, something I might not have done otherwise.”
That facility tour — Launching a First Green Field Trip is Easier Than You Think, presented in partnership with Helena, which next CTS will run from 8-noon on Feb. 3 — is just one on the docket for the 2025 Conference and Trade Show in San Diego.
Others include: on Feb. 3, Master Your Irrigation, presented by Hunter Industries; Nature Meets Golf at the Crossings, presented by Husqvarna; The Latest in Golf Turf Management with Frank Rossi, Ph.D., presented by PBI-Gordon; on Feb. 4, Equipment Management at the Links; Mastering Tournament Prep and Recovery, presented by The Toro Co.; and The Art of Renovation, presented by CapillaryFlow.
Petrie’s initial for-real CTS experience came courtesy of the EXCEL Leadership Program, presented by Nufarm. The EXCEL Leadership Program, administered by the GCSAA Foundation, offers training for personal, career and community/industry stewardship for assistant superintendents.
As Petrie, now 31, was nearing his self-imposed goal to be a head superintendent by the time he was 30, he reached out to friend and EXCEL alum Anthony Minniti.
“I had heard about the EXCEL program because he did it,” Petrie says. “He said, ‘If you don’t do anything else this winter, just do that, apply for the EXCEL program. If that’s the only thing you do, that’s a good decision.’
“I didn’t think it would impact me as much as it has. I made a lot of good friends going to seminars and meetings, and it was nice going to the GCSAA Show. It’s nice to have another group of friends you can hang out with. I met a lot of people from all over. I made a lot of long-lasting relationships I never would have made if I hadn’t had that experience.”
From left, GM Rod Clement, Petrie and golf chairman Mark Murnane welcomed more than 300 students to a First Green field trip in April to Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, Conn. Photo courtesy of Mark Petrie
Petrie says he’s particularly looking forward to visiting sunny San Diego — this year’s CTS runs Feb. 3-6 — and seeing the latest technological innovations on the Trade Show floor. And he’s strategically crafting his educational schedule.
“One thing I’ve really taken away from the EXCEL program is that I make a point to go to some classes that aren’t just weed science, classes that aren’t just agronomy based,” he says. “I plan to go to some dealing-with-people-type of classes, leadership classes. At the end of the day, this job is 90% dealing with people. Agronomy is the easy part. Everyone loves the science. That’s why we got into it. But that opened my eyes that agronomy isn’t the most important thing.”
Compared to Petrie, Minniti is a Conference and Trade Show veteran. Now almost a year into his second head superintendent job (Minniti became the GCSAA Class A superintendent at Windham Country Club in Windham, N.Y., nearly the same day Petrie landed his job at Hop Meadow), Minniti has been to six Conference and Trade Shows. His first was in 2011, when he participated in the Collegiate Turf Bowl Competition as a student at the University of Connecticut.
He has attended as a student, an assistant and as a head superintendent and has collected varying takeaways based on his roles.
“I think as an assistant, you’re going to get as much knowledge as you can, from every source you possibly can,” says Minniti, a 16-year association member. “I’m just a big turf nerd. I’ve always wanted to know about anything and everything going on. As an assistant, taking classes that prepare you to be a superintendent were helpful. As a superintendent, it’s more taking classes that you think will directly impact your facility. Over the past decade, going to Conference and Show has helped me raise my stock in the industry and helped me grow as a superintendent.”
Minniti, who skipped the 2024 CTS in Phoenix in part because he had just recently landed his new gig, is on a mission in San Diego. He is loading up his time at CTS related to the massive renovation he’s set to lead at Windham CC starting in 2026.
“This year will definitely be different for me. I hope to get more knowledge on bunker-lining systems,” he says. “I know this show I’ll be taking educational classes on growing-in and managing fine fescue native areas, because we’ll have around 40 acres here when the project is done.
“I think Conference and Show is great. Definitely from a networking and educational perspective, you can only learn so much from the internet. It’s a great way to make sure as a superintendent I’m as prepared as possible. Whatever avenue you take — some years I’m not doing a lot of education; some years I sit in education 8-5 Monday and Tuesday — every year is different. I think not going is doing your club a disservice.”
Andrew Hartsock (ahartsock@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s editor-in-chief.