Superintendents: diamonds in and out of the rough

[Tommy Williamsen]

A couple of years ago the course where I live was in dreadful condition. The super at the time just didn’t do the job. He got lazy. I was on the board at the time. We fired the super and began the search for a new one. I did the interviews. It was great fun. I’d question the prospective supers and the GM would listen and chime in occasionally. I’d then take him out on the course and show him what was going on. We interviewed about a dozen guys. Most of the time the prospect would say, “Boy is that going to be a lot or work to get this place back in condition.”  Only one guy said, “I can’t wait to get my hands on this course and bring it back to life.” We hired him and he did what he said he’d do. When we fired the old super, I had folks ready to ring my neck, because he had made a bunch of friends with the membership. Now they all love me.
It is hard to overstate the importance of a good super. He must be an agronomist, scientist, artist, adaptable to the various conditions, be able to endure criticism because the course is too soft or too firm, the greens are too slow or too fast, the aeration holes aren’t healing quickly enough, and what is that bug on the tenth green?
Sometimes the membership doesn’t even know that there are problems. At another of my clubs most of us were pleased with the conditions. Then we got a new guy. Yikes, what a difference. Thank goodness for guys like Ken Curtin, Joel Miller at my home club, and Steven Ball at Ballyhack.

[Pat Burke]

Growing up the son of golf professionals, I had a love of golf courses and designs.
I even went to work on the crew at the club my dad was the head pro at. 


Growing up on the “inside“ portion of running a club, it was an eye opener when I went to work.  The man I mostly worked for produced an amazing product and he had a passion and drive to continually improve “course”. He was also brilliant at budgeting, and we always had a beautiful course on a reasonable cost.


In my warped mind, it dawned on me that superintendents are like goalies in hockey.  Too often taken for granted when things are great, and absolute bums if they aren’t. 


The course i used to teach at went through a ten year nightmare of lousy conditions and broken promises.  But the hiring and game plans were the problem.  We had a lousy product AND spent too much for that!


They finally hired a quality man with a game plan committed to, and he has really made amazing progress in his first year.  But he would t take the job without the commitment, and has had the balls to say no while sticking to his plan.  He is better than the company deserves, but exactly what the members should have!

[Ryan Coles]

A couple of years ago the course where I live was in dreadful condition. The super at the time just didn’t do the job. He got lazy. I was on the board at the time. We fired the super and began the search for a new one. I did the interviews. It was great fun. I’d question the prospective supers and the GM would listen and chime in occasionally. I’d then take him out on the course and show him what was going on. We interviewed about a dozen guys. Most of the time the prospect would say, “Boy is that going to be a lot or work to get this place back in condition.”  Only one guy said, “I can’t wait to get my hands on this course and bring it back to life.” We hired him and he did what he said he’d do. When we fired the old super, I had folks ready to ring my neck, because he had made a bunch of friends with the membership. Now they all love me.
It is hard to overstate the importance of a good super. He must be an agronomist, scientist, artist, adaptable to the various conditions, be able to endure criticism because the course is too soft or too firm, the greens are too slow or too fast, the aeration holes aren’t healing quickly enough, and what is that bug on the tenth green?
Sometimes the membership doesn’t even know that there are problems. At another of my clubs most of us were pleased with the conditions. Then we got a new guy. Yikes, what a difference. Thank goodness for guys like Ken Curtin, Joel Miller at my home club, and Steven Ball at Ballyhack.

What specifically did he do differently?


How did his staff, capital and maintenance budget compare with his predecessor?


How long did it take for the improvements to materialise?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Ryan, the first thing he did was work on drainage. He discovered that many of the drains were clogged because they were not maintained. He added drainage. Initially he had more labor. Guys who worked on the mountain side of the resort were loaned to him. (I live in a golf/ski resort)
Actually, his budget remained the same. He got us back on a maintenance schedule where bunkers were maintained, greens attended etc. He just did good maintenance practice that should have been done.