Stephen Kay: "Designing Successful Superintendents at the Rutgers Professional Golf Course Turf Management Program"

In 1983, Stephen Kay was a young golf course architect working for an established older architect, Bill Newcomb, in Michigan. Newcomb was also an instructor in the two-year turf program at Michigan State and the turf masters program at the University of Michigan. “The last year that I was with him he was so busy working on a project in California that 8 of the 10 weeks of the two year program I taught the classes for him,” said Kay. In 1983, Kay moved from Michigan back to his home state of New Jersey. Having enjoyed teaching at Michigan State and wanting to continue, Kay called Rutgers University to inquire about a teaching job in its turf program. “I called in '83 and they gave me Dr. Engle one time and Dr. Indyke one time and they both said ‘Oh, we don’t need anybody teaching a class in golf instruction.’ It was the fall of '84, and I was speaking at a conference Ned [Ned Lipman, Director of the Rutgers Professional Golf Turf Management Program] was at, and he came up to me and said, ‘You were really good. I liked how you presented the information. Have you ever taught in college? Would you be interested in teaching in the Rutgers program?’ And that’s how it first started,” said Kay.

Today, Kay teaches Golf Design History and Principles, Construction 1 and 2 and Surveying. The most important things that he wants his students to remember are to vent their drainage, “like when you go to open a can; if you don’t put holes in it a vacuum will occur. It’s the same thing with drainage,” and to hire an architect when you start doing work on your course. “Lots of superintendents play architect and sometimes they lose their job over that…because it doesn’t turn out good. It ends up costing more than they thought it was going to cost so they go way over budget and a lot of superintendents were assistants for guys who did that. If you’re really sick then you go to a doctor.”

According to Kay, what makes a successful superintendent? “Number one is being able to listen. Then they gotta know how to grow grass and they should not fall in love with their ideas with how to do something. You should be open-mindedly stubborn.” Finally, Kay said, one of the lost arts of being a superintendent is spiking. A spiker is that star shaped weapon from martial arts movies. “You’ve gotta constantly be spiking or breaking through that thatch area to get air moving. If not, a lot of things could stop happening. I went to visit in Scotland and a guy was asking me, ‘Why do you guys have moss on your greens? If anything we in Scotland should have moss on our greens because we have humidity and fog and other conditions that are favorable for moss to grow.’ We spike our greens in 2 directions twice a week.  I get around to about 250 – 300 golf courses each year and the ones who spike; ‘Wow, what an improvement.’ The more I do it, the better my greens are. I don’t think sometimes that all the research guys get out and hear from the superintendents.”

Over the 20 years that Kay has been teaching, the Rutgers Turf program has really built up. “I’ve been hearing people talk about it for a long time. Probably 20 years ago, the Rutgers program was ok. ‘It’s ok, it’s convenient.’ Now I hear people saying: ‘It’s a top 5 program in the country.’  Plus, Turf Net rated the schools Rutgers was # 4. Of the 2 year programs, North Carolina was number 1 in the country, Michigan State was 2, Penn state might have been 3 and we were 4. We [Rutgers] is definitely top notch.”

“One good success story would be a young man from Ohio by the name of Joe Gardner. Joe is this real tall, good-looking kid who was one of my students here who had worked at Muirfield Village in Ohio. When he finished he got a job at the C wing club. I was very impressed with his knowledge.  I have a client who’s a member of Del Wood Country Club who was looking to hire for the assistant position. They told him, ‘We are only interviewing superintendents not assistants. The last two guys were assistants. They didn’t do a good job. We decided we’re willing to pay extra money and we decided we are only interviewing superintendents. We’ve narrowed it to 20.’ The GM decided that he was going to narrow it down to 7 by phone and then choose someone through a face-to-face.  So I called the general manager and I told him, ’Look, I’ve never gone out of my way to make a recommendation…’ and he told me, ‘Well, he’s an assistant. We aren’t going to hire him.’ I said, ‘Do me a favor. This guy’s good. I teach in the Rutgers program.’ Do me a favor, interview 21 on the phone. He must be good – I’ll give it to him.  Joe got the job. He blew them away.”

Finally, for guys who want to become superintendent, Kay advises them to learn how to give interviews and plan to work your way up. “Be an assistant at a top 100 club first. If you are an assistant at a top 100 club you’ll get the superintendent job you want.”