Are we still on track?

During my direct involvement in the leadership of GCSAA, whether it was serving on committees, serving for seven years on the board of directors, or my two years as CEO of the association, we had many conversations about raising the status of the superintendent profession. I believe in many cases we made great strides, and in some cases forward progress actually happened. ¶ During these discussions the goal always was to make sure owners and influential golfers understood the importance of the superintendent’s role and that superintendents are a key to the success of the facility.

I believe this concept still remains a major focus of the association, which is as it should be. But I wonder if we’re losing some of the momentum we gained in earlier years.

As I’ve mentioned before, I visit a large number of golf courses and interact with many superintendents. A majority of the people I talk to agree that most owners and influential golfers realize that the golf course itself is the largest and most valuable asset of a golf facility. Like me, however, they don’t believe that compensation and recognition is what it could be for superintendents.

I’ve had the privilege to manage several golf facilities that don’t have a clubhouse, swimming pool, restaurant or social component, yet are extremely successful golf courses. The clientele comes to the facility for one reason — the golf course. This is why people in these settings understand that the golf course is the engine that drives the success of the facility. We all know that the one person directly involved in the condition of the golf course is the superintendent. So all the work that went into making people recognize this and thus raise the status of the superintendent was well worth it and proved to be successful.

This early success even translated into some higher salaries. Past GCSAA Compensation and Benefit Surveys have verified this theory.

Herein lays my concern and my question: Are we still on track? Are salaries still going up? Really? Are superintendents still recognized universally as a key to the success of the facility?

These questions are not asked to be controversial, but rather from a deep concern about whether we’re still making progress in this area.

I speak with superintendents almost daily who tell me they are currently making less than they did a few years ago. Many have fewer benefits and feel less secure in their jobs. Additionally, I hear stories regularly from superintendents who are in the final years of their careers and unceremoniously get terminated and replaced with superintendents making a far lower salary than the previous long-tenured, experienced superintendent.

I fully understand that there are still superintendents out there making relatively high salaries, and their clubs also understand the key role they play at their facilities. But overall, something is telling me that we might be going backward in terms of superintendent recognition and income.

There are a large number of superintendents who are still being affected drastically by the economic downturn that hit our industry in 2008-2012 and are not making any more money than they were several years ago. Some are even making far less. Still others are unemployed because they were making “too much” money at their clubs in the first place.

So I ask, are we still making the headway that we made a few years ago and are we still on track?

My gut is telling me we’re not.