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Career curves
Hanging up the cup cutter can be tough, but some superintendents are finding new life in careers away from the golf course.
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The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, says the adage that is often associated with the restless nature of golf course superintendents. But what about those who move on to pastures far removed from fairways and greens?
The adjoining article here (“The sky is the limit,” Page 56), a departing testimonial of sorts by Kerry Satterwhite, former CGCS for the city of Bloomington, Ill., is also testament to those mostly overlooked golf course management professionals who have moved on to other endeavors.
It’s certainly not a new phenomenon. Many superintendents leave golf course work, but most don’t stray much farther than the local fertilizer
distributor, or a consulting gig, or a fling in commercial landscaping, irrigation or sports field management. Some move on and up, from the golf course to the general manager’s office, or the educational sector, or contract maintenance, or a niche within the game’s association structure. Heck, GCSAA currently employs three of its former presidents — Dave Fearis, 1999; Scott Woodhead, 2000; and Mark Woodward, 2004 (director of membership, senior manager of governance/professional development and CEO, respectively) — and another longtime superintendent, CGCS John Miller, as its LPGA Tour agronomist.
A proven pattern
All of these instances, and many more, involve those who have left golf course maintenance but remain connected to golf in various ways. Then, there are those like Satterwhite, a rarer kind who leave the golf industry altogether. Rarer because once the professional ties are severed, contact is often lost in turn, as GCM discovered in seeking sources for this feature.
Satterwhite’s story is a microcosm of what pulls a superintendent away from what he or she was trained to do and does best. The causes range from outright termination, facility politics, job frustration, job stress, family and the attractiveness of change. An accomplished superintendent active in both his chapter and the national association during a 20-year career, Satterwhite based his decision on more than one of those factors: an employer (the city of Bloomington) mired in economic decline, the evolution of a growing family and an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“It wasn’t a good environment; it was time to get out,” he says of the budget cuts and mass retirements that finally pushed him over the edge after a decade of managing three municipal golf courses and led him to become the executive director of business and technology for a regional company.
“It’s been a very good move,” he adds. “I miss being outside. I don’t miss the 60- to 70-hour grind of the golf course.”
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| Both Brian Clodfelter (left), owner of Rhetson Companies, and Lee Pittman, vice president of the construction firm’s commercial division, left golf course management primarily because the demands of their jobs at high-profile facilities took time away from their growing families. Photo by Don McKenzie |
Casting the net
After Satterwhite submitted his article, GCM decided to seek out similar stories, and examine what led the former superintendents to step away from a life in golf. The research uncovered superintendents who are now car salesmen, charter boat captains, lawyers, ranchers and makers of specialty refrigerators — as far away from turf as they can be. Those and others in even more divergent callings have some commonality. Many are retired, many maintain their GCSAA memberships (some especially embrace their certification) and some probably would return to the golf course in a heartbeat.
GCM trimmed its search down to case studies of the following ex-superintendents — notable for their contrasting motives, their change of profession in the prime of their careers and their loyalty to what they once were.
Brian Clodfelter, Pinehurst, N.C.
A great many superintendents would consider that Brian Clodfelter had a job to die for — an established course superintendent at Pinehurst Resort for nearly 10 years. But somewhere along the way, Clodfelter found that family and roots mean more than a prestigious workplace.
In the spring of 2004, Clodfelter, whose time at Pinehurst actually dated back to his days as a college intern in the early 1990s, decided he’d had his run at the famed golf destination and yearned to raise his family in the community he loves rather than move on professionally. Relying on his experiences in working on and overseeing various construction projects at Pinehurst over the years, Clodfelter and his wife, Julianne, established their own residential and commercial construction firm, Rhetson Companies Inc., named after their sons, Rhett and Mason.
“Family was a big reason,” he says of the decision. “My boys — they’re eight and five now — were getting to the point where I needed to spend more time with them. Even starting a new business I still had more control of my time and I have more weekends free.”
