62SUPER SPOTLIGHT: BAGWELL

Idaho superintendent Adam Bagwell finds niche in golf

A change of heart in college led Adam Bagwell to a career in the turf industry.The golf superintendent at Crane Creek Country Club in Boise, Idaho, knows he made the right decision.“I went to school initially at Penn State to be an engineer,” Bagwell said. “I grew up on a farm. I was going to work for John Deere and design tractors. In the first year or two, I realized I was not going to enjoy advanced math and physics.”That led the Pennsylvania native to review his options.“I considered a degree in agronomy and work on the farm, which I really enjoyed doing,” Bagwell said. “But finances were creeping in at that point,

and it would have taken a little bit more time.”That’s when thoughts about working on a golf course entered his head.“My dad used to take me to play golf a couple times a year with him and his buddies from work,” Bagwell said. “A neighbor across the street was a golf pro. We used to play a course in Kennett Square, Pa., called Loch Nairn Golf Course. I always enjoyed time with my dad and his buddies. It’s always exciting as a kid to drive a golf cart.”Bagwell, 41, chose Penn State’s turf management program.“Somebody’s got to grow the grass,” he said. “There’s some agronomy going on. So I switched and

By Allen Thayer

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AT A GLANCECrane Creek Country ClubYear Opened: 1963Location: Boise, IdahoSuperintendent: Adam BagwellHoles: 18Turf: Tyee/007 greens; bentgrass fairways; back nine tees are a bent poa mix and the front nine tees are ryegrass; the rough areas are a little bit of everything

and it would have taken a little bit more time.”That’s when thoughts about working on a golf course entered his head.“My dad used to take me to play golf a couple times a year with him and his buddies from work,” Bagwell said. “A neighbor across the street was a golf pro. We used to play a course in Kennett Square, Pa., called Loch Nairn Golf Course. I always enjoyed time with my dad and his buddies. It’s always exciting as a kid to drive a golf cart.”Bagwell, 41, chose Penn State’s turf management program.“Somebody’s got to grow the grass,” he said. “There’s some agronomy going on. So I switched and

Adam Bagwell is superintendent at Crane Creek Country Club in Boise, Idaho.

Michaelene and Xiola Bagwell lend a helpful hand for sodding.

64SUPER SPOTLIGHT: BAGWELL

haven’t looked back since.”He completed his undergraduate degree and later went on to receive his Masters of Professional Studies in Turf Management in 2012.

GOLF IS IT“My first job on the golf course was in 1994 at Wyncote Golf Club in Oxford, Pa.,” he said. “I walked through the door the first day, and I’m on the sprayer the next day because I already knew how to drive a tractor. Pulling 300-gallon sprayers—that’s all I did for the next three years.”Bagwell got his first grow-in job in 1999 as superintendent at Chisel Creek Golf Club in Landenberg, Pa., two years after attaining his bachelor’s degree.After spending seven years as superintendent at Wyncote, Bagwell became the superintendent at Crane Creek in 2007. The club is a private 18-hole course that gets about 27,000 rounds of golf per year.He’s noncommittal about recommending golf course maintenance as a career for young people.“Like any career it has its rewards and its detriments as well,” Bagwell said. “I wish the pay scale reflected, especially as an assistant, on the knowledge and experience that you need to have to do the job. We’re a lot smarter than people in the general public

give us credit for. I don’t think that’s reflected in the pay as least as an assistant and sometimes not as a superintendent either, depending on where you’re at.”

The path toward becoming a superintendent has also changed.

“It’s gotten a lot tougher to become a superintendent since 2008,”

Staff remove some trees while green stripping is proceeding.

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Bagwell said. “If you’re going to be a superintendent nowadays you have to eat, sleep and breathe it and expect to outwork everyone else. It’s a lifestyle. If you’re thinking about having a girlfriend or a partner or a wife, understand that they have to support long hours and being called away in the middle of the night and

being on call nonstop. Your kids have to get used to not seeing you in the summer and when they’re on vacation. You have to live it. You have to want to do it. And it has to be all consuming to make that jump into being a superintendent.”

And it encompasses more than growing grass.

Crane Creek Country Club is a private, 18-hole golf course that has about 27,000 rounds of golf per year.

