From the publisher’s pen: What I learned from three inspiring people in 2025

Serving as a publisher + editor-in-chief with an active byline means receiving access to many remarkable people. Failing to study their actions and words is career and storytelling negligence.

Here’s what I observed and learned from a trio of the industry’s finest in 2025. Perhaps a lesson or anecdote in this column can help your course, business or career.

Ultimate ownership

Pinehurst Resort director of golf course management Bob Farren has opened new courses. He leads a department that hosts major championships. He received the highest possible peer recognition from his regional association this past November. His contact list includes dozens of golf power brokers, most of whom will immediately respond to his calls or messages.

And he still collects the trash.

On an early December stroll through The Carolina Hotel parking lot, Farren nonchalantly bent over three times to corral trash and debris. Farren was ushering two visitors to his vehicle for a tour of under-construction Pinehurst No. 11. Had he covered more distance (the outdoor walk from the hotel conference room to his vehicle was a flip wedge), Farren would have continued collecting trash.

The Carolina Hotel parking lot represents the initial Pinehurst Resort sightline for thousands of guests. A few misplaced wrappers and bottles can thwart a 130-year-old destination from forging favorable first impressions.

Farren leads one of the nation’s largest golf maintenance departments. His job success shouldn’t hinge on tidying parking lots. But successful leaders realize big acts don’t define legacies and careers. People responsible for making big decisions repeatedly show they care deeply about a place by stacking together decades of unnoticed, mission-oriented, team-focused acts.   

Nobody is too important to pick up trash.

The world according to Willie 

Willie Pennington is technically retired following a more than four-decade career of making others feel important and valued.

Fortunately, the former industry sales savant continues to attend industry gatherings.

Pennington held court for curious industry minds during a November event at a Prestwick (South Carolina) Country Club honoring the legacy and impact of Dr. Bruce Martin. With peers sharing drinks by the bar, Pennington sat at a high-top table and imparted people-focused wisdom on somebody looking to improve how they interact and connect with industry professionals.

Over the years, Pennington engaged in more conversations about life than about products. Elite listening skills transformed Pennington into a revered, successful and adaptable sales professional covering an ultracompetitive territory. His ears often provided the best solution for superintendents attempting to overcome stress-inducing stretches.  

The November conversation at Prestwick took an unexpected turn when Pennington started describing his post-retirement mission work in foreign countries. All one could do is listen to somebody who mastered the art of listening decades ago to realize the trips are affecting Pennington in profound ways.

Turf issues and playing conditions seemed trivial the more Pennington spoke. Sometimes it takes visiting unfamiliar places — or listening intently to somebody with firsthand insight into global dilemmas — to alter a perspective.

Outside beauty starts inside

Do this job long enough and you think you can reach the Golf Course Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. Then, you humbly discover you don’t have what it takes to become the Ken Jennings or James Holzhauer of the fictitious game.

I had never heard of Bidermann Golf Course in Wilmington, Delaware, before hosting a Golf Construction Conversations podcast with superintendent Pat Michener. I guess good reason existed for not knowing much about Bidermann: the club keeps a low profile (it doesn’t have a public website) and I somehow only entered Delaware once in my first 11 years with Golf Course Industry.

Bidermann and Michener were recommended to us by the series’ 2025 partner. Michener’s vivid and passionate descriptions of the Dick Wilson-designed layout proved enthralling. I needed to find a way to visit Bidermann, which Michener called a golf “field of dreams,” during our spring podcast recording. 

On the morning of Oct. 22, I watched the sun rise over 205 acres of vibrant turf, expansive meadows with colorful fescues and agrarian-style structures. Wilson’s routing bobs and weaves through a secluded plot intersected by a lightly traveled side road within the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor. Bidermann truly is the closest thing to a “field of dreams” setting I’ve experienced in my industry travels.  

Before we toured the course, Michener showed us what he described as the “crown jewel” of the golf maintenance operation: the plant protectant room. Yes, the room storing soluble solutions and necessary equipment to apply them effectively and safely left a more indelible impression on this visitor than an awesome golf course. 

Michener’s team shelved products in alphabetical order by category. PPE hung from hooks in an alignment that would appease a tough-grading geometry teacher. The club’s two mixing tanks and four sprayers were spotless. A mounted digital application and task board occupied the front wall. The back of the building included a diagnostic lab with a microscope.

The room is the frequent site of green committee meetings. Clubs looking to upgrade their maintenance facility need to bring their superintendent and members to study the Bidermann operation.

Following our tour, I texted an industry friend who was helping Michener fill an assistant superintendent position:

If I didn’t love my wife (who loves where we live), GIE Media, Golf Course Industry, and media/publishing so much, I’d brown-nose you beyond belief to get that job!!!! That would be a great place to work and learn.   

For the sake of our marriage, I didn’t apply for the job. I’m confident Bidermann received numerous applicants from candidates who possessed more than my two years of snake-mowing golf course maintenance experience.

Michener’s operation demonstrates the potential when a well-trained and caring crew strives to maximize a membership’s trust in their ability to produce a dazzling product. The quality of the golf course reflects the standard established inside the plant protectant room. 

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief.