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Friend of a friend
Building relationships is Job #1 for GCSAA’s new president, Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS.
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Photos by James Lum |
Mark Kuhns loves a good challenge, having successfully met many difficult tasks head-on during his more than 30 years in the golf course business. That and an unbending dedication to his profession underscores Kuhns as the right man for the job as GCSAA’s 2009 president.
Difficult times present opportunities for the profession
The year ahead is ominous at best. The American economy is in disarray. Energy and fuel costs are equally chaotic. Golf course management, already beset by an ongoing decline in the overall growth of the game, is now further confronted by precipitous cuts in operating budgets, resources and manpower.
That’s a gloomy intro to the profile of GCSAA’s new president, but Kuhns typically sees such difficult times as an opportunity for his profession and his association to step up and lead the industry through the turmoil.
“We are a major part of the solution to these challenges,” said Kuhns, CGCS, director of grounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., in his candidate statement preceding his election at last month’s Golf Industry Show.
“As professional superintendents, we cannot be content to sit back and focus only on the confines of the golf course,” he continued. “We must now sharpen our business acumen to more clearly understand the full range of factors that determine the success or failure of our facilities. Who else could predict, analyze and communicate the agronomic, environmental, labor and playability impacts of various business strategies?”
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(Clockwise from left) Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS, and his family: son, Stephen; daughters, Kristen and Elizabeth; |
Ultimate opportunity
Kuhns is a firm believer in seizing the moment, whenever and wherever, whether it be forging relationships, prepping for major golf championships or mentoring a generation of superintendents. He’s done well on all those fronts, and more. His time as president is now, strengthened by several years of notable service and accomplishments on the GCSAA Board of Directors, and it’s likely to reflect a man most often known to his employers, employees, colleagues and industry leaders simply as a friend.
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Kuhns runs one of the golf course management industry’s most comprehensive intern programs at Baltusrol GC. Photos by James Lum |
“We’ve had a tremendous relationship over the years,” says Jason Dorn, the superintendent on the Upper Course at Baltusrol, who has been with Kuhns since 1999. “It’s a business relationship, obviously, but it goes deeper than that. Mark is different from most bosses in that he genuinely cares. I think that’s something we’ll see in his leadership of GCSAA.”
Wake up and smell the roses
The road for Kuhns to here and now was pockmarked by both doubt and destiny. He grew up in a family of avid golfers in Ligonier, Pa. His father, Robert, was a 19-time club champion at Ligonier Country Club, and his mother, Nancy, played often and well, too. His brother, Terry, 10 years his senior, was a club professional. Mark, like his two sisters, Susan and Roberta, wasn’t much into the game at the time.
You wouldn’t exactly call it seizing the moment, but in 1966, Terry, then an assistant pro at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, rousted 11-year-old Mark out of bed one morning and told him he had a job for him as range boy at the club. Thus, the young Kuhns began his golf course career, handling menial chores and about as far from the maintenance facility as could be. Then one day, one of those unexplained bolts struck.
“One Saturday morning I was sitting under an apple tree next to the first tee when the bug kind of bit me about growing turf and plants,” Kuhns recalls. “This gentleman rode up in his Cushman, Mr. Art Czarnecki, the superintendent. He had an old Prince Albert tobacco can full of seed and soil. He was putting it in the divots on the tee. I ask him what he was doing and he showed me and said, ‘Well, in a couple of weeks this will all be green again.’ That amazed me. I watched those divots for the next two weeks. I watched those young seedlings grow and I knew somewhere in my heart that was the type of thing I wanted to be involved in. It changed my life.”
Kuhns took it from there, patching divots in the range and cutting weeds. He went on to work at Laurel Valley GC through high school and also worked for his father’s construction company, preparing areas for sod and seeding. In 1973, he enrolled at Penn State University, majoring in agriculture science with a minor in horticulture. His idea was to start a business that serviced the green industry — floral, landscape contracting, etc.
