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Back to the future
With a challenging new position in golf on the horizon, Steve Mona reflects on 14 years at GCSAA’s helm.
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Photos by Todd Feeback |
Any doubts about the respect the golf course management profession commands in golf today are quickly dismissed when considering that the man largely responsible — GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE — has likewise traveled the high road to industry recognition.
Soon after the latest GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show — one of the 50-year-old Mona’s most notable legacies — ends early next month, he will move on to a new mission in life as the first-ever CEO of the World Golf Foundation, a rejuvenated organization with designs to become the portal through which all things golf will pass.
It’s a lofty undertaking for Mona, who as a rising association executive in 1993 took on a similar challenge with GCSAA, which at the time was languishing in neutral with a talented but image-poor membership itching to get in gear.
Mona’s bottom line in a nutshell is that in the ensuing 14 years, GCSAA has come to be counted among the top organizations in golf while its membership rolls have increased from 13,300 to 20,000 and its annual budget has risen from $12 million to $20 million. And, more important, superintendents are not unknowns to golfers and the public at-large, and their worth to a golf facility is borderline priceless.
“I’m pleased as I reflect on 14 years to where GCSAA is today,” Mona says. “But, I didn’t do it alone. In fact, I don’t take any specific credit for anything. For anything of any import to happen, it takes a whole lot of people to make it go — the staff, the board of directors allocating the resources and the membership to embrace it, become attracted to it and excited by it. I think oftentimes the CEO’s role is overrated.”
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Praiseworthy
Nevertheless, what was accomplished during Mona’s watch has been duly noted within GCSAA and beyond.
“The shared opinion is that Steve brought us to a new level in relationships with our industry allies and in public awareness,” says Dave Fearis, who was a member of the 1993 board of directors that hired Mona, went on to lead the association as president in 1999 and after retiring as the longtime superintendent at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City, Mo., later became GCSAA’s director of membership.
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During his 14 years as GCSAA’s CEO, Steve Mona (left) has brought the association and the golf course management profession to the table with some of golf’s most prominent players, like the PGA of America and its CEO, Joe Steranka (right). Photos by Seth Jones |
“I hate to see him leave, but I’m happy for him — it’s a feather in his cap and GCSAA’s cap,” adds Fearis, a member of the association for 39 years. “To have Steve running the World Golf Foundation sends a message, that’s for sure. The Foundation is going to be a very important part of the industry, and I expect Steve to continue to help GCSAA in any way he can.”
The executive director of the USGA, David Fay, has known Mona for more than 25 years, going back to the latter’s days as the tournament director of the Northern California Golf Association, a stint on the USGA communications staff and then a 10-year run as the executive director of the Georgia State Golf Association. He reiterates that Mona’s subsequent efforts at GCSAA are not lost on the world of golf.
“Steve leaves big shoes for someone to fill at GCSAA,” says Fay, who will be the new chairman of the World Golf Foundation’s executive committee this year, a group of global golf leaders to whom Mona will report directly as CEO. “He certainly took what I consider to be a critically important organization whose members are the caretakers of the most important asset of a golf facility and did a masterful job of elevating the promise and importance of the golf course superintendent.”
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Mona’s interaction with a wide array of notable personalities within the game — from professional golfers like Justin Leonard (top) to participants and media members at national events like BASF’s People vs. The Pros — has increased the visibility of GCSAA and the profession, say many who know and have worked with Mona. |
A dose of reality
GCSAA’s successes aside, Mona has often noted that he has made his share of mistakes and that you can’t please everyone.
“My guidepost, if you will, in decision-making is, first, what’s in the best interest of the organization, then what’s in the best interest of the staff as a whole and, finally, what’s in the best interest of the individual,” Mona says.
Kevin Thurman, CGCS for the city of Mitchell, S.D., is typical of those who have been in the profession before, during and after Mona’s tenure and especially those from areas where being a superintendent means being more of a taskmaster than anything else. To Thurman, a 22-year member of GCSAA who has spent his entire career at Mitchell’s Lakeview Municipal Golf Course, there remains unfinished business.
“The profession has come a long way under Mr. Mona’s stewardship ... but, can we go further? Yes,” says Thurman, who began as an assistant 27 years ago, made head superintendent, got certified and eventually became the city’s director of golf and grounds and its version of parks and recreation.
