This massive industry serving this mostly happy game features myriad job titles and descriptions.

Consider the possible titles within one agronomy department. Director, superintendent, assistant superintendent, equipment technician, irrigation technician, spray technician, assistant-in-training, horticulturist, crew lead, equipment operator, intern, seasonal employee. Yes, we know we’re probably missing a few. And we know that’s just one department at many facilities.

Gautam Patankar possesses a job title not imbedded on many business cards. Patankar holds the position of vice president of culture and coaching for Bobby Jones Links. VP of culture and coaching? It’s the question Patankar fields often.

“By and large,” Patankar says, “we have a lot of people in our company who are introverts, and we have to teach them how to be extroverts.”

Bobby Jones Links is in a position similar to nearly every company in the golf business. Getting the most from people — and creating an atmosphere where they interact well with strangers — shapes the customer experience.

Formerly known as Mosaic, Bobby Jones Links is a Georgia-based management company overseeing operations at public, private, resort and community golf facilities. A collegiate golfer at Rutgers University who grew up caddying in New Jersey, Patankar joined the company in 2006. He was the general manager at a pair of Georgia clubs before shifting into a vice president of operations role in 2014. Understanding the need to elevate the customer experience, the company moved Patankar into his current position at the start of 2021.

“We said, ‘What’s our biggest gap and how can we differentiate ourselves from other management companies, whether big or small?’” Patankar says. “We all landed on the fact that one thing the industry says it does really well, but it really struggles with, is customer service.”

Patankar visits clubs within the Bobby Jones Links portfolio — the company’s highest-profile property is the renovated and rejuvenated Bobby Jones Golf Course in Atlanta — and works with department heads, including directors of agronomy and superintendents, on leadership skills. The overarching goal, though, is to connect with frontline workers, whom Patankar says represent 90 percent of the company’s workforce. “By sheer volume, they are the ones that make this company go, so we tell them how important they are, and we teach them how important they are,” he adds. The training program has evolved to the point where frontline workers are now leading Zoom calls or in-person sessions.

Like any company relying on hourly workers, Bobby Jones Links has experienced challenges hiring and retaining quality employees. Patankar emphasizes in his interactions with department heads that companies and facilities with an empowering and caring culture have the best chance of succeeding in the labor market.

“People want to be part of something where they are really valued and that’s why it’s important that we follow through on what we talk about,” he says. “There’s more to it than giving somebody $3 (more) an hour and thinking this person is going to be great and they’re going to stay forever. I understand money means a lot, but I still think it comes down to recognition and being valued. We have a work family and people want to be included in the work family.”

Providing opportunities for career advancement is a proven way a department can show employees they are valued. On the turf side, that means explaining to employees they can make the leap from an hourly or seasonal employee into a full-time position such as an assistant superintendent or technician. The golf industry lags behind other industries in this area, Patankar says.

“Our industry has to start giving people a legitimate trajectory or a legitimate path to keeping them in the business or otherwise we are going to continue to lose really great leaders to industries that allow them to see a path that they don’t have in our industry,” he adds. “All these other companies do that … they put you through school if you need to, they educate you if you need to, they take time with different programs for your personal growth.

“The golf industry has been a little bit archaic in that regard. Some do it better than others. It usually takes the cart attendant or server to do something awesome where they turn around and say, ‘I have to do it with that person.’ I can’t afford to lose them. This isn’t about affording to lose them, it’s about cultivating talent and giving them a reason to stay because they can be a future leader.”

Investing in culture and coaching takes times, a scant resource for department heads and employees who are already overexerted because of labor shortages. The upfront time, in Patankar’s view, is worth the investment, especially considering the alternative. “If your employees are happier and they come to work more, you don’t have that churn of trying to rehire,” he says.

Happy employees. Happy customers.

“In the last year, golf membership sales are skyrocketing,” Patankar says. “If you go to the club and talk to the members and ask how it’s going, they say, ‘I have never seen a chef come out now as much as in the past. I was out on the course the other day and hit one into the woods, and the guy on the mower got off the mower and gave me three golf balls.’ You start hearing and seeing those stories, and it starts penetrating through the team.”

