The Golfdom Files: Help wanted
The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the 10 years since we published our 2015 Golfdom Report, finding and retaining assistant superintendents has remained a challenge for superintendents. Read what these superintendents said was the problem in finding (and keeping) good help. To read the full 2015 Golfdom Report, click here.
Tom Bolon, superintendent at Lake Forest CC in Hudson, Ohio, is in need of a new assistant superintendent and looks over the résumés he has received. Bolon advertised the position nationally and locally but only had a total of 25 applicants. He was not optimistic about the talent pool.
“It is hard to find someone really ready and willing to put in the time and effort,” Bolon says. “When I was an assistant superintendent, my job was to take as much as possible off the superintendent’s plate, and people are not willing to do that.”
Sixty percent of readers agreed with Bolon that it has become harder in recent years to find and keep good assistant superintendents. The amount of applications being received and work ethic are not the only problems seen by readers.
David Groelle, GCCS, has not encountered any issue retaining assistants, calling himself “blessed” that he has only had to hire two in his 14 years at Royal Melbourne CC in Long Grove, Ill. Still, Groelle noticed a difference in the candidates’ education the last time he hired a new assistant.
“There aren’t as many applicants with full four-year bachelor degrees. It seems to be becoming more of a trade, so to speak — where guys are learning on the job and getting experience in the field and maybe taking some classes on the side or going through programs online and getting an education that way,” Groelle says.
(Incoming GCSAA president) John O’Keefe usually retains three assistants at once, and he tries to provide a fair wage as they work their way through the ranks. But the current vice president of the GCSAA believes the cost of living is the reason it has been more difficult to find assistants in recent years.
O’Keefe, who will take over as president of the GCSAA at the 2015 GIS in San Antonio, says it takes the average assistant superintendent seven to eight years to attain their first superintendent job. In those years, it can be difficult for assistants to work a lot of hours and make a living on $50,000 a year while getting married and starting families.
“What I’ve found is that these guys are having to find a higher salary immediately, and they just can’t afford to work those eight years before getting that higher salary,” says O’Keefe. “And keep in mind, the eight years as an assistant is if you’re lucky.”
Those who make it through the years as an assistant are there because of the passion for the job, he says.
“Those who hang in there and get promoted, they love it,” says O’Keefe. “You only get into this industry if you love it.”
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