When I first entered the golf dimension, things were different.  We existed at the "Pro/Super" level and life, although hectic, was relatively cheerful.  Golf course maintenance and the clubhouse got along very well, with few altercations and overt acts of retaliation.  This was mainly because Dad was both of those entities and he rarely got into fights with his own self, although I managed to perfect that technique later.

I know what you're thinking:  It should have been Supt/Pro rather than Pro-Super, but the eventual shortcut would have resulted in the title "Super-Pro" and that would have just been wrong.

Anyway, one day Dad gave up the Pro/Super role and took on his first pure GCS job.  It was a Dick Wilson design, (my favorite) and it was in a great location.  There were only a couple of problems:  The contractor had cut every possible construction corner, there was no money in the budget because the Holy Golf Pro usurped all the revenue and . . . the Holy Golf Pro was in charge.

The HGP was as territorial as a pit bull, vindictive, possessed of a foul vocabulary and unaware that his previous turf management techniques had rendered the greens grassless, the fairways a veritable polystand of crowfooted soft crab and the tees:  Pockmarked ankle-spraining cratered pits of red clay.

While Dad concentrated, against great odds, on restoring playability to the course, I sought vengeance against the HGP with a wide range of tricks normally reserved for agencies of counter-intelligence.  (In two years, Dad had the course on a major golf magazine's Top 50 Public list.)

I had succeeded in driving the pro shop personnel--and myself--nearly insane.

Years later, as a certain detente' was reached between pro and GCS, I realized I had been wrong and began to try a different approach.  Success Secret #55:  Establish strong relations with the clubhouse, create a team atmosphere with . . . Tuesday Golf.

I simply invited the pro to a 9-hole round of match play--walking--and wagered a glass of iced tea.  We began at around 2:00, I kept the radio on to keep it work-related and we had a relaxing round of golf while we discussed what our departments were currently doing.  I carried a light bag, only about 8 clubs, wore my tennis shoes and got a real good look at the course from the customer's view.

Eventually, committee members demanded to join Tuesday Golf and we alternated front side with back side each week.  This created a great sense of harmony, except on the days I beat the pro in front of members and that triggered a backlash effect that often saw the pro resign from Tuesday Golf.

Maybe I never really exorcised that vengeance thing.