Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 161.
Today we’re talking with Lewis Weems, Equipment Manager at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. Lewis walks us through his path into the industry — from growing up on a farm in southern Oklahoma to studying aviation at Oklahoma State, working for Kubota, then making the move to St. Louis where he cut his teeth learning reel mowers at a John Deere dealership. After volunteering on the golf course, he found his way into the maintenance operation full time and hasn’t looked back.
Lewis talks about what he enjoys most — seeing the finished product out on the course — and what he enjoys least: relief grinding on Bernhard grinders (even though he’s the first to say how important it is for cut quality). He shares some of his go-to tools for two-stroke work, including his Milwaukee 1/4" impact and a recently added BC Master tool, plus a simple but effective small-engine tip using rope to break clutches loose.
We get into first-year challenges as an equipment manager — time management, trusting your gut, and carrying the weight when things go wrong — along with mentorship lessons that shaped his approach, especially the value of bringing solutions, not just problems. Off the clock, Lewis finds balance fishing and tinkering.
The conversation also dives into robotic mowing and range automation. Lewis shares his experience running a Husqvarna 550 on practice areas and trialing other units, talking mapping, signal struggles, multi-mower coordination, charging logistics, and how ball-deflection and collection workflows are evolving. They wrap with spray buggy reliability talk — roll pins, drivetrain spares, lithium batteries — and finish up with a rapid-fire segment that includes Tombstone and a medium-rare bone-in ribeye.
