Green Chairman - what should their qualifications be ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

What qualifications should a Green Chairman possess ?

[Mike_Young]

benevolent dictator
would be good and has been the standard at many of the best

However if you can't have that then...
have someone that knows enough about the game to know when employees are BSing them
I see too many that are there to do as a supt tells them to do and never knows how to argue.
I seems that the more golf oriented clubs have a chairman that tells the supt what he wants and the social type clubs have one that ask the supt what he is to do.
It seems that in many areas green chairman and boards find comfort in numbers and usually proceed as their neighbor clubs.  It would be good if one could think for himself instead.  For example, one club spends $50,000 per green to reconstruct a green.  Then the next just accepts that he should spend the same and will probably use the same contractor without much question.  
IMO it seems as though a few years back the chairman was actually into his position and in many cases remained chairman for several years.  We don't see that much anymore.
It seems most just wish to get thru their time as chairman without irritating other members.

[ian]

They must be employed full time, so they don't spend every single f..... day on site during a renovation coming up with "new and inovative" ideas.

[Mike_Cirba]

Ian;

You sound as though you're speaking from painful experience.  

Perhaps we can discuss some specific examples this weekend.  

[Ed_Baker]

Why Patrick, you just need to post your own resume' the difference you made at Boca is the stuff of legends.

An informed,dedicated Green Chairman is truly hard to come by. The benevolent Dictator is by far the best method for consistency in both the financial operation and the golf product.Unfortunately it is the method most likely to breed contempt and jealousy as well.

 The once well defined pecking order that carried with it a clear and unimpeachable chain of command and power as well as a clear definition of a clubs identity and focus has disappeared in to the golfing mists, along with reasonable dues,fast,firm and brown, and the stymie!

In a perfect world, the Green Chairmans' qualifications should at the very least be;

An incumbent dynamic member of the Green committee that has been successful in bringing about positive change to the budget,maintenance meld, and or capital projects, during the previous 3 seasons, working within the frustrating quadmire of club politics.

Have a thorough working knowledge of the history, and culture of the club, and a clear understanding of the Green budget and its' dynamics.Knowing the difference between a man/hour and a payroll hour.

Most importantly, have a definite picture(vision) of the product you are trying to create and a plan on how to take everybody else on that journey with you.

Hire Pat Mucci to find the hostesses for the cocktail parties

[Jim_Kennedy]

Pat,

Backbone

[TEPaul]

Very interesting what Mike Young said. Veeery interesting. That should be expanded on more! I believe a Green Chairman should develop an overall plan or goal for the golf course with the superintendent--call it the "ideal maintenance meld" if you will, and then go through that plan step by step with really honest and informed communication between the green committee and the super where the process is established very much as a long range goal and evolves into a process of reasonableness and commonsense where whatever is requested becomes a process of "can do" or "no can do" and "here's why". Obviously the "can do" part to be developed best has to have a large degree of "and here's how much it costs" and "here's what the downside may be".

Doing all that well sort of makes the whole jigsaw puzzle more understandable and can avoid all kinds of otherwise unforeseen and unintended problems. In many ways course maintenance (which is basically the purview of the green committee) and how it melds with any course's unique style of design is a lot like Coore's analogy of creating a golf course as being something like arranging "notes" (features) in a musical symphony.

It's all about the arrangement to make it work best--only problem being if you get even one note out of place it can ruin the whole symphony. Very much the same thing is true with maintaining a golf course, in my opinion--if one note gets out of place the course won't work very well. There's no question at all--none--that one note that has been out of place bigtime for many decades on a particular style of architecture is over-irrigation leading to prevalent softness for decades!

Not many Green Chairmen are as good agronomists as supers are, mostly not even in the same ballpark, and tend to make ridiculous and unreasonable requests which puts everyone on the firing line of potential problems. But whomever it was on here who said a really informed Green Chairman should not and probably would not accept lame excuses form supers not to do something reasonable and commonsensical is correct.

A good Green Chairman who's informed on both architecture and agronomy and who has thorough-going communication and respect with the super and vice versa just can't be beat.

One other thing. Any really good Green Chairman should have a fundamentally sound working knowledge of golf course architecture and it's basic ramifications and also its vast differences and he should embue that in both his green committee as best he can and also in his super and maintenance staff.

However, supers are basically agronomists not architects. A superintendent with a really good understanding and feel for golf course architecture is a very valuable asset indeed! A Green Chairman with a really good understanding of architecture is too!

[wsmorrison]

All existing and prospective Green Committee members should read the USGA Green Section's "A Guide for Green Committee Members."  Each club should have the brightest and ablest members of the Green Committee (past and present) get together to write a concept document that addresses the playability and maintenance issues for their specific course.  This should be done with the knowledge and input from the superintendent so that it is a feasible study.  Perhaps a third party (USGA Green Section if they are willing to shoulder the load) should consider the document and make suggestions before it is implemented.  The education of the membership should be one of the responsibilities of local golf associations and should enable an informed membership to make proper decisions.

