GCSAA President T.A. Barker, CGCS, is the third-generation superintendent at the course on which he grew up, Fore Lakes Golf Course in Taylorsville, Utah. Photo by Danielle Waters
A yearslong tradition at the annual Chapter Delegates Meeting at GCSAA headquarters in Lawrence, Kan., has the GCSAA staff turn out to welcome the delegates.
Just as the sun begins to illuminate the Old Tom Morris statue out front of the HQ offices, staff members line the walkway leading to the front door and greet the delegates as they disembark from buses.
The fall 2024 event was unusually subdued — delegate Michael Upchurch passed away en route to the meeting, and the normally raucous walk-up was more memorial than celebration — but still the staffers fist-bumped and shook hands as they warmly greeted the visitors.
As the final delegate entered the human tunnel and it began to collapse upon itself, a voice boomed from the back.
“Come on, come on. Let’s go. We’ve got work to do.”
The voice belonged to T.A. Barker, CGCS, as he gently shepherded stragglers into the HQ foyer, where breakfast awaited before the delegates settled into the important business at hand.
He was being neither buzzkill nor taskmaster, but Barker — who just over three months after that meeting was elected GCSAA’s 88th president — served notice that there would be no standing around on his watch.
“I’ve just never been a guy who wanted to wait,” Barker says.
That’s reflected in his Board service. A third-generation superintendent, Barker, now 44, was elected to the GCSAA Board of Directors at 37.
“It’s my fault I ran so young,” he says. “I’m just not the type to sit around and wait. At the end of the day, I hope I made my community better. It’s not about me. It’s never been about me. It’s about what the membership deserves. I just hope I’ve helped people be proud to be superintendents again.”
Young T.A. Barker (on the right with sister Abby) worked on the course for as long as he can remember. Photo courtesy of T.A. Barker
Born into it
Superintendent pride wasn’t an issue for a young Todd Abram Barker. He never wanted to be anything else.
“I always said at 4 years old I knew what I was going to do,” T.A. Barker says. “When I was 7, 8, 9 years old, I taught myself to drive everything. I fell in love with the profession.”
He came by it naturally.
The family owned farms — cattle, pigs, fowl — in and around the Salt Lake City area. T.A.’s great-grandfather, Abram Barker, “wasn’t a golf person. He was a farm guy,” says T.A., who recalls making the rounds to feed the cattle as a youngster with his great-grandfather.
T.A.’s grandfather, Vaughn, was another story.
“He was an only child, and he fell in love with golf,” T.A. says. “He talked his dad into growing a golf course.”
That course, Fore Lakes Golf Course in Taylorsville, opened in 1974. It features a nine-hole executive course, and a nine-hole par-3 course, a driving range and practice green.
“This was the closest thing to farming without having to farm,” T.A. says of Fore Lakes GC. In fact, he still refers to the maintenance facility as “the farm.”
Vaughn Barker, a 29-year GCSAA member, was Fore Lakes’ first superintendent. His son Todd, a 35-year association member who was in his early 20s when it was built, was its second. T.A., a 21-year GCSAA member, is No. 3.
Todd Barker is still around. Majority owner of Fore Lakes GC (his siblings are co-owners), Todd Barker Sr. still helps around the place when T.A. (Todd Jr.) isn’t around and still lives in T.A.’s childhood home, which abuts the course between the par-3’s hole Nos. 2 and 3.
“He works more than he should have to, but he’s here to help out when I’m gone,” T.A. says of his dad. “I want him to enjoy it. I call him the highest-paid irrigation tech in the world. He might be the only irrigation tech who could fire the superintendent if he wanted.”
T.A. says that in jest, but firing family isn’t in dad’s DNA.
“He doesn’t really have to answer to anybody except for me,” Todd says. “And I’m easy-going: ‘You make the decisions. You know what you’re doing.’”
Apparently. Fore Lakes CC — nestled between interstates 215 and 15 in the southeast SLC suburb of Taylorsville — is proudly public and affordable. It sees upwards of 400-500 rounds per day, 50,000-60,000 rounds per year.
And yet …
“Our course is in immaculate condition all the time,” says Jason Asplund, the course’s PGA Professional since 2007 and one of T.A.’s cousins. “Our course is our players’ country club, and they always talk about how awesome our greens are. The greens here are phenomenal, thanks to T.A. When you see 400, 450 rounds a day, how can your greens be so good? Ours are.”
