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INSIDE GCM by Scott Hollister, GCM editor |
Where’s the crystal ball?
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I wish I could say I knew all along that Mark Woodward, CGCS, would be named GCSAA’s new CEO.
I wish I could say that I caught wind of Woodward’s plans to migrate east to Kansas when I spent a day with him in San Diego in preparation for the U.S. Open preview story that you can read in this issue of GCM (see “Finishing touch” on Page 48).
I wish I could say that my conversation with Woodward during that visit covered not just the details of Torrey Pines’ preparations for this month’s tournament, but also the real estate market in Lawrence and his plans for his first 100 days on the job.
I wish I could say all of those things. But because I’m not a clairvoyant, I had no way of knowing that less than two weeks after I visited San Diego in late March, the 29-year member of GCSAA would be announced as the replacement for Steve Mona as the association’s top executive.
Being clairvoyant would have certainly made things easier, the proverbial killing of two birds with one stone. I’d fly to the West Coast, ask two sets of questions during my interview with Woodward — one for the U.S. Open story, the other for a Q&A with our new leader (see “Meet the new boss” on Page 60) — and call it good.
The temporary mental paralysis I suffered upon hearing the news, wondering how I was going to wrap the hiring of a new CEO into an already crowded story on the first truly municipal facility in history to host a U.S. Open, wouldn’t have reared its ugly head. The scrambling to arrange a sit-down with Woodward for his first in-depth interview about his new position (we ended up handling that via e-mail, a product of both entities’ hectic schedules) would have been expertly dodged.
Now, complicating our work certainly wasn’t the reason why all of this never came up during my time at Torrey Pines. The hiring of a CEO-level position for any organization is a confidential process, designed to respect the wishes of both the candidate and the employer. For all the right reasons, this is no American Idol-esque exercise where candidates are wheeled out for all to see.
This was certainly the case with the GCSAA hiring process, and as a result, I traveled to San Diego with only my suspicions that someone like Woodward, a former president of GCSAA with a wealth of industry experience and strong relationships with other allied association leaders, would make a perfect candidate for the job.
Turns out my suspicions were right. And even though finding out they were right a few weeks earlier would have made life easier for all of us, we’re still excited about the finished product, excited to watch our new boss perform on one of the biggest stages in golf, and excited to welcome him and his wife, Amy, to Lawrence and the GCSAA family.
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