Brianne Kenny

When Brianne Kenny arrived at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, roughly seven years ago, she was hardly a golf enthusiast. In fact, she had never been on a golf course. She took a job at the club as a waitress to help pay for graduate school.

“I didn’t care about golf,” she tells Rick Woelfel on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast, “and if you had asked me what my opinion of what golf was, it would have been very negative.”

But Kenny did have a bachelor’s degree in forestry, fisheries and wildlife science from Ohio State and an interest in the environment. She soon noticed how the golf course and the surrounding habitat were interconnected. “There was so much habitat, and these ideas were just going off in my head,” she says.

Kenny got to know Troon Country Club superintendent Seth Miller and assistant superintendent Chris Parde. Both were receptive, answered her questions, and encouraged her interest in turf and concern for environmental issues. She eventually joined Miller’s crew, a decision that took her career in an entirely new direction.

Kenny’s job today is manager of environmental science for Troon Golf, a position she’s held since 2019. Her responsibilities include assisting superintendents in their efforts to comply with environmental and other governmental regulations, including performing audits of maintenance facilities and checking out environmental issues on golf courses.

She also represents the golf industry in interactions with government agencies on topics such as water usage and is responsible for implementing wildlife habitat outreach and education programs.

Kenny adds that Miller, who is still at Troon Country Club, and Parde, the superintendent at Princeville Makai Golf Club in Hawaii, laid the foundation for her future work and noted the influence turf professionals can have, apart from their daily responsibilities.

“To me, it’s important that any superintendents and assistants recognize the influence that they might have on just one person,” she says. “If (Miller and Parde) weren’t as welcoming to me and had brushed me off, I would have thought, ‘The potential is there but the people don’t care.’ Because they kept engaging with me on all my questions, it really changed my opinion. It just speaks to the power that a superintendent can have.”

Over her time at Troon, Kenny has been impressed by how the turf professionals she works with have prioritized protecting the environment.

“One of the things I’ve been really surprised about is how well superintendents understand the functioning of the natural system and they’re paying attention to how it all connects together,” she says. “Back when I hated golf, I would have assumed they weren’t paying attention and didn’t care about any of that.”

As much as she respects turf professionals’ concern for the environment, Kenny is not hesitant to point out areas where she feels they could be doing better.

“I’m almost like their sparring partner, especially for their environmental certification,” she says. “I have a lot of respect for what they’re doing, and since I got to do a little bit of it myself, I have a much better understanding of their job. But my role is to push them on aspects that I think they can improve on.”

Kenny admits to having regrets about her previous disdain for golf and the golf industry. “Being in the industry and being able to meet so many people, I feel guilt about that because I would have brushed off so many people who are now friends,” she says.

Kenney would like superintendents — and the whole industry — be more vocal about how seriously they regard environmental issues.

“I know superintendents are not always the most vocal, or want to be in the spotlight,” she says, “so I’m trying to work with them on that; find ways that they can do outreach without being uncomfortable with it.”