No one will ever mistake LSU Golf Course for the Country Club of Louisiana. The latter, a Jack Nicklaus design, is one of the most exclusive private golf clubs in Baton Rouge. The former has been without a superintendent for more than a year and is so common, it can be a challenge to find someone at the university who knows the identity of the architects who designed it.
Located on the south side of campus, LSU's golf course lies on a flat parcel smack between two of Baton Rouge's largest attractions, 102,000-seat Tiger Stadium and the Mississippi River. It is the handiwork of Al Michael and Phil Thompson, who designed it 60 years ago.
The course offers just what one might think, low-cost golf with low expectations. It also offers a group of the university's turf students a lot of hands-on experience that they might not get elsewhere.
Since February, the university has leaned heavily on Jeff Beasley, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, to develop a plan and find bodies to implement it in the absence of superintendent Mitch Fontenot, who retired in 2019.
"There is one full-time guy over there and we sprinkle in some students and try to put together a golf course with that is a tough thing," Beasley said. "It's hard to guide a ship when you don't have a superintendent. Especially one as talented as Mitch."
The golf course also provides about a half-dozen students with work and internship opportunities that, during the past seven months, might not have been so easy to come by.
"Students were losing internship opportunities, so we created an internship program for five students," Beasley said.
Matt Lambert is a senior at LSU, and he said there are pros and cons to the current set at the golf course.
"We have a lot of freedom, and I am getting a lot of good work experience to put on my resume," Lambert said.
"Jeff is in charge where the greens are concerned and we get to work directly with him, but there is no superintendent out there, so sometimes we have to look outside for sources to bounce ideas off of."
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Lambert worked with Texas Rangers grounds crew in 2019 and
"In the last 10 years, we've experienced budget cuts, and we're in an age where we can't go to the well to get more money," Beasley said.
"The students are learning on the job. They help aerify, apply fertilizer and bring the golf course back. It's not perfect, but doesn't have a full-time superintendent and it's relying on student labor, so it's beginning to improve."
An ongoing Air2G2 study at the golf course helps students get real-world experience on some of the industry's latest technology while also improving conditions.
The course is managed directly by Emily Smith a director in LSU's facility and property oversight office.
"Mitch had been gone about a year when they called me in February," Beasley said. "The greens looked like they were about to die, and the irrigation system was down. It's getting better.
"I'm just one of the cogs. Emily oversees the course, and she has been very supportive. The reality is it is always better when you have a superintendent. My goal is to support them as long as they need. I'm happy with what we've done."