Checking in on three supers at the next step in their careers

After successfully hosting the 2011 PGA Championship together at Atlanta Athletic Club, three young superintendents set out on their own.

Guys stuck in assistant superintendent positions for years; young turf grads leaving the industry for other professions; new labor laws that impact overtime and the way courses get the work done.

How about a positive story?

It was five years ago that Atlanta Athletic Club, under the direction of Ken Mangum, CGCS, hosted the 2011 PGA Championship. The tournament, won by Keegan Bradley, was an agronomic success for a course showing off its new greens surfaces of Champion bermudagrass.

Three young turf professionals led the charge for Mangum, put in power positions at the ages of 31, 25 and 25. Five years later, Ken’s kid’s are grown up and successful superintendents at courses of their own. Kasey Kauff, 36, is superintendent at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas; Tyler Andersen, 30, is superintendent at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin; and Kyle Johnson, 30, is superintendent at Inverness Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.

“I’m very proud of those guys,” says Mangum, now retired from Atlanta Athletic Club but still a consultant. “The PGA Championship (crew) was a special group. We had fun, worked hard and had success.”

Experience is everything

Kyle Johnson was named superintendent of Inverness in May 2014. He loves his life in Birmingham, he says. He’s closer to family and his own family is growing. He and his wife, Anna, welcomed Chandler Grace on May 31.

Johnson says Inverness CC, Birmingham, Ala., was a good fit for him. “They have a nice budget and great resources,” he says. “I knew I could succeed here and build a great product.” Photo courtesy: inverness CC

“The baby is awesome, brother,” Johnson says with a smile. “She slept through the night the first night we brought her home from the hospital. She’s always happy and always smiling.”

Johnson, who also always seems to be smiling, says it meant “everything” to his career to work at AAC on Mangum’s watch.

“Had I not worked for Ken I would have never thought I could be a superintendent at age 28,” he says. “Ken did not micromanage us. He told us what he wanted, and that’s what he expected. If you’re responsible for meeting the expectations of Ken, that develops you quick.”

Kauff uses almost the exact language — “Pretty much everything” — when asked what his time at AAC meant to his career.

“I think had I not had that experience, I don’t think I would have ever moved up in the industry, especially the way it is now,” he says. “Members look at that championship. You’re sending out your résumé blindly; a board member says, ‘This guy deals with championship conditions all the time.’ That gets you an interview over someone who might be at a nice private club but doesn’t host a championship.”

Trinity Forest, a Coore/Crenshaw design, celebrated its grand opening last month. Kauff has been at the course for two years, “since the first piece of dirt hit the ground” at what previously was a landfill, now shaped into a links-style golf course by bringing in 750,000 cubic yards of dirt.

The course will host the AT&T Byron Nelson beginning in 2018. Trinity Forest is uniquely geared to Kauff’s skill set, as its zoysia fairways and Champion bermudagrass greens are similar to AAC.

“(Mangum) is this godfather of superintendents in the South,” Kauff says. “(Trinity Forest’s owners) called Ken and he said, ‘I know one person with that unique skill set (of working with those particular grasses.)’ That has everything to do with where I am now.”

Andersen is a second-generation superintendent. He mostly interned for his father, John, until it was time to get “a serious internship” before his senior year at the University of Florida. He knew that Mangum was the only superintendent he wanted to learn from, apart from his father.

“Watching him work a greens committee, or the way he worked the floor of the halfway house, or his staff meetings — that was my ‘this is it,’ moment,” Andersen recalls. “I dug in and learned everything I could.”

Andersen was the last of the three amigos to depart Atlanta, becoming superintendent of the University of Texas GC in May last year.

“I put in eight years with Ken. When it was time to leave you have a moment where you know it,” Andersen says. “I was his last superintendent there when he retired, so I got to see multiple course renovations, multiple major championships. I was fortunate to be his last protégé.”

