The Route to Awareness

I love to ride my bike. For some time now, I’ve had this dream of riding my bike across the U.S. but I just couldn’t figure out the timing. Being a Golf Course Superintendent keeps you tethered to the property during summers, plus who gets a month and a half off work to go ride a bike?  It wasn’t until I stopped being a superintendent and started my own business that I was able to have the freedom to consider such a grand scheme.

My initial plan was to turn the world off, forget about Covid19 and the craziness happening in Washington DC and around the country, drop everything and just ride. Lose myself.  Regain the clarity of thought that had been missing from my life for a while.  After talking it over with my wife and gaining her support…should I be concerned about how big a smile she had on her face when thinking about me being gone for a month and a half…but I digress, I immediately felt a weight lift off my shoulders and some of the fuzziness left my brain.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I was truly excited about something.  I started putting together my trip details, planning my route, organizing my gear and considering all of the other things that would help get me safely across this massive country.  Somewhere in the middle of all of this planning it hit me.  Just riding my bike across the country wasn’t going to be enough. I needed a purpose other than to just clear my head while doing something cool. So I thought about what I wanted to accomplish during my adventure, and my purpose became clear.

I love being outdoors. Always have.  I grew up in a family of campers, mostly trailer camping with a little bit of tent camping mixed in.  As a young adult I expressed those experiential desires through backpacking adventures around the country.  I love throwing a pack on my back and heading down a trail.  It is my love of outdoors which led me to becoming a Golf Course Superintendent and, ultimately, becoming passionately involved in the world of BMPs.  BMPs…that was it!  I found my adventure’s purpose. I could promote BMPs for golf across the country…literally. The details really started coming together after I spoke with my buddy Nathan. After telling him about my adventure and idea to raise awareness for the golf course BMP initiative, he suggested I offer a free consultative visit to any course along my route.  What a great idea!  I can visit courses along the way and offer free advice to superintendents on how to better align their facility with BMPs.  And at the same time, I can highlight some of the amazing, mostly unsung, ways in which superintendents are protecting the environment, which brings me to a point I want to make.  I believe all Golf Course Superintendents who stop and think about it for more than a half a second not only understands their role as an environmental steward, they embrace it.  Superintendents are sophisticated, educated professionals who understand the impact, positive or negative, their land management decisions have on the environment. Superintendents have a vested interest in protecting the environment as their family drinks the same water as the rest of their community.

Reach out to me if your golf course is located along my route and you’re interested in a free consultative visit.  I would love to stop by to discuss how you can better align your facility with science based BMPs.  As a part of the visit, I would like to identify a BMP you are excelling at and promote it via a vlog post.  Hope to see you on the road!!!!

KB