The First Green has landed in Colorado!

I just returned from Colorado Springs where the Patty Jewett Golf Course has held the first First Green field trip held in the Rocky Mountain state. Colorado Springs Golf Division Superintendent, Patrick Gentile, CGCS and Patty Jewett Superintendent Jeff Wichman, organized and hosted the Taylor Elementary third graders for a morning of STEM learning and fun. Taylor is right next door to the course so the entire class was able to simply walk to the course.

Taking full advantage of the First Green resources, Patrick downloaded the mathematics lesson plan on calculating square footage. The teachers stated that they had done a similar unit earlier in the year and were excited that they were going to be able to apply it in a real situation. The lesson was as simple as using irrigation flags to line out a rectangle in the grass then giving the groups of two kids a tape measure. The followed the instructions on the worksheet then came back to the table to calculate their findings. This may sound rather simple, but to a third grader this was their introduction to calculating the square footage of an area using length times height.

Jeff Wichman gave the students a taste of all the types of equipment used to maintain the golf course. He enlisted his crew to start up the various pieces of equipment and demonstrate how each one worked. The surprise was the three different piles of grass that he put on the table. A pile, each from a greens mower, fairway mower and a rough mower were placed on the table where the kids could reach out and touch. They were simple amazed by the pile of greens grass. Most of the kids thought that the grass was fake.

Bill and Jeff Martin

Every field trip needs to have a fun activity and that is where Patrick and Jeff enlisted the pro shop. Brothers Jeff and Bill Martin did an incredible job engaging the kids by showing them how to put. Just seeing the smiles on all the faces of those kids made my trip worthwhile. Not only were they having fun, but I even saw a few puts made outside of 10 feet!



Patty Jewett is a municipal facility and has a “Cheers” environment where the staff seemed to know the name of each golfer that walked by. It was nice to see the acceptance of the golfers to having the children running around the putting green. It was a true community atmosphere.

After a short walk to the pump house where Patrick and Jeff told the kids about their use of effluent water (since 1950), they gathered on the deck and enjoyed a hot dog and chips, complements of the restaurant purveyor.

Following the field trip, I asked Patrick and Jeff to do a short video for me recapping the event in their own words. As you can tell, they had a great time!