Tennessee Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com
The Turf Zone: Welcome to the Turf Zone. In this issue of Tennessee Turfgrass, we’re talking to Brandon Horvath, recipient of the Tom Samples Professional of the Year Award, Associate Professor of Turfgrass Science at the University of Tennessee. Good morning Brandon.
Brandon Horvath: Good morning Julie, thanks for having me on. 
TTZ: Thanks so much for taking the time. First of all congratulations for being honored by TTA for the Tom Samples award. I think our members would love to hear a little more about you and all the things that worked together to help you be honored in that way. 
BH: Well, it’s interesting because one of the things that I really love about finding out that I had been given this award is that I didn’t know about it ahead of time. One of the things that happens too often in places like the university or organizations is that people will say that, “It’s about time that you win this award, so we’re going to nominate you. Would you mind filling this out or sending us this or whatever form it is to get you nominated for an award?” And one of the things that’s really cool about this award is you don’t know about it until it’s already been given, so it comes as a surprise, which I think is a really cool thing. It’s, in my opinion, the way all the awards should work, so that was really humbling to be told that I had been given this award, not just because of the award but because of the fact that it’s named after Dr. Tom Samples, who is a friend and a colleague, a mentor. He’s one of those guys, he’s one of the nicest human beings that I know, so to be mentioned in that same air is very humbling.
TTZ: Absolutely, I know that Dr. Samples has been a mentor for so many in the industry and I’ve never heard anybody talk about him who wasn’t just a big fan. I personally did receive a Tom Samples bobblehead. I think that award should come with the Tom Samples award. Did that happen, or no? 
BH: I have a box full of them in my office that I’m allowed to give out, so I might give myself another one. The real keepsake is a bobblehead that you get that is signed by the man himself. That’s not as frequent, but it is cool and it should come with the award, you’re right. 
TTZ: Let’s go back to the beginning and talk a little bit about how you got into the turfgrass industry and how you ended up where you are today at the University of Tennessee. 
BH: My first exposure to turfgrass I would say was when I was a young man, probably 14, I think. I had been playing golf or exposed to golf since I was eight. I went and played with my dad and I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, a small town just about 25 miles north of downtown Cincinnati, a little town called Mason. They had a golf course that hosted the LPGA Championship for a number of years in the 70s and 80s, and I believe into the early 90s. We lived right adjacent with that golf course, we didn’t live in the community with the golf course, but just adjacent to it. I was around the golf course all the time, I would find golf balls and sell them back to the golfers to make some money in the summer. All those kinds of things that come with being around a golf course. So that was my first exposure and then I went to high school, graduated high school and I tried out for my golf team, but I wasn’t good enough and that was okay. But when I went to college I was going to be a pharmacy major and I was in pharmacy for two years at Butler University.
When I was in pharmacy my sophomore year, some of the guys in my fraternity house were on the golf team and we would go out and play golf and I would beat them. They asked me why I wasn’t on the golf team and I said because I’m not that good. They commented that, “Well, you’re beating us, so why wouldn’t you want to try out for the team?” So I decided that summer that I was going to try out for the team,