Tartan Talks No. 62

Harrison Minchew has an opportunity few of his peers receive these days: He’s overseeing construction of a new golf course.

Minchew joined the Tartan Talks podcast to discuss his collaboration with former PGA Tour player Fred Funk at RainDance National, a 300-acre Colorado site between Denver and Fort Collins. The scenery and terrain are an architect’s dream. “The site is extraordinary,” says Minchew, who started his career with Arnold Palmer Design in 1982. “I have never had a site this nice. I just come out here and say, ‘Wow, am I really doing this?’”

RainDance National has occupied the bulk of Minchew’s work thoughts since construction commenced last September. In addition to being the lead architect, he’s serving as project manager. The Florida-based architect has been living in Colorado throughout construction.

“It’s a little stressful being away from Ponte Vedra Beach for this long,” he says. “But you only get one opportunity in life to do something this special, and this is it.”

To learn more about RainDance National and Minchew’s career, download the podcast on the Superintendent Radio Page of Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular distribution platforms.

Turfheads Take VI: Yes, you have a great story to tell

Submissions for the annual December issue are due Friday, Nov. 5, 2021.

Everybody has a story to tell.

Even you.

Why not share your story — of accomplishment or struggle, of friends acquired or lost, of lessons learned, of your year in review — in the sixth annual Turfheads Take Over issue, which will be published in December?

Feel free to write about any industry topic you feel is relevant. Topics covered in 2020 included the importance of mentors, how to (subtly) tout your value to the club, how assistants (or anybody, really) can better serve themselves and their club, what makes local golf courses special, thinking about the course as a story, returning to the industry, and the end of the line.

Everybody with an interest in the golf industry and helping others is encouraged to write. Past contributors have included current and former superintendents, assistant superintendents, designers and architects, teachers and researchers, consultants, and manufacturer and distributor representatives.

Stories of 600 words or more with accompanying photos or other images can be emailed to Guy Cipriano (gcipriano@gie.net) or Matt LaWell (mlawell@gie.net). And if you need any help throughout the writing and editing process, just call or send an email. We’re here and happy to help you however we can.

COURSE NEWS

The Summit Club at Armonk in Armonk, New York, celebrated the official grand opening of its Rees Jones-renovated golf course. Improvements include three new holes on the back nine, the rebuilding of all fairway and greenside bunkers, and the adjustment of some bunker locations. Several greens complexes were added to provide new greenside chipping areas, and multiple landing zones were created on a few holes to improve their playability. The range and practice facilities also were upgraded and a new short game area was added.

TPC Deere Run, host of the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, is undergoing a major bunker renovation. Led by PGA Tour Design Services, with input from course architect and former PGA Tour professional D.A. Weibring, the renovation is expected to last 132 days (weather pending). Each bunker will have the entirety of the sand, surrounding grass, existing liners and drainage removed before being updated with an all-new drainage system and sand. Upon completion, the bunkers will then be sodded with Turf Type Tall Fescue sod. The course will remain open for play during the project.

Duininck Golf announced it has completed second phase tee renovations at Paako Ridge Golf Club in Sandia Park, New Mexico. Paako Ridge sits just a few miles east of Albuquerque, in the shadows of the Sandia Mountains. The project focused on modifying and modernizing the tee complexes, plus enhancements to the irrigation system and surrounding native areas.

has broken ground on bunker work at Anchorage Golf Course, which will play host to the 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. The work follows several years of master planning and greens work at the 30-year-old public facility, originally designed by Bill Newcomb for the Municipality of Anchorage.

Arcis Golf acquired six Mickelson Golf Properties in Arizona from Phil Mickelson and his business partner, Steve Loy. The clubs in the sale include The Stone Canyon Club, The Golf Club at Chaparral Pines, Rim Golf Club, McDowell Mountain Golf Club, Ocotillo Golf Club and Palm Valley Golf Club. Arcis Golf now has 15 properties in and around Phoenix, and 66 total clubs across the country.

