Pat Finlen, CGCS, winner of the 2025 Col. John Morley Award, on the grounds of the Missoula (Mont.) Country Club. Photo by Dennis Webber
Two quarters.
Even by early 1980s standards, two quarters — a mere 50 cents — isn’t much. And yet, in recounting the story of Pat Finlen, CGCS, there’s no telling just how valuable half a buck proved to be, in both the short and long term.
Finlen and his brother, Jim, had started a landscape business in 1980 with money borrowed at the prevailing 22%, but within two years it had fallen victim to the recession, and Pat, a single father, needed a job. Armed with a business degree and history of golf course work, he found two courses with openings on their maintenance staffs. The difference in pay was 50 cents an hour — the cost of a large order of McDonald’s french fries back in the day — so Finlen, naturally, took the higher-paying offer at Lake Quivira Country Club in the suburbs of Kansas City, Kan., and where he had lived since he was 11.
There’s no telling how different his trajectory in the industry might have been had the competing course ponied up more than Lake Quivira, but there’s no doubt those two quarters — which made his starting salary on the grounds crew there a whopping $5.50 per hour — help set in motion Finlen’s long, distinguished career, even if he didn’t know it then.
“At the time, I had no intention of making my career as a golf course superintendent,” Finlen says. “I just needed a job.”
His rise was meteoric. He shortly became assistant superintendent, then head superintendent by 1984, at the ripe age of 26.
“It all happened very quickly,” says Finlen, a 40-year association member.
Finlen on the grounds of The Olympic Club during his term in 2013 as GCSAA president. GCM file photo
Forty years later, the pace might have slowed, but the acuity of hindsight makes it clear Finlen chose wisely. The 2025 winner of GCSAA’s pinnacle Col. John Morley Award, Finlen’s laundry list of accolades puts him in the golf course management pantheon. He sandwiched two terms at Lake Quivira around a short time served in Virginia Beach, Va., before he left the Midwest for California. He first served as director of golf course maintenance at Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses in Seaside, Calif., then spent nearly two decades — first as director of golf maintenance operations, then director of golf and finally general manager — at the prestigious The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Then came a stint as GM at Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista, Calif., before he became executive vice president of Denehy Club Thinking Partners, an executive search and management consulting firm for private clubs and boutique resorts.
Along the way, he served as GCSAA president in 2013 and was on 29 GCSAA committees and task groups. He was president of three GCSAA-affiliated chapters and superintendent of the year of two. He hosted a major and negotiated contracts for others.
No wonder he is adding the Morley Award — which is named after GCSAA’s founder and is presented annually to an individual who is, or has been, a GCSAA Class A or B superintendent member who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent’s profession — to his list of accomplishments.
“Pat’s very deserving,” says Ricky Heine, CGCS, the 2007 GCSAA president and 43-year association member who hired Finlen away to the West Coast. “He’s just such a great ambassador.”
Finlen (center) with Missoula CC superintendent Nick Marquesen (left) and GM Chris Nowlen. Photo by Dennis Webber
‘We depend on each other’
Though he had spent summers in his youth working on the golf course, Finlen landed his first full-time golf course job with little agronomic knowledge.
Looking back, he says now, that helped set the tone for how he treated others once he established himself in the profession.
“I had a friend who said I’d never be a superintendent if I didn’t get an agronomy degree,” Finlen says. “But I wasn’t going back to school. I was still a single father who struggled to get through college. I can remember calling every superintendent in Kansas City, asking them questions. Like Col. John Morley said, ‘We depend on each other.’ We wouldn’t exist without other superintendents. That’s what I encourage other superintendents to do now. I know if you call somebody up and say, ‘Can I have 20 minutes of your time,’ they’ll give you hours.”
In 1998, Heine, now the GM at The Golf Club at Star Ranch in Hutto, Texas, was working for the management company that acquired Bayonet and Black Horse and was charged with finding someone to lead their golf course management team. Part of the interview process took him to Kansas City to talk with Finlen and see his work at Lake Quivira. Finlen’s lack of an agronomy degree didn’t bother Heine a bit.
“I’ve been doing this 40 years. My brother before me was a superintendent 20 before that. In my 60 years of hearing about it, it’s the people,” Heine says. “It’s not the area or the degree, in my opinion. You just have to find the right person, someone who’s dedicated, who’s committed to learn and keep learning. I will absolutely, bluntly say, Pat knows how to grow grass. If you don’t know how to grow grass, you’re in the wrong profession. You need the record-keeping and the communication skills, but if you don’t know how to grow grass, you won’t succeed. But I keep it simple, stupid. It’s about the people, finding the right people with the willingness to learn, and that’s Pat.”
