Source: Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.)
If you're an avid golfer, you can probably appreciate the finely cut greens and manicured bunkers of a top course. But that's only the beginning of the responsibilities of a golf course superintendent.
"There's a lot more going on at the golf course than you see on the first tee," said Matt Durkee, the new golf course superintendent at Sawgrass Country Club.
Besides keeping up appearances, golf course maintenance includes responsibilities such as insect management and constant testing of water and soil samples to ensure the course is meeting environmental standards.
"We have to work more and more with the state and county," Durkee said.
He also has to play the role of weatherman because different conditions may affect the grass.
"This position is one where you're pretty much trying to predict the weather," he said. "You can get 40-degree temperature changes in one day."
Durkee actually graduated from Flagler College in 1995 with a business degree, but instead of going to work in an office he took a job at Sawgrass to learn about course maintenance. While working at Sawgrass, he took classes at Lake City Community College Turf School, earning his degree in 1999.
After getting that degree, he joined course construction company MacCurrach Golf. While he liked the work of building courses, he found he didn't enjoy the constant travel that went with it.
"You're always on the road. It's a tough racket," Durkee said.
So Durkee took advantage of an opportunity to become superintendent at the Ocean Hammock Golf Club in Palm Coast for a year and a half. And when he was offered the superintendent position at Sawgrass five weeks ago, he jumped at the opportunity to return. The Sawgrass course is known as one of the nation's top courses and was the home of the PGA Tour's The Players Championship from 1977 to 1981, before it moved to the TPC at Sawgrass.
Durkee said golf course superintendents tend to love the outdoors. They have to, because they spend a lot of time there.
"We have a staff of 26 that works a tremendous amount of hours," he said. The typical schedule is to work 12 straight days and then have one weekend off. The golf course is open every day of the year except Christmas, so there isn't much time to take a break.
"That's the difficult part of this business and why it's such a grind on superintendents," Durkee said.
