44 SportsTurf | July 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com
end of season games and bowl practices when the Bermuda
has all but stopped recovering. I will continue to work with
our administration and football program to see what practices
such as this among others can help us be the best we can be
all year round.
ST: What's the best piece of turf management advice you have
ever received?
SMITH: With the importance of aerifying and verticutting the
best advice I have ever received was from Dr. Mike Goatley. He
said, "If you think your fields are looking good, then it's probably
about time to start tearing them up."
ST: How do you balance your work and personal time?
SMITH: It's a balancing act that I am currently getting a crash
course in. My wife and I recently had our first child. A friend
and colleague, Waldo Terrell, once said that all the pictures of
fields would be replaced with pictures of your child. Boy, was
he right!
ST: What's your most valued piece of equipment and why?
SMITH: Verticutting reels on a fairway unit. We have a fairway
mower that is dedicated strictly for verticutting. This enables us
to do frequent light verticutting. With the increasing number of
events on all of our fields, the days of aggressive verticutting are
almost obsolete. The frequent but light verticutting allows us to
manage thatch without taking our fields out of play.
ST: Are you yet involved in "sustainable" management prac-
tices? If so, what are you doing?
SMITH: The University of Florida is an institution that as a
whole is very committed to sustainability from using organ-
ics on campus to composting at football games. As part of
that mission and commitment, we are constantly looking at
all of our practices and procedures to see what is out there
and what new innovations are available to help us be more
sustainable. ■
ST
FIELD OF THE YEAR
