On the links: For many, a perfect summer job

Golf course supervisor Scott Gabrielson, right, and assistant Bob Barrow keep a close eye on the goings-on at Alpine Country Club in Cranston last week.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

On any sunny summer day, a lot of Rhode Islanders wish they were out on a golf course. Of course, some Rhode Islanders are already there, because that’s where they work.

According to Robert Ward, executive director of the Rhode Island Golf Association, there are 52 golf courses in Rhode Island. Ward said the association doesn’t have figures on how many people are working at the state’s golf courses. (Ward said the RIGA has been considering conducting an economic impact study on golf in Rhode Island, but hasn’t done so yet.)

Counting golf course employment isn’t easy. Most of the jobs are seasonal; many of them are part-time even during the golf season, and golf courses vary widely in how many workers they have.

Rich Lombardi, owner of Midville Country Club, a nine-hole public course in West Warwick, said the course employs about 20 people. Michael Degnan, general manager of the private Alpine Country Club in Cranston, said the club, which includes an 18-hole golf course, pool and extensive dining facilities, employs between 150 and 175 people during the height of golf season.

Perhaps because of the seasonal nature of the work, golf course jobs tend to attract people at the opposite ends of the age scale: retirees and high school or college students.

Last Monday morning at Midville, 78-year-old Ray Fernandes, of West Warwick, was pulling a specialized riding mower called a sidewinder, which can cut grass at an angle around greens and sand traps, into a garage. Fernandes, a retired worker from Arkwright Interlaken, said he’s been working at Midville for 11 years. He makes $10.50 an hour.

“I wanted to make some extra money,” he said. “It’s been a good job. I’m working outside, these are nice people to work for. You do the work, they don’t bother you.”

Out on the course, 64-year-old Ellsworth Beverly, of Coventry, was mowing the second fairway. A retired supervisor for General Dynamics, he had some time on his hands. “I’m retired and didn’t have too much to do. I was driving my wife crazy, to tell the truth.”

When he heard there was an opening at Midville, he applied, and is now working three days a week.

A few miles to the northwest, at Cranston Country Club, 17-year-olds Matthew LaCroix and Alex Sullivan, both of Cranston, were washing and maintaining golf carts, filling the water coolers that are strategically placed on the golf course and driving a machine that picks up balls on the driving range. Both make minimum wage, which is $7.40 in Rhode Island.

“It’s a good job. We’re outside in the summer — what could be better than that?” said LaCroix.

“It beats stocking shelves any day,” said Sullivan.

One of the perks of working at a golf course is the opportunity to play golf either for free or at reduced rates. “That’s the hook for a lot of people,” said Ed Hanley, the golf pro at Cranston.

Golf course managers, such as Mike Lombardi, at Cranston Country Club, generally divide jobs into three rough categories: golf operations, golf course maintenance, and food and beverage employees. None of the Rhode Island golf courses contacted for this article said they are doing any hiring at the moment; most look for employees in the winter and early spring to be ready for the start of golf season.

Golf operations include the golf pro, the staff at the golf shop, people who take care of the golf carts, the starter who keeps track of starting times and generally maintains order on the first tee, the rangers who travel around the golf course and monitor the pace of play. Golf maintenance employees mow and groom the course itself. They generally do their work very early in the morning, before many of the golfers get out on the course.

Caddies are a disappearing breed, replaced in most cases by the ubiquitous golf cart. Ward, of the Rhode Island Golf Association, said many courses count on the revenue from golf-cart rentals as an important part of their budgets. He added that some private courses still maintain caddies, among them Wannamoisett Country Club, Rhode Island Country Club, Warwick Country Club, Agawam Hunt, Shelter Harbor Golf Club and Carnegie Abbey.

Degnan, of Alpine Country Club, said the club still has caddies available for members who want them. “This is a club that’s full of tradition,” he said. “We still have a shoeshine guy in the locker room, and we still have caddies.”

Hourly jobs on course maintenance crews generally start at about $9.50 an hour, and can go up depending on experience.

A few golf course jobs pay well. A golf course superintendent, who is in charge of maintaining the condition of the course, at an elite private course can make six figures. Degnan said a golf course superintendent has to have extensive knowledge of everything from irrigation to the proper soil and growth conditions for various grasses — and be able to satisfy hundreds of members who can be very picky about their golf course.

Head golf professionals at high-end private courses can also make good salaries, particularly if they are willing to spend long hours teaching.

Earl Stickney, a golf pro and director of golf at Fenner Hill Golf Club, in Hope Valley, said clubs have a variety of financial arrangements with pros, but typically a pro can supplement his or her salary with the money made by giving lessons.

Generally, said Ward, golf courses are not a place to get rich. “If you want to get into the golf business, you are not going to make a lot of money and you’re going to work a lot of hours in the summer,” he said.

On the other hand, there are some advantages not measured in money. “How can you beat coming to work and looking at that?” said Cranston Country Club manager Lombardi, waving a hand toward the back window of his office, which has a view of the green-manicured fairways of the golf course.

Golf courses around the country are facing challenges these days. According to figures from the National Golf Foundation, the number of golfers has been falling, from 30 million in 2000 to 28.7 million in 2006. Golfers who played at least eight times a year have dropped from 17.7 million in 2000 to 15 million in 2006. The foundation reported that golf course closures outnumbered openings in 2006 and last year.

In Rhode Island, much of the golf course development in the past 10 years has been in the southern part of the state, and many golf insiders believe there are now too many courses there.

Ward said the only course that has closed is the Foxwoods Golf and Country Club in 2005. “Ten years ago there were not enough courses in South County. In the last 10 years, there’s been a boom . . . there is a lot of competition down there now.”

Hanley, the pro at the Cranston Country Club, said his course has been holding its own, thanks in part to its location not too far from the state population centers. South County, he said, is another story. “There are so many courses that have been built close together, they’re eating each other’s lunch,” he said.

At Fenner Hill, which employs about 34 people this summer, golf director Stickney said business is off between 15 percent and 20 percent. As a result, he said, employees are working fewer hours.

An article in The New York Times headlined “More Americans are Giving Up Golf” suggested that people just don’t have the time for a leisurely, four-hour round of golf anymore.

“Tiger [Woods] didn’t bring people into the game the way Arnold Palmer brought people into the game,” said Midville Country Club’s Lombardi. “No one does the numbers [of golf rounds] they did years ago.”

Another looming problem for golf courses is the soaring price of energy. Most courses use gas golf carts, not to mention all the machinery used to groom the courses. Lombardi said he is considering switching from gas to electric golf carts next year. Patrick Gertner, golf superintendent at Potowomut Golf Club in East Greenwich, said the gas bills are rising, but the club has not adjusted the mowing schedules. “When people join a private course, they expect conditions are going to be at a certain level,” he said.

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