Industry buzz

The PGA Tour will make two major donations to the GCSAA through the GCSAA Foundation. The PGA Tour will contribute $250,000 over five years to help implement BMPs on the golf facility level and to support the First Green. The PGA Tour has also pledged $50,000 over the next 10 years for the Allan MacCurrach Jr. Award, which is a scholarship with the purpose of recognizing an outstanding non-traditional student seeking a career in golf course and turfgrass management.

Jeff Steen is the new director of agronomy at Big Cedar Lodge, where he will oversee the resort’s five golf courses. Steen has more than 24 years of experience managing premier golf resorts, including 13 years with the Pebble Beach Company.

Quali-Pro announced Suprado insecticide has received EPA registration. The new product features the insect growth regulator Novaluron, which provides ABW control.

Putting championships in Pennsylvania

The USGA has awarded five more U.S. Open Championships and four U.S. Women’s Open Championships to a pair of storied Pennsylvania venues: Oakmont Country Club and Merion Golf Club.

The USGA also committed to bring its national championships to the Keystone State with greater frequency, even beyond the now 18 championships scheduled to be played in the commonwealth through 2050. This year’s U.S. Amateur at Oakmont marked the 88th USGA championship conducted in Pennsylvania, the most of any state and the latest in a relationship between the state and the USGA that began with the 1899 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Philadelphia Country Club and continued with the 1904 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Merion and the 1919 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont.

Oakmont, which was previously announced as the host site for the 2025 U.S. Open, will host the 2028 and 2038 U.S. Women’s Opens, the 2034, 2042 and 2049 U.S. Opens, the 2033 Walker Cup Match and the 2046 U.S. Women’s Amateur. It will become the second U.S. Open anchor site named by the USGA, in an effort to return to storied venues with deep and meaningful USGA championship history every five to six years. Pinehurst Resort & Country Club was designated an anchor site last year.

Merion, which was previously named the host site for the 2022 Curtis Cup Match and the 2026 U.S. Amateur, will host four additional Opens — the 2030 and 2050 U.S. Open and the 2034 and 2046 U.S. Women’s Open, with additional championships to be named in the future. Merion, a key long-term strategic partner of the USGA, has hosted 18 USGA championships — the most of any site.

Pennsylvania boasts 671 golf courses and a thriving $2.3 billion golf economy that employs more than 50,000 people statewide, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The major championships have come and gone and the Ryder Cup is on the horizon, but it didn’t take me long to determine my favorite event of this year.

Augusta was impressive, as always, particularly as I’d walked the grounds the week before the event. Torrey Pines was set up well, albeit with the usual diabolical U.S. Open rough heights, but the pressure of the national championship took its toll on Sunday afternoon. And, of course, Phil gave us old guys a thrill at Kiawah in winning the PGA Championship.

However, the event I enjoyed the most – by a long shot – was The Open at Royal St. George’s.

I love real links golf, and I like The Open’s new position as the final major on the golf calendar. It comes early enough in the season that it can still inspire us to make the most of summer play while, hopefully, providing a few teachable moments for golfers and golf course superintendents.

What I think I love most about The Open – and, for that matter, on most courses in the UK – is that golfers must play the course as they find it. It’s how golf is meant to be played, on firm, dry conditions, not on manufactured or tricked-up surfaces. That means shots can be affected, for good or bad, by nature, geography, terrain, or weather. And that makes golf challenging and fun.

Admittedly, the field at Royal St. George’s got a break from Mother Nature this year, with warm temperatures and little, if any, wind. But it’s proof just how good the course and the conditions were that the absence of those outside agencies didn’t diminish the wonderful play and outcome of the competition.

What did we learn from this year’s Open Championship? Here are my takeaways:

Green speed

How great is it to see green speed NOT being an issue? How fast were they? “A smidge over 10 feet,” said head greenkeeper Paul Larsen, who became an overnight internet sensation during the run of the championship. How refreshing was he and how sensible were those green speeds? (And you gotta love that hair!)

