My second office: Bill Irving

By |  September 27, 2013

It didn’t take long for Lawrence (Kan.) CC superintendent Bill Irving to become a fan of the local team. The Omaha, Neb., native bleeds Nebraska Cornhusker red (he graduated from the school in 1998), but being so close to the University of Kansas has allowed him to adopt the local Jayhawks.

Bill Irving

Bill Irving, superintendent at Lawrence (Kan.) Country Club. Photo by Seth Jones

“Coach (Bill) Self was just out here. It’s hard not to be a fan when all of the basketball coaches play out here regularly,” Irving says. “It’s hard not to be a fan and root for them when they come out and root for you at the golf course. It’s a fair trade.”

Irving has been at LCC for almost six years now. He arrived from Kearney (Neb.) CC, where he was the superintendent for four years.

A look around Irving’s office shows some of his favorite things — from his kid’s artwork to sports memorabilia of his favorite teams.

  1. Rock chalk. The autographed ball was given to me by a member who didn’t like all the Nebraska stuff in my office. It’s the best of both worlds — football season I get the Cornhuskers, basketball season I get the Jayhawks.
  2. Kids corner. My daughter Caylee is 14, my son Cameron is 12. They come out to the course quite a bit. Caylee will go to the pool all day in the summer. Cameron likes the pool but he loves driving the golf carts.
  3. Big 12 host. We hosted the women’s Big 12 Championship in 2012. We had no rain the entire spring, then the weekend of the tournament, we had three stoppages of play because of lightning and rain. The last day was a huge delay. We got the whole course ready in an hour. With not having a large volunteer corps, that was pretty cool.
  4. Golf dog. Ozzie is a Jack Russell terrier mix, named after (former Nebraska coach) Tom Osborne. Our previous dog passed away, and the kids and I couldn’t stand not having a dog. Against my wife’s wishes we went to the Humane Society. I walked past him twice, then I heard him jumping behind me and turned around — it was love at first sight.
  5. Foul ball. In the six years I’ve been going to the (Kansas City) Royals games, I’ve come home with a few foul balls. I kept one around just in case, and George Brett came out to play, so I had him sign it.

Proud of your second office? Email us a photo of you in it to sjones@northcoastmedia.net, and we may feature you and your office in an upcoming issue of Golfdom.

This is posted in People

About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 18-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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