This month on Superintendent Radio Network

Jimmy Clark joined the Golf Course Industry team more than a year ago and he finally landed on Superintendent Radio Month last month. Clark, our new(ish) account representative, helped Guy Cipriano and me open the audio month on Greens with Envy 54 for a conversation about his long history with the game — he grew up on the second hole of Springvale Golf Course & Ballroom in North Olmsted, Ohio, worked at his family’s miniature golf course when he was younger, and set numerous records during a decorated collegiate career at Baldwin Wallace University — and some recent South Carolina course visits. “I always wanted to do something with golf, but I didn’t know where it was going to lead me,” Clark said. “When I went into marketing, I wanted to do something with social media with golf, but I found a good spot and I’m happy with where it led me.”

How many golf course architects sketch and lay out holes with women golfers in mind? At least one. Kari Haug wants to create inclusive designs that open more of the course to women, seniors, high-handicap amateurs, and all golfers no matter their age or gender. “We want to make sure everybody has a choice of what tee they use, a choice of what pathway they play to the green,” she told Rick Woelfel on Episode 30 of Wonderful Women of Golf. “Not everybody hits the ball the same distance. We want choice.” Currently based in Minnesota, Haug focuses primarily these days on renovations and master plans.

There is no end to incredible and interesting equipment manager and technician origin stories. Pebble Beach Golf Links equipment manager Michael Henderson’s entry to the industry certainly fits that description: Once a commercial fisherman on a squid boat, Henderson migrated from tides to turf after a bad season left him unemployed and his wife suggested he apply at Pacific Grove Golf Links in California. “I had no clue” what an equipment manager did, Henderson told Trent Manning on Reel Turf Techs. “Originally, right after high school, I had gone to school for automotive and I vaguely remembered one of the teachers mentioning the golf industry, but that was about it. But I knew how to fix stuff and it was close to home.” The course called him within an hour and hired him a week later. He worked there for four years, then another three years Monterey Peninsula Country Club before landing last year at Pebble Beach. (You want pressure? He worked the U.S. Women’s Open during his first season there.)

Ty Robb just wrapped up a year to remember: In December 2022, he landed as assistant superintendent at Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound, Florida, then he and his wife, Claudia, welcomed their son, Cyrus, just six months later. “I didn’t know how much my life would change until it happened,” he told me on Episode 50 ofBeyond the Page. “You try and prepare for it, but I don’t know if you’re ever really prepared for a child.” Robb discussed his first year at an incredible club, his first six months as a parent — and his recent Turfheads Take Over story and Turfheads Guide to Grilling recipe — on the podcast.

Our seventh full year of Tartan Talks concluded with a spirited conversation with Ray Hearn, who, like many golf course architects, has been plenty busy lately. Some of his projects are small, but most are pretty big — though that term means different things to different people. “What is ‘big’?” Hearn asked Cipriano on Episode 90 of the series. “I usually use that nine-hole threshold and it includes all the bunkers, tee work, green work, cart paths, drainage, potentially new irrigation. Those big opportunities have been just dropping out of the sky at a crazy number the last three years. It’s absolutely remarkable.”

Here’s to a big, crazy, and absolutely remarkable 2024 for everybody. 

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.