Today’s agenda included a short visit to a golf course, a professional turf management company, and a tour of the city center in Vienna.
Our early morning departure was to go visit the golf course named Schönfled. It is a private golf course that costs about 1500 Euros (about $1700) per year. The course has 27 holes for golf players to have different options of which holes to play. The golf club is about 25 years old. Luckily I have been playing golf for almost 8 years so even though I could not understand the Green Manager speaking German, I understood the concept of what he was talking about from a student translating for me. It was amusing to see that some students have never seen a golf course putting green. In golf, it is required that a putting green is cut about 2-3 millimeters high. In America, golf is a popular sport and golf courses are almost always less than an hour away. In Germany and Austria, golf isn’t the most popular sport. Actually cycling and soccer are the top two most popular sports in Germany so that explains why it was some of the students first time experiencing a putting green. The Green Manager then showed us to their lawnmower workshop. They have special mowers with special sharp blades to get a pristine, clean cut. They cut the putting green grass every day. Since I play golf, it was interesting to see the other perspective from the workers and how much care is put into the golf course.
The next stop was to visit the professional turf management company Zehetbauer Fertigrasen. This turf is actually grass not the fake turf with the plastic grass and annoying little rubber pellets that always get stuck in your shoes. In America, I have played soccer at turf farms such as Tuckahoe Turf Farms in southern New Jersey but now I could learn how the process of how it is produced and shipped. It is a family farm situated in the Danube Valley near Vienna. With 40 years of turf experience they offer different sod qualities and agronomic consultancy for gardens, public parks, sport stadiums and golf courses including soil-free turf. Beside sod the Zehetbauer family is growing onions, carrots, sugar beets, canola seed, wheat and corn and is involved in a vegetable packing facility. The owner of the company gave us a private tour of his special machine that removes excess soil under the turf without damaging the grass and still keeps the grass intact. It is a special machine and there about 12 made in the world using this process. The goal of the process is to cut excess weight so it is easier to transport more turf at a time. The machine uses water spraying away the soil under the grass. I never saw anything like it.
In the evening, after a small lunch by the Danube River, we had a walking tour in the center of the city in Vienna. The best part of the tour was that the students booked the tour guide in English! So yay I could understand everything that was said. It was fascinating exploring the transition from early Gothic to the Baroque architectural style that is most common in Vienna’s historic buildings.
Once again, it was another good day. I began breaking my shyness and slowly started talking to more of the students. They are funny and always express good humor.
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