When Brian Bachman moved up the ranks from assistant to head superintendent, he experienced what could be considered a baptism by fire. Bachman was named superintendent of Riverview Country Club in Easton, Pa. and oversaw the construction process.
Bachman, a graduate of Penn State University, was an assistant superintendent at Olde Homestead Golf Club in New Tripoli, Pa. and heard about the opening at the new course. He was hired and worked to get the course ready for its September 2004 opening. While he already had many responsibilities a superintendent usually has, building a new course presented new challenges.
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“I set up the initial equipment program and negotiated and lined the bids up by myself,” he says. “I had to reconcile all the contractors’ final punch lists and bills for final payment and had high-end dealings with administrative and money related issues,” he says.
This was when Bachman started to realize that performing superintendent duties as an assistant isn’t the same thing as actually bearing the title.
“As an assistant it was a lot less stress – you went to work and did what you were supposed to do,” he says. “Nobody was looking over your shoulder.”
The journey
At 31, Bachman is at the young end of the superintendent spectrum. He was 26 when he first got the job. Bachman says he believes his age helped him to get the job at Riverview.
“I said in the job interview that I’m young in my career and can’t afford to fail,” he says.
Transitioning into the superintendent role in terms of daily maintenance wasn’t hard for Bachman.
“By the time I left Olde Homestead I had a lot of responsibilities similar to what I have now,” he says. “But now, I have to deal with the manager on a daily basis, I do all of the budgeting for the entire year and I organize the spray programs, which includes what it will cost and why it will cost this.”
Bachman also is charged with maintaining a unique fairway that consists of bentgrass landing areas surrounded by low-cut bluegrass fairways.
“It leads to two different mowing schemes, heights of cut, fertilization and chemical schedules and twice the people to do the mowing,” Bachman says, adding, “You can’t have as many big machines because the areas you’re mowing aren’t as big.”
At a typical course, it would take four crew members to mow a hole, Bachman says. With Riverview’s dual fairways, it takes six people, and it usually takes six hours to complete the course. If some crew members aren’t there on a particular day, the holes might not be completed before play starts.
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It also takes extra work just to make sure the crew is on the same page.
“It’s an educational challenge to my crew to tell them which is which, where you can go and where you can’t go,” he says. “You can’t seed a divot in the bluegrass fairway with bentgrass seed.”
Despite this, the daily maintenance aspect of the job is probably one of the easier parts, Bachman says. Any challenge with that part of the job seems light compared to what he has already encountered.
“If you can make it through a construction, you can make it through anything,” he says.
The course, built mostly by North Carolina-based Shapemasters, is close to the Delaware River, which made it “the focal point for every regulatory agency that exists” during the construction process, Bachman says. His first day on the job happened to be the day of a four-hour site inspection. He met the agencies for regular checks and made the changes they recommended.
“I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I see an inspector,” he says.
The grow-in was also an ordeal, as Bachman had to contend with rain. It made him appreciate established grass that much more.
“Once your grass is there, if it rains hard, at least it’s not going anywhere,” he says.
Seed washing away mixed with the ground’s tendency to form sinkholes in that area kept Bachman on his toes.
Since the grow-in, Bachman has had one other trying experience. An irrigation problem that arose in late May last year is one of the biggest challenges he foresees encountering (or at least he hopes so).
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An 18-inch intake pipe 20 feet down in the irrigation pond got smashed and began to leak. When they finally realized where the problem was, Bachman and his assistant worked 30 hours, draining the pond and making repairs to get the pipe working again so they could restore the water supply to the irrigation system. The course was without water for a few days in 80-degree temperatures.
“It makes a disease problem seem pretty minor in the scheme of things,” he says.
Getting in
One of the keys to Bachman’s relatively quick progression to superintendent was the people he knows. Bachman worked with golf course architect Jim Blaukovitch on the creation of a nine-hole course at Olde Homestead and found out through Blaukovitch that Riverview was looking for a superintendent. The rapport helped Bachman’s name stand out during the hiring process. In addition, Bachman’s acquaintance with Blaukovitch was an advantage during the construction process.
Bachman recommends aspiring assistants have someone in the industry they look up to.
“Keep a good relationship with someone you work with so you have a voice of reason in times of difficulty,” he says.
He remains close with Todd Ahner, the superintendent at Olde Homestead. He continues to bounce ideas off Ahner, and Ahner does the same with Bachman.
“He tries to do new things with the course and I know what’s going on, so he values my input,” Bachman says.
Even with a network of support, Bachman realizes that responsibility lies in himself.
“As a superintendent, everybody’s got their eye on you, and if you fail it’s your fault.”