Sally Jones

When Sally Jones took a position as the superintendent at the Benson Golf Club, a public facility in Benson, Minnesota, she was returning to her roots, to the club where she grew up and was introduced to the game of golf.

Jones worked at the club as a teenager and started to think about a career in turf while researching the industry for a high school project. Looking to further her education in the subject, she headed to Penn State, “because it was the farthest from home,” she says.

After earning her degree in turfgrass science and serving a number of internships, Jones returned to her home club in 2003 as the superintendent. In 2016, she was named general manager while remaining in the superintendent’s post.

While she continues to spend the bulk of her time tending to the turf, Jones tells Rick Woelfel on the Wonderful Women of Golf podcast that her responsibilities often vary from one day to the next.

“We’re a small course,” she says, “so I fill in wherever needed. If we’re well-staffed, ultimately I get to spend most of my days out on the course but there are times when I’ll have to fill in in the clubhouse. I have filled in on the beer cart, which is not where I’m good but I’ll do it if I need to.”

At one point in Jones’ career, she found herself struggling with severe mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. Those challenges impacted her relationships with her husband and her two children, who today are 12 and 15.

“I was in denial,” Jones says. “It took me many years of dealing with high anxiety and depression before I realized that, ‘This is real, this is something that really can affect a person mentally and physically.’”

Seven years ago, Jones underwent inpatient treatment. The progress she has made in the years since has been hastened by the support she has received from and extended to other women in the turf industry. She recalls attending the inaugural Women in Turf event in North Carolina three years ago.

“Women in Turf has been a huge help for me,” Jones says. “Professionally, but most importantly personally.” That 2019 event “was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to be in a room with more than just a handful of females within our profession. I was honored to be part of it. I had no idea of the impact that event would have. It was moving, it was inspirational and it was overwhelmingly a positive influence for me that came at just the perfect time.”

Since then, Jones has volunteered at the last two U.S. Women’s Opens, in 2021 at the Olympic Club and this year at Pine Needles. She notes that the women she has connected with in the industry offer mutual support and encouragement to one another.

“The support group has been overwhelmingly amazing,” she says, “and I am blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to meet all of those women.”

Jones says that having the opportunity to connect with other women in the industry has recharged her emotional batteries.

“Every group that I’ve been a part of has been so therapeutic,” she says, “and rejuvenates me and gets me more excited. Every time I go to something it gets me even more excited about my career and this industry. I wish everybody, male or female, could experience something like that to keep them going.”

Jones’ strategy for contending with her mental health issues is to take things one day at a time.

“What has helped me is to live in the moment,” she says. “To sit back and think about what was in the past, that’s depression. And (worrying about) the future, that’s anxiety. Staying in the present was what I needed to do.

“Plan ahead, you can do that — but don’t let it consume you.”