“There wasn’t much offered in turfgrass back then,” Kuhns says, “but the way things turned out and the way our business is today, thank goodness for all that horticulture background and all the ag engineering I took in drainage and drainage structures, irrigation design, how to size pipes, how to calculate for a 100-year storm and things like that.”
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Kuhns’ nine-year relationship with his equipment manager at Baltusrol, Todd Simms (right), sets a high professional — and personal — standard. |
The value of relationships
During his junior year in college, Kuhns got a phone call from the president of Ligonier Country Club, Ron Roy, who needed someone to work on his home lawn and also do some landscape design and planning. Kuhns did the work and Roy was pleased.
“I made a very good friend,” Kuhns says. “A couple of years later after I graduated, Mr. Roy called again. He wanted some work done at Ligonier Country Club; they had no superintendent, and the turf and the place was in shambles. It was a great opportunity, and they hired me. It was quite a challenge and a very humbling experience for a young superintendent right out of the box.”
Kuhns’ young wife, Janet, was expecting their first child. LCC had no benefits, hardly any staff and no equipment in working order. Kuhns rehired a lot of people who had been there before. He also leaned on his old mentor, Art Czarnecki (Laurel Valley was less than a mile up the road), and Jack Harper, Ph.D., an Extension agronomist at Penn State. Within two years, he had the course back in shape.
“They were a great, great help to me in those years in the beginning,” Kuhns says. “Everyone has had those people.”
Fickle fate
One of those people, Czarnecki, brought Kuhns on as an assistant at Laurel Valley in 1979. Mark and Janet’s daughter, Elizabeth, was born that October, a happy moment in an otherwise sad chapter in his career — less than two months after Kuhns arrived at LVGC, Czarnecki died of a heart attack.
But it was also a turning point for Kuhns. At the prodding of a friend who told him to never underestimate his ability, he reassured Laurel Valley leaders that course maintenance would go on and that he wanted to be considered for the top spot at the club. He worked all winter on the course and when it opened that spring, he was the superintendent.
Kuhns stayed at Laurel Valley for 12 years, hosting the U.S. Senior Open in 1989. Along the way he and Janet had two more children — a son, Stephen, and another daughter, Kristen. There are those who believe Kuhns would still be in his beloved western Pennsylvania to this day if not for the siren’s call from legendary Oakmont
Country Club in the Pittsburgh suburbs, home of more than a dozen major championships and more to come for a young, ambitious superintendent.
Kuhns sought a new challenge at Oakmont and certainly got all that and more from a membership that liked management on the edge. “It was kind of fun,” he says. “I guess there’s always been a kind of evil streak in me to have faster greens and do things that bring golfers to their knees a little bit.”
He spent nine years at Oakmont, prepping for the 1992 U.S. Women’s Open and the ’94 U.S. Open and building a reputation as one of the stars of his profession, but he eventually succumbed to the pressure of clashing egos, agendas and misunderstandings.
“I made mistakes. I got complacent. I misinterpreted member needs and there was a misunderstanding that I couldn’t take the club to the next level. The lesson I learned was, don’t sit back and think everything is going smoothly. You’ve got to be more open, more aggressive, present your plans for the future, use your communications skills, both verbal and in writing,” he says, noting that Oakmont needed renovation work and he failed to address that issue as firmly as he should have. “You can’t sit back and let a membership keep telling you what needs to be done.”
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Of the prestigious Baltusrol GC, Kuhns says, “People, first and foremost, come here to play golf.” Photo by Russell Kirk |
The challenge at Baltusrol
A frustrated Kuhns even considered getting out of golf course management and into industry sales during his waning years at Oakmont. Then, along came the opening at Baltusrol with the retirement of the longtime superintendent there, Joe Flaherty, CGCS, early in 1999. Kuhns made his move, survived a rigorous interview process and won the job.