“As always you’re disappointed when a top leader moves on to another organization and you really feel there’s more to be done with our profession here at ground level ... more to be done to improve the image of the golf course superintendent as a key management official. It was a long, hard road for me and if I had it to do over again, I don’t think I’d do it.”
Grass strains
A sticks-and-balls guy from one of the country’s most active state golf associations may have seemed a stretch to shake an organization of superintendents out of the doldrums, but Mona had a couple of big pluses in his favor.
First of all, during his stint at Georgia, Mona struck up a friendship with Randy Nichols, an avid golfer and the CGCS at Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta. In the late summer of 1993, with John Schilling having resigned as CEO of GCSAA, Mona was contacted by Nichols, who at the time was president of the association, and was asked if he would be interested in the job.
“A big reason I was interested was because of Randy Nichols and the kind of person he is, his integrity and character,” Mona recalls. “And because of the fact that he asked me.”
The other advantage Mona had was that he not only had a pretty good idea what he was getting into, but also with whom.
“I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the superintendent,” he says. “I think I’m wired a lot like they are — early to bed, early to rise, straightforward. I’d connected with them running tournaments at Northern Cal and Georgia. In those days I spent a lot of time watching the sun come up and the sun go down at superintendents’ maintenance facilities.”
Dynamic team
The GCSAA board hired Mona in November of that year, and he was soon joined by chief financial officer Julian Arredondo and chief operating officer Joe O’Brien — the Three O’s, as they became known among staff.
“I think we were a pretty good team because we all had strengths and weaknesses and we complemented each other well,” Mona says. “It turned out to be a great, great several years together, in my opinion.”
The team came to GCSAA more or less cold turkey, with the previous executives already gone and knowing few if any staff members. The initial charges from the board were simple and direct — one, restore trust and faith in GCSAA leadership, especially at the staff and membership levels, and, two, get the membership involved in association affairs. And, of course, there came to be many sidebars.
Progress was measured through the years as part accomplished in forthright fashion, part ongoing to this day and all often in the eye of the beholder. Arredondo and O’Brien moved on to other vocations along the way, while Mona remained as the association’s one stabilizing force.
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Mona counts the successful formation of the Golf Industry Show among his most notable legacies from his 14 years as the association’s CEO. Photo by Bruce Mathews |
Milestones
Since the announcement four months ago that Mona was leaving GCSAA to head up the World Golf Foundation, he has often been asked about the highlights of the past 14 years. It’s a question far easier to ask than to answer. But Mona has refined it to a short list:
The Golf Industry Show
GCSAA has never been a small player by any means in the arena of golf shows through the years, but in recent times the association’s main event has surpassed nearly all of the others, as well as some internal expectations. Today the National Golf Course Owners Association and the Club Managers Association of America have joined GCSAA to meld three trade shows into one, with other organizations such as the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the National Golf Foundation and the Golf Course Builders Association of America joining the party as supporting organizations.
“If you go back 14 years, I don’t think anyone would have thought all that would have happened. Today I think it’s pretty significant,” Mona says of the GIS, which draws more than 23,000 attendees and 950 exhibitors requiring in excess of 290,000 square feet, along with a complementing education conference that features nearly 120 seminars for 8,000 or more participants.
The evolution of GCSAA scholarship and research
Perhaps no other segment of GCSAA typifies the growth in stature of the association. The philanthropic arm, created in 1955, was known for many years as the GCSAA Scholarship & Research Fund, then The GCSAA Foundation and finally in 2003, The Environmental Institute for Golf, featuring an outside board of directors and advisory council that reads like a who’s-who list of golf industry VIPs. Today The Institute boasts an endowment of $6 million.
“Years ago, I imagine many of the people involved on The Institute’s boards barely knew who we were, and now not only are they financially supporting us considerably, but they are also pretty engaged in what we’re doing in ways you can’t put a price tag on,” Mona says.
The Professional Development Initiative
The long road to definitive membership standards to meet marketplace demands culminated four years ago when the membership approved PDI by a 3-1 margin.
“A seminal moment in the history of GCSAA,” Mona says of the go-ahead for PDI. “What it really meant was that golf course management is a profession and there is a requirement to call yourself a professional and there is an ongoing requirement to continue to call yourself a professional.”
