Director of Agronomy rant

BNGL · September 6, 2023

On 9/5/2023 at 12:16 AM, mallrat said:

@BNGL From your knowledge, do a lot of 18 hole courses have DOA/DOG positions? From what I’ve seen and my short time in the business, it seemed to mainly be properties with more than 18 holes but is becoming more common for properties with only 18 holes.

How often is it used to keep talent vs a property really needing that position?

Depends on the course and club, I was at an 18 hole facility. But I had a tennis club, croquet club, beach club, marina, main club, and several different lodging areas in addition to the golf club that were part of the club that fell under the director of grounds positions. How I had it setup;

Grounds took care of beach, marina, main club and lodging areas plus the landscape around the tennis and croquet areas and clubhouse. Had 15-17 in grounds keepers plus 1 grounds irrigation technician and 1 grounds spray technician that reported to the grounds superintendent that reported to me.

Tennis had 3 guys that maintained the courts plus an irrigation technician (usually an intern if we did not have the position filled).

Golf had the entirety of the golf course, driving range, croquet lawns. I had one super, two assistants, two interns, a 3 equipment techs plus their intern, 1 spray tech, 1 irrigation tech, plus a crew of 25ish.

In addition to all of that, facilities management was also under my umbrella. That is the HVAC, painters, electricians, plumbers etc that maintain the property. Think about the upkeep that is needed to maintain facilities, not talking custodial or F&B that is separate. I made more calls to fix roofs at the beach club post hurricanes than I did to vendors to get product to the golf club...hyperbole of course. But your DOG is often times managing more than the golf course and the grounds. What I had was a common setup I can think of 4/5 clubs that are very well regarded that were setup similar. That all weren't in Florida either two that were basically identical were in New York, one was on Long Island the other was off the coast of CT.

On 9/5/2023 at 12:25 AM, TexasTurf said:

Why does that club in Jupiter need a DOG vs a superintendent. Same position just different name.

No. See above.

Edited September 6, 2023 by BNGL

BNGL · September 6, 2023

3 hours ago, iACE13 said:

$300k+ Jobs aren't posting on Turfnet.... You get a phone call to be invited to interview for those gigs... Below is a DOA salary from a club in the DFW area from 2021! You thinking DOA's don't make WELL north of 300k at some clubs just shows you've been out of the game way too long. Looked at another club in DFW and in 2022 Director made 333k plus a 28k bonus.

This is all very public information too... Look it up yourself, any non profit private club will have tax records that are obtainable by the public if you don't believe me. Guidestar.org

I stand corrected on the wages, but plenty of consulting firms that are responsible for hiring post on turf net and gcsaa. Tyler Bloom and Kubel et al to name a few. Are they posting Augusta National there? No, but Seminole, Deepdale, Quaker Ridge, Winged Foot, Inverness etc

mallrat · September 9, 2023

On 9/6/2023 at 11:34 AM, BNGL said:

Depends on the course and club, I was at an 18 hole facility. But I had a tennis club, croquet club, beach club, marina, main club, and several different lodging areas in addition to the golf club that were part of the club that fell under the director of grounds positions. How I had it setup;

Grounds took care of beach, marina, main club and lodging areas plus the landscape around the tennis and croquet areas and clubhouse. Had 15-17 in grounds keepers plus 1 grounds irrigation technician and 1 grounds spray technician that reported to the grounds superintendent that reported to me.

Tennis had 3 guys that maintained the courts plus an irrigation technician (usually an intern if we did not have the position filled).

Golf had the entirety of the golf course, driving range, croquet lawns. I had one super, two assistants, two interns, a 3 equipment techs plus their intern, 1 spray tech, 1 irrigation tech, plus a crew of 25ish.

In addition to all of that, facilities management was also under my umbrella. That is the HVAC, painters, electricians, plumbers etc that maintain the property. Think about the upkeep that is needed to maintain facilities, not talking custodial or F&B that is separate. I made more calls to fix roofs at the beach club post hurricanes than I did to vendors to get product to the golf club...hyperbole of course. But your DOG is often times managing more than the golf course and the grounds. What I had was a common setup I can think of 4/5 clubs that are very well regarded that were setup similar. That all weren't in Florida either two that were basically identical were in New York, one was on Long Island the other was off the coast of CT.

No. See above.

To be honest I never even thought of such a property. Maybe it’s a more East Coast thing? I know there are a couple properties on the West Coast that have some but not all of those things.

BNGL · September 9, 2023

57 minutes ago, mallrat said:

To be honest I never even thought of such a property. Maybe it’s a more East Coast thing? I know there are a couple properties on the West Coast that have some but not all of those things.

messaged you.

But that is the difference between a golf club and a club....Concession, Seminole, Shinnecock, Chicago GC, Muirifield Village are golf clubs. My "baby", Fishers Island, Olympic Club, are clubs first yes they have venerable golf clubs but its a club first.

Olympic Club has two courses, but it also has a clubhouse in the city the first one was actually built in the late 1800s then later destroyed in the quake of 1907 (I could be wrong but think it was 1907, it was the early 1900s that an 8.0 nearly rocked San Francisco). In addition to golf it offered a plethora of amenities and sports to its members but now its focus is mainly tennis and golf.

TexasTurf · April 30

Superintendent job posted at the biggest private club in DFW for 50k today. 2nd or 3rd assistant jobs in our region are 70k plus at lesser clubs. What sucker would fall for that. DOA making over 3 times that to not be there. Plus he's all over twitter shi**** on the guys who came before him with no resources. Good luck man.