Best friends

The three friends grew used to seeing each other every day. Even their girlfriends — now wives — became friends. “When Kyle told us Anna was pregnant, it was a big deal to all of us,” Kauff says.

Though the three now are spread out across two states, they still take time to stay in touch. Aside from regular phone calls (“I was talking to Kyle when you called,” Kauff said during his interview), the three bounce around a daily group text message that rarely is about turf.

“The three of us just clicked together,” Andersen says. “We were all there for the same reason. We were there to work hard, learn as much as we could and then go out and get our own great golf courses. It was definitely something special we had, the three of us, and our personalities.”

Johnson says he talks to Kauff at least twice a week, and to Andersen once a week.
“Kasey, Tyler and I clicked as a team, and we’ve been best friends ever since,” Johnson says.

All-access view

Mangum has visited Andersen at University of Texas GC four times since he took the job. “It’s fun, in a way we still work together,” Andersen says. Photo by: Tyler Andersen

Mangum estimates that he mentored close to 100 people who went on to be superintendents during his 38 years as a superintendent.

“I always took hiring very seriously,” he says. “You have a young man sitting in front of you trying to make a name for himself, trying to be successful. And you have to pick one out of 30 or 40 to get a chance that others don’t get. You have to sit there and look at someone and ask yourself, ‘In five years, is this guy going to be a star?’”

Getting a hire right and watching that person go on to have success was one of the most rewarding parts of his job, he says. He still keeps in contact with Andersen, Johnson and Kauff, visiting their three courses regularly.

“They’re all different, but they all had drive and they have outgoing personalities,” Mangum says of the three. “People today all have good agronomic backgrounds. You have to have people skills and know how to treat people below you and above you.”

Kauff recalls the all-access view Mangum gave them during their Atlanta Athletic Club days. From committee meetings to nasty emails, Mangum didn’t shield them from anything.
“A complaining email is an important thing to learn; a lot of guys aren’t used to that,” Kauff says. “They get to their own course and they think an email like that is life or death.”

Trinity Forest, a Coore/Crenshaw design, will host the AT&T Byron Nelson beginning in 2018. Photo by: Kasey Kauff

“So many assistants get hung up on the operations and the agronomic standpoint and they don’t learn how to talk to members,” Andersen says. “They don’t learn how to put a professional act together or speak in front of people. That’s so critical because when you are talking in front of multi-millionaires or billionaires or highly respected people in the community, you have to be able to pull that off, and some people just can’t.”

Secrets to success

So that’s the secret to success, then? Go work for Ken Mangum and watch the job offers and money pile up?

Not quite. All three have different keys to success that they pass on to their young(er) employees.

Kauff tells his crew at Trinity Forest that they need to consider what kind of course they’re going to work at after they get an AT&T or two under their belts.

“If you want to be at a top-end club as a superintendent, their next move needs to be another high-end, tournament-style golf club,” Kauff says. “It’s not for everybody, and that’s fine. But I think employers want to see that tournament golf course on your résumé, otherwise they get passed up.”

Andersen suggests that students explore different climates through internships, then choose the climate in which they want to work. “Pick the area where you know you can succeed the most, where you enjoy growing grass.”

Johnson, who is a member of the Alabama GCSA Board of Directors, regularly advises turf students at Auburn that they need to do their homework on potential superintendent employers before taking an internship or an assistant’s position.

“Don’t just take a job because it’s offering $55,000 as an assistant over one down the road that offers $40,000,” Johnson says. “The one paying $55,000 might be for a superintendent who just hands you a piece of paper and says, ‘Go do this,’ but never explains why. The one paying $40,000 might be the better superintendent who is willing to develop you.”

Andersen seconds that thought.

“The next thing I would say after finding the right climate is seeking out the most tenured, smartest, reputable superintendent who has pumped assistants out to be superintendents in that region,” Andersen says. “Find that guy who has mentored 10, 15, 20 guys and is willing to teach you and be patient with you through the entire process.”