Dan Kaar doesn't think he's unlike a lot of other superintendents whose families have had to make personal sacrifices to accommodate his profession, who become frustrated with their jobs and who on occasion dream about walking out were it not for a shortage of open jobs in the marketplace.
What might set Kaar apart is that he's finally done something about it. He had been working as a superintendent for about 10 years in the Indianapolis area when it finally clicked that the sacrifices others, namely wife Stacie, were making because of him just weren't worth it.
"I remember the day like it was yesterday," said Kaar, 42. "It was Memorial Day weekend in 2013. My wife hung up the phone on me when I told her I was missing church with her for about the 50th time because I had to work. She was right, and 15 minutes later I was done. I walked out."
Kaar had bought his own aerifier and had been renting it out to superintendents who didn't have one and began refurbishing irrigation system components and took over management of a small golf course operation on a contract basis. Fortunately, his wife has a stable job as a pharmacist, so the couple could indulge his impulse decision and he could chase his dream of combining agronomy with entrepreneurship.
Just recently, Kaar, a 2000 graduate of Purdue's turf program, began leasing Fair-Way Golf Course from owners Marilyn Neese and Judy Cunningham, whose father Henry Corbly build the course in Lebanon, Indiana in 1961.
Kaar bought all machinery and equipment, leases the course and keeps the profit.
"If there is any," he said.
"I give them a check, then it's sink or swim. It's all your skin in the game."
Kaar's lease on the property began March 21, but was months in the works. Wearing the hat of superintendent and general manager, Kaar is determined to create a new business model for golf because: "The current model doesn't work. It's an intimidating and expensive game, and we sit behind a counter and wait for people to come to us. It's too expensive for families to get into, and we have to do something about that," he said.
Kaar is determined to create a new business model for golf because: "The current model doesn't work..."
He charges $12 for nine holes with a cart, and $9 to walk ($5 through March). He has a special rate for families, and foursomes can play after 3 p.m. for $20 total. Local veterans can play for free on May 1.
His concession stand is a 20-foot-by-25-foot hut that also is the clubhouse, pro shop and bathroom, offers hot dogs, candy, chips and soft drinks and nothing costs more than $2. He employs two part-time workers on his crew, including a high school student who is his neighbor, and a couple of people to work inside the hut, greeting golfers, working the cash register and selling hot dogs.
"I'd had the idea to go out on my own for years. I finally decided to do it, or shut up and stop talking about it."
Fair-Way redefines simplicity, a concept that for golf is way overdue, he said. He makes the course available at no cost to local school golf teams, and even extends free play to those w
ho tried out but were cut. Foot golf also is coming this year.
"The golf business overdoes everything," he said. "The $50 round of golf doesn't make sense anymore."
In other efforts to hold down his costs and attract clientele, Kaar collects golf clubs from wherever he can get them for use as free loaners (no rentals here). Superintendents from other area facilities have given him flagsticks and loan out equipment, such as trailers and bunker rakes. Because of the lack of space at Fair-Way, Kaar has equipment stored at three other golf clubs in the Indianapolis area.
He still is trying to figure out the right pricing model that will attract enough customers so he can pay the bills and one day hopefully have a little extra left over.
Fair-Way doesn't have in-ground irrigation, and spigots at each green allow Kaar to handwater where and when it's necessary.
Kaar isn't a fan of industry initiatives designed to help drive play. Industry efforts to grow the game, he says, don't do much good at a 3,000-hole layout in America's heartland. Nor does he like the idea of charging newcomers for lessons then asking them to cough up more money to play when their lesson is over. Kaar knows that to grow the game at Fair-Way, it's all up to him.
"I'm not a fan of that crap," he said. "Golf needs to be more like the cruise business where they might have free dance lessons on the lido deck, then you can go to dinner and go dancing afterward. Every golf course should offer free lessons, teach you how to swing then let you go have fun."
Granted, his philosophy won't fit at the most well-heeled private clubs in Indianapolis, or anywhere else for that matter, but he figures it might have a broad appeal at daily fee facilities nationwide.
"The model we have now just keeps creating upper middle class golfers," he said. "That doesn't work.
"Then, when things don't work, the first thing that happens is they cut labor and cut our salaries."
He's even been critical of the foot golf industry for being too much like the rest of the golf business. Rather than pay $125 each for a regulation foot golf cup insert, he learned that a rubber livestock feed pan from Tractor Supply Co. that run $25 each works just fine.
The worst advice he's heard while striking out on his own was from someone who told him: "Your job is to get every penny out of every golfer that you can while they are at your course."
The worst advice he's heard while striking out on his own was from someone who told him: "Your job is to get every penny out of every golfer that you can while they are at your course."
Kaar recognizes that as a model for failure.
The best advice he has received was to hire an accountant.
While time and cost are cited as barriers to the game by golfers, government regulations as well as the cost of workers compensation insurance and permits involved, Kaar says, are barriers to starting and operating a business.
"Pushing paper is a lot of the job," he said. "And when you hire an employee, it doubles your paperwork. I thought hiring people and giving them jobs was supposed to be a good thing."