Roger Lessard serves divot duty during his time as a marshal at San Clemente (Calif.) Municipal Golf Course. Though the facility’s marshals aren’t involved in the more specialized golf course maintenance tasks, their contributions make it easier for the rest of the crew. Photos by Jordan Gilmore
Ball-hawking, practicing their short game on the clock and my personal pet peeve — driving their cart beside the green and through the native areas — are all synonymous with golf course marshals or player assistance in the eyes of most golf maintenance staff.
However, at the San Clemente (Calif.) Municipal Golf Course, we have been able to flip the script on this narrative. “The Muni” is a city-owned and -operated golf course, with the golf shop under contract (non-city staff). For decades, the contracted golf shop has been in charge of merchandise, golf carts and tee sheet and has staffed and scheduled the golf course marshals.
City staff maintains the buildings on property and the 18-hole, par-72 golf course that covers 133 acres near the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. Maintaining this 96-year-old William Bell-designed property with a total of 10 employees is a tall order. Budget constraints of a muni are tough, and the hiring process for a government agency is even tougher. With our entry-level wages no longer able to stay competitive with In and Out Burger down the street, I knew that we had to get creative if we wanted to get the maintenance work done that we needed to stay competitive with other public courses.
When the parks and recreation director asked me if it would be worthwhile to have the marshals as city employees, I said, “Absolutely.” However, in my haste, I forgot the only city manager/supervisor at the golf course is yours truly. After having spent all 17 years of my golf career under a maintenance roof, the only time I’ve spent in a golf shop is to check in for my tee time or buy a shirt for Father’s Day. Running a marshal program was something I was clueless about, but like most new endeavors I take on, it’s “fake it till I make it.”
Once this program was approved, the first thing I did was buy a marshal cart with an extended flatbed — enough room for a 30-gallon wetting agent barrel cut in half to fill full of divot sand and a full-sized garbage bin. Most of the marshals who came on board are retired, and their days of working a string trimmer are well behind them. However, filling divots, picking up trash and even raking out footprints in bunkers and placing bunker rakes back in the appropriate entry points goes a long way.
The Muni marshals’ bespoke ride.
I can’t tell you what relief it is for our set-up team to come in on Sunday morning to prepare the course for 350 players and not have to worry about filling divots on the tees or emptying trash cans.
San Clemente marshals get to interact with players more organically while they are doing these tasks. “Filling divots reminds me of my days growing up on a farm back in Maine,” says marshal Roger Lessard.
Many of our marshals are semi-retired and are also long-time residents of San Clemente who have been playing The Muni for years or decades. This property is special to them and most of the 65,000 residents who call this sleepy beach town home. San Clemente is located on the coast almost exactly between San Diego and Los Angeles. For a superintendent, you couldn’t ask for a better place to grow grass. Saying the weather is great here is an understatement. The natural flora and fauna here is inspiring.
Golf course superintendents are always trying to be good stewards of the land and strive to eliminate as much waste as possible that leaves our property. We often have these great ideas that are left forever on the back burner because of more pressing issues. A bird box program was something I always wanted to do but never could find any time to focus on it.
One day I was chatting in the lunchroom with one of our marshals, Jim Schoen, about his woodworking accomplishments and his shop at home, and a light bulb went off in my head. We have plenty of wood from the removal of Italian stone pines that have died over the years on the golf course, mainly from the chronic spray of effluent water from our irrigation system.
Marshal/woodworker Jim Schoen turns some of the course’s waste Italian stone pinewood into a bird box.
Jim always brings this wood home to work on art projects, and we are more than willing to cut it into manageable chunks for him. It occurred to me to ask him if he would be interested in building some birdhouses for the golf course. Jim not only accepted the task, but he took extreme ownership of this project and ran with it.
He did his homework on what type of bird box we should build to suit a specific type of bird species, and that research led him to a valuable resource. Bill Schafer, a local resident, happened to live on the 12th fairway and was also a member of the Southern California Bluebird Club. Jim and Bill worked together to pick locations for the bluebird boxes and also map them and document activity. Other members from the society have since volunteered their time to document and even clean the boxes on our course. The only thing our maintenance team has to do is lend them a cart.
The program has become a huge success and a great tool for community outreach. We also have four birdhouses set aside to be painted by local students for a future First Green event.
Allowing the golf course marshals to have the tools and autonomy to make decisions has really propelled this program to levels that exceeded my expectations. With little guidance, it has taken on a life of its own — not only with the presentation of the golf course, but also in adding connective tissue between the maintenance, pro shop and players.
Jordan Gilmore, CGCS, is the golf course superintendent at San Clemente (Calif.) Municipal Golf Course. He is a 10-year member of GCSAA.