While a facility on par with Oakmont in prestige and as a major championship venue (including seven U.S. Opens), Baltusrol was reeling from a Poa infestation and the effects of a prolonged drought in the Northeast that had decimated the 100-year-old club’s turf by the time Kuhns took over. The real kicker, though, was that Baltusrol was to host the 2000 U.S. Amateur in less than a year.
Kuhns had barely changed into his working clothes before he had contacted two trusted lieutenants who had been with him at both Laurel Valley and Oakmont — Scott Hines, CGCS, then the superintendent at Riverview Golf Course near Pittsburgh, and Mark Hughes, CGCS, then at Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley, Pa. Both agreed to come on board to face the Baltusrol challenge. The team was also bolstered by the arrival of a couple of talented interns, Dorn and Scott Bosetti, who had worked for Hines at Riverview.
Hines, who began his career as a teenage laborer under Kuhns at Laurel Valley, remembers well the predicament at Baltusrol nearly 10 years ago when he took over as superintendent of the Lower Course.
“It was intimidating … 36 temporary greens and all,” he says, quickly citing the great chemistry between himself, Kuhns and Hughes that had developed over several years. “In our time at Oakmont and some of the things we went through there, I think he had confidence in our ability. I know he knew that I’d die before I’d fail. We bucked up and found a way to get it done.”
Kuhns notes that the club lost a great deal of revenue in 1999 because of the cancellation of member-sponsored outings and other events.“People, first and foremost, come here to play golf. If they can’t play golf, every aspect of the club suffers,” he says.
Wins and losses
To make a long and grueling story short, the Kuhns team indeed pulled it off behind a well-versed Poa management program developed through the years at Laurel Valley and Oakmont, wowing everyone with the immaculate conditions of the two courses during the Amateur. Soon afterward, the PGA of America came calling and awarded Baltusrol its 2007 Championship, then pushed that up to 2005 when The Country Club near Boston was unable to meet that obligation.
That 2005 PGA also came off without a hitch despite another stifling summer in the Northeast. This time it was Bosetti stepping up as superintendent of the Lower Course with a key assist from yet another Kuhns intern, Doston Kish, then the superintendent at the Upper, and his top assistant, Dorn.
Hines and Hughes had moved on again a few years earlier as they had near the end of their mentor’s stint at Oakmont. Hines was hired as construction and grow-in superintendent at Wind Song Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn., while Hughes took over at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, N.Y.
In October 2007, Kuhns’ inner circle was rocked by tragedy when the 49-year-old Hughes, celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife, Lisa, in Puerto Rico, drowned in a swimming mishap. He had rescued his wife from strong undercurrents, but was then unable to save himself.
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Kuhns is currently in the middle of a renovation of the Upper Course. The project features new rough turf, bunker renovations, drainage improvements and some lengthening. |
A common bond …
Hines, now established at Wind Song Farm far from his native Pennsylvania, remains as Kuhns’ longest-tenured protégé.
“I can’t say enough good about Mark. He’s been a mentor, a friend … Heck, he was my Boy Scout leader in Ligonier before I started working for him,” the 17-year GCSAA member says. “He was like another father to me. I owe him an awful lot for me being where I’m at now.”
One of the first graduates of Kuhns’ well-known intern pipeline, Hines adds that he has taken away many attributes from his association with the new GCSAA president.
“The perseverance, the dedication to your job, the sacrifices you make,” he says. “Mark was always the first one in the door and the last one out the gate. He takes a lot of pride in what he does and it shows.”
Likewise, Bosetti, who was hired at White Beeches Golf and Country Club in Haworth, N.J., about a year after prepping for the PGA on the Lower, has tried to emulate what he learned from Kuhns.
“There are the things he always preached about — never be complacent, always strive for excellence and professionalism and, obviously, give back to the associations and the industry that have pretty much taken care of you,” says Bosetti, a seven-year GCSAA member who’s currently on the board of directors of the GCSA of New Jersey.
Being the course superintendent for a major championship at Baltusrol definitely was an experience Bosetti will never forget, especially with Kuhns at his side.
