I just got back from my annual fishing adventure in the wilds of Canada. Basically, a float plane drops you and 11 buddies off on a tiny island in the middle of an enormous lake that’s 500 miles from the closest 7-Eleven. Then, you fish your brains out for a full week.
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No electricity. No cable TV. No e-mails. No cell phones. Just fishing and giving each other crap for seven delicious days. The most stressful decision you face all week is whether to throw a spoon or a jig. The fishing is ridiculously good – you can catch 100 walleyes before lunch if you want. I boated a 40-inch Northern Pike that was seriously pissed off to be yanked out of the water.
(A quick aside: I often wonder whether the fish equate this experience with alien abduction. “I was just swimming around and minding my business when this shiny thing came by. I ate it and was suddenly in this strange world full of big smelly creatures who examined me with these weird instruments and then tossed me back down here!” There’s a fish version of the National Enquirer, it’s probably full of stories like this.)
Most of the guys who go on the trip are also turfheads – chemical sales reps, researchers, landscape contractors, etc. – but during the years I’ve been going, no superintendent has ever come along. I’ve asked many superintendents to join us, and the answer is always the same: “I just can’t be away from the course that long during the season.”
Frankly, that’s B.S.
It always reminds me of a time when I was taking a summer-long weekend with my family at a resort in Pennsylvania. We were enjoying a hayride and wienie roast up in the mountains when a guy came over and introduced himself as the superintendent at a Pittsburgh-area club. We chatted and introduced our families to each other and generally had a wonderful time. Heading back down the mountain, he looked over at me and said, “You’re not going to tell anybody that I took a Saturday night off during the season, are you?” Just a wee bit insecure, don’t you think?
You have good assistants, good management plans in place and, hopefully, good enough communications skills to let your employers know what’s going on. And, I can’t think of another profession that could use a mid-season stress-reliever more.
It’s time we start changing the culture of workaholism and fear that has dominated this business for eternity. The umbilical cord that seems to connect superintendents to their courses needs to be cut. No, you don’t have to go to the middle of nowhere for a week, but you do need to get away and put some perspective on things. You’re a good manager … manage your life the way you manage your course. After all, nobody ever had, “I should have spent more time at the office” engraved on their tombstone. Think about it. GCN
Pat Jones is president of Flagstick, LLC.