To be sure, Clodfelter was a busy man for more than a decade at the resort. By 1996, the Horry-Georgetown grad was superintendent at courses No. 1 and No. 4, led an extensive construction project at No. 4, helped with the building of No. 8 and was in on the beginning of the planned development of Pinehurst No. 9 and No. 10 (until the 9/11 tragedy and economic downturn in 2001 shelved those projects). He ran the resort construction crew for about a year, then returned to course management before calling it quits.
Forming his own company allowed Clodfelter to scratch an itch that had persisted as his role at Pinehurst played out (“I think construction got more in my blood than maintaining turf.”) and do it without a change in address.
“To grow any more as a superintendent, I would have had to leave the Pinehurst area,” he says. “I didn’t want to do that. My wife and I (both are North Carolina natives) feel that it’s a great place to raise kids.”
Clodfelter also managed to talk a couple of local golf course management friends into joining him in his new venture — Pinewild Country Club superintendents Lee Pittman and Carey Bumgarner. Pittman is now vice president of Rhetson’s commercial division and Bumgarner does interior cabinetry work for the company.
“We’ve been blessed,” the 42-year-old Clodfelter says of Rhetson Companies. “We’re high on the list of custom-home builders in the area and started our commercial business about two years ago and are doing projects in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.”
Clodfelter, who was a GCSAA member for 10 years and earned his certification in 2002, hasn’t forgotten where he came from. He stays in close touch with his mentors at Pinehurst — vice president of golf course management Brad Kocher, CGCS, and director of golf course and grounds Bob Farren, CGCS.
“I learned a lot being a superintendent that’s helping me now — management, customer service, discipline and work ethic,” he says. “I believe that the profession prepares someone like myself to take on other challenges. I know I would not be where I am today without having a strong network of friends and mentors in the superintendent field.”
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| Longtime superintendent Tom Lintgen, who was out of the golf industry for nearly five years and then returned, has found a comfortable niche at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz. Photo by Steven Meckler |
Tom Lintgen, Rolling Hills Golf Course, Tucson, Ariz.
Tom Lintgen is one of those who left golf, looked back and came back, and went through a lot of soul searching in the process.
After more than two decades in the golf course business in Arizona, Lintgen left the industry nine years ago at the top of his game — as golf manager and superintendent for the recreational centers at the original Del Webb retirement community in Sun City. But he admits that he spent the last few years of his 10½-year stint there “trying to find something that I liked better than golf.”
The grind of overseeing the operations of eight golf courses and myriad construction projects, and for what Lintgen perceived as inadequate compensation, eventually took its toll.
“I decided that with all the stress and everything, I didn’t feel it was worth it from a health standpoint ... stress kills, they say. I decided to give starting a business on my own a shot,” he says.
So during a four-year span Lintgen worked at landscape consulting and weed control, mostly in the Gila River Indian Reservation south of Phoenix. Later on he got into construction and other odd jobs. All in all, it wasn’t the answer Lintgen was looking for.
“I really got tired of those things and really missed the golf business, so I worked myself back into it. I guess I’m an agronomist, a turf manager, not a businessman,” he says.
All along during his hiatus, Lintgen had occasionally inquired about some golf course openings, but generally found that employers would shy away from a fortysomething veteran in favor of someone from the growing ranks of younger, and cheaper, superintendents.
But about five years ago, Lintgen landed his ideal job, superintendent at Rolling Hills, an 18-hole executive layout in southeast Tucson. It’s a low-key operation and a new life.
“I’m happy to be back in golf,” says Lintgen, who recently renewed his membership in GCSAA. “I’ve got a lot of friends in this business and a lot of contacts. I had really missed the people I’d met over the years. I have a new enthusiasm for what I do best.”
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| Kurt Noonan, CGCS, took a higher road less traveled when he traded his superintendent duties for the role of family caregiver. Photo courtesy of Kurt Noonan |
Kurt Noonan, CGCS, Kettle Falls, Wash.
