Heather Schapals

Heather Schapals knows how to get the most out of the resources at her disposal. Schapals is the superintendent at Seascape Golf Course, a daily-fee club in Aptos, California, along Monterey Bay, roughly 40 miles north of Pebble Beach and 80 miles south of San Francisco.

She assumed her post at the start of the 2023 season and oversees a crew of 10, including herself and her husband, Michael, who serves as her mechanic. Michael’s predecessor departed Seascape around the time the previous superintendent left.

“It’s a huge help to have him here with me, because I can ask him to do anything,” Schapals says. “He’s been involved (in the golf industry) longer than I have.”

A Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Schapals worked at several clubs in the Midwest before heading west in 2017. Her last stop prior to coming to Seascape was Chambers Bay, where she worked the U.S. Women’s Amateur last year. She was also part of the crew of female volunteers that worked the recent U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach and has worked the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship on two occasions earlier in her career.

Appearing on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast with host Rick Woelfel, Schapals talked about working with a small crew and the importance of setting priorities.

“There are so many things that are important that you want to put at the top of the list, but it changes,” she says. “I set a schedule for the week of what I hope I can get accomplished with the crew and we just see what we can get done each day, depending on play, depending on if somebody calls in sick. It’s a balancing act. It changes every day.”

Any superintendent has a list of tasks they would like to perform but can’t get to because of staffing and employee-hour issues. Schapals is no exception.

“I wanted to get sand in the bunkers here that haven’t had it for years,” she says. “That project has been slow, because at the same time, my booster pump went out. So, we’ve had problems with watering and leaks. There are just so many things. You must take it one day at a time and not let it get to you too much when you can’t quite get to everything. I can’t do it all, so we just do the best that we can.”

Schapals cites the importance of maintaining regular communication with general manager Gary Nelson, director of golf Brant Wilson, the golf staff and the club’s ownership. She takes pride in and appreciates those relationships.

“That takes a little bit of the stress off me,” she says. “I have to say I probably put most of that stress on myself when we can’t get to everything I hoped.”

Schapals concedes she sometimes must adjust the work schedule because of staffing issues.

“I can’t get the bunkers raked every day,” she says. “That’s something that’s a little unusual to me. We rely on our golfing members to fill their own divots because I can’t get out there with divot mix in the fairways. We run a little short on some of those things that would be good to do.”

Even with her broad range of responsibilities, Schapals spends time on the golf course alongside her crew.

“I try to make sure that I’m working with them,” she says. “That’s always huge. I try to make sure that I take time to talk to all of them. To let them know that I’m there if they have a question.

“I want to make sure that any thoughts that they have on the job, on the work they’re doing out there, if they see something they could do differently that they think would be better, I’m open to those options. Just making sure they don’t feel like they’re underappreciated.”