Turf

64 SUPER 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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