At the Turn: Meet the superintendent hosting the Golfdom Summit

By |  August 31, 2025 0 Comments


Andy Maguire: Superintendent // Reunion Resort and Golf Club, Kissimmee, Fla. 

“I approach every day like it’s my last day. You’ve got to see the course; you’ve got to be on it. You’ve got to enjoy it to be in this business. When I was younger, I probably would have done it for free.” (Photo courtesy of: Andy Maguire)
Best Advice: “I approach every day like it’s my last day. You’ve got to see the course; you’ve got to be on it. You’ve got to enjoy it to be in this business. When I was younger, I probably would have done it for free.” (Photo courtesy of: Andy Maguire)

Andy, what can I get you?

Either a Miller Lite or a transfusion.

We’ve hosted the Golfdom Summit at your place for the last 14 years. For those who haven’t attended, what would you like people to know about Reunion Resort?

We’ve got three championship courses — a Palmer, a Nicklaus and a Watson. They’re very unique and different. They moved more than your average amount of material to build these courses. There’s a lot of movement, a lot of hills. They just don’t build them like this in Florida anymore.

Any recommendations for your area?

We have all the amusement parks here. Believe it or not, 4 1/2 years I’ve been here, and I haven’t been to any of them. We have a lot of water, especially south of here — lots of fishing and boating.

What teams do you root for?

The New England teams. I obviously follow the Jacksonville Jags; I lived there when they came off the ground, so I’ve watched the mess up there. And Florida State — I’m a huge Seminole fan. Football, baseball, softball, soccer. Lady Seminole soccer is amazing.

Who has the best nickname on your crew?

Francisco Lopez. He wears contacts now, but he used to wear these black, plastic-frame glasses, and he got the nickname Buddy Holly. It’s stuck with him; we still call him Buddy.

What movie stops you in your tracks when you’re channel surfing?

  1. Gladiator. The Patriot. Braveheart. My wife and I like to catch a movie; we just saw The Accountant 2, that was probably twice as good as the first one.

Give me a bold prediction for how the industry will look different in 10 years.

You’ve heard of LOFT, right? … Lack of f’ing talent? A lot of guys getting into the business, they’re having an easy way up. They’re getting assistant jobs much easier. That concerns me. It’s getting harder and harder to find people who can replace a superintendent. I think another thing is automation. It’s slowly coming. The automated mowers that are doing ball fields are coming to the golf course side. I think that’s going to get popular over the next 10, 15 years. And GPS sprayers — when guys realize how much money they can save, they’ll certainly take over as well. 

Fill in the blank: The summer of 2025 has been __.

Very positive. We’re ahead of schedule. I feel like our grass quality right now is better than it was in October last year for the season. 

As interviewed by Seth Jones, June 25, 2025.

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Photo: Kafka Granite
Photo: Kafka Granite

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About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 25-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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