“Mark had been through so many of those kinds of events that there were pretty much no surprises for me. That was a nice security blanket,” he says. “Also, the way he has his staff structured, with him being director and then the superintendents on the Upper and Lower courses, he was the one absorbing all the committee meetings, budget meetings and the media and all I had to really focus on was getting the course in the best shape it could possibly be for the tournament. For me to accomplish something like that, it was special.”
Dorn began as an irrigation technician after his internship at Baltusrol, worked his way up to assistant on the Upper Course and in late 2005 was named superintendent on the Upper. He says what has impressed him the most about Kuhns is his passion for his job, his profession and GCSAA.
“It’s a blueprint for success. It goes back to just simple hard work, dedication, desire, focus, determination — all that,” Dorn says. “Like a lot of people who have interned for Mark, or have been an assistant or a superintendent, I wouldn’t be where I am without him. When push comes to shove, when we’re faced with a difficult situation — in life or professionally — Mark is the first one
we call.”
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Kuhns says his core staff members are the secret to his success. Pictured here with Kuhns are Dan Kilpatrick (left) and Jason Dorn. Photo by Peter Pedrazzi Jr. |
… and the ties that bind
Kuhns is the first one to acknowledge that his core staff members are the secret to his success, albeit by design. Except for his wife, Janet, who is the maintenance facility’s office manager, and Todd Simms, his longtime equipment manager, all among the current key group are past interns and all, including Simms, are GCSAA members — Dorn and his top assistant, Jim Devaney; the Lower Course superintendent, Dan Kilpatrick, and his assistant, Brent Powlison; the irrigation technician, Ryan Avery; the application specialist, Joe Guanill; and the landscape manager, Colt Graba.
“I’d like to say it’s all me, but in reality it’s all the team and the structure that we’ve built,” Kuhns says. “We try to elevate them to manager positions and actually let them manage their part of the facility. The two course superintendents, Danny and Jason, are truly superintendents who are involved in all the aspects of the operation and in all the decision-making process. I’m director of grounds and I cover a lot more than the day-to-day ritual on each course. To maintain the level we try to achieve here, we have to have strong course superintendents. They not only make sure their courses are where they want them to be, but they also back each other with manpower and equipment. It’s a good working group that respects each other. There are lifelong friendships here.”
Bountiful pipeline
If anything stands out in the achievements of the Baltusrol maintenance staff, it’s the intern program, an extension of what Kuhns began developing more than 25 years ago at Laurel Valley. The program has two prerequisites — each intern must be a student and each must be a GCSAA member. Kuhns makes sure each intern fills out the GCSAA paperwork and he pays their dues. Each also completes an application for a New Jersey pesticide application license.
“Our intern program is pretty highly structured, a little different than most,” Kuhns says. “We’ve tried to take it to a whole new level. We interview and recruit students from many universities and we send out a PowerPoint presentation to the schools, as well.”
Kilpatrick was targeted by Kuhns’ recruiting blitz when he was in the first year of Penn State’s two-year turf program in 2003. He was invited to a Baltusrol-sponsored dinner featuring former interns from near and far and admits the affair was somewhat intimidating and yet at the same time reassuring to know they wanted him to be part of their team.
“It was shocking to me … the camaraderie among the past interns and the relationships between Mark, Scott Bosetti and Mark Hughes. The interaction was like a family,” he says. “It exceeded my expectations. I saw a good group of guys who all get along together and that they actually had developed a program for interns.”
Kilpatrick passed muster and did his internship beginning in March. A year later, with his Penn State degree, he was hired as an irrigation tech at Baltusrol. Within two years he was an assistant superintendent and for the past two years has been the course superintendent on the Lower.
“It’s not just work, it’s about learning and about building opportunities to network,” he says of the program. “The most rewarding thing for me is that it’s come full circle. Before Baltusrol and then at Baltusrol, a lot of people helped me and mentored me. Now I see myself in a position where I can do that for others. I get excited every time when we have a new group of interns come in.”
