Max Morgan, the Director of Golf Course Maintenance Operation for the Myrtle Beach National Company, first learned about the Geoponics product line when a sales representative made a cold call to his headquarters at the Myrtle Beach National golf course, one of the nine which he administers.
After being introduced to the various turfgrass and aquatic chemistries, his team of superintendents began using Agriox this past July. Having only seen the Geoponics name in trade magazines and not knowing any other users, the group was unsure what to expect. But since Morgan says it is the only slow-release soil oxygenator he is aware of, and that its effects would be particularly helpful for bentgrass greens, which he explains struggle mightily through the Myrtle Beach’s summer heat, he was willing to give the unfamiliar Earth Chemistry a try.
They like what they have seen so far with Agriox, and so have decided to try AquaKler in pond maintenance, getting away from copper sulfate as a way of making their ponds more environmentally friendly. The courses are now also utilizing the foliar nutritional Grizzly Terrain and have been getting a strong green up effect as a result.
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SUPERINTENDENT SPOTLIGHT
By the time his service in the US Navy was coming to a close in 1980, Max Morgan knew it was time to make a career choice. Reluctant to transition into a job at a nuclear power plant, as his training would suggest, he decided to try something new. During a career counseling session, one of the other attendees made an off-handed joke that there was “an association for everything you can think of.” He didn’t know it at the time, but this comment marked the beginning of his journey down a long path that would lead him to the greatest heights of his profession.
“The only thing I knew I really liked to do was play golf. So after the class I went up to him and asked if there was anything in his book for greenskeepers. He said, ‘Well, here’s one. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.’ Max wrote to the GCSAA for guidance and followed their advice that he go to school for training, deciding on Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway, South Carolina. It turned out to be a fateful choice since the campus sits a short 15-minute ride up US-501 from the heart of the Grand Strand, resort town and golf mecca Myrtle Beach. “I fell right into it, and the first thing I noticed was there was a golf course on every corner. And now we have three times as many as we did back then.”
His first job was working the course at Pine Lakes Country Club, and every position since has also been in a resort setting. “I definitely have a lot of resort background, so I am very in tune with what golfers expect out of a resort golf course.” In many ways it is exactly that, knowing what a patron wants and expects in exchange for their greens fee and giving it to them at a world-class level, that allowed Morgan to achieve his current position as the Director of Golf Course Maintenance Operation for the Myrtle Beach National Company.
Knowing The Course And Leading By Example Has Been A Key To Success
With a collection of nine premier golf courses to oversee, one might feel it safe to assume his job description changed significantly along with his job title, but from Morgan's perspective that wasn't the case. "My job is almost the same, except I have nine courses instead of one." With all the ongoing tasks required to keep even a single course healthy and manicured for visiting golfers, many expecting to play the best round of their season, it would seem too much to expect any one person to stay on top of, but good work habits established over the course of more than 25 years working as a professional turfgrass manager make it possible. "I always show up at work when the guys show up. It helps me learn about the day-to-day operations of each of the golf courses." When he's there he isn't merely observing. "My philosophy is that you never send anyone out there to do something you wouldn't do yourself. Whether it's raking bunkers or weeding pond banks, I feel to be a good superintendent you have to be the best at every one of those jobs on your golf course. And it's a good, friendly competitive thing; it's not a 'you better do it or else' kind of thing."
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Over the years the use of competition as a team-building element has not only fostered camaraderie among course workers, it has served to make the day more enjoyable for all involved. Morgan’s mowing challenges to see who could mow the straightest lines brought interest to an otherwise monotonous task, and on Saturday mornings his low-stakes walk mower races make staffers more enthusiastic about their work. “We’d each put a dollar in the pot, and whoever got done first would get the money. But you had to do the job right. The guys would go out and hustle around, and one of them would win the four dollars. I’d always kid them, ‘How come you can get done by 8:15 on Saturdays, but it takes you to 8:45 during the week?’ But it was fun.”
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When asked how the golf course industry has changed since he first got involved more than two decades ago, Morgan’s answer is perhaps a little surprising.
“The career side is exactly the same, in my opinion, because you still have to go to work and do the fundamentals.” And those basics cut across every market and apply to every golf course in operation anywhere golf is played. “You have to manage people correctly; you still have to turn in payroll; you still have to pay invoices on time; you still have to train and discipline people; you still have to hire. Most of what we are doing is the same, it’s slightly different, but in 20 years we’re still going to have to do the same things.”
That the work being done is the same everywhere might suggest that the results would be similar across the board, but clearly some courses are on the whole in better condition than others, regardless of budget or geography. What sets the cream of the crop apart from the pack?
“The agronomics are not the most difficult part of the job. It’s the managing of the facility and the people that is the most difficult part of the job. You have to learn what N, P and K are and about air and root zone, but once you get the basics, from then on it becomes how do you do the basics perfectly? How do you do the fundamentals as economically as possible?”
In Morgan’s case the answer goes back to his work force and knowing his customers. By building a crew filled with people that care about their work, enjoy their jobs, and see the course from the player’s perspective, the rest falls into place. “There’s really not a lot of voodoo and magic that goes on at a golf course, it’s mostly just fundamental maintenance. If it is done correctly, and with golfers in mind, you’re pretty much good to go.”
Clearly there is an evolution at work within the industry, golf today is not what it was in 1980, but it has been more the result of gradual improvements as opposed to quick shifts. “Over time we’ll get some better mowing equipment; we’ll get some better pesticides; and we’ll get some better sprinklers. When you look back 20 years it seems like there were dramatic changes in the industry, but from year to year they occur very slowly.”
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