Andi Meadows

Andi Meadows has never been one to shy away from a challenge. That trait is certainly an asset in her chosen profession.

Meadows is an assistant superintendent at TPC San Antonio. The property features two 18-hole courses and is the site of the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open, which is part of the annual precursor to the Masters.

Meadows came on board on 2020. She is currently the second assistant at the resort’s Canyons Course, a Pete Dye design. She’s also spent time at the Oak Course, a Greg Norman creation that is the venue for the Valero Texas Open.

A Mississippi native, Meadows got her start in turf in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, simply because there was no other work available in the area. She later worked at a series of courses, some at military installations, while her then-husband was in the military.

When she returned to the United States in 2020 following a divorce — with three daughters in tow — she found herself in Atlanta, in need of a job and a place to live.

“I saw the ad online,” she tells Rick Woelfel on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast. “I read the description and met all the requirements. I actually did my interview process through Zoom (with director of agronomy Roby Robertson) as I was traveling from Atlanta to Texas. I stayed in contact with (Robertson) and finally met him in person and saw the course and was very, very impressed. The championship conditions were my standard. I wanted to get on board.”

Meadows’s responsibilities include everything from scheduling and record keeping to employee training and chemical application — and working 18-hour days during the week of the Valero Texas Open.

She appreciates that Robertson gives her one of the greatest gifts a boss can give to a subordinate: the autonomy to make her own decisions.

“I need to feel like I’m trusted in order for me to do my thing,” she says. “Luckily, our director, he’s a little later in his career, so he knows what works and he knows what doesn’t work. And he does give us that freedom to make decisions.

“I only learn by making mistakes. Everything turns into experience, so I’m able to make decisions based on experience rather than just off of somebody telling me, ‘You need to make this decision.’ It doesn’t make sense to me that way. I need to work through and experience the trials and the errors and all that. There’s no box, and I can grow as much as I want to. I highly respect that type of management style.”

While taking care of the responsibilities at her club and raising her daughters — who are now 9, 13, and 15 — Meadows is working toward a degree in turfgrass science through Penn State’s World Campus program. She’s taking one class at a time so she can spend more time with her daughters.

“I had to let go of perfection,” she says. “I was wanting to get A’s in every class. I’ve come to realize that looking my kids in the eye and having a conversation or sharing a video or watching TikTok with them is more important than an A.”

An active participant in the women in turf movement, Meadows speaks to her mindset as a woman in a male-dominated environment.

“I see myself as a worker among workers and an equal among equals and all that,” she says, “but I’m not naïve to the fact of my surroundings and without other women out there I’m on a bit of a survival mode. … I’m guarded with people because I always have to be mindful of everything, how I dress, how I talk, how I act. With the women, it’s an entirely different ballgame. I feel safe and warm. I feel understood.”