Sue Spahr

For more than 28 years, Swanhills Golf Course has been Sue Spahr’s professional home. When Spahr was hired as the superintendent at the Belvidere, Illinois, club, the golf course was still being grown in.

Making her encore appearance on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast with host Rick Woelfel — she was the guest on the inaugural episode in February 2021 — Spahr says she has no desire to leave.

“I have always appreciated where I am,” she says. “I understood what was expected of me and I always felt I could deliver what was expected, and somewhere along the line I just figured out that this is really a good spot for me. I think the golfers have been happy, management has been happy, and I’ve been happy.”

As the superintendent at a mid-range, daily-fee facility, Spahr’s team — when it’s at full strength — consists of a foreman, a mechanic, approximately 10 part-timers (primarily retirees who handle mowing chores in four-hour shifts), plus some high school students.

Over the course of her career, Spahr has acquired a knack for setting priorities.

“You have to really approach the job every day with blinders on and try and figure out exactly what the golfer is going to notice, what they’re going to appreciate, and what they’re going to be discouraged by,” she says. “So, you try to eliminate any negative factors that golfer that’s playing your course today is going to see. I kind of pride myself on that, knowing what the golfer really needs in his experience on our course.”

Spahr focuses much of her energy on maintaining quality green complexes.

“That includes the approach and around the green and the drainage issues,” she says. “That’s really where you’re trying to focus the majority of your attention.”

Spahr stresses the importance of maintaining speeds that won’t overwhelm the typical recreational player.

“The high handicapper can’t putt on really fast greens,” she says. “Greens that they can’t putt on are not going to make the game enjoyable for them, so we don’t have that pressure to keep our greens at lightning-fast speeds.”

Apart from her duties at her own club, Spahr is in her third and final year as one of three superintendents on the GCSAA’s Research Committee.

“It’s been just a wonderful experience,” she says. “We meet once a year for an all-day meeting. Prior to that, we sent out research proposals. The superintendents are basically there to put in the input of what’s important to us on the course, what we believe is valuable, and what we would like, what we believe would be valuable, and what we would like to find more information on.”

Spahr was part of the corps of female volunteers that worked the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club, the championship that spurred the Women in Turf movement.

“We were all very different,” she recalls, “but there was just something we all shared in common. You could just tell everyone was a hard worker. Everyone had a real passion for the industry and there were a lot of really, really, funny people. We had a really good time.”

Spahr enjoyed meeting other women who shared her drive to be successful in a challenging profession.

“Maybe because we’ve all been the minority for so long,” she says. “We’ve always had that drive to prove ourselves. There was just that something that we all shared.”

Spahr is encouraged that women are becoming more visible in the turf industry but points out they will always be a minority. “Just because I don’t believe there’s that many women that want to do this type of work,” she says. “But the women that do, it’s nice to be able to (show children) that this is an option for them that maybe they didn’t know this profession was out there.”