Tag: golf course superintendent

Executive Search: General Manager/COO, Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club

Date:

General Manager/Chief Operating Officer
Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club
Port Carling, Ontario

CLUB OVERVIEW

Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club is a leading private golf and lifestyle club in Ontario’s Muskoka region, serving a highly engaged membership that values exceptional golf, high-quality amenities, and a strong sense of community.

Located in one of Canada’s most sought-after seasonal destinations, the Club operates within a distinctly Muskoka context, where member expectations are elevated and the pace and intensity of activity are concentrated into a defined operating season.
The Club’s membership is largely composed of seasonal residents and families who view Muskoka as a primary leisure destination. As such, expectations for service, programming, and overall experience are high, particularly during peak summer months when usage, activity levels, and demand for Club services are at their highest. Delivering a consistent, high-quality experience during this high-demand period is a defining feature of the operation.

Muskoka Lakes is at its core a premier golf and country club, offering exceptional golf alongside dining, racquet, social, sailing, and family-oriented programming that together create a distinctive Muskoka club experience. As a multigenerational family club, Muskoka Lakes is defined by its strong social fabric, traditions, friendships, informal warmth, and high expectations for service and professionalism.

This is a visible leadership role within a tight-knit and highly engaged member community. The opportunity is attractive for a leader who values a hands-on, member-facing environment, while the challenge lies in consistently delivering excellence within a seasonal operating model and supporting the Club’s continued excellence, thoughtful renewal, and long-term stewardship.

ABOUT THE CLUB
Member Count: 1756
Gross Revenue: Approximately $4.3 million
Annual Dues Revenue: Approximately $4.1 million
Employee Count: Approximately 100 employees during peak season

POSITION SUMMARY

The General Manager/Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the overall leadership, management, and execution of Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club’s strategic and operational priorities. Reporting to the Board of Directors, the GM/COO oversees all aspects of Club operations and ensures delivery of a consistent, high-quality member experience.

This role requires a leader who is highly visible, engaged, and present. The GM/COO is expected to be an active and approachable presence throughout the Club, building strong relationships with members, staff, and the Board. While strategic management and financial oversight are essential requirements, the Club places particular emphasis on emotional intelligence, interpersonal effectiveness, and the ability to lead through change. The GM/COO must build trust across a diverse membership, manage competing expectations, and navigate complex interpersonal situations with consistency and professionalism.

The GM/COO leads the senior team, sets clear performance expectations, and drives alignment across all areas of the Club. In partnership with the Board, the GM/COO is responsible for advancing strategic priorities, supporting thoughtful renewal over time, and ensuring operational excellence and long-term financial sustainability.

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SEARCH EXECUTIVE TEAM

 

Michael Gregory
Managing Director & Partner 
michael.gregory@ggapartners.com

 

 

 

Peter Holt
Director
peter.holt@ggapartners.com

 

Executive Search: Superintendent, The Algonquin Resort

Date:

Superintendent
The Algonquin Resort
St. Andrews, New Brunswick

CLUB OVERVIEW

Since 1889, The Algonquin Resort has welcomed travelers to rest, reconnect, and breathe the sea air of St. Andrews by-the-Sea. Today, this storied seaside icon enters a bold new chapter — with re-imagined guestrooms, elevated dining led by celebrated chefs, and an award-winning golf course that captures the spirit of the coast.

Every detail is designed with care, from bell rings at dusk to candlelit Afternoon Tea, ocean views that shift with the tides. More than a getaway, The Algonquin is a place where timeless character meets modern coastal luxury — a place to gather, to celebrate, and to be restored.

The Algonquin Resort is an Autograph Collection Resort.

ABOUT THE CLUB
• Golf Course: Resort with a Membership
• Owned By: InnVest Hotels
• Total Members: 170
• Gross Golf Revenue: $3M
• Course & Grounds Expense Budget: $1.4M
• Total Resort Employees: 320
• Total Maintenance Employees: 15
• Course Overview: 7,135-yard course designed by Rod Whitman and Thomas McBroom
• Rounds Played: 30,000

POSITION SUMMARY
The Algonquin Resort is seeking a driven and progressive industry leader to successfully fill the position of Golf Course Superintendent. The Superintendent will report to the hotel General Manager and work closely with the Director of Golf to accomplish the golf course and resort’s goals and vision, including setting high standards for conditioning and maintenance of the golf course.

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SEARCH EXECUTIVE TEAM

 

Michael Gregory
Managing Director & Partner 
michael.gregory@ggapartners.com

 

 

 

Murray Blair
Director
murray.blair@ggapartners.com

 

 

 

Peter Holt
Director
peter.holt@ggapartners.com

 

GGA Partners and USGA to Collaborate on Golf Course Superintendent Executive Search and Placement Services

Date:
New offering combines organizations’ expertise to improve golf facilities’ ability to deliver better playing conditions and enhanced golfer experience

BLUFFTON, S.C., and LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (April 14, 2021) – The United States Golf Association (USGA) will join with GGA Partners (GGA), an international consulting firm, to launch a new service to place top-notch golf course superintendent candidates at facilities across North America.

