tournament tested

superintendent enjoys putting his course on the edge

It’s day two of the Senior PGA Tour’s FleetBoston Classic and superintendent Paul Miller is taking a leisurely ride around Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, Massachusetts. Common sense would seem to dictate that Miller should be anxious and on edge, but instead he’s sitting back in his golf car relaxed and chatting.

“There is no magic in having a course in tournament condition,” he says. “Too many people spend their whole lives looking for the tricks of the trade and forget the trade. There is no magic dust. What we have achieved here is the result of good, solid cultural practices. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked what is the one procedure that makes this course stand out. There isn’t any single factor. If there were one procedure, then anyone could do the job. Our success is the combination of many elements.”

The golf course is ready long before the tournament begins.

“My position is to be proactive and be involved on the front end,” Miller says. “I head issues off before they get to my doorstep. I work very closely with the tournament director to get everything done ahead of schedule. We’ve been working together for 13 years. We know each other’s style and complement each other.”

Miller’s first assistant, Dan O’Connell, goes out before play begins with Senior PGA Tour officials to locate tee markers and flagsticks. The superintendent follows along behind them with his Stimpmeter, putter, rake, some divot mix and his dog, Bogey.

“I fill in all the gaps,” he says. “For an event like this, I become a micro manager. I check the entire golf course before play begins. The playability may be OK, but aesthetically there may be some clippings to move off.”

'Art of the business‘

Miller calls having his course in tournament condition all the time a matter of practicing “the art of the business,” rather than “the science.” He says science can be taught, but art comes from experience. He studies other operations and constantly critiques his own course to find ways to do things better. He offers this nugget:

“There was a lot of ice in New England this year,” Miller says, “and it had to come off the greens.

Superintendents in this area were trying everything. Some put down fertilizer to heat it up, but there is a risk this material might translocate into low areas. Others tried crumb rubber, which is basically a soil amendment incorporated into high traffic areas. But this approach can create a layering issue. I went with sunflower seeds. I spread them on the greens and the birds ate them. The black husks pulled in heat from the sun, which cut right through the ice. The worst situation I can have is overfed birds and a few seeds in the greens until we mow a few times.

“That’s art, not science,” he continues. “I spoke with an agronomy instructor at an agricultural technical school, and he mentioned this idea to me. If you have a bird feeder in your back yard filled with sunflower seeds, there’s no ice around it, correct? These things aren’t taught in school; you get this knowledge on the street. To me, these are the fun things about the business. Superintendents on the cutting edge make use of all the tools available.”

Find the right fit

Miller, 50, was a good athlete growing up, but didn’t play golf. The owner of a landscaping business he worked for taught him to play, and he fell in love with the game. This led Miller to a career in golf course maintenance, which began in 1977 as an assistant at a club on Cape Cod. He has been superintendent at Nashawtuc for 13 years.

“The tournament lured me here,” he says, “and because the club wanted to do a lot of renovation. This is the perfect fit for me. I love the exposure of the tournament and pushing myself to the limit. We were under snow and ice for 100 days this winter, and then we were flooded for three weeks. Then the eighth green and practice area were torn up for septic installation. We got everything back together by May 15 and hosted the tournament the third week in June.”

Miller contends that golf courses are different because superintendents have different approaches and styles. He says that when someone goes for a job interview, they had better be sure that their style matches the club and the course.

“Some people are agronomy strong, while others are playability strong,” he explains. “The color of my greens might not be appropriate at some clubs, but a player who likes a 10 greens speed couldn’t be any happier here. Good players don’t play golf on color. But if the club only has three single-digit handicappers and everyone else plays in six hours because the course is too fast, the match is wrong. It’s not necessarily a case of right or wrong; it’s just a bad marriage.”

Miller came to Nashawtuc with a reputation of developing championship conditions, and this is what the club was looking for.

“Sometimes the club doesn’t know what it wants,” he says. “We are professionals, but the club sets the direction and this may result in confusion. If the club wants green speeds of nine and I want to put the course on the edge, now the situation is out of control. The club and the superintendent have to match up correctly.”

Fit is critical. There has to be a clear understanding about what a superintendent wants to do with his career and what the club is looking for in its golf course.

