Thornblade Golf Club is a family-run, member-owned golf club. We have full amenities; pool, tennis,
paddle ball, pickleball, you know, golf obviously. It's a 18-hole Tom Fazio design Golf Course.
My name is Dane Olsen. I'm of the golf course
Superintendent at Thornblade Club in Greer South Carolina.
I started working on a golf course in high school. Really enjoyed it, decided that I wanted to pursue
that as a career. Went to North Dakota State University got my bachelor's in Turfgrass
Management. And then from there I kind of did some internships across the country. I took my
first assistant superintendent job out of school at Savannah Golf Club in New York. Worked there
for two years and was at Victoria National Golf Club in Indiana for three years. And then my boss
he asked me "hey, do you want to want to make a move and come down to South Carolina with me?" and I've
been here now for two years with him. That's kind of kind of where I've been and and what I've done.
The uniqueness about this place is the different Turf varieties. It's the difference
going from the C4 to the C3 grasses. Having all Bermuda tees, rough collars, everything.
And then and then going to the bent grass greens, you know, that comes with different
chemicals, different mowing patterns, different mowing heights. We do have you know bunkers
in the middle of fairways. We have undulated hills kind of across the properties in some
really tight areas which requires us to, you know, get different machinery such as Ventracs.
If we didn't have have Ventrac, maintaining a lot of these areas would be with a line
trimmer which requires more labor, more staffing, and a traditional rough mower. If
you try to go up these hills you're just going to spin and spin and you're going to obviously
rut up areas and and cause turf damage. Where where these Ventracs actually climb on
these slopes and get in these tight areas that a bigger traditional unit can't get
into without sliding and causing damage. Definitely cuts labor and time in half.
The Ventrac has definitely been a part of of everywhere that I have worked.
We've had Ventracs. It's my my eighth golf course I've been on across the country. We've had Ventracs
everywhere. Being able to say "hey, I need a stump grinder attachment." It's a lot easier to to come
up and say "hey, I can get this stump grinder attachment for this machine that I already have
that I can utilize or I'm gonna have to go out and buy this specialty machine there's literally only
able to use for grinding stumps." Where this other machine I can put a stump grinder on it but then
again, I can turn around and I can put a rotary deck mower on it, or I could put a real deck on it,
or a blower on it. So I can utilize those you know in many different areas and it's an easy switch.
I really you know like the cliché everyone says you know they like being outside, they don't want
to be in an office which is which is true with me, but I like working. I like seeing something
different every day. I can be outside all day, you know, it requires a little office work obviously
but most of the time I get to be out here. I get to see the changes we've made. I get to do something
relatively different every single day. So that that's something that really keeps me going.