The 19th Hole: Owen Coulson

Owen Coulson
Photo: Grant B. Gannon

Superintendent // Vestavia CC, Birmingham, Ala.

After 18 holes of golf, what’s your drink of choice?

Water. Well that or a Scuplin IPA.

Are you married? Kids?

My wife, Sally, and I have been married almost 13 years. We met at Mississippi State. We’ve got three kids, Maury, 8, Carter, 7 and Caroline, 4. My wife’s a nurse and a mom. When she’s at the hospital I take the kids to school and I don’t know how she does what she does everyday.

What teams do you root for?

I have a little love for the Red Sox, the Braves and the Tampa Bay Bucs… That’s probably 2 percent of my love, while 98 percent of my love is for Mississippi State; every sport. It seems like in the South, everybody is more geared to college sports than professional. We go to all the (football) games and love it.

How will Mississippi State’s football team do this season?

I’ve got us going undefeated… I’ve had us going undefeated for about 30 years.

Tell me something about your crew at Vestavia.

My managers are very unique. I’ve got an assistant who was a construction superintendent for a golf course construction company; I’ve got a mechanic who was a superintendent and a construction superintendent; I have another assistant who came to me from baseball fields… it’s a unique view that I get from these guys.

What was the last good book you read?

I just finished a book last week. I’m not a crier, and I cried the entire way through it. It’s called “Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team Six Operator Adam Brown,” by Eric Blehm. Oh, man. It’s a biography… the story of his life was awesome. The one I read right before that was “The Martian,” by Andy Weir, a Matt Damon movie that’s about to come out. Both were recommended, both were great. Any time I had a spare minute I was reading them.

Fill in the blank: I know an employee is going to be a good worker when I see…

That they care. If they care and they want to be good, I can work with that.

What would your crew say is the fastest way to get under your skin?

Nit-picky detail stuff, like ropes leaning, when my guys pull a tire off the path when they’re mowing, when a bunker rake isn’t straight. Ask my assistants, they’ll say poor grammar — which I’ve probably used all through this interview.

As interviewed by Seth Jones, Sept. 3, 2015.