Some might describe Kurt Noonan as a reluctant ex-superintendent, but that would be a disservice to where he’s been and where he is now. His story is about staring down fate and being better for it.
A year and a half ago, Noonan and his wife, Erin, took one of life’s detours. With their two young sons in tow, they moved from one end of the state to the other to become the primary caregivers for her parents in Kettle Falls, both of whom are in poor health. It was a tough decision for one who had devoted all of his adult life to the care of golf courses.
“I’ve been working on golf courses for 23 years and my dad and my uncle were superintendents, but when this came up I thought, ‘You know what? This is what we’re supposed to do with our lives right now.’ Not many people would do what we did,” Noonan says.
For the last several years, Noonan had been the superintendent at Whidbey Golf & Country Club in Oak Harbor, Wash., culminating a career that began as a youngster in the Spokane area when he worked for his father at Hangman Valley Golf Course and later as a teen for his uncle at Liberty Lake.
“I’ve never really known anything else,” he says.
Noonan, 41, actually has been able to keep his professional senses sharp. Part of his caregiving role is overseeing six properties — including the home in Kettle Falls — that Erin’s folks own. The other five are vacant, some in timberland and others along the Columbia River and all in the midst of residential areas. The upkeep, Noonan has discovered, is relentless and not unlike greenkeeping.
“I do plenty of mowing, pest control, tree management ... I’m pretty much the superintendent, the assistant, the spray tech and the mechanic,” he says.
Noonan, who has been a member of GCSAA for 18 years, adds that he continues to stay in touch with colleagues and friends in the golf course industry, but he is hesitant to talk about the future when the present is in a small town beside the mighty Columbia River in the national forestlands of far northeast Washington.
“We’ll be here as long as we’re needed,” he says. “I really don’t know. If I never get back into golf, it won’t be the end of the world. If that’s where we’re led some day, then I’ll go there. But right now, I’m enjoying the time I have with my family.”
Robert Osterman, Brookfield, Conn.
“A business opportunity became available and I took it. It’s turned out better than fine.”
With that, Robert Osterman, GCSAA president in 1983, succinctly describes how he came to leave three decades of managing golf courses to buy a picnic/banquet catering service 13 years ago and never looked back.
Osterman says he heard about the opportunity to acquire the 12-acre facility in Bethel, Conn., that included picnic areas, a pavilion, recreational facilities and an aging banquet hall, from golf course vendors who stopped by when he was at Redding Country Club. Before that, Osterman had been the superintendent at The Connecticut Golf Club in Newtown for 22 years, including taking on general manager duties the last five years of his stint there. He was the GM for most of his eight years at Redding CC.
“I kind of figured I could fall back on that kind of experience (in the catering business),” he says. “It’s worked out pretty well.”
Moreover, Osterman was joined in the venture by one of the assistant superintendents at Redding, Joe Zering. While Osterman left on his own terms, Zering found the partnership to be a salvation.
“We became friends and talked a lot about the catering business,” Osterman says. “Joe got caught in the political aspects of the club — there were two assistants and he was the one who had to go. So he decided to get in business with me.”
The partners eventually sold 8 acres of their catering property, ended their picnic operation, renovated the banquet hall and now direct their efforts at hosting weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and sports receptions.
Osterman, who has maintained his GCSAA membership (37 years and counting), has managed to keep close to the golf course industry a bit more than vicariously.
“I still get a little antsy,” he says. “I’m very particular about the grass-grooming at our business and even at home, too. I play a lot of golf now and notice things. It’s still in my blood.”
Indeed, both of his sons, Keith and Kurt, have been connected to the maintenance industry, and although he says the superintendent profession today is too competitive and high-stress for his liking, he prominently promotes the profession. His family has donated more than three-quarters of a million dollars toward turf program scholarships at Michigan State University, Lake City Community College (Fla.) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Plus, Osterman remains interested in GCSAA and Connecticut GCSA activities through GCM and newsletters.
“We don’t have much in common any more, but I enjoy keeping up with what’s going on in both associations,” he says.