Superintendents devote an abundance of time and energy to providing quality conditions for their members and customers. Invariably, however, questions will arise: Why are no carts being allowed out today? Or, Why does aeration have to be done this week? And certainly, That tree on the 12th fairway has been here forever. Why does it have to be removed?
Turf professionals have reasons for doing the things they do, and their reasoning stems from a desire — make that a passion — to do what’s best for their golf course and do right by their members.
And the turf professionals we spoke with would like the golfers they serve to know they understand that.
Charlie Miller has spent his entire 35-year career at Springhaven Country Club in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, 29 of them as the head superintendent. He’d like his members to know he has their best interests at heart.
“I wish that they would know and truly understand that everything I’m doing and recommending is for what I believe to be in the best interest of the club and the golf course,” he says. “Every recommendation that I take to my committee or the board is because I believe it’s in the best interest of the golf course and will make the golf course better, and not to make my job easier.”
Miller, a Penn State graduate, points out that the golf course he tends to is, in a sense, his résumé and a reflection on his career.
“I’m not going to suggest something that is going to negatively impact that,” he says.
LeeAnn Lewis has a unique perspective on the superintendent’s role. An accomplished amateur golfer, Lewis is a longtime member at Southward Ho Country Club in Bayshore, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island, where she has served as the greens chair and later as the club president.
In those roles, she was a vigorous advocate for the club’s superintendent. Lewis notes that turf professionals must be knowledgeable in multiple areas to be successful.
“They have to know turf,” she says. “They have to know chemicals, they have to know the weather. It’s pretty much a blue-collar job, so some people get a little dismissive about it, but it’s the level of knowledge and expertise in so many different areas that they have to combine. And [they have to] manage a staff, which is another skill set. So, it’s really impressive, the extent of their knowledge. I think people are either unaware or dismissive of it.”
Andrew Dooley is in his fifth season as the head superintendent at the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale, one of just two private clubs located within the city limits of Philadelphia. Dooley says it can be difficult for members to grasp all that’s involved in maintaining a golf course.
“I think when folks really look at how a golf course is maintained and they spend a little bit of time to understand what all goes into it, it’s eye-opening that it’s a lot more than they ever expected,” he says.
Before assuming his present post, Dooley worked nine years as the superintendent at Berkshire Country Club, a private club near Reading, Pennsylvania, where at one point he had an open house for his members in his maintenance shop — “just to kind of show them a maintenance shop.”
“I think what we were hopefully trying to get out was that we had some equipment that was well overdue for replacement,” Dooley adds. “We wanted them to see the equipment we were working with, how much it cost to replace and hopefully get their buy-in to spend a little bit of extra money so we could update equipment.
“Some of the members’ comments were, ‘We didn’t even know this building was here.’ Some of those members had been there for 20 years.”
It’s not uncommon for Dooley to get feedback from members regarding hole locations. The topography at Torresdale limits his options on his bent/Poa greens.
“We have really small greens here,” he says. “They’re very undulated and we can’t put the pins in the exact same spots every single day, otherwise we’re going to suffer from wear and tear. So, sometimes we have to use pin locations that might be questionable or ‘interesting.’
“Bent/Poa greens in the Philadelphia market are a living, breathing system that needs a lot of attention. It takes us some time to spread that wear and tear out with different cultural practices and different techniques.”
Sandee Cataldi is the general manager at Union League Torresdale. She stresses the importance of Dooley communicating with the members about what’s occurring on the golf course.
“I think that Union League in general does a really good job of informing the members about what Andrew’s role is as a superintendent,” she says. “We’ll have him [posting information] on the screens on the carts and kind of educating them with how to take care of the course itself. I think that’s really important. They need to know him, they need to know what he’s about. They need to understand the course in order to understand him and his passion for keeping the course as pristine as he does. They need to know about him as an individual, not just as a superintendent.”
Cataldi communicates regularly with Dooley and Scott Bordner, Union League’s director of agronomy, who oversees turf operations at Torresdale, Union League Liberty Hill in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, and Union League National Golf Club in Swainton, New Jersey, 30 miles south of Atlantic City.