66SUPER SPOTLIGHT: BAGWELL

“My philosophy is I’d rather take a business major and teach him the grass thing then take a grass guy and teach him the business,” Bagwell said. “It is a business. If you’re at a private club or have a private ownership, they understand numbers. You better be able to translate course conditions to numbers, otherwise you’re not going to as successful as you could be.”Bagwell’s wife, Christine, works at the club as well as the communications manager. They have three daughters; Xiola, 12, Michaelene, 10, and Vivienne, 8.

CRANK CREEKThe course is nestled in two valleys along the Boise foothills. It’s a tight, challenging par 71 course.

“We have bentgrass fairways, and there are very few bentgrass fairways in Idaho,” Bagwell said. “There is some poa in there as well.”

The valleys shape the course.

“It’s a 300-foot elevation gain from where my shop is to the top end of the golf course in each canyon,” Bagwell said. “We do have a canyon that runs down the middle of the back nine. It’s a ditch anyway—a very deep and very wide ditch. It’s a pretty difficult course.”

A $3.4 million project to renovate the back nine began in mid July.“Assuming Mother Nature cooperates, we’re going to open June 30 next year,” Bagwell said.

Crane Creek uses Jacobsen’s Eclipse series to adjust the frequency-of-dip and obtain ideal green speeds.

Fall 2016 - 67www.turftrends.com

“We have bentgrass fairways, and there are very few bentgrass fairways in Idaho,” Bagwell said. “There is some poa in there as well.”

The valleys shape the course.

“It’s a 300-foot elevation gain from where my shop is to the top end of the golf course in each canyon,” Bagwell said. “We do have a canyon that runs down the middle of the back nine. It’s a ditch anyway—a very deep and very wide ditch. It’s a pretty difficult course.”

A $3.4 million project to renovate the back nine began in mid July.“Assuming Mother Nature cooperates, we’re going to open June 30 next year,” Bagwell said.

The project features USGA greens, all new cart paths and tees. Bagwell said 75 percent of the back nine will have all new irrigation. A hole next to the driving range is being removed to expand the driving range. A new 8,000 square foot putting green and a new chipping area are being added.“It’s a pretty massive undertaking on this one,” Bagwell said.The front nine reopened in the spring of 2015, following a $1.6 million project in which the greens were cored, restored and sodded. In addition all the surrounding bunkers were rebuilt.

The deer are pretty tame at Crane Creek in the Boise foothills.

68SUPER SPOTLIGHT: BAGWELL“It’s starting to become well received by members,” Bagwell said. “We didn’t have great conditions last year, not what they were expecting. I think they were expecting ‘Well we spent a lot of money redoing the front nine, everything should be perfect.’“Well that’s not how it works in construction and grow-in,” Bagwell said. “You usually have a three-year period before the grass starts acting properly. You’re stripping all the carbon out of the soil when you’re opening it up. The soil chemistry

gets all wonky again so it doesn’t grow, it doesn’t accept water the way it used to. It was a shock to the members initially. But now in year two, we’ve addressed a lot of the issues and we’re down to much smaller issues. We’re in pretty good shape and I think they’re enjoying it now.”

SUPER STAFFBagwell welcomes former superintendents onto his staff.

“I have had typically at least one former superintendent,” Bagwell said. “Right now I have three. Anymore there are fewer superintendent jobs and more competition.”More superintendents

Workers fill and pack bunkers.

Every few years, Bagwell will hire goats to come eat the natural areas of the course.

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also seem to age out of the profession in their 50s too.“I don’t like that about the industry, but it seems to be the way it is,” Bagwell said.

“They are the best assistants you could ever ask for,” he said.

Former Idaho Falls (Idaho) Country Club superintendent Randy Ernst has been on staff for seven years. Dylan Wilder returned to Crane Creek this year after serving a stint as superintendent at Eagle Hills Golf Course in Eagle, Idaho.

“My most recent hire started in June,” Bagwell said. Tom DeGrandi was superintendent at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., for 23 years.“It’s nice to have them,” Bagwell

said. “I have no issue hiring former superintendents. I’m not job threatened at all. These guys are so valuable with their experience and offering another set of eyes. Expectations are always outstripping your budget, so they have new ideas of how to do things more efficiently. I don’t know what I would do without them. I’ve had a lot of good young assistants who have come through too.”

Crane said there are 12 to 15 full-time workers on staff at Crane Creek, and another 20 to 25 people are hired at peak times.The crew is busy now carrying out the project on the back nine.