Guest Speaker Curtis Tyrrell

On January 26th, the Penn State Turf Club had an excellent speaker come in by the name of Curtis Tyrell and talk about his experience in the industry. Mr. Tyrrell is currently the Director of Golf at Modinah Country Club, which will be hosting the 2012 Ryder Cup. Mr. Tyrrell is also a graduate of Penn State’s two year Golf Course Turfgrass Management Program. He first said before he spoke, “It sure is glad to be back in Happy Valley, it just makes me feel good and brings back memories.”

Once Mr. Tyrrell graduated, he took his first job in Palm Springs, CA at a course called PGA West. After getting experience there he moved on as an assistant superintendent at Desert Mountain located in Arizona. He spent the next three years there, and had only one weekend scheduled off the entire time. When he left, he looked back and realized how much of an opportunity it was for him and how much he learned. Next in-line was his first opportunity to become a superintendent at Anthem Golf Club, so he moved to Las Vegas where life was great. It wasn’t long after that a job came open and he wanted to get back to the east coast so he moved to Connecticut to be a superintendent at a new golf course called Lake of the Isles Golf Course. The golf courses architect’s was Rees Jones.

Soon after that, Mr. Tyrell got an interview for the Director of Golf position at Modinah Country Club. He mention that the interview process was nothing like he had ever expected, but he did get the job and headed to Illinois.
When he was done he had a few tip and pointers he has picked up throughout the years, and believes strongly in them.

• Set specific goals in life
• Always be prepared for any situation
• Never think things are ok because when you let up things can go south in a hurry