As part of its suite of advisory services, GGA has long provided executive search services for facility clients. The collaboration will expand the company’s offerings, with the USGA Green Section’s agronomic and maintenance expertise serving as key factors in targeting the unique needs of each golf course and identifying superintendents with matching skills who can help facilities elevate playing conditions, improve course presentation and foster sustainable practices.

“For any golf facility, the ability to hire the right talent is crucial for long-term success, and we believe in creating and maintaining partnerships with facilities,” said Patrick DeLozier, GGA’s managing director of executive search. “The stakes are higher than ever for facilities looking to hire superintendents, and they are looking for candidates with a wide variety of skills.”

Added Craig Johnston, a GGA partner: “The ability to complement our services in strategy, facility governance, finance and operations with the USGA’s agronomic strength will ensure that we can continue to support our clients with the gold standard in best practices, education, innovative products and research.”

The collaboration will allow the USGA to expand its reach and enhance its ability to inform best management practices for golf course maintenance, including resource prioritization. As part of its mission to champion and advance the game, the USGA is helping to ensure a sustainable game in which course managers are empowered to create a positive experience for their golfers.

“GGA’s values and business areas are strategically aligned with our mission,” said Matt Pringle, managing director of the USGA Green Section. “With this new joint service, we can find the best match between the needs of the golf course and the skill set of their next superintendent, while providing ongoing support to deliver outstanding playing conditions and improved golfer satisfaction.”

The joint service will utilize the USGA’s nationwide network of agronomists, whose extensive knowledge of the facilities and superintendents in their regions will be pivotal to the program’s success. They will work closely with DeLozier, who heads up the firm’s executive search practice.

To learn more, contact Patrick DeLozier at patrick.delozier@ggapartners.com or Elliott Dowling at edowling@usga.org.

 

About the USGA

The USGA is a nonprofit organization that celebrates, serves and advances the game of golf. Founded in 1894, we conduct many of golf’s premier professional and amateur championships, including the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. With The R&A, we govern the sport via global set of playing, equipment, handicapping and amateur status rules. The USGA campus in Liberty Corner, New Jersey, is home to the Associations, Research and Test center, where science and innovation are fueling a healthy and sustainable game for the future. The campus is also home to the USGA Golf Museum, where we honor the game by curating the world’s most comprehensive archive of golf artifacts. To learn more, visit usga.org.

 

About GGA Partners

GGA Partners™ is an international consulting firm and trusted advisor to many of the world’s most successful golf courses, private clubs, resorts, and residential communities. We are dedicated to helping owners, asset managers, club and community leaders, investors and real estate developers tackle challenges, achieve objectives, and maximize asset performance.

Established in 1992 as the KPMG Golf Industry Practice, our global team of experienced professionals leverage in-depth business intelligence and proprietary global data to deliver impactful strategic solutions and lasting success. GGA Partners has offices in Toronto, Ontario, Phoenix, Arizona, Bluffton, South Carolina, and Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please visit ggapartners.com.

Budgeting Must Go On

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In the wake of COVID-19 business must go on, so too must budgets be developed and approved to give clubs and their managers a roadmap for next year’s operations. Here are five important steps to consider when preparing your 2021 budget. This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Budget preparation, even with its strict adherence to unvarnished numbers, is always an inexact and fluid exercise. It’s an amalgam of recent and projected performance in the context of long-range and short-term goals and objectives, all of which could be influenced by internal factions guided by self-interest. And that’s in the best and most predictable of times. Not exactly what budget preparers at clubs are currently facing.

In the wake of COVID-19, if you ask managers, directors and owners to forecast how their club will perform next year, you’re likely to get a range of answers, including what may be the most honest: “I haven’t the foggiest idea.” But as business must go on, so must budgets be developed and approved to give clubs and their managers a roadmap for next year’s operations.

How do you plan for the unknown? Here are five important steps to consider when preparing your 2021 budget:

1. Rely on a sound agronomic plan.

Savvy superintendents use their agronomic plans as a pilot uses a flight plan. The agronomic plan includes the superintendent’s clearly stated outcomes or objectives (destination) along with clearly defined processes, systems and procedures (altitude, speed and course).

The contents of a thorough agronomic plan include goals and objectives, a staffing plan and organization of management, fertility, arboreal and irrigation plans, and line-item budget analysis and descriptions of the financial components of the plan.

Describe the results you intend to achieve. Your plan paints a vivid picture of what you believe is possible and what results will be contingent on factors beyond your control.

2. Review the budget with your accounting manager.

Making sure your accounting manager fully understands the agronomic plan and gaining his or her support for your plans and how you intend to achieve them is essential to a successful budget any year. But current circumstances that may limit resources, disrupt supply chains and affect how your team operates on a day-to-day basis make this understanding and support even more critical.

