Justin King walked into a High Point, North Carolina, automotive care shop seeking an entry-level job. He returned to the same shop a few weeks later. Entering the shop and asking about potential job openings became part of his routine for a year as he bounced between part-time restaurant gigs in his early 20s.
Given today’s labor shortages in mechanical fields, King’s path to becoming a golf course equipment manager seems fictitious. Who randomly walks into businesses and lobbies for hourly work these days?
The persistent search for a gateway to equipment and engine repair occurred less than a decade ago. King eventually landed a position maintaining and tidying the workspace where more experienced professionals fixed automobiles.
“I think they got tired of seeing me,” he says. “I told them I’ll do whatever, sweep floors, stock shelves, whatever they needed me to do. And I finally got a job in there.”
King spent two years at the auto care center. He observed automotive lifers around him and received opportunities to fix cars. He enjoyed the mechanical aspects of the work. But he also discovered the pace didn’t provide a long-term career fit. Automotive repair rewards quick fixes. King wanted a career that valued correct fixes. “I like doing things the right way the first time,” he says. “I find that when I rush, I screw up. I couldn’t force myself to work quickly, so I wasn’t making much money.”
From the auto care center, King landed a landscaping job with the City of High Point. His supervisors shifted him to the crew responsible for maintaining sports fields. King then noticed an internal job posting for a mechanic’s position at city-owned Oak Hollow Golf Course. The two years of automotive repair experience helped him get that job. King is now happily employed as the equipment manager at Jamestown Park Golf Course, a busy municipal facility in the Piedmont Triad with more than 50 engine-powered units.
Did we mention King has a bachelor’s degree in environmental and sustainability studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro? Did we mention he never considered maintaining and repairing golf course maintenance equipment for a living until seeing the posting for the Oak Hollow position?
“I graduated from college a couple of years ago and here I am,” he says. “I don’t really ever plan on leaving the golf course industry now.”
Similar stories abound in maintenance facilities. Working as an equipment manager at a golf course might not have been the first — or the second, third or fourth — career option for thousands of professionals holding the jobs. Non-linear career journeys make for fascinating stories and anecdotes about how King and his peers found the golf industry offer hints where future equipment managers are lurking.
The son of a fleet manager for a small Nebraska city, Ryan Haptonstall appreciated his job as a diesel mechanic in his early 20s. Steady work. Solid pay, especially because young diesel mechanics receive lucrative overtime opportunities.
Once he reached his late 20s, Haptonstall’s life changed. He moved to northeast Ohio. He got engaged. He became a father. Long hours and late nights in the shop and on the road lost their appeal, even if the pay remained solid.
“When they see a guy who’s younger, they want to run you ragged,” he says. “You’re always on the road and working long days in the shop, which is great money and all that. But when do you have time to enjoy anything?”
Haptonstall pondered returning to school. He then saw an intriguing job posting on Indeed for an assistant equipment manager position at Columbia Hills, a private club in Columbia Station, Ohio.
“I had zero idea about it until I came to the interview and saw the shop,” he says. “I thought, Yeah, why didn’t I think of this before? They have to cut grass every day. Why wouldn’t they have somebody there to fix all that stuff they need to cut the grass?”
His eight-year run as a diesel mechanic ended following the interview. Columbia Hills hired Haptonstall to work alongside equipment manager Joe Kendall. When Kendall retired — a possibility discussed during interviews — Haptonstall climbed to the head role.
Kendall introduced Haptonstall to the intricacies of small engine repair. Haptonstall understood the basics of an engine, but he lacked significant experience with carburetors and spark plugs. Learning the importance of cutting units and the art and science of grinding were other tactical adjustments facing Haptonstall. “Joe taught me a lot,” he says. “I wouldn’t be as successful as I am without him.”
Away from the course, Haptonstall quickly discovered that the profession matched his lifestyle preferences. He switched jobs earlier this year, landing the head position at Avon Oaks Country Club, a flourishing club in Cleveland’s west suburbs. He primarily works weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. He’s no longer making late-night, roadside winter treks to repair broken semi-trucks. He has developed a peer and support network through social media groups and his involvement with the Northern Ohio GCSA that he never encountered as a diesel mechanic.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to love this or be like, ‘OK, I’m just going to go back to the diesel field,’” he says. “I fell in love with it. I honestly don’t see myself doing anything else.”
Haptonstall’s successful transition proves career love doesn’t require a linear route.
On a family trip to Nebraska earlier this year, Haptonstall made a detour to visit a peer with a similar zest for his unexpected career.
Bryan Epland is in his seventh year as the equipment manager at ArborLinks, a private club in Nebraska City, a small town on the Nebraska-Iowa border 44 miles south of Omaha. Epland and Haptonstall have become professional friends, and Haptonstall brought ideas back to northeast Ohio following his tour of Epland’s expansive ArborLinks operation. Neither experienced the show-and-tell camaraderie in their previous careers.
Epland also randomly found a career in golf. His industry beginnings extend to a 2016 meal at Ladybug BBQ in Nebraska City. A content auto mechanic not actively seeking another job at the time, Epland was chatting with the eatery’s owner, Tom Ross, who mentioned a job opening maintaining golf maintenance equipment at ArborLinks. Ross learned of the opening from another one of the BBQ’s customers, then-ArborLinks general manager Jeff Porter. “I kind of fell into it,” Epland says.