“A tournament guy at a municipal course doesn’t fit,” Miller says. “Superintendents should critique their career path and try to find the club that best fits them. Then it’s a home run for everyone. The superintendent should also be interviewing the club. If there is a sense that the direction isn’t the same, he has to be smart enough to get out of that environment.”

Learn to listen

In order to be successful, superintendents also have to be better listeners.

“We can get too opinionated,” Miller says. “We have to listen to understand what members want. And sometimes we have to be able to explain why they may not be able to have it that way. A superintendent can’t lose track of who owns the place, and the longer we stay the more difficult that becomes.”

Miller uses a round of golf to explain his maintenance procedures.

“At the end of nine holes,” he says, “there will be a person who understands why I do what I do. A golfing superintendent has a keener instinct about what members want. He doesn’t have to be a scratch player, but there is a certain amount of respect that comes with a superintendent who golfs. It establishes access to members, and they like to see you sharing in the same thing they love. Often they aren’t as aggressive toward you as they might otherwise be if you didn’t play.”

Miller takes the same approach with his staff of five full-time and 16 to 18 seasonal personnel.

“I try to delegate to two assistants to get them to maximize their people skills,” he says. “I give them enough latitude where they can develop themselves and get ready to become superintendents. UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, ‘I’d rather give someone responsibility and be disappointed some of the time than to never give responsibility and be disappointed all the time.’ I’ll point them in the right direction and most of the time they’ll be OK. If a superintendent tries to do everything himself, he’ll constantly be disappointed. If he’s making all the calls, the assistants will never know what to expect. I put my assistants in position to manage a staff and force them to make decisions. I have the operation under control, but I want them to feel part of the management team.”

People skills are developed under fire.

“In a career development process,” Miller says, “it helps to be with a superintendent who knows how to deal with all kinds of people. He will show you more in his demeanor than you could ever hope to learn from a book. There are two kinds of superintendents: Those who have lost grass and those who will. In other words, if you don’t start honing your communication skills so you can defend your position and explain what’s happening, you’re putting yourself in a very dangerous situation. Once your job and your family’s well-being are at stake, you’d better know how to play that game.”

New equipment for the best results

Nashawtuc superintendent Paul Miller tries to protect the integrity of his golf course by using the latest technology. He needs the best equipment for the best results. For the past six years, he has leased the needed equipment.

“I don’t want to get into a scenario where the green committee is asking for $200,000 one year, $50,000 the next and another $150,000 the third year,” he says. “Leasing allows us to flatline our payments. It becomes a line item in the budget rather than an annual capital request. I put the leasing figure in each budget so I don’t have to ask for it when a new committee comes in.”

The club leases mowing equipment for three years with an option to buy. Miller opts to roll over his inventory into a new lease agreement.

“Why would I buy 3-year-old equipment for $150,000 when I can lease new equipment for $100,000,” Miller says? “Roll out the old and bring in the new because it doesn’t make any sense to buy it. With leasing, it’s less expensive to acquire brand-new equipment than trying to patch up old machines.”

In order for this to be a benefit for everyone, there must be a secondary market for older equipment, which is typically new golf courses.

“It’s an advantage if there is a building boom of new courses in the area,” Miller says. “There may even be a buyout option before the end of the lease because there is a market for used equipment. That’s a nice situation.”

Another reason to lease is the opportunity to get equipment with the latest technology.

“Technology in this industry is changing very fast,” Miller says. “Fairway mowers are about $35,000 a piece, and I have three. With leasing, the payments are the same every month, and in three years we’re probably two generations ahead in technology when we get our next mowers. If we owned the machines and kept them a few years longer, we could end up five or six generations behind. Then I’d get the questions about why our fairways aren’t as good as someone else’s. It might not be because of our cultural practices, but strictly because the equipment is old technology.”

Miller buys long-term equipment such as tractors, dump trucks and loaders. When it’s time to aerify, he contracts the job.

“I try to look at the big picture,” he says. “I don’t want to tie up $30,000 for a piece of equipment that I may only use for two weeks. And, I’ve freed up labor and capital. Again, I make aerification a line item in the budget. This makes good sense and is easy to explain to financial people. I take advantage of other people’s equipment, and we don’t have pieces sitting idle in the shop.”