Mix in members’ expectations for course conditions and there is every reason to think your 2021 budget will require more specific collaboration than most golf course maintenance budgets normally receive. Your accounting department allies are critical to a successful agronomic plan and its approval.

3. Use a decision tree to clarify options.

When faced with challenging problems in an environment where the unknown competes with the known, many managers rely on a process known as a decision tree to map the various risks and potential outcomes and ultimately predict their chances for success. Because of the uncertain times, superintendents need to show stakeholders what is needed and intended within the 2021 budget.

A note of guidance: a GGA Partners global study of members’ expectations amid the pandemic found that members are unsupportive of diminished or deteriorating standards of care and upkeep for their clubs’ facilities. Members and golfers will continue to pay dues provided that established standards of excellence are maintained.

4. Estimate operational costs based on historic norms.

Sound budgeting normally relies on a zero-based approach. However, multiple uncertainties require that superintendents use established norms for budget assumptions. From these historic patterns, one is wise to contemplate — and budget — line-by-line variances from established norms. Among the wild-card projections for 2021 costs will be labor, fuel, chemicals and pesticides.

Labor costs will remain uncertain as access to workers who want to work and whose medical conditions allow them to will influence the labor pool and one’s access to it. Chemicals and pesticides will likely show volatile swings subject to supply-chain influences and may require superintendents to rely less on just-in-time deliveries and maintain larger than normal on-site inventories.

5. Keep stakeholders informed.

Quarterly budget updates that identify aspects of the budget in need of a mid-course correction are recommended. Proactively gather and inform decisionmakers where changes are occurring and where adjustments are needed. Keep ahead of rapidly changing — and changeable — circumstances. All involved will appreciate your ahead-of-the-curve approach and make better decisions as a result.

Practice Areas and the Pandemic

Date:

If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind. This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Searching for a silver lining to a pandemic is mostly a fool’s errand. But many golf courses fortunate enough to stay open during the last five months have found something for which to be thankful: Thousands of golfers and would-be golfers are discovering (and rediscovering) a love for the game.

In many places, their affection is being stoked by short-game practice areas that are introducing new players to golf and giving more experienced players a place to hone their games, all the while boosting incremental revenues.

Bradley Klein, a veteran golf travel, history and architecture journalist and Golf Course Industry columnist, observes that the role of short-game practice areas is evolving. “Time constraints were the initial impetus, but that’s changed of late.” He says the trend is toward “more fun, family-friendly” areas that also provide practice opportunities for serious golfers. “They also constitute efficient use of land.”

What’s more, in this era of social distancing, short game areas are a safe space for youngsters to learn the game while socializing and exercising, according to Jan Bel Jan, president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. She believes the trend will continue to gain momentum. “Short game improvement areas provide benefits to seasoned golfers, promote a welcoming introduction to golf for adult beginners and help courses remain competitive with other area facilities,” she says.

Pinehurst Resort injected new credibility for areas dedicated to the short game and demonstrated its revenue potential when it opened The Cradle — nine holes, all par threes, measuring 789 yards and covering 10 acres — in September 2017. In the last three years, The Cradle has hosted more than 100,000 rounds while becoming one of Pinehurst’s most popular courses.

If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind.

Know your customer.

New practice, training and game-improvement facilities require planning, which starts with understanding the type of player you want to attract. What skill levels will you prioritize? What will be the hours of operation? How will you price access? Member surveys and information exchange sessions with golfers will help you better understand your target audience’s needs and expectations.

Don’t get sloppy.

“Serious design, with interesting greens contours and variety of tee shots” are keys to effective planning, Klein says. “It has to be run like a real golf course and not like a sloppy afterthought.”

Make it fun.

Jim Wyffels, director of operations at Spirit Hollow Golf Club in Burlington, Iowa, is an innovative thinker when it comes to making golf fun. Spirit Hollow’s Shankopotamus Golf Academy, which features TopTracer technologies, was designed with two goals in mind, Wyffels says. “The first was to create an additional amenity for our stay-and-play guests in the evening and during inclement weather. The second was to create a new revenue stream in the evening and during winter months that would target our local market. Our plan was to create a fun, game-like family atmosphere where all age groups and skill levels, including non-golfers, could be entertained.”

Keep your superintendent in the loop.

How will the golf course superintendent maintain the short-game area? Engage the superintendent to ensure design characteristics that can be efficiently and cost-effectively maintained. Concerns such as adequate turning radii, slopes that can be consistently cut and safely navigated by staff, and shapes that match existing terrain on the adjacent golf course are planning priorities. Bel Jan advises planners to be mindful of optimizing drainage, building putting surfaces to established standards and minimizing shade impacts to enable turf recovery.

COVID-19 really has no upside; it has wreaked havoc in unprecedented ways. But if a crisis of its proportions has encouraged more people to take to the course, and prompted golf managers and leaders to think more innovatively about amenities like short courses and practice areas, then it has left something of value in its wake.

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