The 19th Hole: Ian Daniels

Photo: Lou Ferraro

Ian Daniels

Superintendent // Teugega CC, Rome, N.Y.

Ian, what can I get you? A beer — something dark. Ithaca Beer Co. has some good options.

Tell me about your family. I’ve been married to my lovely wife, Rachel, almost 12 years. We have three active boys that keep us busy, Boyd who is 9, Grey who is 6 and Bennett who is 5.

How do you pronounce ‘Teugega’ and what should I know about your club? It’s tee-YOU-juh-guh. It’s the Native American name for the Mohawk River that runs through our town. The original club was built in 1899, six miles away. In 1919, the local businessmen decided they wanted a better golf course so they commissioned Donald Ross. Ross is quoted as saying the original course was the second-worst golf course he had ever seen, only behind a course he saw that was built in a swamp. During construction, Ross became engaged to Susan Aldridge of Rome. He spent considerable time here, and his thumbprint is all over this course, from the unique layout to the greens complexes. One of the good things about our course is we haven’t had the money to screw up his original design; the bad thing is we haven’t had the money to put in some of the improvements that might make us be more recognized.

What’s your favorite tool in the shop? The Turfmaster cup cutter (from Wittek Golf). It has two blades, and you can hammer it down with a mallet. There’s a lot you can notice about the course when you step foot on every green first thing in the morning.

What teams do you root for? I’ll watch any live sports, especially college football and golf. I transferred to Clemson in 2003 and graduated from there in 2005, so the last few years have been a good time to be a Clemson fan.

I looked you up on Golfdom.com and saw that you were featured in Golfdom in 2005 when you were an intern at Pinehurst. Yeah, my experience there was a lot of fun. I still have that magazine in a drawer somewhere here in the office.

Fill in the blank: The hardest-working person in golf is ________? Probably divorced. I have a family, and I consider myself hardworking … but it’s tough to balance both work and family. I think we’re getting better at it, as an industry. But the hardest-working person in golf probably doesn’t have a family.

If I’m in Rome, N.Y., what’s one thing I need to be sure to do? You have to play my golf course then sit on the back patio and have a beer by the fire pit that overlooks Delta Lake. I’m biased, but I think this golf course is the highlight of Rome.