My Second Office: Brandon Schindele

This month, Brandon Schindele graciously invited us into his (second) office at Edina (Minn.) Country Club. Schindele started his career at Edina CC as an intern in 1998 and accepted the second assistant role soon after, while still a student at the University of Minnesota. After some change in leadership in 2000, he found himself as first assistant. He was promoted to his current position as superintendent near the end of the club’s 2010 complete course renovation.

After spending more than half of his life at Edina CC, Schindele admits that he likes to think he knows his course, but even after almost 20 years, it holds some surprises for him.

“I have a bunch of well drillers out here exploring an old abandoned well that we have to decide to use it or fill it up properly. I had no idea that it was here until we started a construction project last year,” says Schindele. “A much as I like to think I know it, there’s always something that will surprise you.”

1. VIP Passes I’ve been lucky enough to volunteer at a couple tournaments, and I decided to throw a nail up on the wall to hang my passes. So, there’s passes from the 2002 Solheim Cup, the 2005 Walker Cup, the old Nissan Open in 2003 and 2004 at Riviera, and of course one from last year’s Ryder Cup.

2. Ornamental decoration A staff member found a bunch of Edina CC-logoed balls, and then he made Christmas ornaments for the staff members. I picked one up but it never made its way to the Christmas tree.

3. Fighting Sioux (Hawks) over Gophers That’s my degree from the University of Minnesota. I actually transferred from the University of North Dakota so I could study turfgrass. I’m a big Fighting Sioux hockey fan. People ask me who I root for, and after spending two years at North Dakota, it’s hard to drop that allegiance. They are officially the Fighting Hawks now, but they’ll always be the Sioux to me.

4. A lehman’s gift Tom Lehman redesigned the course during the 2010 renovation, and he used that shovel at the ceremonial groundbreaking. The golf course closed in May 2010 and opened in July 2011. Tom and his team were thoroughly involved during the 13 months of course closure.

5. Snack Shack It’s my predecessors’ fridge, and probably 15 years old, but it still runs. Now it’s filled with juice and snacks for my kids (twin 4 ½-year-old boys Colton and Gage and 2 ½-year-old daughter Harper) whenever they visit dad at work.

Photo: BASF