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Kuhns chats with volunteers in the Baltusrol maintenance facility during the 2005 PGA Championship. |
Tailor-made touch
Baltusrol interns also fill out a questionnaire, listing their college program and goals. It doesn’t hurt that Kuhns’ pride and joy, a $3 million maintenance facility, includes dorm-type quarters for a dozen interns, as well as apartments for the two first assistant superintendents.
“We want to make sure we fulfill their learning objectives,” he says of the interns, who usually number 10 or so a year. “We have to be the ones to put them on solid ground to prepare them for what’s coming. Maybe they aren’t going to like what’s coming, maybe that’s what they’re going to learn here.”
All the interns have projects during their tenures, all lead crews at one time or another, as well as grind reels, operate equipment and service equipment. Kuhns also brings in area university educators for seminars and organizes field trips. To no one’s surprise, he also stresses communication skills and building relationships.
“The main thing, they learn from each other and they form a bond, a camaraderie that lasts a lifetime,” he says. “I guess as I get older I want to give something back to the profession. My biggest reward is seeing these kids move on and be successful.”
A quick study
The hard lessons learned by Kuhns at Oakmont have served him well at Baltusrol. His annual budget actually reflects a five-year plan and he even has a 20-year plan in the wings. It’s a proactive range that can cover most contingencies, such as what will wear out and when — turf, irrigation systems and infrastructures, course management features and upkeep.
Currently, Kuhns is in the midst of a significant two-pronged project that had been on his agenda for some time, the renovations of both golf courses, beginning with the Upper.
“My mandate is to bring the Upper Course to the highest standards we can and put it back in its place of prominence in the world of golf,” he says, pointing out that the project features new rough turf, bunker renovations, drainage improvements and some lengthening.
In two or three years, the Lower Course will undergo much of the same — reconditioned bunkers and new bunkers, recontoured fairways, new rough turf and added length.
This major work, directed by golf course architect Rees Jones and Kuhns, is a nifty piece of foresight by the veteran superintendent. Late last summer the PGA announced that Baltusrol would host its 2016 Championship, which will be the featured event in the organization’s celebration of its 100th anniversary.
“When it comes to turf, especially, they like it here that I tell them what needs to be done, not them telling me,” Kuhns points out. “That’s how it should be. We superintendents need to be more professional; we need to call the shots.”
Boardroom expertise
Besides taking the bull by the horns on the golf course, Kuhns has become an integral part of Baltusrol’s management team, spending considerable time in clubhouse meeting rooms amid discussions of overall club business and direction.
“It’s a valuable part of the operation here that we have the general manager and chief operating officer, Kevin Vitale; the exceptional PGA pro, Doug Steffen; and a five-star chef, Ed Stone,” Kuhns says. “It’s all part of the package and, basically, we prescribe to the fact that we’re going to operate as a team.”
Since becoming Baltusrol’s first COO nearly six years ago, Vitale has been Kuhns’ boss, so to speak, and the two of them have effectively bridged that gap between the maintenance facility and the clubhouse, a task that many superintendents find difficult to do.
“It’s a challenge in the industry from time to time when you have a superintendent who directly reports to a COO,” Vitale says. “It’s relatively new to the industry. But Mark has been a pleasure. When you get someone as valuable as him, it’s more what you need to be successful. He simplifies the process. He’s a team player and he produces member value because it’s no secret why most people belong to clubs — the golf course is our biggest asset.”
Vitale says what impresses him the most about Kuhns is that he knows how to get something to that next level.
“Mark is one of the most talented and knowledgeable superintendents in his field. He was brought to Baltusrol at a time when someone like him was needed … a time when the club was experiencing some difficulty, and yet at the same time, a time when the club was to host the U.S. Amateur. He hasn’t looked back since,” says Vitale, adding that member and guest feedback at the club consistently praises golf course conditioning and detailing, which he says is an example of the artist in the superintendent.