Slower green speeds allow for a wider variety of hole locations, which keeps things interesting. Faster surfaces force the hole to the center of the green, making the approach shot easier for the elite player. Super-fast surfaces take away the player’s need to “figure out the speed.” Putting then requires a mere nudge, followed by lots of patience as the ball creeps to the hole and, one hopes, doesn’t trickle away and off the putting surface.

It’s probably surprising to many recreational golfers that slower greens are harder to putt. The golfer can’t be afraid to hit the ball. Slower greens require more skill as players need to read the break, judge their swing, gauge the takeaway, and take the contours into consideration.

While we’re talking about green speeds, what is it that makes us so concerned about pace? Stimpmeter envy? Bragging rights? If you think it’s a badge of honor to reach 13- or 14-foot speeds, I suggest you think again.

Are you getting pressure from the better players at your facility? Is it something to do with the size of your (cutting) unit?

Find a speed – particularly in this economic climate – that makes sense for your golfers, staff and budget. Fast greens cost more to maintain. Consider the cost of materials, plant protectants and, at least right now, the shortage of labor. At a busy daily-fee or in a golf community with average players, excessively fast putting surfaces mean you’re spending a lot more money to make a lot of golfers unhappy.

Hole locations

Another consequence of fast greens is fewer good hole locations. The skills needed for hitting effective approach shots virtually disappear. Slower speeds allow putting holes in more “interesting” locations, including in tight corners and along slopes and angles.

At The Open, it was a joy to watch the best players in the world creatively work their way around and onto the putting greens. How cool was it to see a hole location on the back side of a mound? And then watch the player figure it out?

Of course, we walk a fine line here. There are challenging hole locations and there are those that are too hard. Making things too difficult or intimidating for beginners so they don’t understand what the game is about is a really bad idea. And bad hole locations slow play.

Length

Royal St. George’s proved that a championship can be contested on a shorter golf course with a great set of greens, undulations and fair hole locations. It was great to see that distance didn’t matter and the course didn’t need bombers like Bryson or Dustin to identify the Champion Golfer of the Year. Coincidentally, shorter bodes well for Merion, which appears to have earned a permanent place in the future U.S. Open Championship rotation.

Creative setup

The golf course setup at The Open was creative and made players think. Isn’t that what the game should be about? Golfers should have to think their way around the property, using club selection, course management and strategy to score.

With the overhyped emphasis in the U.S. on conditioning, plus long rough and fast greens, these subtle nuances are lost to the average player. This occurred in 2013 at the U.S. Open at Merion, in 2017 at Erin Hills where rough was harvested mid-U.S. Open week and again, a Shinnecock in 2018 on the 13th green where Phil Mickelson seemingly lost his mind.

Relevancy

Most weeks of the year, the golf we see on television is meant to be entertainment. The PGA Tour wants to showcase the skill and talent of its players. Its courses are set up to give players opportunities to score and excite their fan base. This means perfectly raked bunkers with “firm” sand, greens of perfect and consistent speeds, and predictable surface firmness regardless of turf type with mostly accessible hole locations.

The majors offer some variation. Because the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and Open Championship move from site to site, players must figure out the conditions. But they pretty much know what to expect at the U.S. Open now (until the powers that be change their philosophy … again), and the PGA Championship.

Year in and year out, the one event the shows us something different is The Open. That’s largely because in the UK the approach to golf is different and, frankly, more human. The courses are far more natural and require strategic thinking. They test all levels of player, from beginners to the best in the world. Anyone who’s had the chance to take a golf trip anywhere in the UK has experienced that. And, I’ll bet, enjoyed it immensely.

Watching golf played smartly, creatively, and managed well should be a teachable moment for all of us. Seeing courses that more faithfully follow nature and inject a little serendipity is great. Whatever we as superintendents can do to give our golfers more fun and challenge should be applauded.

Appetizers are ordered and headed to the table, warm platters of yucca fries and fried calamari, but PJ Salter is up and headed to the dance floor.