Of Todd Barker Sr., left, T.A. says: "I've only had one mentor, and that's my dad." Photos by Danielle Waters
Family matters
There’s no way around this: T.A. Barker has a big personality. He’s a big, strong guy, a six-day-a-week weightlifter, a fan of professional wrestling and a one-time regular radio host who doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind.
One subject, though, gives him pause.
“See, this is what makes me nervous,” he says with a catch in his voice, “when I have to get up and talk about my family.”
It doesn’t matter if he’s sitting around his office in the Fore Lakes GC maintenance building chatting up a visitor or addressing attendees of the Annual Meeting at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego, where last month he was officially elected association president.
Talking about his family — wife Natalie and sons Peyton (16), Boston (13) and Greyson (10) — inevitably puts a frog in T.A.’s throat and tears in his eyes.
“I want to prove to everyone in my position that you don’t have to let our limitations define us,” he says. “People say, ‘I want to have a wife and kids.’ It takes a team. I wouldn’t be here without them. But if I can do it, anybody can.”
Barker didn’t always envision serving beyond the bounds of Fore Lakes GC, but it didn’t take long.
“I was never really one to complain,” he says. “But I have no idea why I started this. To me, it was always about wanting to be part of something bigger than just here. Dad was a fantastic golfer, so he was always a part of the bigger scheme of things.”
Todd, a member of the Utah Golf Hall of Fame largely for his playing ability, was a dominant amateur player for nearly two decades in Utah and a two-time GCSAA national champion, in 1995 and 2000. Vaughn Barker also was a GCSAA national champ, in 1977.
“(National service) wasn’t my cup of tea,” Todd Barker says. “Dad was president of the Intermountain chapter, but I just played golf.”
And while T.A. is no slouch with the sticks, he felt he could have a greater impact serving than swinging.
When he first became involved at the chapter level, he didn’t run for office because he hadn’t yet achieved Class A status. A younger T.A. started pursuing an Associate of Business degree but never completed it. He did, however, enroll in Penn State’s online turfgrass program, at 27.
“The only reason I did was so I could get to certification faster,” he says. “Certification to me was to feel like I belonged. I don’t think everybody thought it, but I think some people thought I was handed my job. I wanted to prove to myself that I belonged.”
Barker joined his chapter board in 2010, and … “we were down in the dumps. We had no money,” he recalls.
The money situation was so dire, Barker recalls putting five figures on his credit card — his personal credit card — to cover expenses for one of the chapter’s annual meetings.
“I called my wife,” Barker says. “We’d just had a baby. I told her we had to put 12 grand on our credit card. She didn’t like that.”
After he ascended to chapter vice presidency, it hired wife Natalie to be chapter executive, and together they turned around the chapter’s fortunes.
“Hopefully we brought some excitement to the chapter,” T.A. says. “Natalie worked her butt off. We did a lot of chapter events and built the chapter back up. It was her. I let her do what was right. Natalie’s downfall was she always said yes. That put a lot of stress on her, but she kept striving to make it better.
“It was all her chapter, and it’s still going strong.”
What motivates Barker? Family, including, from left, son Boston, wife Natalie, T.A., son Greyson and son Peyton. "It takes a team," T.A. says. "I wouldn't be here without them."
‘Challenge accepted’
Barker’s service eventually took a turn toward national.
A two-year chapter president, Barker asked if he could serve as a chapter delegate. An encounter at the Chapter Delegates Meeting proved prophetic.
“I’m sitting in the top row, and the delegate from Vermont, Kevin Komer (CGCS, a 33-year association member), goes, ‘I could see you down there one day,’” Barker recalls.
Barker started serving on national committees and task groups and eventually ran for the national Board — in part to prove a point.
“I could be making this up, but I swear I saw a survey that said delegates will only vote for people of a certain age. Challenge accepted,” Barker says. “I heard they’d only vote for people from higher-end country clubs. Challenge accepted.”
Barker recalls visiting with 2017 GCSAA President Bill Maynard, CGCS, and Maynard introducing Barker to John O’Keefe, CGCS Retired, the 2015 association president who at the time was on the national Board Nominating Committee.