“There are a lot of things you can teach in Mark’s industry, but there are a lot of things you cannot teach — either you have it or you don’t, and Mark obviously has it. I also know he takes his GCSAA role very seriously. He has a passion for it. I think by the time his presidency is over it will be a better operation.”
Behind the scenes
One of Kuhns’ closest friends, Ken Kubik, president of Grass Roots, a leading turf-care distributorship and a promoter of many causes for the GCSA of New Jersey, says a lot of Kuhns’ passion for his profession and the game is evidenced in little ways that gain little attention.
“Not many know about some of the things he’s done for his fellow superintendents in need, like sending crews and equipment to courses in the area hosting major events, or that he sees to it that golf balls taken from the pond at No. 4 (Lower) go to The First Tee of New Jersey, or that he sends golf equipment to the troops in the Middle East,” Kubik says.
The latter was an effort organized by Kuhns in which donations from Baltusrol members and others resulted in 20 sets of golf clubs, about 10,000 balls and range mats being sent to the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan, with one of his maintenance staff members, John Hyland, delivering the goods in person.
Professional involvement
Kuhns’ service to his profession and the golf course management industry is significant on both regional and national levels. A member of the GCSA of New Jersey, he also has had leadership roles with the Greater Pittsburgh GCSA and Mountain & Valley GCSA in Pennsylvania and still maintains relationships with those chapters. He also has membership in Pennsylvania Turfgrass Research Inc., the O.J. Noer Turfgrass Research Foundation, the New Jersey Turfgrass Association, the Tri-State Turfgrass Research Foundation and the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation.
He has been a member of GCSAA for 28 years and became intimately involved in the association on a national level several years ago when a couple of friends and former GCSAA presidents, Ohio’s John
Spodnik (1969) and Pennsylvania’s John Segui (1988), inspired him and supported his participation.
“They encouraged me and were very instrumental in getting me to run for the board of directors,” Kuhns says. “I don’t know if I would have had the same feeling without their support. They’ve never had a bad word for anyone, and I admire them for that and their outlook on life.”
Tough decisions ahead
Kuhns will be 54 on March 16. He’s penciled in 2020 in his long-range plan as his possible retirement year. It’s a touchy subject for many people who are successful in their professions — when to let go and when to embrace what Kuhns calls a “simpler way of life.”
Mark and Janet have been married 32 years now and their children are grown up and out in the world — Elizabeth, 29, works for a corporate communications service firm; Stephen, 26, is director of admissions for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online; and Kristen, 23, is a graphics designer.
“I think it’s important for anyone in this profession to be able to achieve their goals and retire with dignity. I would love to stay here at Baltusrol until whenever that retirement year is. I hope I will continue to be viable and productive and a benefit to the club,” he says, noting that he and Janet live in Somerville, N.J., nearly 30 miles from Baltusrol, something that was entirely unlikely early in his career.
“That’s what makes Baltusrol so special — they’re different here. They respect life, they respect family, they don’t expect you to be here 24 hours a day. I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
First things first
For now, the PGA Championship a little more than seven years down the road has Kuhns’ full attention. It’ll be the sixth major he has hosted and in all likelihood the last. He admits there will be a lot of soul-searching after that event.
“As much as I’d like to see something go on forever, I’m realistic,” he says. “I’ve devoted more than 30 years of my life to the profession. But I will say this: … It’s taken a toll on life, as every superintendent knows. We have our hearts and souls in what we do. The toll is on family … you don’t do the things you want to do, you don’t take care of yourself. I want to have the time to make up for some of that.”
Despite often referring, with tongue in cheek, to what he does as the “the dark side,” Kuhns has no regrets that he didn’t get into landscape designing or sales of some sort for a living. Being a golf course superintendent has worked out just fine.