Caribbean music loud enough to muffle conversation pounds under the tiki hut roof of Monty’s Raw Bar in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, within sight of Biscayne Bay, and Salter does love to dance. More important, his daughters love to dance, and they want to dance, and they want him to dance, so he dances.

Salter is not a bad dancer and, on the brink of 40, with all his joints and ligaments still in working order, he understands that the key to dancing is to move without inhibition. He is the kind of person who dances like nobody is watching. He dances through the end of the first song and into another.

Salter is a different person at 39 than he was at 29, than he was at 19, than he was at 9. He might not have danced back then (though he probably would have). He certainly was not in charge of the turf at an esteemed private golf club — he returned to Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, where he had previously worked nearly four years as an assistant superintendent, in February 2016, this time as the director of agronomy. He was not a father. A third song begins. His form holds up.

Salter and his wife, Lisa Marie Jess, have experienced more, evolved more, these last five years than some people will in a lifetime. They have cleared hurdle after challenge after obstacle. There are more to come. They seem as prepared as you can be.

Morning temperatures are climbing high into the 80s but Salter is not sweating — not yet, at least — when he pulls around the front of the new Riviera clubhouse into the parking lot. He is wearing an aqua golf shirt, purple socks festooned with mushrooms and Jordan Brand golf shoes. When he was just starting out, he would occasionally wear shorts to the course. One mentor mentioned that pants are more professional and his work shorts disappeared. Dress for the job you want.

“It’s hot,” he says, “but it’s just the humidity. It doesn’t seem to ever get above 94 but it’s 94 and humid every day.” He checks his phone. The Weather.com thermometer reads 94. “The thing about the heat down here,” he continues, “is you get to some point every fall, typically in October, where the edge is gone in the morning. It’s 72, the humidity isn’t too bad, and that lasts through March maybe. And then it changes back and you’re belly sweating through your shirt at 7 a.m. because it never gets much below 80 at night.

“In Michigan, there are plenty of nights when it gets into the 60s. But you get used to it, and the tradeoff is I have to put a jacket on when it gets below 60 now.”

A quick professional biography: As he just mentioned, Salter is a Michigan native and a Michigan State University graduate, with a degree in crop and soil sciences framed on one wall of the stuffed office he shares with his three managers. He graduated in 2005 and headed south on Christmas Day to start his professional career as the second assistant at the Golf Club of the Everglades under Jason Gerlach. A year later, he moved to Riviera as an assistant under Eric von Hofen. In 2010, less than five years removed from East Lansing, he landed the superintendent position at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, working under director of agronomy Juan Gutierrez. He considers all three of them mentors and has incorporated many of the lessons and policies they passed along. He worked at Ocean Reef Club for four years, then nearly two years as the superintendent at Riomar Country Club in Vero Beach, where he oversaw an extensive Tom Fazio II renovation. Everything lined up in 2016 for a return to Riviera.

Five moves in a little more than a decade. A dizzying ascent, especially with a proposal, a wedding, the birth of one child and the imminent arrival of two more mixed in.

At Riviera, an early Donald Ross design approaching its centennial, Salter oversees a veteran maintenance crew that normally includes 12 full-timers and two mechanics in addition to Salter and three managers — superintendent Drew Nottenkamper, first assistant Mike Smith and second assistant Mike Heinz.

Nottenkamper arrived first, in January 2017, from Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. A California native, he tends to be the most outwardly relaxed of the four — his resting heart rate during an afternoon check of irrigation stations was 58 bpm — and is arguably the best golfer after a college career at San Jose State University.

A high school baseball player who originally wanted to work on the diamond, Smith followed in 2018, his career path altered after he realized there are far more golf courses than professional ballparks. He likes to joke that after a handful of years in Florida, he is confident at least in his ability to grow grass. “I don’t think I’d kill anything,” he says.

