Golf Course Superintendent

The Montgomery County Revenue Authority (MCRA) has an opportunity to become a part of a dynamic team! MCRA was established in 1957 and is an instrumentality of Montgomery County and a public corporation. The Revenue Authority is a solutions management company that focuses on finance, operations, consulting, and connections.  On the operations side, the MCRA directly manages the Golf Course System (of 9 golf courses) and The Crossvines wine production facility and vineyard and operates the Montgomery County Airpark.

MCRA’s Montgomery County Golf (MCG) division has an immediate opening for a Golf Course Superintendent with a COMPETITIVE compensation package. Needwood Golf Course, a 27-hole Lindsey Ervin design, includes an 18-hole course constructed in the early 1970s and an Executive 9 added in 1985. The course covers 230 acres of rolling parkland and has been operated by MCRA since 2006. The 18-hole course features bent/poa pushup greens, ryegrass fairways, and mixed cool-season tees. The center-row Rain Bird irrigation system with central control is scheduled for replacement with a double-row system starting in winter 2025-26.

The perennial ryegrass fairways and tees are maintained for optimal play and have been on a Poa reduction plan for the past couple of years, while the bent/poa greens provide consistent, high-quality putting surfaces. Two GPS sprayers help keep conditions precisely dialed in. The course's irrigation system upgrades are part of the long-term improvement plan for continued excellence. There will likely be some upcoming redesign work on a couple of golf holes.  Needwood’s superintendent also maintains the Grass Roots Exhibit, a small educational turfgrass display originally located at the National Arboretum. It’s a great space for educational events such as First Green, and we’ve hosted several turfgrass workshops in cooperation with the University of Maryland Extension.

MCRA emphasizes a team environment, so equipment and staff sharing between the 9 courses can be done during project or aeration season as available. Each course has a truck and trailer to facilitate this. The strength of our team is our people! Great team of supers, assistants, and equipment managers to share ideas and get better, and extra support staff are here as needed for advanced troubleshooting or diagnostic work in the shops or on the course. Among the many conveniences of our team also include sharing equipment parts, chem/fert/seed on short notice, and shared resources such as a chipper, stump grinder, trenchers, deep-tine aerators, Redexim Overseeders, Shockwave, flail mowers, mini-excavator, etc. We foster an environment that balances hard work, safety, and fun in creating great playing conditions daily! Operational efficiency and attention to detail are important at Needwood in creating a golf experience that exceeds expectations.

The superintendent is responsible for maintaining the golf course property, driving range/practice area, as well as clubhouse landscaping. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; running a safety-oriented operation; overseeing equipment R&M; addressing complaints and resolving problems. We’re starting to dig deeper into data collection to help understand how our activities affect organic matter development (and playability/turf health) on greens, what factors into clipping yield variability (and thus green speed), and beginning to better understand predictive disease and PGR models, utilizing growth potential, etc.  There are lots of opportunities for in-house research to try new things. Robotic mowers will debut on most of our driving ranges in 2025, and we’ll look for future opportunities to streamline efficiencies on the course as well in the future.