Dr. Young has always had a passion for sports and golf from the time he was a young kid growing up throughout the southeastern US.  His love of golf led me to Mississippi State University to study golf course and sports turf management.  He had the opportunity to intern at a couple of high-end country clubs in Birmingham, AL and Memphis, TN.  As his first experiences working on golf courses, he thoroughly enjoyed it, but was not sure if he wanted to do that day in and day out for the rest of my career.  He took advantage of the opportunity to pursue a Master's degree at Mississippi State University in Plant Pathology.  The advanced degree was a good experience learning many facets of science and research that he had not learned during his undergraduate education.  Finally, he was accepted into a PhD program at the University of Arkansas with one of the best turfgrass physiologist in the country, and learned a lot of concepts from him on topics ranging from turf to overall communication and teaching ideas that helped me obtain my current position with Texas Tech.  He has a lot of gratitude for all those who taught me throughout the years and helped me get here.

The bulk of Dr. Young's research efforts to this point have focused on golf course management practices.  The primary reason for this is that he has been able to obtain research funding in the area.  He recently completed a project on the long-term soil carbon sequestration potential of golf courses, and has students currently working on plant growth regulators and reducing salinity parameters on golf courses.  Water is a critical component to growing turfgrass for any use, and the impacts of quantity and quality of water available to us in West Texas are major concerns. Dr. Young would like to be able to conduct more research geared toward residential homeowners or lawn care operators to assist with better conserving our resources without sacrificing the aesthetic appeal and environmental benefits lawns provide.