They talked about Barker’s potential run at the Board, but first Barker had to run the idea past Natalie, then his dad.
The timing was calculated.
“My youngest was 3,” Barker says. “We wanted to wait until he could wipe his own butt.”
At the time, Barker didn’t have plans beyond Board service.
“Most people don’t think about going all the way,” he says. “When you start working with the Board and staff, you start to change your mindset. I never thought I wouldn’t be president, but the first few years, I never thought about it. It seemed so far away.
“Now, these seven years have gone by so fast. I joke that, because of my age, maybe after a few years, I might run again.”
Might a different run be in the works?
“Dad always says, ‘You’re a lot like your great-grandpa. You’re never satisfied. I could see you running for Congress,’” T.A. says.
Government might not be in T.A.’s future, but family always will be.
“Honestly, I don’t know what’s next on my plate besides being a husband to my wife and dad to my kids,” he says. “I want them to know that other things in life are important. My grandpa told me, ‘It’s all about giving. Not everyone can give money, but you can always give time.’ Even if I don’t have a dime, I can always give my time.”
After teaching himself how to operate most of the equipment at Fore Lakes Golf Course as a youngster, Barker says, "I just fell in love with the profession." Photo courtesy of T.A. Barker
Passing it on?
Time will tell if one of Barker’s boys will pick up the mantle. His oldest, Peyton, seems to prefer playing golf courses to working on them, but he’s also about the age T.A. was when playing started to lose its luster.
“Peyton still wants to be a professional golfer,” Barker says, “but my love for this started happening when I was 14, 15, 16 years old — when I hit junior high. That’s when girls became interesting. Hanging out with friends at the water park was a lot more fun than practicing my game.”
Barker has tried to time his travel so the boys wouldn’t notice his absences as much, and he’s tried to include them, taking them to meetings and Conference and Trade Show when possible.
“I never heard any of them talking about wanting to be the next one out here, but I’d be proud if they did,” Barker says.
Though he half jokes about leaving Fore Lakes GC to become field manager for the Denver Broncos, or maybe the Boston Red Sox, Barker really can’t envision working anywhere else.
“The future of the golf course is always uncertain,” Barker says, noting the accelerating value of land in the SLC area. “It’s not just dad. It’s him and his sisters. Nobody ever thought Twitter would sell, then Elon Musk came in with a big ol’ check. But I have it really good here. I do what I want. If I want to take a bunker out, I take out a bunker. If I want to put a bunker in, I put one in.
“As long as we have a golf course, this is where I’ll be.”
Fore Lakes Golf Course is proudly public and affordable, yet its regulars refer to it as the "Augusta of the West." Photo by Danielle Waters
A clear path
It doesn’t take T.A. Barker, CGCS, long to identify what he thinks GCSAA’s focus should be during his year as association president.
In fact, he can put it in two words: “Career pathways.”
While it’s not quite cradle to grave, career pathways are the holistic approach to developing the next generation of golf course management professionals.
“There’s a lot of things we’re doing right now,” says Barker, who in February was elected GCSAA’s 88th president. “Part of my plan as president is to get career pathways moving faster. It’s a game changer for our profession.”
While GCSAA programs like First Green have reached countless young students, often their next touchpoint with the association doesn’t come until college. And while the association has made huge inroads in certificates and certification of assistant superintendents, superintendents and equipment managers, there have been few offerings for those at the start of their careers.
Several programs are in the works to plug those gaps, like the association’s recent involvement with the National FFA organization and its hosting of the first National Turfgrass Science Invitational at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego; the development of curriculum for high schoolers; and the launch later this year of the GCSAA Video Training Series focusing on basic concepts for crew members.
Pathways, in short, provide the means to progress from curious elementary schooler to GCSAA Class A superintendent.
“Or an equipment manager, or an assistant,” Barker says. “There’s nothing wrong with being a career assistant.”
In Barker’s mind, career pathways will help address what he considers the most universal, pressing need among GCSAA’s 20,000-plus members: labor.
“The labor side is something everybody needs,” he says. “It’s not just assistants. It’s labor in general. Hopefully, as we move along, hopefully the Board members after us will see the value in what we’re doing, too. This is a game changer for this profession. I’m excited for it.”
Andrew Hartsock is GCM’s editor-in-chief.