As the son of a football coach, Joe Wachter spent much of his life outdoors playing sports as a child, so it might seem only natural that he chose a career that allowed him to spend time outdoors. As it turns out, that career outside on the golf course happened mostly by coincidence.
Wachter was working as a school bus contractor in the St. Louis area in 1990 when he was at a fundraiser golf tournament at Glen Echo Country Club. While there, he overheard a man nearby discussing his need to hire an assistant golf course superintendent. Wachter, who was already considering a career change to the landscaping industry, thought he just might have stumbled onto the perfect opportunity.
Two days later, after discussing things with his now ex-wife and brother Ed, who was superintendent at Innsbrook Resort in Missouri at the time, Wachter called the man who happened to be Lee Redman, superintendent at Sunset Country Club in suburban St. Louis.
"He hired me on the spot," Wachter said. "I immediately lost the company car and about 30 percent of my salary. After talking about it with my wife, she said 'OK, if you think it's the right thing to do.' I said 'I think it is.' "
I'd like to be remembered for how I treated people, and how I think I've put their needs ahead of mine. If you do that, your needs will be taken care of.
Thirty-four years later, at the end of October, Wachter is closing the books on that career that happened purely by being in the right place at the right time. And it is ending right where it (sort of) began — Glen Echo, an 1896 Jim Foulis design that was the host site of the 1904 Olympic golf competition.
"I'm ready," Wachter said.
"As you get older, you realize you've given up a lot of personal time. Now you want to take advantage of what's left. In the end, this is the best thing."
Wachter is a graduate of the business school at Southeast Missouri State, and later completed his turf education at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, where he took 11 horticulture classes.
He spent the last 16 years of his career at Glen Echo, where he was superintendent and also doubled as general manager from 2016 to 2018.
"I was supposed to spend about 20 percent of my time on the golf course," Wachter said. "But there was so much going on in the clubhouse at that time that I was buried up there. I was never getting out to the golf course.
"I needed to focus on what I was best at, and that was the golf course."
Wachter is a get-your-hands-dirty superintendent, and his career on turf has been a real-world lesson on how to do more with less. He got a crash course in that when he took his first head superintendent job in 1993 at New Melle Lakes Golf Course.
"I wanted to go to the public side to learn the business," he said. "I've learned how to drive a truck and a backhoe. All those things you dream of doing as a kid, but never thought you'd get to do.
"Looking back, I think I was a little too impatient to become a boss, because I immediately faced a 60 percent reduction in budget and a 70 percent reduction in staffing."
He was superintendent at Eagle Springs Golf Course in St. Louis from 1996 to 2003 and then spent the next five years at Spencer T. Olin Golf Course in Alton, Illinois, before moving on to Glen Echo in 2008.
In that time, much has changed in the profession of being a golf course superintendent, including technology and chemistries. But an often-overlooked change, Wachter says, is how the Internet brought the turf community together.
"It has made the world smaller for us by being able to communicate with people in other places," he said. "Because of that, I've been able to talk with people like Ted Horton, Oscar Miles, Gordon Witteveen, Jerry Coldiron. All giants in the industry. And it has allowed me to exchange ideas and information with them. That would not have been possible before.
One thing he learned, and that became a constant at each stop throughout Wachter's career has been trying to make the golf course a fun place to work for his team, while working together to improve playing conditions for golfers.
"I've always tried to make their jobs easier," he said. "The easier you make their jobs, the easier yours becomes. And our customers appreciate our hard work if we make the golf experience enjoyable for them. I try to throw a few flowers out there and make the grass look good."
He hired me on the spot. I immediately lost the company car and about 30 percent of my salary. After talking about it with my wife, she said 'OK, if you think it's the right thing to do.' I said 'I think it is.'
Many superintendents look back on their careers and want that reputation of providing the best-possible playing conditions on the golf course as their defining legacy. Wachter hopes his is something much more meaningful.
"I'd like to be remembered for how I treated people, and how I think I've put their needs ahead of mine," he said. "If you do that, your needs will be taken care of."
To that end, Wachter was the driving force behind organizing a Habitat for Humanity project during the 2009 GCSAA Show in New Orleans. The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina were still evident throughout New Orleans four years after it made landfall southeast of the city in Plaquemines Parish.
Thanks to Wachter, about two-dozen TurfNet members participated in putting the finishing touches on a Habitat for Humanity home in the city's badly damaged Ninth Ward.
"I like doing things for other people. It's more satisfying than just taking care of your own needs," he said. "If you help others have success, then others will think well of you."
Joe was recognized back in 2022 as the first TurfNet All Star of Turf.