“We make of it what we will. It’s been good for me and my family,” he says. “Even though I’ve made mistakes and maybe some clubs or members weren’t as caring as they should be, overall a lot of my goals have been met … we’ve raised three kids, put them all through college, we have very little debt, all the places I’ve been, all the friends in the world I have — it’s been good for me.”
Watch President Kuhns discuss key priorities for the association by going to GCSAA TV (www.gcsaa.tv)
Kuhns stresses a body of work
Typically, Mark Kuhns hopes his legacy as a GCSAA leader is considered over the period of his time on the board of directors more than his term as president.
“It’s tough to leave a mark in one year,” he says. “I think you have to look at it in the whole time frame that you serve in office and the things that have a positive impact on the industry.”
To that end, Kuhns hopes in the year ahead to carry on many key initiatives already in place, perhaps giving more sense of importance or urgency to some and increased development to others.
Stay the course
Some of the key points that have evolved during Kuhns’ watch are the elevation of the Class A membership status; the emergence of The Environmental Institute for Golf as a leading organization in addressing the industry’s environmental concerns; new standards that have given new meaning to certification; and the success of GCSAA governance, a defining of staff and board responsibilities that has become an organizational model.
There are some issues that Kuhns feels strongly about bringing to the forefront, as well. One is continuing to work for diversity — minorities and gender — within the association and the profession. “We need to see what it is we can do to become more open and fair to these people,” he says.
Also, reflecting the fact that Kuhns has one of the industry’s most comprehensive intern programs at Baltusrol Golf Club, he notes that the annual Turf Bowl has become a major event at GCSAA’s conference and show, attracting more than 400 students and educators.
“These students study and compete and in the process learn the science of turfgrass,” Kuhns says. “I think it’s important to keep embracing them and make sure they are part of GCSAA by encouraging superintendents to support them.”
Recently, Kuhns was instrumental in gaining free access to Michigan State University’s Turfgrass Information File for Class A and Superintendent Member GCSAA members and says he will continue to push for having TGIF open to all members.
“I was elated (gaining the access). That gift alone to the members is so significant because everything ever written about turfgrass is there,” he says. “How great is that?”
Kuhns also wants to continue strong support for GCSAA’s field staff program, which he considers a key member-relations boost for the association. “I’d like to see the field staff eventually expanded to all parts of the country,” he says.
New ideas
If Kuhns does have some specific agenda items in the coming year, they probably will center on three issues – making the Golf Industry Show more attractive to members, a new member classification for equipment managers and addressing GCSAA membership struggles.
Kuhns says when he stood on the tee box of the fifth hole at Baltusrol’s Upper Course on Sept. 11, 2001, and watched the World Trade Center towers in New York fall, he feared his industry would never be the same. Especially damaging for GCSAA was 9/11’s effect on its conference and show. It was hoped that the development of the Golf Industry Show five years ago would shore up the event by including new partners and more people who have an impact on the superintendent’s profession and attract more superintendents themselves in the process.
Kuhns believes the GIS has enhanced the status of the industry as a whole, but he is disappointed in superintendent involvement and attendance. The country’s current economic crisis hasn’t helped any, either.
“Superintendents need to understand the GIS,” he says. “Even though it’s significantly still our show, we have to make everyone feel it’s partly theirs, too. We have our conference and our events, but our show we now share with many. If people learn to use this tool they can greatly increase their position in their facility by understanding that the facility is not a one-man show, that a successful facility includes not only the superintendent, but the owner, the golf pro, other managers ... whoever. I think the Golf Industry Show demonstrates that.”
Kuhns adds that he hopes this year to have the board and GCSAA staff take a fundamental look at how GCSAA events at conference and show are being run and, if need be, how they can be improved, especially for membership.
“Maybe we should bring back some of the glitter,” he says.
A wrench in the works
A new membership classification for equipment managers has long been important to Kuhns at both a professional and personal level. His nine-year relationship with Todd Simms, his equipment manager at Baltusrol, has become near legendary in the industry. They are simply best friends who work together, go fishing together, attend conference and show together. That in itself may not warrant a GCSAA membership category, but Kuhns also knows the value of dependability in today’s modern turf equipment.