Heinz has the longest professional relationship with Salter — they worked together at Ocean Reef starting nearly decade ago — but arrived most recently. He loves baseball, previously interning for the Baltimore Orioles and head groundskeeper Nicole Sherry, and would love to teach the game to young players. For now, he is leading Riviera’s efforts to gain Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary certification.

The quartet tends to both complement and compliment one another.

“Drew knows what needs to be done, he understands priorities very well, he knows how to get across to the guys what’s important and he’s really good at managing the crew,” Heinz says. “I’ve tried to learn crew management from him, because I’m not a natural manager. Smitty will tell you he’s an over-communicator. He’s like PJ: he’s repetitive and he wants to make sure you get what’s going on. And I’m there for where I’m needed. There’s a role to play here and I’m going to play it to the best of my ability. That’s how you’re successful.”

“I think we all bring something different to the table but it all jells real well,” Smith says. “I don’t think I’ve seen any of us have an argument.” They joke around but mentioned in separate conversations that they have never raised their voices with each other. “I’ve heard stories about people yelling, fighting with mechanics. Just be positive around people.”

“I enjoy this crew,” Nottenkamper says. “I enjoy managing the guys. Delegating tasks is definitely something I’ve gotten better at. … Just because you want to do something doesn’t mean that you should. It’s not always beneficial to what we’re trying to accomplish at that time.”

Salter brings all three with him to green committee meetings each month, to gain more confidence and comfort in boardrooms, to master different parts of the job. He also makes sure each of them calls the shots during the weekend at least once a month. These are things he learned on the way up and things he wants to pass along.

“What Eric (von Hofen) was trying to explain to us was that it’s not about how you get better at your weaknesses from a management standpoint, it’s how you fill out your weaknesses,” Salter says. “How do you recruit guys who are good at the things you’re not necessarily good at so you can put more effort into the things you excel at?”

The results are obvious: Members have approved more than $10 million in renovations over the last six years, the undulating TifEagle greens and Celebration Bermudagrass tees and fairways shine, and all three managers seem poised for career climbs.

“I got into golf course maintenance because I really like to work hard, I like to be outside and I wanted to play free golf,” Salter says. “And as it developed into a career, I started to appreciate the people management and I started to understand it’s the people and not my college education that produces results.”

When he started, Salter was more likely to opt for negative reinforcement, telling crew members what they were doing wrong rather than what they were doing right. After years of learning and years of teaching, he now opts for a hello and a “how are you?” to start most conversations. He wants to humanize changing cups, pulling weeds, setting up ropes and stakes, remembering we all are humans. “If I can do my part to keep the guys happy,” he says, “they are going to do a much better job on the golf course. I really learned to appreciate that part of it.”

For as much as Salter has matured on the course, he is a far more evolved person off it today than he was in 2005 or even 2015.

He and Lisa welcomed their oldest daughters, Tallulah, in 2012, then twins Colette and Persephone in 2017, just a year after Salter returned to Riviera and a month after he hired Nottenkamper. Tallulah and Colette were born without any complications, but Persephone was born with Axenfeld-Reiger Syndrome — a genetic condition that involves the eyes, ears and central nervous system — with Peter’s Anomaly. The condition is present in fewer than 500 babies born globally every year.

When the twins arrived, doctors were initially unsure of how to diagnose Persephone, nicknamed Persi. She shuttled between hospitals, traveled out of state, and met specialist after specialist. She endured 10 surgeries on her eyes before her first birthday, then a pair of open-heart surgeries before her second. The last of her 12 total surgeries was the result of a microbacterium infection in her chest cavity that has a 60 percent mortality rate.

The two years of medical struggles for Persi, of trying to find answers and care for her, sent Salter and Lisa down so many rabbit holes.

“Before you enter into the rare syndrome world, you think everything has a diagnosis, a clear path — this happened because of this, this happened because of that — and that the medical world is filled with straight lines,” Lisa says. “But entering the rare syndrome world, you have to be fine with, ‘Well, we don’t even know exactly what that is.’ You kind of give up all your understanding of the medical world because sometimes the answer is, ‘We don’t know. We don’t know how this is going to turn out and we don’t know what direction this is going to go.’

