Dueling the dual role

Being a golf course superintendent has its own challenges in the Transition Zone. Being a general manager also has its own unique challenges as you oversee the entire facility and make decisions for the health of operations. What fool, in the right mind, would take on both roles willingly and expect successes to unfold?

Hi, I’m Charlie Fultz. I’m that fool.

In 2020, I re-entered the golf world as superintendent of Heritage Oaks Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal facility in Harrisonburg, Virginia. (Golf Course Industry was nice enough to allow me to write about that journey the last couple of years). We were in the beginning stages of COVID-19 and I actually took the reins when the course was closed during the pandemic. The city had made the decision to close all recreational facilities — Heritage Oaks included, under the parks and rec umbrella — and we were shut down for 10 weeks before reopening in June. That break gave me some time to familiarize myself with the course and begin to prep it for reopening, and for the 100 days of hell that is the Transition Zone growing season. As we reopened and the course began getting a ton of play, the general manager resigned her position. I offered to step into the interim GM role to help steady the course as we became fully operational again in October. 

Accepting a GM position at Heritage Oaks was not without its own trials. The course had barely survived closure, with the 3-2 city council vote to keep it open in our very recent past. The course had lost money every year of its 20-year existence and many locally were asking for it to be closed. Yes, I knew this going in, and, yes, I may lack crucial critical thinking skills needed to make such a decision, but I felt I could turn around the ship. I had more than 20 years in golf and I felt with what I had learned I could make a difference. And, oh yeah, also be the superintendent at the same time and make the conditions better.

I’ve been asked how one can operate in a dual role as GM and superintendent and not only survive but ultimately thrive. There’s a simple and complex answer. Simply put, you HAVE to have the right team around you.

I'm blessed with one of the best PGA pros around in Dave Johns, who handles the pro shop staff and all tournaments. I may book some tournaments and outings as GM, but he is the brains behind their successes. Twenty-three years running and you'll not find one outside event that has ever complained about how their day was run or how they were treated. He is THAT good and our folks love him. He is the face of the place.

With the golf course pro shop under wraps, you also have to have a good assistant golf course superintendent in place to make it work. My assistant, Bryce Miller, handles the scheduling of the crew on a daily basis. I do mow quite a bit with our smallish crew, and I do the majority of the spraying because I love doing it, but Bryce is like Dave. He handles the dailies and allows me to float over both operations with minimal worry.

With two such employees and two great teams, it still is a LOAD. Not a bad load, but a load of work. In a day I can book a 100-person shotgun, spray liquid fertilizer, place orders for pro shop food or supplies, order golf maintenance pesticides, mow approaches, post about upcoming events on Facebook, and oh, go hand water 16 green before I leave.

And that’s just Tuesday.

Being full-blown ADHD, it actually helps fit my needs and keeps my mind in somewhat regular working order. But it’s still a lot and I love doing it. My days usually start between 4:30 and 5 a.m. because I find the time I need to handle paperwork and similar administrative tasks when no one else is around. It’s a relaxing time before the rush of the day begins.  

The interim title was removed in July 2022 when I became the permanent general manager/golf course superintendent. With the task of taking on both roles the last four years, we have found some amazing successes. The course has been profitable every year, with record rounds, profits and revenues this past year. We were chosen in June 2021 by GOLF magazine as one of the top 25 underappreciated municipal courses in the United States. In a span of four years, we were able to tap nearby James Madison University and its student population for a wildly successful student season pass program. In 2020, we had 35 JMU season passes holders. This year, we had 272. That’s right at 1 percent of the student population. I made it a point to go after this population because they are HERE nine months out of the year. At approximately $600 per pass, you do the math. Yet we also improved the playability of the course by converting tees over to Bermudagrass from bentgrass and implementing a new process on greens management that drastically enhanced the golf course. The entire operation has grown together and each compliments the other beautifully.

This year, I battled the two-headed demon as we dealt with feast or famine year in terms of rain and weather. We either got 4 or 5 inches of rain in a matter of hours or it never rained and we suffered through the worst summer drought in the course’s 23-year history. We almost ran out of water twice this summer. I was forced to make decisions that would favor either the health of the golf course or revenue streams I needed to facilitate. I will admit, it was a 50/50 split and I cursed myself often. There were some days I pushed getting carts off the path to make money (upsetting the superintendent in me tremendously) and then some days the superintendent said we just can’t get the course dried out and need to keep them on the path another day (really upsetting the GM in me). The same held true when the course became so hot and scorched that we put carts on the path to avoid burning the turf.

Those internal battles continued throughout the entire year. It’s not a battle I enjoy, but it’s a battle I have to have with myself. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, just the answer that makes the most sense for the golf operation long term. Short-term wins are nice, but my mind and focus are always six months from today. Two questions – Will this decision benefit me now? Or down the road? – are always at the forefront of my mind. It’s the only way I know how to operate.

What a great ride it’s been helping turn Heritage Oaks into what I thought it always could be. The course has a great future and I’m proud to be at the helm. I’m really proud of the team here that has done all they could to make Heritage a little bit better each day under our kaizen philosophy. I still enjoy getting up and coming to the course every day because the excitement of what’s still to come is not lost on me. I have a snack bar to finally open in 2025, which will add another dimension.

By the way, I am also a certified food safety manager. I’ll oversee the snack bar, too. Did someone say ADHD ... squirrel!!!

Charlie Fultz is the general manager and golf course superintendent at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This is his fifth Turfheads Take Over contribution.