The financial world’s loss was the superintendent profession’s gain, after Lianne Larson fled her cubicle to start a new career that now involves a broad range of responsibilities at White Cliffs CC.
Friends and family of Lianne Larson thought she had won the lottery.
After all, she had begun her career as a financial analyst with a leading corporation in downtown Boston. Her future was bright. But Larson was miserable; she didn’t like life in the cubicle. So one day, she called in sick and went job hunting.
“I literally went knocking door-to-door,” Larson says. “There was this green space I looked at outside my window every day. I liked being outdoors, so I went to a golf course and asked for a job.”
SUPER IN THE SPOTLIGHT:Lianne LarsonPosition: Golf Course Superintendent, White Cliffs Country Club |
Larson’s new career began mowing greens for a nine-hole golf course on the grounds of St. Mark’s School, a co-ed prep school outside of Boston. In the winter, she was in charge of maintaining the ice rink, which also meant operating the Zamboni machine. (“It was a lot harder than it looks,” she says.)
From there, she went on to spend five years at Milford (Mass.) Country Club. It was a bit of a homecoming for Larson, as she grew up caddying there. During her time at Milford, she oversaw a re-design and grow-in of the golf course.
In 1990, Larson made the move to Glen Ellen Country Club in Millis, Mass. Little did she know how important this change would be to her career development. The club was managed by Corcoran-Jennison, a regional hospitality management company that had Jeff Carlson on staff. Carlson had quickly gained a reputation as one of the state’s golf industry leaders, and while he oversaw a three-year capital improvement program at Glen Ellen, Larson would be the day-to-day golf course superintendent.
“I would consider Jeff Carlson my mentor,” Larson says. “I learned so much from him, especially on the environmental side of the business. We still talk all the time. He has been a great friend and resource.” (Carlson is now the certified golf course superintendent at Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, and is considered one of the leading authorities on organic management of golf courses.)
In 1996, Larson assumed the superintendent position at White Cliffs Country Club in Plymouth, Mass., overlooking Cape Cod Bay. But the job entailed more than managing a golf course. She was also put in charge of maintenance for the 358 housing units that are in the residential community (whose owners must be club members). She essentially manages two teams—one for the 18 holes of the golf course that wind through the housing development, and one for the properties around the homes.
As New England was finally beginning to thaw out from an exceptionally harsh winter in early March, C&RB talked with Larson about her career arc and the specific challenges that have come with her position at White Cliffs.
C&RB: Some would say the deck was “double-stacked” against you in pursuing a golf course management career, as a female who did not have a degree in agronomy. Has that been the case?
Larson: An outsider would think that. But I can honestly say I have never once felt any discrimination because I did not have a degree in turf or because I was a female. I took every seminar I could, and read all the periodicals to learn about the industry. The other superintendents in the area have been great about helping me, especially when I got started. Superintendents are close. They support each other. I was elected President of our chapter (Golf Course Superintendents Association of Cape Cod), so that tells you they respected me, and I appreciate that.
C&RB: Do you ever regret the move from the corporate world to the golf industry?
Larson: Well, there have been some days, like at the end of a 100-hour week of snow removal, that you begin to question yourself. But actually it has been great; I do not regret it at all. Now, some people thought I was crazy. But I am an outdoors person and this profession suits me just fine. I get to go to work in comfortable clothes instead of corporate dress, and I get to take my dog to work.
C&RB: What makes the White Cliffs course unique from a strategy standpoint?
Larson: This is a par-62, Gary Player design that is just over 6,100 yards. They call it an executive course, but we maintain it to the quality you would see at any other club in the area. The wind can blow a lot here, and that can make it very challenging. We also have some naturalized areas that can affect strategy. There aren’t many trees, but there is still danger out there. There is a deep drop-off along several holes, so that can come into play. I grew up caddying and playing the game, and the course even scares me when I play.
GOLF COURSE PROFILE:White Cliffs Country ClubWebsite: www.whitecliffscc.com |
C&RB: You have responsibility for managing the course and the housing units. Any other duties?