He arrived at ArborLinks in July 2016 with a solid mechanical background stemming from interests in welding and equipment repair developed via high school classes. Following his high school graduation, Epland enlisted in the Army. He worked as a welder and pipeline specialist, the latter introducing him to the nuances of diesel and gas equipment. His immediate post-Army life included jobs as a diesel and automotive mechanic.
He’s too humble to admit it, but Epland is a self-made equipment manager. ArborLinks possessed an aging fleet in 2016. The club didn’t employ a veteran equipment manager to mentor Epland. The only internal training he received came via a brief grinding demonstration performed by then-superintendent Michael Sheeley.
“I thought I was in over my head,” Epland says. “It was a panic-stricken first week. On my first day, when Michael put me in front of the grinders and sent me loose, I thought I was going to screw something up really bad.”
It took Epland “a few years” before he became comfortable with all aspects of his job. Like King and Haptonstall, he can’t envision doing anything else for a living.
“It’s extremely rewarding and it’s not something that’s going to go away as far as what I can tell,” Epland says. “For me, coming from automotive, it’s a lot less stressful. In something like automotive, the trade secrets aren’t shared. If you go to another person and say, ‘How do I do this?’ generally they won’t tell you. In golf, I can pick up the phone and call 30 people and they all will help to the best of their ability. The closeness and willingness to help in the industry is second to none in my opinion.”
Career rises can happen fast for equipment managers.
Robert Martyszczyk began 2019 casually scouring job opportunities. After spending seven years as a service technician responsible for repairing outdoor generators at homes and businesses, he wanted to try “something a little different” without straying from his mechanical base or Connecticut home. His search led him to an online posting for TPC River Highlands, a private club seeking an assistant to work alongside retiring longtime equipment manager Pedro Cruz. By the end of 2020, Cruz had retired and Martyszczyk was the head equipment manager at a PGA Tour mainstay.
“It was by chance,” Martyszczyk says. “It’s probably like half the industry. You happened to be there at a particular time.”
Cruz trained Martyszczyk to establish the cutting units required to produce tournament-level conditions. TPC River Highlands has hosted the Travelers Championship since 1991. During tournament week, the club’s bentgrass/Poa annua greens are maintained at .115 inches, according to the 2023 GCSAA tournament fact sheet for the event.
“I had a mechanical background,” Martyszczyk says. “I knew how to work on the engines and all that stuff. It was the golf side and the reels. You can be the best mechanic in the world, but if you don’t know what’s important … It’s not all about being a top-notch mechanic. There’s a lot more to it.”
The tournament brings stress, scrutiny and extra hours. But hosting the event allows Martyszczyk to meet equipment managers from other facilities. The outdoor power equipment repair industry doesn’t present opportunities to network with external peers or showcase your work before global audiences.
Life as an equipment manager offers Martyszczyk a desirable blend of outdoor and indoor work with varied job assignments occupying his days. Seeing the sun on the way home represents another perk.
“We’re not focused on one thing like if you’re a Ford mechanic,” he says. “At the golf course, I like being there early in the morning. You get to the course, do your thing, hustle for the day and then you’re out earlier in the afternoon so you can enjoy your day. It’s not like you’re coming home and it’s dark. My other job was from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. You didn’t have a lot of time once you got home.”
Martyszczyk is proof mechanical change can be a good thing.
Every holistic story needs an anomaly.
Trent Manning’s path to his current position as the equipment manager at Ansley Golf Club, a 27-hole private facility with 9 holes in midtown Atlanta and 18 holes in suburban Atlanta, started at Settindown Creek Golf Club. Ansley purchased Settindown Creek in the late 1990s. Yes, Manning is working at the same course where he started his career as a 16-year-old.
Asked how he discovered the equipment side of the industry, Manning says, “by working at a golf course.” Notice the contrast between his story and the ones above yet?
One of Manning’s best childhood friends lived in the same neighborhood as Settindown Creek equipment manager Larry Freeman. The club needed summer help on its golf course maintenance crew; Manning needed a summer job. Manning enjoyed the work and was offered a full-time position as Freeman’s assistant. Manning calls the relationship he established with Freeman “life-changing,” because it resulted in a career that includes two stints at Ansley and opportunities to visit maintenance facilities across North America through speaking engagements and tournament volunteering.
“If I didn’t have a good mentor, I more than likely wouldn’t be doing this,” he says. “I would have found something else.”
Manning’s résumé isn’t entirely linear. He left Ansley for eight years. He worked four years for a sports field construction company and two years for a golf course construction firm. He then spent two years as a mobile technician for Southeast-based Jerry Pate Company before returning to Ansley. “I probably learned more in that job in two years than I did in 10 years at a golf course,” he says.
The longer Manning works in the golf industry, the more he realizes how a job he discovered as a teenager can rejuvenate auto and diesel mechanics, welders, generator technicians, and many others seeking a career change.
“The sky is the limit,” he says. “If you set your mind to something and you want to do it, you can live anywhere in the world and be a golf course equipment manager. You can have a dream job.”
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