“And that’s just how it is. There’s just not the research or the understanding.”

The Salters relied on their Catholic faith throughout those years. “I’m a very faithful person, but I don’t think that God chose me because I was some superhuman person,” Lisa says. “God helps you get through the challenges you’re presented but I don’t think He awards challenges based on your worthiness.”

Persi and Colette are 4 now and attend the same preschool. Persi has limited vision but she had enough for long enough that her brain interpreted sight at age-appropriate levels that she is as developed if not more so than most children her age. The plan is for the twins to be in the same kindergarten class next year and for Persi to eventually be her school’s first visually-impaired graduate. Learning Braille is high on her to-do list.

“She’s extremely determined and strong-willed and fearless, which can be difficult because she’s opinionated. You cannot make her do something that she does not want to do,” Lisa says. “She likes to do things herself. She likes to do things that everybody else is doing. She’s also very sweet, and she’s extremely funny. She speaks well beyond her years, and she has a very funny sense of humor.”

“All we know is the world as typically-sighted people,” Salter says. “We asked ourselves, ‘How is this going to hinder her world?’ The reality is she’s opened our eyes to what’s important in the world and how to experience it. She’s always had this outstanding spirit.”

She is also the inspiration for the Persephone Mae Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit designed to help other families with children born with rare conditions or visual impairment. The foundation has raised more than $175,000 thanks to annual golf outings — the next is October 14 at Trump National Doral Miami — along with donations and merchandise sales. Lisa has plans to launch an auction.

“It’s an enormous amount of work,” she says, “but I’ll get an email back from someone: ‘Oh my gosh, you made my day, we’re crying over here,’ and that’s worth it. I have so many plans for the foundation in the future and I would have liked to have grown it faster,” — the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the process as it slowed so much of life the last two years — “but if we can touch 12 families a year and they feel celebrated, if they get something special for their child, that’s still important.

“The rare syndrome world is hard to understand unless you’re in it. Every person is a different person.”

Salter is behind the wheel of a golf car, checking in on a handful of holes on a Wednesday afternoon. The car never tops 15 mph but he keeps the windshield clipped in place. “I have to keep the windshield up so my hair doesn’t get messed up when I go into the pro shop,” he says with a laugh.

“Is that really why you do it?” I ask.

“That’s why I do it,” he says, laughing harder now. “You’ll probably put that in the story right with the Jordans.”

He steps out for a couple minutes to walk around a green, then climbs back in. “Everything has gotten so stark,” he says, “you can’t have any personality.” He pauses for a beat and laughs again. “Probably why I do so well.”

“You think so?” I ask him.

“No,” he says immediately. “No.” He pauses for another beat. “I don’t know. Probably hard work and trying to treat people with respect, I think that’s what it really comes down to. Realizing that you can’t treat every situation the exact same.”

Years ago, he says, before the maturation of middle age, before fatherhood, he was riding around, checking setup, and he spotted a 4-year-old girl climbing out of a bunker, the same age then that Colette and Persi are now. She was playing and laughing. He had no idea who she was or why she was there. He asked her her name and whether she was lost. He told her she wasn’t safe in the bunkers, that she could be hit by a ball, and that she needed to leave. The girl was the daughter of a friend of one of Salter’s superiors. Her father worked in a restaurant and couldn’t bring her to Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, so she wound up on the course. After bringing her back to the maintenance facility, Salter explained the situation to his direct superior, who delivered a verbal lashing, telling Salter that the girl had every right to be at the club and on the course. Nothing prepared Salter for the moment but he remained calm and listened. Then he maintained that the girl should not be on the course. His superior walked out and returned a few minutes later with the girl, who was in tears.

With emotions boiling and pouring, Salter was finally able to relay the situation to his other superior, who was out that day and who delivered the same message, albeit in a little different manner.

“‘Listen, listen,’” he remembers hearing. “‘Just tell him to come back. He can stay on the clock, he can give the girl a tour of the tennis facility, a tour of the clubhouse. Just let her ride around with him the rest of the day and we’ll be good.’