Tom Paul and I (really just TEP) will be writing a chapter in our Flynn book going into full detail about the maintenance meld (especially as it relates to classic architecture) and stressing the individuality based upon course architecture and site specific soil conditions.  So I suggest that everybody buy our book  .  I think a formal presentation needs to be put together (and we will) and made available.  There are some questions that still need answers before this idea can work (What do you do on a classic course that is generally intended for the ground game where an aerial shot is required based upon the architecture of a specific hole and that particular green may not hold any shot when it is firm enough to only lightly dent?) but Tom Paul is going out far and wide to seek the answers from some of the nation's best superintendents and turf experts.

I totally agree with Ed Baker (greetings, Ed!) that Pat Mucci makes the arrangements for the hostesses and then there will be 100% attendence at all meetings!  BTW, very sorry about the Red Sox losing to the Evil Empire.

[Robert Emmons]

The current USGA Record...Sept.-October 2003... has as the lead article  Green Committee Mistakes. Take a look and then discuss...

[Patrick_Mucci]

Is the previous experience of having served under their predecessor a hindrance or a help ?

Is there a tendency to continue doing things the same way with someone named from the committee, or does a fresh face bring new ideas or trouble ?

What is the ideal length of time for a green chairman to serve ?

[Robert Emmons]

Short tenure is one the prime problems.committee spend a tremendous amount of time learning about the science of golf course managemet, and the superintendent spends the most time helping to educate the committee members.Frequent turnover in members produces duplication of effort, is wasteful of the superintendents valuable time, and can be frustrating. Frequent turnover also makes continuity impossible.

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Communication skills.

Able to speak to the members/Board and advocate for the needs of the Super and the golf course he maintains.  Conversely be able to communicate to the super to illuminate problems of play that members may be having.  

Example, Low handicaps have promoted narrow approaches to our greens.  Women have begun to with hold sexual favors until they are given an opportunity to runthe ball into the green.  Chaiman must be able to make the Low Handis understand that a narrow approach doesn't affect them in the least accept in the bedroom.  Is this really on topic.  

Once again communication.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Personally, I think that a Green Chairman should be one that enters the process in a democratic way, where his term will be up in two years.

Once he gets elected, he can then take control by dictatorship, an unbenevolent one where he can have any opposition snuffed for disagreeing or being dis-loyal. He is now the Green Dictator and his rule is far beyond that of how the golf course plays, it is how the club is run as a whole.

In doing this, he has the Club Manager and his executive staff shot at dawn in the club courtyard. Their bodies will be left out to rot, and to also serve notice that no one should ever be late with their monthly bill as well maintain any ideas of leaving the club itself. Your here for life, at least the rest of YOUR life, and may it be a long and fruitful one.

The Green Dictator will be well read in the architectual ideals of the design, unless its a Rees Jones course, where he can simply redesign it and then have whomever contacted and hired Jones for the club, tied up and filled with acid.

If a member is out of line, that member is simply out of time--he too is "handled" in the appropriate manner and at the full discression and method of the Green Dictator.

If a female member of the club denounces the severity and "unkept look" of the new bunkers, she is buried six foot deep in a bunker.

If a member comes to the Green Dictator and complains that the course doesn't promote play for younger children, then the Green Dictator can go to the source of the problem and has the members "nuttensacks" cut off.

The Green Dictator relies heavily on the Superintendent of the course, and he makes him his "First Lieutenant." He helps serve the Green Dictator in both an advisory and technical capacity, and may he never be out of line, lest he be the literal test bed for the clubs newest aquisition--a Toro tri-plex mower with their new super rototiller feature.

The club acheives a new peace and harmony amongst its members and staff whether they like it or not. They just have to keep smiling and never, ever maintain a superior attitude. No one, and I mean no one is ever out of line. They also have to understand that it's all just business, and that the dictator has the interests of the club at stake (and at heart).

[cary lichtenstein]

We got one of those

[garbod]

Maybe they should have to weed wack around the club for a week, in August!!!

[Mark_F]

Humility.
Ability to motivate others.
Single-mindedness - surely there should be only a chairman, and not a commitee?

[DPL11]

I had quite a few green chairman during my career as a superintendent-good & bad. Here are a few criteria that I found important in a good chairman.
 
-A good chairman should have enough time available to educate himself as much as possible about agronomy and architecture.
-A good chairman needs to have mucho backbone to stand up to the loudest members, who usually have a problem with every decision made. Most people that are happy, generally don't say much at all.
-A good chairman should have enough trust in their superintendent to stand by them 100%. If they can't trust them 100%, they have the wrong person maintaining their golf course.
-A good chairman needs to be a free thinker, and not easily persuaded by the 1,000's of goofy member ideas.
-A good chairman can't have any private agenda. The worst scenario is the "I want to leave my mark" syndrome.  

There are very few good chairman. Most lack the backbone to pull the trigger on decisions that need to be made for the good of the golf course. A true dictatorship that some have talked about on this thread is fine, and works great at a few very exclusive situations across the country, as long as you have the right person calling the shots. If you get the wrong guy it can ruin a course in a hurry. I've seen it happen at a few clubs, and by the time everyone realizes this guy is a nitwit, it is usually too late.


IMHO