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Mona’s tenure at GCSAA positioned him as one of the association’s most public voices and faces. He will take that level of recognition in the industry to his new position as the CEO of the World Golf Foundation. Photo by Scott Hollister |
GCSAA’s relationship with industry
Mona’s pursuit of corporate sponsorships of major events and strategic endeavors sparked some controversy, but he eventually proved that it could be done without the association “selling out,” as they say. The widely successful efforts just recently spawned the Partner Recognition Program, which provides industry partners with year-round exposure based on a prescribed level of investment.
“We’ve really tried to treat and respect our industry as real partners, involving them in strategic ways,” says Mona, who notes that more than 50 percent of GCSAA revenues are now derived from the industry.
On a personal note, Mona also speaks to a relationship he has had for several years with Ken Melrose, the now-retired chairman and CEO of The Toro Co., as reinforcement of the interaction GCSAA enjoys today with industry.
“I’ve confided in him (Melrose), used him as a sounding board on many things,” Mona says. “You can’t beat having a Fortune 500 CEO as a mentor.”
Melrose, who retired about two years ago and now teaches in the school of business at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and also speaks and writes on corporate business, downplays his role with Mona, but admits he saw a winner in the making.
“Steve has grown tremendously as a leader over the time I’ve know him,” Melrose says. “I’ve shared with him some of the stories and cultural attributes we developed at Toro under the banner of ‘leading by serving,’ and he took to that very well. I saw him develop as a servant-leader.”
Like many in the golf course industry, Melrose sees Mona taking over as CEO of the World Golf Foundation as a win-win situation for all of golf.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for Steve and a great move for golf and the Foundation,” he says. “I think he will bring to the table an important need to integrate all the different public relations challenges to better communicate the message of the world of golf. He’s the kind of guy who can bring a group together and get everyone on the same page — just as he has done very well at GCSAA with his values and empowerment-driven management style.”
Governance
Early in 2004, a dramatic change in association governance came about when the GCSAA Board of Directors basically retreated to a more strategic, visionary role and handed over the day-to-day business of the organization to Mona and headquarters staff. The change was precipitated by one of GCSAA’s five-year audits in which it was noted that there was a lack of strategic dialogue and thinking throughout the organization.
“I don’t like to talk in overstated terms, but our governance has really changed the culture of the organization, especially from a staff perspective,” Mona says. “The culture on staff is very results-oriented, very achievement-oriented and very squarely focused on strategic indicators. And I think it’s changed the culture of how the board of directors operates ... how it thinks, how it deliberates. We were already in a pretty good place, in my judgment, but this really brought things into sharper focus — an enhancement of what we were doing.”
The performance of GCSAA staff has long been recognized among the membership, notably those who have seen the internal workings of the association up close and personal. Mark Clark, CGCS at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., for instance, has continuously served on GCSAA committees since 1990, as well as helped with various seminars over the years, and he has indeed seen a lot.
“I’m glad Steve is staying in golf. That’s his calling. He seems to have a pretty good handle on what the industry is about and where it needs to go,” the 29-year GCSAA member says. “But what I’ve been most impressed with during Steve’s years with the association is the change in the professionalism and effort by staff to continually service members in the best possible way. I think it has been outstanding and I know it comes from the top down.”
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Mona’s ability to connect with GCSAA members on a one-on-one level served him well during his 14 years at the association. Photo by Scott Hollister |
When the bell tolls
Mona has been somewhat of an anomaly in the golf business in that he stays with the task at hand — a decade with the Georgia State Golf Association and then 14 years with GCSAA. He says he and his wife, Cyndi (they have three children: Kin, Stephen and Meredith), were perfectly content in Lawrence, Kan., and “looking to go nowhere” except probable retirement in 15 or so years. So, why then the World Golf Foundation?
“Because Tim Finchem asked me — just like Randy Nichols did 14 years ago,” Mona says in regard to another friendship that had developed over the years and this time with one of the most powerful men in the game. “He made it very attractive with the Foundation reorganized and having an expanded role worldwide. But the main thing is that it’s a chance for me to be directly involved with many of the game’s most important issues on a global basis. As great of an organization that GCSAA is and as much as I love the association, this happened for that very reason.”
Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour who along with his predecessor, Deane Beman, created the WGF and had served as its chairman since 1994, had good reason as well in his pursuit of Mona as the Foundation’s first CEO.
