Stanley Kapulka Jr's View on The GIS Trip

[StephenTucker]

This is the second in a series of profiles of this year’s GIS trip winners and their thoughts on the event. Here’s Stanley Kapulka Jr. sponsored by The Toro Company.....
Profile
Age - 31
Years in industry – 6 years
Years working on equipment – over 20 year’s
Grind only or lap - both
Miles roundtrip/day for work – 90 miles
Personal vehicle – just got a company vehicle
Music on shop radio – Country mostly, Old time Rock & roll
Best fabrication project I’ve done – B-40 blower shoot made new & put hydraulic cylinder on it to change direction
Tech assistant(s) - NO

Shop/Equipment

Grinders (type) – new Foley bed knife & Dual reel older
Lift (yes/no) – yes
Tools provided (yes or no) – yes but I have & use my own tools
Air Conditioning in shop? yes
Computer at work (yes or no) - yes & the internet also
Greensmowers (type and #) – 2 Toro 3150’s & 2 GK 4’s & 5 GM 1000’s
Collar – 2 GM 1000’s
Approach – 1 Toro 3150 & 1 GK 4
Tee – 1 Toro 3150 & 1 GK 4
Fairway – Toro 5100-D & 5400-D
Rough – Toro Sidewinder, HR5111 (moving to one of our other courses & getting a Toro 4700-d in a few weeks)
Utility vehicles – Mostly gators, but I do ha 1 of each HD carts 3W & 4W Cushman-3200 Workman-Pro Gator
Cart fleet – Don’t touch the carts we have a maintenance contract (Yamaha)
Maintenance budget/year around $650,000(whole course)

Course

# of holes 18
Superintendent (name) – Jon Lobenstine
Assistant(s) – Allen Harryman, Steve Evens
Type of grass/height of cut/# of times mowed/week –
Greens – Bent/Poa 7 days a week
Tees – Rye 2-3 times a week
Fairways – Rye 2-3 times a week
Rough – A mix Poa, Rye, & Fescue
Groom greens? Every other week
Double cut greens? If yes, how often? A few times a year Here & There
Roll greens? If yes, how often? Once a week
Greens topdressing frequency – Light once a week


So, how did it go?
It was awesome & I had a great time

Did you get to meet your sponsor?
Yes

Did you have enough time to see everything you wanted to?
Yes & I got to do a lot of research on equipment for the company

Name one thing that stood out the most…
So much was going on at one time that you had no idea what was even happening

Was there anything you came away from the show with that will help you or your course?
I learned more about some of our topdressing equipment so now I have better understanding of set-up which will help save time

What do you think about having training for techs in conjunction with the show?
I think it’s a great idea & I would attend

Do you think more techs would be willing to come if there was training involved?
Yes & if they had the chance to see it like I did

Would you like to see the seminars done just by Tech. associations, or also by the equipment manufacturers since they’re already there?
All of them to get a little from each side

If it wasn’t for winning, would you have been able to afford to go?
No, not this year anyway

If a club won’t pick up any expenses involved with the trip, how do you feel about at least getting paid time off to go?
I was paid for the time I was there because I was doing work while I was there. I wish every course could afford to pay their techs to go & pay for the trip but that isn’t always possible do to budgets

Reflect back on meeting other techs from all over and sharing experiences amongst yourselves, including the IGCEMA reception on Friday night…
I had a great time talking with everyone that I met there. It was nice to put a face to the names I see on the web site & hearing about their shops & courses. I enjoyed the reception on Friday night. After talking to some realized how good I’ve got it with my course & company


Was the trip worth it?
YES, I think it’s great that so many company’s are doing this for us & hope we can get more for people like me to have the same chance I had to go. You can’t go there & not get something out of it.

Also I’d like to thank IGCEMA for making this possible.

Special Thanks to Steve Spuhler from Golf Tech's for the interview.

[KarlBaumann]

Thank you Stan for your enlightening comments and thank you Steve for a very well thought out interview. The questions were very appropriate and insightful.

A very special thanks to Toro for sponsoring Stan.

Much success to us all!

[SteveSpuhler]

It gives everyone more insight into what the guys, their equipment, work environment and course conditioning specs are...