Laurie Bland has been breaking down barriers throughout her brief career in turfgrass management. Recently named the new head superintendent at Miami Springs Golf and Country Club in South Florida, Bland is a Hispanic woman taking on a man's world, and succeeding.
At the ripe old age of 26, Bland comes to Miami Springs after a five-year career at Doral Golf Resort in Miami, where she worked on several courses, including the famed Blue Monster, and prepped for numerous PGA Tour events. According to the GCSAA, there are just 60 women in the association with Class A or superintendent member status, but Bland's biggest challenge in battling stereotypes began long before she ever stepped foot on a golf course.
Growing up in what she called a traditional Hispanic household her mother is of Cuban and Spanish heritage Bland was expected to stay home after her high school days at Miami's Turner Tech Arts High School. Leaving home to attend college nearly 400 miles away to learn a man's trade definitely was not in her family's plan.
"I grew up in a family where no one left home. I was expected to get a job and stay here," said Bland. "In a Hispanic family you don't leave the nest."
Despite the challenges of where she's been, Bland is more focused on where she's headed.
She is trading valuable experience at one South Florida property with deep tradition (the Blue Monster has been a PGA Tour stop since 1962) to take over the challenges presented by another course that boasts a proud past, but now is in need of some TLC.
Miami Springs is a small town of 14,000 just north of Miami. The Thomas Martin-designed golf course that bears the town's name opened in 1923 and was the site of the Tour's Miami Open from 1924-1955. In recent times, however, the city-owned property has fallen into a state of disrepair that belies its heritage. And Bland will have to call upon all of that confidence and the agronomic skill she attained during her time first at Lake City, then Gainesville Country Club and finally Doral to whip Miami Springs into shape before the next South Florida golf season begins this fall.
"We have to get the grass growing again," she said. "There are so many areas that still need grass.
"We have a very short window to make it great."
Those who have worked with Bland in the past are not surprised by where she is now.
"Over the course of my 25 years, I have managed many superintendents, and Laurie has that intrinsic motivation, passion, hunger and desire to be a turf manager," said Tom Trammell, former director of agronomy at Doral. "She was with me for five years, so I spent a lot of time with her. She was always confident and didn't allow herself to be rattled."
That determination came in handy when she told her parents she was intent on breaking the traditional mold reserved for her and instead carving her own path in life. Her focus was trained on a career in turfgrass science ever since a class field trip from Turner Tech to what then was called Lake City Community College in north-central Florida.
At that time, she'd never been on a golf course before, or even knew that it was possible to earn a living managing one. She was captivated that day at Lake City by a demonstration that today she could do blindfolded.
"They showed us how to change a cup. It's funny. That is so rudimentary now," said Bland. "But to us it was fascinating that you could do that and put the cup back into the ground and not be able to tell where the old cup was."
From that moment she knew she wanted to be a superintendent. What she didn't know was whether the door would be open for her. As it turned out, it was left ajar far more than she could have hoped.
"I asked (LCCC instructor John Piersol) how many women do this, because I didn't see many there," she said. "I think he said there had been something like two women in the last two years. So, I asked if there were any scholarships, and what was the likelihood that a woman like me would even make it in this profession."
There is no questioning that even at age 26 Bland has paid her dues during her short career. In fact, she made a significant sacrifice before she took her first class at Lake City.
"I was determined to leave the nest, and I had plenty of friends who were willing to let me sleep on their couch," she said. "My mother was against it, but she told me that if I was going to prove myself I'd have to do it on my own. I think she gave me $20, and I hitchhiked to Lake City and slept on a couch for the first year. After a while, my mom saw I was serious and that I wasn't going to back down."
What Bland learned on the job was that hard work, determination and leadership skills were blind to gender. And so was Marriott, which granted her a scholarship to continue her education at Lake City.
In exchange for scholarship assistance recipients must complete an internship at a Marriott Golf property, and that opened a lot of doors for Bland.
A 2008 Lake City graduate, she worked alongside men as an intern at Gainesville Country Club and has supervised them since her days at Doral (a former Marriott property), where she was an assistant on the Blue Monster before being named superintendent of the Jim McLean Course for two years beginning in July 2011.
"During her time at Doral, she has been promoted to different positions on several of the courses giving her the opportunity to gain skills in managing different courses with their own unique microenvironments and challenges," said David Robinson, senior director of golf grounds for Marriott Golf. "With each new challenge she rose to the occasion and excelled. She was able to improve course conditions each and every time."
Admittedly, Bland cannot do everything a man can do. She can't heft 100-pound bags off pallets, but even in a job historically reserved for men, there are other ways in which she can perform as well as or better than any of her male counterparts.
Her Hispanic heritage and the open corporate culture at Marriott helped her pave her way.
"I've always had to work hard. No one could see a woman working alongside 80 men," she said. "Latin men felt this wasn't a job for women. I had to prove myself over and over. Because I'm Hispanic and bilingual, I'm able to communicate to them that not all women are the same.
"I can't do everything a man can do, but men now understand and respect that I can do this and that I'm educated to do this."