A foursome of Auburn Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences students claimed fourth-place honors in the 2016 Collegiate Turf Bowl, held during the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s annual meeting the second week of February in San Diego.
With its strong performance, the Auburn Turf Bowl Team—comprised of juniors Austin Brown, Allen Carroll, Robb Collier and John Peppers—outscored 58 other bowl teams from more than 30 different universities. Dave Han, crop, soil and environmental science associate professor and Extension turfgrass specialist, is the team coach.
The fourth-place finish carried a cash prize of $800. Han said the money will go toward the Auburn team’s 2017 Collegiate Turf Bowl appearance.
“We’ll have the whole team coming back, so we hope to do as well as or better then than we did this year,” Han said.
In the bowl competition, each team was required to write an essay based on a business/financial case-study scenario and to take a written exam that included multiple-choice, short-answer and identification questions covering all aspects of the superintendent profession.
Teams from Penn State University, Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Maryland placed first, second and third, respectively.