“And I was like, ‘Shoot. Why didn’t I think of that?’”

There is no manual for how to live your life. As soon as you think you know how to teach, how to parent, how to love, you experience something new, and you learn, and you move forward. You get a little smarter, you get a little wiser. You stay curious. Over time, life makes a little more sense. Never total sense, just a little more. You never do figure out everything.

“Some things you get right just through intuition,” Salter says. “Other things you learn the hard way.”

Every person is a different person. Be curious, not judgmental. Wear pants, maybe. And dance.

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.

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1What do you want superintendents to know about AMGUARD™ Environmental Technologies?

First of all, they might not recognize the new company name because we have rebranded our businesses from AMVAC Environmental Products (AEP) to AMGUARD™ Environmental Technologies this year. The name change reflects our strategic commitment to providing a compelling portfolio of new technology and innovative solutions to the markets we serve, including the golf course industry. We are a leading provider of proven chemistries and low-impact solutions to the professional pest, public health, golf, lawn care, ornamental, and greenhouse markets.

For the golf course industry, we offer a portfolio of herbicide, insecticide, fungicide, and fumigant products.

2Does AMGUARD Environmental Technologies have any unique chemistries and products?

Absolutely, and we will continue to seek out even more new technologies and develop innovative solutions that can help make the golf course superintendent’s job easier.

The proprietary chemistry we’re best known for is pentachloronitrobenzene, or PCNB for short. Besides being a multi-site contact fungicide, PCNB is the only FRAC Code 14 fungicide available for use on golf turf, making it a very valuable fungicide resistance management tool. PCNB is widely recognized as the most effective single active ingredient for control of all three major snow mold pathogens. More recently, PCNB has been shown to be one of the most effective active ingredients for control of anthracnose as well. We have four PCNB-based fungicides: two granular products – FF III® (PCNB, chlorothalonil, propiconazole) and Turfcide® 10G (PCNB), as well as two liquid products, PREMION® (PCNB + tebuconazole) and Turfcide® 400 (PCNB).

3It’s late September and snow mold fungicides will be applied in the next few months. Any advice, and what are some of the best ways to use PCNB in snow mold control programs?

As a Regional Sales Manager for AMGUARD Environmental Technologies in the Midwest, and a Wisconsin native, I’ve very aware of the damage snow mold can do to unprotected golf turf. We had some very severe snow mold pressure in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois last winter for the first time in several years, and it caught many golf course superintendents by surprise. Because we haven’t seen much snow mold pressure in our area for a while, and given the changing weather patterns, some superintendents had started to wonder if they needed to apply snow mold fungicides to fairways anymore – and those that didn’t got hit hard. It was a cruel reminder to hope for the best, but plan for the worst with snow mold.

I’ve found that one of the best and easiest ways to incorporate PCNB into a snow mold control program is to use Turfcide 400 instead of chlorothalonil as the contact fungicide component in snow mold fungicide mixtures. PCNB consistently outperforms chlorothalonil in snow mold field trials, so you will get much better snow mold protection simply by making the switch from chlorothalonil to Turfcide 400.

Another great way to use PCNB is to use one of the four Turfcide 400 snow mold fungicide programs in our 2021 Turfcide 400 Snow Mold Assurance Program. Download it at our dedicated snow mold website amvac.com/snowmold.

4It’s also EOP season. Tell us about your new AMGUARD™ Defenders Early Order Program. How does it work?

Our AMGUARD Defenders Early Order Program is very easy to participate in, with no order minimums, no forms to complete, and no invoices to submit. Just place an order and we’ll take care of the rest. We know there are many early order programs out there, and we wanted to make ours as easy to use as possible, to earn your savings.

The AMGUARD Defenders Early Order Program runs Oct. 1 – Dec. 17, 2021. Order any of our eligible products during this period and earn rebates in the form of a distributor credit, to be applied to your account in 2022. Learn more at amvac.com/eop.