Playing a different tune

This was a turf management year to remember in Western Pennsylvania, with heavy rainfall followed immediately by scorching hot weather. As a first-year superintendent, it tested every ability I have and my full knowledge of turf. But what I learned was that I’m more resilient than I give myself credit for. Turf management wasn’t my plan when I decided which career path I was going to take after school. Music was always my passion and what I initially studied.

Running machinery was in my blood thanks to growing up with a coal miner for a father. My mother was an aspiring country songwriter. She wasn’t the only musician in my family, though: my grandmother on my dad’s side was a gospel singer and my grandfather on my mom’s side was a bar musician who got Wayne Newton his first gig. All these family musicians contributed heavily to my own musical aspirations.

Music wasn’t something I fell in love with until later on, though. I learned at a very young age how to run everything from a garden tractor to a skid loader. As a kid, I loved machinery — from playing in the dirt with my Tonka toys to watching the neighbors bale hay. I grew up in the country so that was the norm for everyone my age. Most of us grew up on farms helping our families. My parents split up when I was about 5 and my mom eventually moved my sister and me to the city. Living in the city provided a completely different world because I was accustomed to not having close neighbors. Now I was landlocked, with neighbors on both sides.

Moving to the city opened my eyes to a whole new world of music: hip-hop and eventually heavy metal. I loved discovering new music and going to the record store to get new records. When I was about 15, once she knew I would take it seriously, my mom finally bought me my first guitar. Music completely engulfed me. I practiced every day and formed various local bands playing original music. During my senior year, I decided my career path was in music, so I enrolled in a small community college to get my associate’s in fine arts before transferring to Bethany College in West Virginia, where I earned my bachelor’s in classical guitar performance. That’s where I really started joining bands that were serious about making a career out of music.

I decided to go to Boston University to pursue my master’s degree in music and started venturing out more on the road with bands. I got my first job teaching private guitar lessons. A couple years later, I ended up losing my job teaching because the store closed. A friend ended up getting me a job working in the lawn and garden department at Kmart, where I worked until about 2017 when they closed too. I was working to help pay for grad school, which I had nearly completed. And I was in need of a job again. One of the store managers was hired as the events coordinator at a local country club and asked if I had interest in working on the grounds. I interviewed and started my first year as part of the grounds crew at Williams Golf and Country Club under superintendent Mike Hagwood.

Mike took me under his wing and taught me a lot about maintaining a golf course. He played the guitar and the first time I cut with the intermediate mower he said, “Ronnie, these machines are a lot like the guitar and music — you just gotta get in tune with them.” He was right.

2018 brought a lot of changes. The guy I was learning from was no longer at the club and I had to work for someone new. I didn’t know it at the time but working for my new superintendent Chris Kukor would change my life and career forever.

Grad school ended and I had just formed a new band called Casketmaker. I was torn. I wanted to tour more, but I also loved working full-time on the grounds crew. I learned a lot working under Chris. He taught me more and more because I was willing to learn. I talked with him about possibly going back to school for turf and he set me up with a GCSAA membership and paid for the Assistant Superintendent Certificate Series. Around that time, I met my wife and decided that moving in with her was something I needed to do to make our relationship work. Long-distance wouldn’t cut it, and we weren’t exactly young anymore either.

Moving to Pittsburgh to be with her meant I needed to find a club closer to where we lived. I landed at St. Clair Country Club, working under Eric Materkowski. Chris also worked for Eric when they were both at Wildwood. I started at St. Clair in December 2019 as an AIT. Toward the end of 2020, I started looking for my first assistant superintendent position and ended up at Treesdale Golf and Country Club under Stefan Gustafson, who was about to change my life and career. During my time there, I attended the 2020 Green Start Academy.

I worked at Treesdale until early 2023, learning from Stefan and senior assistant Bryan Morgan. Both taught me so much about turf and business, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. I could have stayed at Treesdale as the second assistant, and I would have been happy because I loved it there. But I decided I needed to earn a proper turf degree, so I enrolled at Florida Gateway College for a two-year program in agribusiness with a focus in turf management. Shortly after that I got a call from Chris asking if I was interested in coming over to another nearby course owned by the same corporation that owned Treesdale. Life had come full circle.

I was working with Chris again, the guy who set me up for a turf career, now his senior assistant, and mentoring second assistant Dan Thein, who I consider one of my best friends. After about a year, I got an unexpected call to interview for the superintendent position at Lone Pine Country Club in Washington, Pennsylvania. And I got the job.

This year tested me in ways I didn’t know I would be tested, but I overcame it with the help of all the mentors I had the privilege of working under and all the new people I met who helped me through this first year. I had to learn how to build a crew and how to run it. My dad is working with me, and so is my wife, who has been my No. 1 supporter. We’ve been through five clubs together, and now we get to share all the experiences of working together. I’m thankful for the crew I have because they made this year, full of some of the worst rainfall and heat imaginable, much more bearable.

Ronnie Leggett is the golf course superintendent at Lone Pine Country Club in Washington, Pennsylvania. This is his first Turfheads Take Over contribution.