Pat Jones | The calls are almost always the same… “Hey Jonesy…did you hear about Jim? They canned him by e-mail, those bastards. I can’t believe it. He’s an awesome grass grower and a great guy. He’d been there for 11 years. That club president is a complete moron for firing him for no reason!” You probably get some of those same calls, too. The phone rings and it’s a mutual friend of a terminated superintendent who’s outraged at the injustice and completely amazed that it “came out of the blue.” “Holy crap! They fired Jim? Why? What happened? Who’s on the list to replace him?” That’s often the next bit of discussion in those “did you hear?” calls: who’s the logical choice to get the fired guy’s job. It’s a natural question in an industry where most good jobs seem to be wired months or years before the incumbent goes bye-bye. Usually Jim is the last person to know that everyone else already knew Bob was the club’s choice to succeed him. Why is it that Jim is the last to know or at least to come to grips with the fact that his job security gas tank is on empty? Here are a few reasons that “surprise” terminations for superintendents who have been in their jobs for 7-15 years shouldn’t really be a surprise:
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