Shelby DuBois

Shelby DuBois has always had a thing for machines. Her fascination began at a young age.

“Pretty much as far back as I can remember,” she says. “I always liked taking apart anything I could. Eventually, that graduated into working with my dad out in the garage a little bit on lawn mowers, minibikes and stuff like that.”

DuBois started working on cars before landing a job as a groundskeeper at a golf course in her native Missouri. She went on to attend Rankin Technical College in St. Louis, where she was introduced to racing technology and worked in the racing industry for a time before finding her way back to golf.

Today, DuBois is the assistant equipment manager at The Resort at Longboat Key Club in Longboat Key, Florida, on the Gulf Coast, which features 45 golf holes. Prior to arriving at the resort last July, her travels had taken her to clubs in Missouri, Texas and Utah before her disdain for cold weather brought her to Florida. She served as the equipment manager at the Chi Chi Rodriguez Academy in Clearwater before assuming her present position.

She has been a member of the GCSAA since 2021 and has completed Level I of the Equipment Management Certificate Program

Appearing on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast with host Rick Woelfel, DuBois stressed the importance of taking care of routine maintenance issues before they become major problems.

“It’s extremely important,” she says, “because things like hydraulic leaks, oil leaks or anything like that, they can go from just fine one day to, all of a sudden, we’ve got three greens completely ruined for the next three or four months. And if you have machines down or anything like that it really messes up everyone’s schedule and we’re not able to do what needs to be done for the club and the members.”

Over the course of her career, DuBois has taught herself to be alert to potential problems regardless of how insignificant they may seem. When a piece of equipment is scheduled for routine maintenance, she makes sure to give it a good, close look.

“That’s something I’m trying to help teach our mechanics about.” she says. “Not just doing an oil change or whatever. The machine’s here now, just take five minutes and take a look around. If there are wires touching the exhaust manifold or anything like that, just make sure that everything is as good as it possibly can be.”

DuBois notes that it’s more important than ever for clubs to keep their machinery in good working order.

“Because these machines aren’t cheap these days,” she points out, “and even if you have all the money in the world, if you order a machine right now, you won’t get a new one for two years. Everyone is backed up right now. Money doesn’t solve all problems anymore unfortunately.”

DuBois points out there is also the issue of golfer expectations, particularly at a high-end club such as hers where members and guests expect pristine conditions whatever the circumstances.

“If you work at a low-end public course, you can get away with a lot more of ‘This machine is down’ or something like that and it’s no big deal,” she says. “But we have members that expect pretty much the very best. It’s kind of like working a tournament every day.”

DuBois, who worked the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, has been a member of the GCSAA Equipment Manager Task Group since 2022.

“It’s nice to see that equipment managers are really starting to get the recognition,” she says, “especially as we come into this labor shortage. It’s more important than ever to have us right up there with superintendents as people that really run the show and make golf courses look the way that golf courses look.”