Just to catch everyone up to speed….
Well, I guess it is easiest to say that I was born into a golfing family. My father has been in the golf business for nearly 40 years and seems to love it as much today as he did 40 years ago. Some of my earliest memories are taking my entire class (30 students) to the golf course each spring for an afternoon of hitting golf balls, playing in the bunkers and eating popsicles. I can remember going to the course with my father after light rains to mow fairways with the old Toro 7 gang pull behind because the fairways would “stripe better.” In fact, when I was in kindergarten, I told the class I wanted to be a golf course superintendent-my mom still has the poster somewhere.
I began working on a golf course at the age of 12 as a divot boy, 3 days a week. I worked at Railside Golf Club, a short, quirky design by Jerry & Bruce Matthews. (Ironically, the course my dad current is at.) Railside is really good match play course with drivable par 4’s, reachable par 5’s…a fun 6400 yards. I worked there all through high school and college. I went to Michigan State after high school and after agreeing to intern for Mark Michaud at Shinnecock Hills, I received a phone call from Mr. Ken Bakst asking me if I’d be interested in working on his course during construction. (Little did I know at the time what Friar’s Head was going to be like) I was blessed to work with Bill Coore, Jeff Bradley, Dave Axland, Toby Cobb and “Jimbo” Wright. I spent most of my time with Jeff doing bunker work. At this time, I also met and worked with Chris Hunt, who has gone on and worked for Tom Doak. Kyle Hegland, the current Superintendent at Sand Hills was my college roommate and all Kyle could talk about was one day being the Superintendent at Sand Hills-Well done, Kyle! Upon graduating from Michigan State, I went back and helped finish up the bunkers at Friars Head in the spring of 2002. In August of the same year, I got my first Assistant Superintendent position at Crystal Springs CC. (Previous Superintendents include Harry Shueman of the PGA Tour and Steve Anderson of Inverness.) In the fall of 2003, the 2nd Assistant Superintendent position became available at Long Cove Club (1981 Pete Dye) on Hilton Head Island, SC. My other college roommate’s family live 20 minutes from HHI and we went there during breaks in college and I loved the area. Long Cove was the only course I wanted to work on in the area. Having never worked with bermudagrass, I knew it was a long shot, but I was tired of the cold winters and wanted to experience a high end golf course. Mr. Ashley Davis hired me and after 8 months, I was promoted to Senior Assistant Superintendent where I stayed until October of 2007. Prior to leaving, I took a trip to south Florida and played Pine Tree GC and told me father that I would love to work there one day. I had a desire to be part of a golf course renovation, manage bentgrass in the south and also hold a PGA Tour event. That brought me to Colonial CC, (1936 Maxwell/Bredemus) 6 months prior to a $3.5 million renovation. Mr. Scott Ebers hired me and I was brought up to speed quickly. Mr. Ebers has a deep understand of golf course architecture and the Old Dead Guys. There are few superintendents that are as passionate about their course as he is. His way of watering bentgrass during the summer periods not only keeps the bentgrass healthy, BUT keeps them quite firm, something uncommon on southern bentgrass. After a successful Crowne Plaza Invitational, Keith Foster and TDI came in and did the most detailed, thought out renovation that Colonial had ever had. Bunkers were repositioned, tees were lowered and squared off, bunkers that were once lost were returned, trees were moved to recapture old shots and FINALLY a sand was installed that could hold up to the rain events that northern Texas has. Keith is such a student of old architecture and never wants to be the one recognized for his work, BUT without Keith, Southern Hills would not have been restored right, Five Farms would not have been restored right, Eastward Ho! would have been restored right and Colonial would not have been restored right. Keith is tremendously underrated, but I believe that he restores a golf course as good as any.
After preparing Colonial for another Crowe Plaza, I had the itch to get away from southern bentgrass and I had always had a desire to move to south Florida. I got a phone call during tournament week at Colonial to gauge my interest about coming to Pine Tree. I flew out 3 days after the conclusion of the tournament. One thing lead to another, and here I am. I’ve been a member of GCA the whole time and I’d be lying if I said that GCA didn’t play a roll into the position that I’ve been blessed to obtain.
Ben,
1. With Old Waverly changed from bentgrass to bermudagrass, I think that this continues this new trend, particularly at the very high end courses, that it’s okay to have bermudagrass greens. (Atlanta Athletic Club, East Lake to name a few) For courses below the Mason Dixon, it CAN BE very difficult to manage bentgrass, but it is doable. I think that the deciding factor at many courses is being able to provide 12 month conditions. Like bentgrass, there are new varieties of ultradwarft coming out all the time. Just in the last 15 years, Tifeagle, Champion and Mini Verde have become popular and a far cry from Tifdwarf. I think that we will continue to see varieties get better and better and more comparable to bentgrass.
2. Greens committees across the board must ALWAYS keep in mind that a golf course is a living, moving thing. There are variables that are out of a superintendent’s control AND when things go wrong with the turfgrass, it is not always fixed over night. Months and years of different cultural practices take months and years to fix, though progress can be show. Just 2 months of neglect to a golf course can take a year to put back together, depending on the time of neglect.
3. I think that it’s a superintendent’s duty to always be conscience of his/her spending. I think that watching payroll during these hard economic times if VERY important, but there are many ways to be more efficient and cut back with the use of fertilizers and growth regulators. The key to a lot of cost saving is water usage…too much water leads to more spending.
4. It’s one thing to have “stressed” turf WITH roots, it is another thing to have stressed to WITHOUT roots. Stressed turf with roots will recovery and hold on. I would want to be on the receiving end of turf with shallow roots…..
5. I wish I could go into more detail, but I think that task that I’m currently undertaking has been the most difficult task I’ve been ask to overtake/overhaul in my career.
6. Sunny side up, please!
Paul,
The topic of converting the A4 bentgrass at Colonial to an ultradwaft came up both summers that I was there, as I sure it came up prior and will continue to in the future. They finally have one of the best superintendents in the country for managing bentgrass in the south in Scott Ebers. Honestly, Colonial was built by Mr. Marvin Leonard because he played golf up north on the bentgrasses of the early 1930’s. As long as they still value and respect his legacy, they will continue to have bentgrass. (70+ years and counting) In that neighborhood of private clubs, it’s a feather in the cap to have bentgrass and I think a club like Colonial, with its history, would be VERY hard to convince for change. I know the maintenance staff would benefit from not having to handwater till 6pm in May, June, July, August and September!
I’ll take the Enchiladas washed down by the best margis in town!
According to the PGA Tour Officials, the 3 best tournaments on TOUR for “local talent” are Verizon Heritage (Harbor Town) The Players (TPC) and Crowne Plaza. (Colonial) I’ll take Fort Worth because that is where I met my girlfriend, although Dallas gets a little plastic for my taste….
RJ,
I do not envision myself running for the GCSAA Board of any sort. If I were to do anything, possibly a local chapter official. A lot of past presidents have either lost their jobs or been asked to move on because members/owners are paying these superintendents a lot of money and many of them are gone 100+ days are year with the GCSAA. If I was an owner and I was paying a superintendent a healthy salary, he was gone 100 days a year and the golf course remained is great condition-it wouldn’t be a hard decision for me. Plus, I’m one that just loves being on the golf course and need to see everything before a decision can be made….I’ll get better at that!