A season in the fishbowl

Near of the start of this golf season, Brian Koffler moved into a new office, in a new ZIP code, with loads of new responsibilities.

Same club, though.

Koffler has worked on the turf at Waverley Country Club in Portland for more than 14 years. The club opened in 1896 and was long ago a true country club, when members would ride the train from downtown Portland to one of four stops on the property. It has a storied history — Tiger Woods won his third Junior Amateur on the grounds in 1993, Juli Inkster won the Women’s Amateur in 1981, Lanny Wadkins won the U.S. Amateur in 1970, and the club’s practice of awarding green jackets starting in 1934 might have inspired Bobby Jones to do something similar down in Georgia — and Koffler is quick to tell much of it. Which has helped him after he received a call and a text on April 9 from the club president, and then a sudden job change: interim general manager.

Koffler moved about 1,800 yards from his office in the maintenance facility to what was until about a decade ago the clubhouse coatroom, right off the main double doors. The two buildings are on the same property but separated by about a mile and don’t share a ZIP code: the maintenance facility is 97202, while the clubhouse is 97222.  “This is like sitting in a fishbowl,” he says. “Everybody knows when you’re here and when you’re not here.”

He has worked Mondays in the maintenance facility, and checks in two or three times every day with assistant superintendents Lucas Pfaller and Matt Stenhouse, who have handled almost everything this season. “Matt and Lucas have been a huge help,” Koffler says. “With the exception of some spraying program decisions and some personnel issues, they’ve done everything. A lot of their questions have been not , ‘What do you want to do?’ but ‘Are you OK with doing this?’, which has been good for them as far as growth goes.” The rest of his week is in the clubhouse. “You’re always going to go to what’s most comfortable. I’m trying to fight that.” He estimates the current split is about 90/10 in favor of the clubhouse.

This turn as GM has been far more fun than the last. Much of his first stint was early during the COVID-19 pandemic, when events were cancelled and almost nobody predicted the current golf boom. “Everybody walks by and wants to say hello now,” he says. “It’s just a different animal.”

And after almost 15 seasons along the Willamette River, Koffler knows almost everybody. He figures he knows about 250 members by name, including almost all of the golfing membership. “I think that’s one of the key things in the service industry, knowing people’s names and faces. “I wasn’t blessed with a lot of skills in life, but remembering names, I’m OK with that. I couldn’t draw you a picture, I couldn’t sing you a song, but I can remember names OK. … It helps in the hospitality industry, that’s for sure.”

Koffler is quick with self-deprecating jokes, too, which also helps, and he knows how to take a compliment, which he calls “the hardest thing.” “Saying thank you and just moving on,” he says, “not a skill I have.”

Knowing names and faces are a big similarity between the two positions. Among the differences?

“There’s two things I joke around about,” Koffler says. “One is, if there’s something wrong with a fairway, on 140 acres, nobody’s going to notice. If somebody spills wine on the carpet down there, everybody’s going to see that. The other thing is, with golf course stuff, typically, if there’s a decision, it’s an A or B, red-pill or blue-pill situation. I’m pretty comfortable assessing which decision will keep at least 51 percent of the people happy. Down there, there are decisions that are made that I’m sitting there going, ‘The best-case scenario is I’m keeping a third of the people happy.’ There are just so many more variables to it that make it a challenge.”

Waverley boasts a mile and a half of Willamette River coastline — much of it hugging the 17th and 18th holes for an incredible finish to any round.

Thankfully, the switch isn’t permanent. Koffler will fill the role until some time in September or early October when a permanent hire will step in and allow him to move back to superintendent.

“We have a board meeting on September 18 and our annual meeting on September 21. I would love to have somebody maybe visiting on property by then,” he says. “It’s been fun. It’s been a very different professional challenge. The one thing I would say is I’m confident it will be invigorating to go back to my day job.”

Koffler plans to provide information and perspective to the new general manager for at least the first month to six weeks. “I certainly understand they want to make their own assessment of things and not listen to a guy who did it for a little while. I’ll give them not my opinion, but more factual-based stuff.”

If the search slows, Koffler might be in the clubhouse until almost Halloween. Temperatures will cool by then and winter will approach parts of the country. In Portland, the weather will turn to a monthslong mist — tenths of an inch of a rain almost every day.

“That’s when it starts pouring down rain,” Koffler says, “so you’re trying to scramble to get every project you can get accomplished before it gets too wet.

“I have tried as much as I can to assure staff that I will be back eventually.”

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.