“Certainly an important part of the backbone in the golf course management operations is the way the equipment is managed and maintained,” he says. “I have a very close relationship with my equipment manager. I made him an associate member of GCSAA, I take him to conference and show every year, he attends seminars and reads GCM from cover to cover. It’s made a big difference in my operation, the way the equipment is handled and maintained, because Todd understands more thoroughly why we do certain things on the golf course, why it’s important and how it makes us all look good. He’s part of the team.”
Simms agrees that learning the agronomic side of the business makes him better at what he does.
“Mark keeps me involved in everything, as opposed to other places I’ve been where it was all shop-related and I was just the mechanic,” he says. “Here, everything is related to the golf course, and I feel more important and significant in the role of the staff.”
As for the possibility of equipment managers becoming part of GCSAA, Simms says such a move would not only elevate the position, but more important, it would bring more technicians into the industry.
“I think it would be huge … not just the educational opportunities, but especially at the Golf Industry Show where many of the seminars and the trade show are so equipment-related,” he says, adding that if it happens, he would also like to see the classification include a level recognizing achievement.
Adds Kuhns: “What better organization than GCSAA to embrace this group the same way we do student chapters, the same way we do assistants, the same way we do commercial people.”
Time to reach out
As for the association’s efforts to stave off declining member numbers in trying times, Kuhns would like to increase the attempts to reach the estimated 45 percent of golf course superintendents in the country who are not GCSAA members.
“I’d like to find out why so many aren’t members. Is it a lack of communication, vision or desire on their part? We need to make an effort to reach them,” he says.
Perhaps one solution, he adds, would be to utilize GCSAA superintendents’ track record of helping each other as a means of reaching out further to those on the outside.
“Yes, we want to be professional and, yes, we always want to try to elevate our position and attain new, lofty goals,” Kuhns says. “But we’re still human beings and we still have to make sure we don’t lose sight of where we came from. We have to study the past to know where we’re going in the future. I think every member needs to understand that.”
— T.O.
“I can’t say enough good about Mark. He’s been a mentor, a friend ... Heck, he was my Boy Scout leader in Ligonier before I started working for him ... I owe him an awful lot for me being where I’m at now.”
—Scott Hines, CGCS
“It’s a business relationship, obviously, but it goes deeper than that. Mark is different from most bosses in that he genuinely cares. I think that’s something we’ll see in his leadership of GCSAA.”
— Baltusrol Upper Course superintendent Jason Dorn
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Pete Pedrazzi Jr. |
Friendly fire
Pete Pedrazzi Jr.’s love of golf and photography has occasionally earned him a bit of acknowledgement, including on these pages of GCM’s coverage of new GCSAA President Mark Kuhns after Pedrazzi assisted in the photo shoot back in October.
Pedrazzi, a friend of Kuhns and superintendent at nearby Crestmont Country Club in West Orange, N.J., photographed a lot of behind-the-scenes action of volunteer superintendents at the 2005 PGA Championship at Baltusrol, which is the kind of gig he tries to do as much as possible to help give his peers some recognition along with a few photos as keepsakes.
“It means a lot to guys who are doing it for free, and they have something when it’s over. Nobody really does that for the superintendents,” he says, adding that he does the same for local junior and amateur golfers.
Pedrazzi has been in the golf course business for nearly 30 years, working at such venues as Pebble Beach and Cypress Point and also at Baltusrol under Joe Flaherty. He replaced his father, Pete Sr., at Crestmont 14 years ago.
While his photography is mostly done as a favor to others, it’s also been helpful in his job because of all the courses he sees.
“It’s like my job. It’s a passion … being out on the golf course early in the morning with a camera,” Pedrazzi says. “Every day is different, the light is different, you never know what you’re going to capture. It’s a great experience to walk the golf course with a camera. It’s a great way to learn this business.”
— T.O.