“I think [communication] is extremely important to the membership and the staff,” Cataldi says. “I think it’s critical to keep the lines of communication open. We make sure we’re communicating everything that’s happening on the course to the membership.”
Superintendents at daily-fee facilities often deal with circumstances their colleagues elsewhere do not because of staffing and budgetary issues.
A veteran of 30 years in the turf industry, Howard Szczurek is in his fourth season at Middletown Country Club in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, in suburban Philadelphia.
“What I try to drive into my crew, as small as it is, is that our goal is to leave the course every day a little better than we found it,” he says. “For us, it’s just to try to exceed the expectations that are put in place by our limitations as far as budget and crew size and everything else. We do our best to get the course in the best shape possible every week.
“There are some things that have this place looking absolutely amazing and there are other weeks where it’s rough around the edges. But the same amount of work — effort and ethic — is still put into the course. It’s just that everything is pretty much weather-dependent.”
Weather-dependent equates to water-dependent. One of Szczurek’s top priorities is effectively utilizing his allotment of water. He’s limited to running 13.9 million gallons of water per year through a 30-year-old irrigation system.
“You might say, ‘That’s a lot of water,” Szczurek says, “but it’s not when you think that each head, each minute, puts out 50 gallons. So, when you run a syringe program for a green and you say that only four heads are running, that’s 200 gallons and usually you have to run three or four minutes depending on the type of greens you have, if it’s windy, if it’s not windy, what’s the humidity like, and everything else.”
In the summer of 2024, Szczurek found himself dealing with drought conditions. His golf course received just 2.7 inches of rain from the third week in May through the third week in September. His solution was to apply a wetting agent on his tees but confine watering to the greens and fairways.
“You’ve got to make a decision,” he says. “Do you want greens to putt on? Do you want true-rolling fairways? Then you just deal with hitting off a tee that is chopped up and is, for all intents and purposes, dead.”
Ashley Binkle has spent 14 years caring for the turf at Dundee Country Club in New Dundee, Ontario. She wants her members and customers to know that superintendents wear a lot of hats.
“We are mentors, educators, listeners, business managers, agronomists, environmental stewards, mechanics, irrigation technicians, spray technicians and so much more,” she says. “We are in before the sun comes up and leave after all the staff have finished for the day. We work countless hours to ensure the playing conditions at our facilities are the best they can be. We have a passion for the course and consider this career a lifestyle and not just a job.”
Binkle stresses the importance of effective communication with her clientele.
“We need to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently to staff, general managers, owners and customers alike,” she says. “We need to be proactive in our communication and able to show rationale behind our decisions. The biggest questions I receive are, ‘Why do you make pin positions so hard?’ or, ‘Why do you need to aerate?’”
Binkle maintains an open-door policy with her members and customers.
“If you have a concern, I welcome the conversation,” she says. “I ask that golfers remember that the staff are here doing a job that has been given to them by me. They may or may not have a full understanding of why we are doing certain things the way we do.
“I always try to empower my staff with knowledge and encourage them to ask questions. But not all employees are versed in all areas of turfgrass management.”
Matt Shaffer has spent six decades in the turf industry and is one of its more respected figures. His résumé is highlighted by a long career at Merion Golf Club. In retirement, he has served as a consultant and a listening ear to other turf professionals. He stresses the importance of how passionate turf professionals are about their profession.
“They’ve got to know that the superintendent is married to his job. I think that’s the biggest thing, from my perspective, the time requirement,” he says.
Shaffer makes the point that clubs that demand quality playing conditions must be willing to allocate the funds to make them a reality. “Just because you want it to be doesn’t mean it’s so,” he says. “The USGA is working really hard, and a couple of private guys are trying to quantify the cost of golf, and when they do that, it will be earthshattering.
“You can say we want our greens as fast as the country club down the road. ‘Theirs are 13 and ours are 10.5.’ [But] for every 6 inches it costs $50,000. If you speed them up two and a half inches more, you’re going to have to come up with $250,000.”
Having watched the turf industry evolve over the course of his career, Shaffer is optimistic about its future.
“This generation of superintendents is really exceptional,” he says. “They’re well-educated, they’re well-read, they’re computer-savvy, and they have all the information in the world at their fingertips.”
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