Rules for green chairs

More than once in my 40 years writing about golf maintenance have I come upon the green chair who thought he knew everything. He — with this genre, it’s always a he — mistook his success in business and his swelled bank account with being the smartest guy in the room. He treated other members as ignorant dolts, publicly relegated his greenkeeper to the status of a “grass grower in overalls” and did not trust him to attend board meetings or to speak up in public.

No wonder green committee chairs are easy to mock. The criticism dates back more than a century, when keen observers of golf design and agronomy like Horace Hutchinson and Alister MacKenzie dismissed such self-appointed experts as an impediment to sound course management. Everyone in the business knows of green chairs who tried to “make their mark,” whether by removing left-side fairway bunkers to accommodate their hook, or by having their brother’s landscaping firm deliver 3,500 pine trees after clearing them from the 1964-65 World’s Fair site in Queens (true story).

One regular championship site had the same green chair for 34 years. Another club with a stellar major history had 16 chairmen in a 17-year stretch and managed, in the process, to drive out their nationally treasured superintendent. There are clubs where the incoming president gets to appoint a new green committee chair, often with members of his own choosing. And I’ve seen committees that did not know where the maintenance building was and had never met with the assistants.

Thankfully, I’ve also seen it done right. Here are some basic rules and guidelines for how to make the relationship between green chair and superintendent work well.

Recruitment from within

The chair usually needs to be recruited from within the existing committee, but that tenure need not be long. A few years will suffice. The point is to avoid appointment by favoritism and to be properly socialized in the details, procedures and diplomacy of club politics.

Diverse committee

Five to seven members are plenty, more gets unwieldy. They should be a diverse representative of the membership in terms of gender, culture and playing skill.

Advocate for the superintendent

Green chairs with an “agenda” are dangerous. They need to be enablers of what the superintendent needs. That means listening, spending time out on the golf course looking at things, talking to assistants and crew members, and reading trade journal articles (and not relying on Siri for last-minute advice). They need to be able to go before the board and the general manager to make a case on behalf of the superintendent for everything from aerification schedules to equipment needs. Advocating does not mean being uncritical; but they should follow a basic tact of publicly supporting their superintendent while reserving criticism for private conversations.

Encourage playing

It always helps doing the job if the superintendent is a golfer. Skill level does not matter, but seeing the course from the perspective of everyday users is a benefit. I’ve seen clubs where superintendents feel as if their play is an intrusion. I can understand if they would rather relax with golf elsewhere, but the green chair should openly encourage play and occasionally encourage play with diverse members, even (especially) with those critical of course conditions. Nothing will do more to promote understanding and quell criticism than a round with the superintendent.

Deflect, steer criticism

The green committee is the club’s suggestion box. Members should be encouraged to file concerns in that direction. There needs to be a procedure for handling such issues that does not involve direct conversation between golfers and the superintendent — other than a casual or complimentary sort. Judgment and criticism leveled directly by members leads to misunderstandings, flared tempers or unproductive outcomes. The same goes for email/text traffic of anything that is not laudatory and supportive. Criticism and ensuing correspondence should be CC’d to the green chair. Extensive private back-and-forth can easily lead to misunderstanding, wasted time and unresolved bad feelings.

Plan for regular consultancy

Budget for annual outside advice rather than waiting for a crisis. Better to have the funds allocated regularly so that independent agronomic advice becomes a normal part of the work routine.

Editor’s note: Visit www.golfcourseindustry.com for three bonus rules for greens chairs.