Larson: White Cliffs is quite an operation. In addition to the golf course and the homes, I have responsibility for clubhouse grounds, four clay tennis courts, an indoor pool, a fitness center, a sewage treatment facility, and all capital improvements to the club property. I do think my business background helps tremendously, because I oversee contractors and numerous vendors. I tell people I have put my formal education to use. Our membership is mainly our homeowners, but we have about 70 outside members. There’s quite a diversity of income among the members, and some of them are seasonal, going south for the winter; I would say 60 percent of our members leave at that time.
C&RB: Tell us about managing the half-mile of shoreline.
Larson: Part of the course sits on a cliff with a drop of 169 feet to the ocean. We face a continual erosion challenge. Years ago, we lost part of the 18th tee box. We tried to control it at first with vegetation, but that just wasn’t working. Anything we do has to be approved by the local conservation commission and Corps of Engineers. The project has been ongoing for several years, and it looks like we are going to have to use hard materials to prevent more damage. It’s not unusual to get 80-mile-per-hour winds from a Nor’easter; they can really be damaging. But I love the whole stabilization project, and I‘m learning a lot working with the various permitting agencies.
C&RB: Are there any environmental challenges for your property?
Larson: There has been growing legislation over the years challenging our access to turf-care products. But we have a good lobbyist, and the members are engaged in addressing concerns that anyone might have.
Superintendents have a good reputation as turf managers, but we will always face some type of opposition. I have always been a “scout and spray” person, so we are not doing much preventative application. I credit much of what I do to Jeff Carlson, who was really ahead of his time. We also protect water bodies with buffer strips and vegetation. In a really dry year, our wells, which supply all of White Cliffs’ water, will breach, but for the most part water is not a concern. Again, we can have significant winds. Cleaning up after a big storm can be a major undertaking.
C&RB: You just completed a $3 million renovation. What was included?
Larson: We built a new 7,000-sq. ft. turf-care facility. Our offices were in an old office trailer that was 18 years old. We did keep an older storage building for equipment. But now we have a place for staff to eat and meet, and plenty of office space. We also built a state-of-the-art environmental facility. We have a closed-rinse system, fuel stations and chemical storage.
COURSE & GROUNDS OPERATIONS PROFILEAnnual Course Maintenance Budget: $750,000, including payroll |
We had a committee that went around and looked at a lot of facilities. It really took us to the next level in our operations. We also had to build a new leaching field for the sewage system, working with the EPA on that. We had to tear up two holes and dig deep to create the new one. The old one was 25 years old. We also updated the fitness facility, and did a significant improvement on the landscaping around the club’s main entrance.
C&RB: Is there anything else in the works, in terms of updates or new features?
Larson: Some of it is in progress and some will happen soon. We will be putting in new cart paths and improving drainage. The coastal revetment stabilization project is also part of the next phase, and we’re going to add four new clay tennis courts. Tennis is making a comeback, and people are playing it more. So we have been busy, and will continue to be.
C&RB: How do you schedule staff for so much work?
Larson: We have staff dedicated to the smaller aspects such as the pool, tennis courts, clubhouse and fitness center. Those teams are not as big as the grounds staff. Actually, we have two different teams—one for the golf course, and one for the homes. Both have about 15 people, some full-time and others part-time. It is expensive to live on the Cape. So, most of my staff is older. I have several who have retired from fire, police and postal work, and others who have been in public service and are looking to work after retiring. It is tough to keep young people who are looking to start a family.
C&RB: You’re coming out of a brutal winter. How has it affected your course and spring prep?
Larson: This has been a very harsh winter for us on the Cape. We recorded the most snowfall in a winter on record. Even in early March, the course was still under one to two feet of snow, and recently we went out to check on the greens and discovered three inches of hard ice at the surface. The core samples we removed had a faint scent of anoxia (oxygen depletion), so this prompted us to remove the two to four feet of drifted snow from the greens, in order to remove the ice.
I believe winter injury is going to be an issue this spring. The heavy amounts of snow have already delayed opening for us, and it looks like we could open about a month later than usual. After finally clearing the last green of snow and ice, we discovered that the bluff that was slated for stabilization had failed because of the relentless pounding of winter blizzards, and a large portion of the (18th) tee had fallen down the 169-foot cliff. Needless to say, we will go from a very intense winter to a very active spring.
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