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(Featured Image by Josh Hanson)
Let's hear it for the greenskeepers.
It’s a cold winter’s morning in Phoenix, Arizona. The time is 5 a.m.—still an hour or more until the first peaks of sunlight will crest the horizon. Golfers across the city, most still fast asleep, dream of the tee shots to come. But before any of them ever set foot on the fairway, a dedicated team has already made first tracks.
Golf’s true dawn patrol— the greenskeepers.
As golfers, many of us may not understand the scope of their contributions but we can certainly feel it as we gaze out over 100 or more acres of a beautifully manicured course (and that’s only the grass, some properties push 200+ acres that require maintenance).
Whether it’s edging sprinkler heads or repairing sprinkler heads, cutting greens or rolling greens, mowing tees or cleaning up broken tees, a lot of time and attention goes into setting the stage for the world’s greatest game.
(Photo by Alex Johnson)
Back of the napkin math nets out to at least 54 man-hours each morning just for daily maintenance, not including the speciality and seasonal projects such as verticutting greens or aerating for overseeding. It’s about time these artisans got the recognition they deserved.
“I just love being outside. Especially when the overseed comes in. The grass is almost metallic when the sun comes up over the crest. It’s like an angel,” shares Craig, a groundskeeper for Phoenix Country Club.
“[It’s about] making it look like a painted picture. It takes a lot of work—the artistry. We’re crafting the perfect playing conditions to make people happy,” adds Ryan Voyles, Phoenix Country Club’s superintendent.
Steaming coffees in hand, the groundskeepers’ day begins much in the same way our rounds do—on the first tee. The only difference? It’s pitch black out and there’s not a glow ball in sight. Beams of flashlights and headlamps illuminate the wispy puffs of breath around everyone’s heads. Shuffling in place, getting their blood flowing, the team receives their orders for the day.
Craig Werline, Phoenix Country Club’s Director of Agronomy, might send a pair of undergrads from Grand Canyon University out to rake bunkers. A task that, even with the two of them, could take up to four hours.
“I always put a game plan together for the following day before I leave, but the challenging days are when I come in the morning and guys call out or don’t show up,” says Werline.
However, every day the list of “things to accomplish” inevitably transforms.
For instance, after a quick drive through the back nine with his superintendent Voyles, Werline might flag a leaking irrigation pipe off the fairway on hole fourteen.
“Something like an irrigation break could change the scope of work... you’ve always got to be willing to pivot,” says Werline.
(Photo by Alex Johnson)
So Werline pulls someone from the mowing team to quickly patch it before too much more water is lost—a monumental task given the increasing scarcity of the desert’s most precious resource. This leaves the mowing team one short and with someone calling in sick the night before, he’s now two short. The entire property contains 85 acres of grass that needs mowing between fairways, rough, tee boxes, and greens, so the lack of staff can be punishing.
Worse yet, a mower from their fleet of sixteen—which spans across tees and approach mowers, fairway mowers, rough mowers and greens mowers— needs a wheel replaced.
So without missing a beat, Werline’s second-in-command, Voyles, steps up.
Voyles underscores one of the most underappreciated aspects of the greenskeeper’s experience—the work needs to be done, one way or another. Which means that to be a greenskeeper is to be a true team player. Because ultimately, no matter who actually does the work, it’s about one thing—the golfer’s experience.
Navigating the nuances of the Rye-Bermuda mix, morning temperatures dictating green speeds, members’ feedback from the day before, and areas of the course that have been over-saturated overnight can be a day-to-day and sometimes, a week-to-week dance.. Werline says, “We’ll hit balls in the morning and see how it’s feeling.”
“It’s about evaluating and maintaining the course with the eye of the golfer. We strive to always be in tournament form for both regular member play and potential events,” Voyles added.
Selfless is how these teams talk about their craft. On one hand this selflessness manifests in the culture they sow among one another. A sentiment echoed by the General Manager of Poston Butte Golf Club, JC Wright.
“We have a small team but they’re passionate individuals. It’s a different type of passion... they wake up at 3 a.m.—the oddest hours—bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It could be 115
or 30 degrees out and waiting for frost to break, to them, it doesn’t make a difference.”
