Things you like.

[Grunt]

Scoot point 6 was a very valid one.

[ParMaster]

Which brings me back to the fact it is only another six months, seriously just stick it out.

It's another 15 months or so actually. And it's not a matter of sticking it out, the way I'm going in Year 11 (bar english and legal studies), I'd be lucky to be 'let' into Year 12. I'm struggling now, so it would be even worse in Year 12.

Does greenskeeping even have anything to do with GCA??

It does with building a golf course and maintaining it, but not with the actual design.

PM, Never once after i turned 20 did I ever need to show that I graduated from High School when applying for jobs, as employers don't care. it really is only relevant for your first couple of working years or Tertiary Education enrolment. If you have no intention of University straight after school I don't see it;s that big deal. If you change your mind as a mature age student you just gotta do a bridging course, which is a piece of cake.

As long as you don't waste anytime, cos it is going to look really bad on your resume if you dropped out of school and had no jobs or crappy jobs like delivering Pizza's or pushing trolleys. That would be an automatic sign that you are a loser and dumb as dog doodoo.

Cheers for that MTB.

1. Might be an idea to speak to someone about the GCA thing. Been speaking with the best in the buisness for awhile mate.

2. Green keepers work weekends.... all of them. You should know that. No I don't. I've never had a job before, and don't know how many hours/days they want me to work.

3. It's very difficult to become a top tier club super intendant. Gotta wait for someone to die.

4. You will make plenty more money in a real trade. I'd prefer to be doing a job I like for less money, than in something I hate for more (provided I am earning enough to live).

5. Don't listen to what anyone that doesn't know you, or your specific needs / ambitions / capabilities. It's still useful to listen to people, regardless what they know. They have experience, I don't.

Edit 6. Plenty more women at school than at a golf course. So?

[Yossarian]

What subjects are you studying?

[ParMaster]

Advanced English, Legal Studies, Physics, PDHPE, General Maths, Modern History.

[just]

You are an idiot.

[Yossarian]

Would a design type course or an archie course at uni be useful to gaining a footing as a GCA?

[just]

Would a design type course or an archie course at uni be useful to gaining a footing as a GCA?

Landscape Architecture would be the go.

[AndyP]

School is for fools.

[Yossarian]

Landscape Architecture would be the go.

I imagine physcis and Modern History would not be required to enter such a course.

Pup my 2c. Stay in school. Strongly consider switching out of units such as the abovementioned. Do units that interest you, that are easier to boost whatever you guys call your TEE.

Go to uni and do Landscape Architecture, become 69'rs manchild slave. Profit.

From what I know about greenskeeping you'll be lugging a lot of shit around, watering, digging. Not really shaping the course at all until you are about 50.

EDIT

I imagine maths is kind of important, for G&T and such, if you suck at it work harder.
Maths is one subject were a shitload of study gets you somewhere.

[Grunt]

Well said Yoss






Oops, am I supposed to agree with a WA person?

[Hux]

That's what I thought you meant.

But in the end, if I'm 'stuck' as a greenkeeper, I wouldn't mind one it bit.

Ahh the short term values of youth. Being "stuck" as a greenkeeper at 16 or 17 may sound okay. But when you are 30 have a mortgage and 2 kids it might be quite a bit different.

I finished my degree (Business and IT), part time externally while working as a Detective in the city. It was f$rking tough. Long unpredictable hours of work with study and assignments meant I sacrificed holidays and days off to study and assignments. Anyone who has studied and worked full time will tell you the same thing. You can't turn back the clock but I know if I had finished that degree when I left school I would have saved myself quite a bit of angst later on.
I see that the same with Senior. What appears easy but boring now will be hard to juggle against earning a wage later. Do you understand how unmotivated you are after 8++ hrs of hard work to opening the books and studying? Do you realise how hard it is to get into an academic institution for your archi quals without senior?
You can never steal an education and you will pay heavily if you don't invest at the right time.

Listen to all us boring old farts. Not one person here would resent having finished their study regardless of whether it is in use day to day or not. It does count for something to employers and others. I don't have the paper hanging on the wall to brag like some but everyone knows I have the paper behind me anyway.

