The 19th Hole: Troy Flanagan

By |  April 1, 2013
Superintendent //  Anthem CC, Henderson, Nev.

Troy_FlanaganWhat can I get you?

A Sailor Jerry and Coke.

Troy, it’s on me, I’ll spring for the Captain…

My boss laughs because he buys alcohol for everyone for Christmas. He says he feels bad because he buys me this big jug of Sailor Jerry and it’s only $18. It’s just different, I like it.

Tell me about your family.

My wife, Mary, we’ve been married 16 years. She’s always understood the industry. If it’s July 4th, she knows I’m gone and she’s OK with that. She’s really the glue that holds the family together. My son Ryan (14) is going to be a video game tester someday. My daughter Erin (12) is an amazing dancer, she dances competitively.

Do you play video games with Ryan?

The last couple years he’s gotten too good, so I’ve stopped. He loves Call of Duty: Black Ops. We’d play online, I’d get slaughtered, and I just knew there’s some snot-nosed 9-year-old on the other side. So I told him, “I’m done.”

Everyone gripes about golfers, but let me ask you this: What do golfers get right?

Golfers are doing a better job understanding that something needs to be done about the length of the golf courses and how long it takes to play. I think “Play it Forward” has been a good push, and it’s going to be good for our industry. I hope that push keeps going.

What do you look forward to in the summer?

The arrival of fall. I’ve grown to not like summers. I’m in the desert, it’s really hot. The toughest thing about Anthem is our soils are horrible, we’ve got some of the worst water in the country, and I have pretty much all ryegrass here. I’m keeping ryegrass alive in 110-, 112-degree weather. From May through August, every Saturday and Sunday, there are two of us here cooling the ryegrass every afternoon. I’ve got two great assistants, Miles Carlson and Kenton Gamache. Between the three of us we get it done.

Is it a lot of fun living in Las Vegas, or does it get old?

You know, everyone thinks we all live down at the strip. Vegas has gotten bigger, but it’s still not a big town. We live in a really nice community away from all the strip activity. It’s definitely different. Las Vegas is more homey than where I used to live in Northern California.

Who is your team?

I’ve been a Vikings fan forever. It seems they’re always above average. There’s always a great chance they’ll make the playoffs. …But there’s an even greater chance they’ll lose in the first round of the wildcard.

Do you ever put money down on your Vikings at the sports book?

I’m not a sports book guy. I don’t bet on sports. Honestly, I like my money. Vegas wasn’t built on winners.

As interviewed by Seth Jones on March 26th, 2013.

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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