Very few organizations can foresee every problem. If they could, they would hire all the right people and operate with maximum efficiency. It’s likely those organizations wouldn’t be changing or growing very much. Tricky situations accompany progress, and a growth mindset helps properties compete and optimize performance.
Organizations that are improving need leaders to navigate challenges. What feels a little crazy is that several problems maintenance crews tackle are only tangentially related to course care. To celebrate resourcefulness, let’s review a variety of ways that superintendents, throughout their careers and across many properties, have been handling much more than turf.
“With projects, the first call will often be the superintendent,” says Adam Suelflow, superintendent at The Wisconsin Country Club in Milwaukee. “Superintendents are called because we are trained to jump in and find a way to get it done.”
Suelflow and the crew have recently replaced the pump on the pool slide and helped add some outdoor speakers at the driving range tee and patio bar. Trenching was needed for the wires and because the maintenance team had the equipment and the staff to manage it, the club didn’t need to hire a contractor. That project didn’t help the golf course directly, but it helped the organization. That’s good for everyone.
At Hueston Woods State Park Golf Course, in Oxford, Ohio, Chris Dynes is the superintendent. The course, designed by Jack Kidwell and built in 1968, is set on 245 acres of old-growth beech and poplar forest. The maintenance crew is separate from the parks crew and the lodge staff, but in certain situations they share equipment or work together.
Throughout his career, which includes years of work in England and Australia, Dynes has experienced numerous off-topic moments. “There are obvious things like when the general manager drops off his significant other’s car and wants an oil change,” Dynes says. Or helping out around the holidays. “We go over to the lodge and help move in all the decorations,” he adds. “A group of 20 volunteers transforms the place in a day. There’s a whole barn of Christmas trees and decorations that we load in, organize and move around the hotel. The response from the crew is mixed. Half the people are excited, and others feel it’s not their job.”
A more significant responsibility Dynes assumes is caring for the people who care for the course. Employee ages range from ages 16 to 78, and there can be generational issues. In peak season, 15 or more people need to work harmoniously.
“With management, it can be like someone puts the word ‘therapist’ on your door, because the biggest part of this is the people and the people problems,” Dynes says. “I guess I knew it, but I didn’t know it, how deep some of those relationships go. When you have an employee and you know the gas tank is on empty and it has been for a long time, you help out with personal matters any way you can at work, outside of work, whatever. I didn’t expect how much of my job is taking care of the people. You need a good team — that’s how you get a good product.”
Hueston Woods is on an upward trajectory, with rounds consistently increasing. Dynes shares a vision with the GM and a new golf professional, and they are doing whatever it takes to restore the course to its position as one of the best public courses in Ohio.
Exposure from social media is part of executing that vision and it is something Dynes initially helped with. “I guess the social media stuff is a big unexpected thing, too,” he says. Dynes helped build their audience, in addition to communicating course closures and cart restrictions. “I was figuring out how to use the Business Suite on Facebook, and the email program on our point-of-sales system and getting newsletters out until we hired the new pro.”
Superintendent responsibilities in addition to course care include:
- Human resources (hiring, firing, training and explaining compensation packages)
- Financial responsibilities (creating and tracking budgets, invoicing, capital planning, cost comparisons, product and services bids, and sourcing)
- Environmental stewardship (understanding the latest research, laws and standards, and maintaining environmental designations and certifications)
- Equipment and materials management
There are also architectural, construction and renovation projects; interacting with media; technological education and possibly hosting research trials. Depending on tenure, you are also the property historian. Somehow, it all gets done.
Making it happen
At Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott, Colorado, Mike Miner is a director for Vail Resorts, working on a property in the Rocky Mountains that is 8,200 feet above sea level. There are two courses, the Norman and the Fazio, with the Norman course deliberately being more difficult. As a director, Miner has been on both sides. He has been asked to do some different things, but he’s also asked the superintendents to do some different things, like manage around a concert schedule.
Nearby in Denver, Red Rocks is a bucket-list venue. It’s an outdoor amphitheater with the tagline, “There’s no better place to see the stars,” and some acts entertain for several nights. “I have never had to work around a concert with staffing,” Miner says, “but Widespread Panic is coming and we need to get a staff here at 5 a.m. every morning.” They will figure it out, without inflicting widespread panic.
“The people that come here to work seasonally, they work to live,” adds Miner, who took a few years to adjust to that lifestyle after being raised on the East Coast. “They are out here to chase their passions, whether it is fly fishing, climbing, rafting, mountaineering, mountain biking or anything else. It’s amazing where they come from to try to do these things.”
For the purpose of connecting, superintendents will learn about the staff’s hobbies and passions. Miner’s teams have included one Olympian and several members of Team USA.
“It has been interesting,” he says. “I learned how they got to where they are and how they remain world-class athletes. It makes me look inward: How am I showing up? What is important? I think it does with my superintendents as well. I am really thankful.”
A major off-topic element of Red Sky life is wildlife. An elk herd of 80 to 100 routinely crosses the roads and the property with their calves in the spring, making the 5 a.m. commute especially tricky. They also encounter coyotes, mountain lions, bears and moose. Wolves have recently been released in the area.
Wildlife is often around the course and golfers call the shop asking for someone to move creatures off certain holes. As happens in nature, there may be injured or vulnerable young animals that staff are inclined to help, too. In these situations, the hole must be bypassed. Coexisting with nature requires patience. That can be hard — as can be routinely fixing hoof prints on the greens.
As part of their jobs, Miner and his year-round staff are responsible for plowing nine miles of roads in the Metro District, which operates out of the maintenance facility at Red Sky. The plowing is in addition to maintaining equipment, refurbishing accessories and other winter tasks from October, when the course closes, until it reopens in April.
Finalizing deals and dealing with the unexpected
Being a master negotiator is something else that superintendents do routinely. Negotiating with suppliers, staff, administration and subcontractors means seeking win-win situations.
Suelflow successfully negotiated a significant environmental project at The Wisconsin Country Club, which offers a championship course, tennis, pickleball, social events and other activities. He represented the club and worked with five other organizations, including the City of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to restore three failing dams. The result was improvements to the associated aquatic habitats and the downstream water quality. The club is home to the headwater of Lincoln Creek. The impact of the project extends well beyond property boundaries.
“The frustration is when you have a time crunch and you are under pressure,” Suelflow says, and everything happens at once. Then it’s “Oh, by the way, don’t have any overtime!” he laughs. “The dam project was new to me and working with DNR was new. That was a great learning experience.”
Suelflow has experience as an interim general manager and “having that exposure to and knowledge of the property makes it easy for me to be the first call,” he says.
“When you say not on my bingo card,” Dynes laughs, “it sums it up. But really, there is not a lot that isn’t your responsibility that has to do with the course. There is a lot within the scope of this job.” No matter how off topic a request seems, somehow, it usually contributes to making the organization, the team or the course better, which is the ultimate goal.
“It’s rewarding,” Suelflow adds. “What makes it all worth it, wearing all those hats, is seeing the product, day in and day out. You might not get the feedback that you want from people but looking at the acres you get to maintain, you get feedback from that. Seeing the product helps a lot. You do what you do to pour back into the course. It’s all tied together.”
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