And on the other hand, their selflessness applies to everything they do being in service to the guest. They willingly adopt a hospitality-like mindset because, ultimately, their work is about preparing every inch of the property for the guests that tee it up later that morning.
At Phoenix Country Club, Werline’s crew has the protection of a roomier tee sheet to allow for additional time each morning to prep the course—members don’t start teeing off in the winter until 8 a.m. But for Wright and his team at Poston Butte, the public “rabbits” arrive early.
“Fast golfers who catch the maintenance, you’re the rabbits... [When you catch
the crew], understand that delaying their project means delaying their break and delaying timelines into days and sometimes weeks ahead,” Wright reveals.
Rick, a greenskeeper at Poston Butte agrees, “Challenging days are when we’ve got early tee times and a lot of golfers. We really have to hustle.” On the public courses especially, the only time the team can cut the rough is when golfers are playing. So accounting for stoppage due to play, mowing the rough on Poston’s 200 acre property takes up to twenty hours.
Patience and understanding were two themes shared by all. Battling with the challenges of understaffing, equipment failures and a constantly evolving list of priorities, alongside last-minute fixes, greenskeeper crews are certainly the unsung and often unseen heroes.
Heroes that we, as golfers, could stand to take the opportunity to appreciate more often.
“The greatest compliment I can get is hearing golfers saying that we’re doing a great job. It’s not from my boss, it’s the golfers,” shares Bo.
“They’re always diligently working towards improving [your] experience... I think of golf more as a hospitality business at this point,” Wright says.
“They have immense pride in what they do,” Werline adds.
And behind that pride is another core theme that emerged in speaking about why they do what they do—passion. “I love being outdoors, getting up early and being outside. I’m off work by 9 a.m. four days a week,” shares Bo, a retired salesman with a smile spreading from ear to ear.
The team hails from all sorts of backgrounds and professions—each drawn to their craft for any number of reasons. Rick, a retired fisherman from Alaska says, “I actually like the heat. I lived up in Alaska for 50 years... so, yeah I don’t mind it.”
And as you might imagine, being around the course this much leads to a passion for the game as well. Whether they found it in retirement or a young student looking for seasonal work and some free golf—everyone has their reason. “I’m just a big ole golf nerd so keeping this place looking nice for everybody is fun,” shares Carson, a greenskeeper at Phoenix Country Club and self-described “snowbird” who comes down from the northwest to work winters at the club.
When it becomes about passion, tasks take on a whole new meaning. It becomes about so much more than cutting a fairway. The game within the game is revealed.
Richard, a groundskeeper at Poston Butte talks about his love for fairways. “When seasons change, you transition from Rye to Bermuda grass. And in the mornings when it’s still dark, it can be difficult to see. So you have to really focus to make sure you follow the lines—it’s a challenge, but I enjoy it.”
(Photo by Alex Johnson)
Finding the sometimes subtle moments to appreciate connected everyone. The sights, the sounds, the smells.
“You just can’t beat the scents in the fall when the Texas sage gets ready for winter. It gives off a different smell than the spring,” Richard continues.
“The best sound on the golf course is a mower,” Voyles says, “If you hear a mower in the morning, then you know things are going to plan. But you can also hear if a mower has an issue from across the course. When something’s off you can definitely tell.”
Each person holds such a deep knowledge and reverence for their discipline.
Surrounded by golfers hyper- focused on one of the most challenging individual sports around, it was apparent in hearing from everyone that greenskeeping is a team sport in the purest form. An idea best summed up by Craig, the greenskeeper from Phoenix Country Club.
“When a few blowers get together—they kind of sync up and it gets a hum going. Yeah, that’s my favorite sound.” Almost like an orchestra, their success is found in the collaboration of all team members.
Everyone contributes, helps one another, and celebrates their collective success. Selfless in their motivations, they hold an intense pride for their craft.
“As soon as you walk two feet on property, it reflects [us],” says Werline.
So the next time you tee it up, remember that behind every raked bunker, every perfectly rolled green, every shrub, cactus, and bloom—is a passionate team of agronomy artisans that deserves your appreciation.
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