Success in any endeavor usually happens when talent, timing, motivation and knowledge are combined, producing positive results that draw positive attention.

While I may have been deficient in talent, timing and motivation, I did understand the part knowledge played in successful golf course management.

I could research something to death.

If I couldn’t find the answer, I contacted people in the golf industry who did know the answer; I tested, experimented and slowly gathered several notebooks full of information acquired outside the halls of academia.

While most of this information was rendered obsolete by the march of time, technology, and changes in golfer expectations, one particular method helped me reach a higher level of golf maintenance success than I deserved.

Like Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who never lost a fight when he was in command, I never lost a green when I was in command, even bent greens in the blistering, steamy heat of central Georgia.

I owe the ability to make this statement to that one particular method.

The GCS category that I inhabited is known as “The Wyatt Earp Superintendent“, the specialist willing to tame a wild town where many others have failed.

I tamed several wild golf courses.

It was accomplished using this method, this secret I’m about to reveal.  It is important to state at this point, while my predecessors were unsuccessful at taming wild golf courses, it was not  because of incompetence, laziness or poor training. They simply did not know how important sunshine, large-scale air movement and playability were to their success . . . nor did they pursue the problem with the fervor of a barbarian unleashed upon a helpless village.  The typical GCS in charge before my arrival tried to approach the problems in a civilized manner.

But civilized manners rarely work . . . until the town has been tamed.

If you are considering taking charge of a wild golf course that has overwhelmed several good superintendents, think about it very carefully before you accept.  Do you have some Wyatt Earp in you?

If you decide to go ahead, I salute you.  But before you ride into that wild town, watch this video that contains two tips, one trick and a secret I have never before revealed to the golf industry.