If you quite high school before matriculation you are either flunking that badly that it means didly whether you stay or not OR you just haven't thought long and hard enough about the long term future for PUP aka Old Dog with No Education.

[Yossarian]

Listen to all us boring old farts.

And one young fart, wise beyond his years.

[Eldrick]

PM,
Your decision to make. But take advantage of the resources of this site and the many others and ask a few of the guys that are doing the work you want to do now and in the future.
have a chat with them and see what they have got to say and any advice they have.

[Sydney Hacker]

I'm sure everyone here has the Pup's best interest at heart, but how many of us would of listened to anyone when we were 16 ? We could of gotten advice at the most qualified person in the world (in whatever subject) but if it not what we wanted to hear it would just go in one ear and out the other !

I would of thought the best people for him to be speaking to is his parents or school guidence counciller, with major emphasis on his parents !

P.s. How are you going to afford NSW membership on a greenkeepers wage ?

[Yossarian]

I assume his parents are telling him the same thing. I was merely trying to reinforce the point.

[Courty]

Listen to Hux, he knows stuff.

[ParMaster]

Thank you all for your advice, but answer me this.

I am basically FAILING. FAILING. To get a Landscape Architecture degree takes a UAI of 80 or so depending on the Uni. I am struggling with the amount of work in Year 11, and the amount of work in Year 12 is much more. How am I going to benefit from staying in school? I can see the point you are all making, but, I do believe that I will get more out of not being in school, than being in school. I procrastinate to the shitload, always have. I can keep up with the work in class, but doing it at home is another matter..

If I stayed in school and passed with a respectable UAI, it would all be worth it. But the way I'm going, I doubt that is going to happen..

[Yossarian]

So you need to work harder, if GCA is something you want? You also change into units that are easier than PHYSICS.
You may also have to sacrifce how much golf you are playing, to spend more time to study and read and learn. Believe me I know how hard this is, I'm almost 25 and that lesson is only just starting to sink in. But honestly mate the work you put into study will pay off.
Very little in this world is going to come your way for free mate if you want something you gotta put in the yards.

[zacdullard]

I think that you should stay in school. You seem rather clever and it's not that hard. Stick it out for another year and a bit and then if you still want become a greenskeeper thats fine but atleast you will have more options available.

[Dotty]

All been said above and I'll add another vote for school.
And spend less time on the internet !

11am, sunshine, 23* and a slight breeze sounds a great working life. (I spend most Wednesdays like this, unless I have something else on.)
Except you'll be also be starting at 6am and it will on 4*.
And it will be the same the next day.
And the next day.
And the next, for the next 4 months.

But these will be balanced out by doing manual labour in 40* in the summer.

On the upside, greenkeeping gives a reliable (but low) income. An unsuccessful GCA would have zero income.

[markTHEblake]

2. Green keepers work weekends.... all of them. You should know that.

Impossible, there would be weekdays when there is nobody around.

There are a lot of occupations these days that have some weekend work, the traditional 9-5 is a bit of a dinosaur these days.

[markTHEblake]

Listen to all us boring old farts.

Too right, I regret not having listened to the boring old farts when I was a young bloke.

[Johnny Canuck]

Pup,

You spend a ton of time golfing, according to your Golflink and I'm sure you must play outside of comp rounds. You're on the forum a fair bit. You're struggling to keep up with the workload.

Pretty simple math if you ask me. Work on the discipline. Procrastination is a bitch, but so is carrying bags of cement for the rest of your life. It's always getting the education now, when you should , as opposed to going back to school once you realise that you've screwed up.

If you end up having the education and you don't need it, at lease you've still got it. If you get into a situation where you need the education and you don't have it, you're screwed.

[Yossarian]

Another thing, working a physical job means your body is your tool, you do your back and you are ****ed. With nothing to fall back on. Stay in school.

[just]

He already complains about back and knee problems and he wants to be a manual labourer. Can you imagine the whinging on the forum from him then!