“I have worked closely with Steve for several years on a number of issues affecting the golf industry and have always been impressed with how he has conducted himself and how effective he has been in leading GCSAA,” Finchem says. “When we embarked upon a search for a CEO for the World Golf Foundation, we believed that we needed someone who was familiar to the golf industry, who had excellent relationships throughout all the organizations serving the game and who could manage both the current and new initiatives of the WGF. Steve Mona was certainly someone who fit all those objectives.”
No recognition curve
Mona joins a lot of familiar faces within the WGF. He has been on the advisory boards of the Foundation’s most notable initiatives — The First Tee, Golf 20/20 and the World Golf Hall of Fame — since the late 1990s and has had working relationships with their respective leaders Joe Louis Barrow Jr., Ruffin Beckwith and Jack Peter. He also will be reunited with his old COO, Joe O’Brien, who now works for The First Tee.
Then there’s Mona’s new bosses, the WGF’s executive committee itself, a collection of arguably the most influential people in golf — Finchem; Fay; Carolyn Bivens, commissioner of the LPGA; Joe Steranka, CEO of the PGA of America; Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews; Jim Armstrong, executive director of Augusta National Golf Club; and George O’Grady, executive director of the European Tour.
“I see Steve as a good fit for the Foundation because he is highly regarded in the golf world and at least on the domestic side he has worked closely with a number of the people,” says Fay. “There are some new initiatives, and I expect Steve will do a terrific job in taking the existing components and weaving it all together. That’s not to say that there is going to be an automatic overlap — dealing with anti-doping versus the hall of fame doesn’t have much of a direct crossover, for instance.”
Challenging new focus
Some of the initiatives that Mona expects to deal with early on indeed include the specter of drug testing for the PGA Tour, LPGA and European Tour. The WGF is to serve as a kind of clearinghouse, coordinating and providing information and counsel concerning the new policy, which takes effect this year.
Also, Mona will take the reins of the Foundation’s new initiative in global communication, research and public affairs by overseeing industry relationships and an ongoing world focus to bring all the organizations in golf — including GCSAA — together to form a unified voice on the issues affecting the game.
Mona’s expertise also is being tapped to align the WGF as a separate, independent entity, weaning it, if you will, from its long-standing dependence on the PGA Tour as its primary underwriter or benefactor.
“Ultimately, what I would like to achieve, working with a lot of other people, is for the World Golf Foundation to be completely independent of all organizations and be able to stand on its own two feet,” he says, calling it his 15-year goal. “For the Foundation to be sustainable for the long-term — 50 to 100 years — that needs to be in place.”
Steranka, who has bonded with Mona in recent times as he went through the process of succeeding Jim Awtrey, the PGA’s CEO for 20 years, has no doubts they have the right man.
“Steve has always impressed me as a big-picture person, yet someone who is focused on the details,” Steranka says. “I’m fond of saying that leaders today must ‘think global and act local,’ and Steve embodies those qualities. As the CEO of GCSAA, Steve had a great ability to see how opportunities or issues affected other professional organizations and companies within golf and still focus on what benefits golf course superintendents. By taking a broader view he elicited a far deeper level of support. That management style will be equally effective in his new responsibilities with the World Golf Foundation.”
GCSAA’s cupboard bulging
As the clock ticks down on Mona’s time at GCSAA — his six-month notice is up on March 23, but he expects to leave closer to mid-February — the association’s board of directors has his shoes to fill. While many have expressed opinions that finding the proper successor won’t be easy, Mona points out that GCSAA’s house is in order and that makes the job all that more attractive.
“What was true 14 years ago is still true today — GCSAA is on very solid financial footing,” he says. “We have no debt, we own headquarters free and clear, there’s $10 million in the reserve account, $6 million in The Institute’s endowment and, of course, a tremendous staff is on board.”
Mona also points to three GCSAA policies that most organizations seeking a new CEO wouldn’t have: the board/CEO compact, which sets a clear delineation between the responsibilities of the board and those of the CEO; the CEO policy parameters, which give a clear picture of what the CEO’s level of authority and responsibility is; and the strategic indicators, which leave no doubt what is expected of the CEO in the way of results.
He leaves a strong legacy to take on a challenge that few in the industry may comprehend. But, to Mona, it’s all pretty simple.
“When Tim talked to me about the World Golf Foundation job, he said it would be a hard job, but also a fun job,” he says. “I like that. I love to play the game and I enjoy that part of it, but what I really love about it is working on the institution side ... trying to make the game better, attracting people to it and having those people embrace it and make it their lifelong avocation.
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