Finlen and his wife since 1983, Denise, on the slopes. “We’ve been married 41 years, and she’s always been so supportive,” Pat says. “She never gets the credit she deserves.” Photos courtesy of Pat Finlen
Just before accepting Heine’s job offer, Finlen in June of 1998 coincidentally attended the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club.
“I never thought I’d ever go to a club like The Olympic Club,” Finlen says.
He did. There, from February 2002 to April 2019, Finlen hosted his own U.S. Open in 2012, as well as a U.S. Amateur, U.S. Junior Amateur and the inaugural U.S. Four-Ball Championship. He also negotiated contracts for The Olympic Club to host the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2028 PGA Championship and the 2033 Ryder Cup.
But as he rose through the ranks there — from director of golf maintenance operations for just over 11 years, to an eight-month stint as director as golf and then, from Sept. 2013-April 2019 as GM — Finlen noticed a trend.
“I always knew as I got further along, the more I wanted to manage,” Finlen says. “But the further you get up in your profession, the further you get away from what you love to do. I remember at Lake Quivira, when I’d get frustrated, at 4, 5 o’clock, I’d get on a fairway mower and mow two fairways, not to calm down but just to relax. Operating equipment has always been a highlight for me. I think a lot of superintendents are on the quiet side. They love solitude. They love being out in nature.”
His ascent at The Olympic Club took him away from all that. His promotion to GM took him away from the golf course and planted him in the upper floors of the club’s downtown San Francisco facility. His daily commute more than doubled, and the surroundings, which once served as respite while at work, were anything but.
“It starts to wear on you,” says Finlen, who had planned to retire from The Olympic Club in 2023. “As a superintendent, when you get frustrated, you can get on a golf cart and drive around the course. When I was downtown, I’d drive around downtown. With all the homeless stuff … I was walking around getting depressed. I loved my job, but I needed to do something else. Instead of retiring from The Olympic Club, I went to Winchester Country Club, and it was a relief.”
Back on the course turned out to be Finlen’s happy place, and he was GM at Winchester CC for 3½ years before Denehy came calling. That move, in February 2022, allowed Finlen, 66, to work predominantly from home, which now is Missoula, Mont., where he spent considerable time as a youth and always wanted to live full time. Searches and consultations still require occasional travel, but, he says, “Now I’m not working at 100 mph. I’m only going 60.”
Finlen (right) with 2012 Old Tom Morris Award winner Peter Jacobsen.
‘That’s how you roll with Pat’
Recall how Finlen professed a fondness for hopping aboard equipment? He has — how do we phrase this — a bit of a reputation in that regard.
Jeff White, CGCS, current GCSAA president who worked at Lake Quivira CC as an assistant to, and eventual replacement for, Finlen at Lake Quivira, recalls a West Coast visit to his mentor. The two were in a cart when they came upon a project on one of the greens. A skid steer sat idle, with no crew members in sight.
“Pat jumped on this skid steer,” says White, who will present his mentor with the Morley Award on Feb. 5 during the Sunrise Celebration at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. “He ended up ripping up a bunch of drain tile. He jumped in the cart with me, and away we went. As I was driving away, I thought, ‘It never gets old.’ It’s always an adventure with Pat.”
Justin Mandon, GCSAA Class A superintendent at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., and 22-year association member, chuckled knowingly when told that story. Mandon was a superintendent for Finlen at The Olympic Club, where Mandon worked for seven years, including that 2012 U.S. Open year.
“Pat loved getting onto the equipment. He was always the first one on the tractor,” Mandon says. “We did a ton of construction at The Olympic Club, and he always wanted to be a part of that construction. Whenever we saw Pat coming, we put PVC pipe on top of all the valves, taped pink flags on top and spray painted them, hoping he wouldn’t run over them and break them.”
Did it work?
“Not always,” Mandon says. “But that’s how you roll with Pat.”
Since leaving California for Denehy Club Thinking Partners, where he’s executive vice president, Finlen works largely out of his Missoula (Mont.) home — when he’s not at Missoula CC. Photo by Dennis Webber
Finlen is more than Morley worthy, Mandon says, despite his history of mechanical mayhem.
“I always tell people to work for people, not clubs,” says Mandon, who first met Finlen at a 2004 “safety meeting” at a brewery when Finlen was at The Olympic Club and Mandon was an assistant at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in Menlo Park, Calif. “I was definitely fortunate to have both at The Olympic Club. Pat was a huge influence on me and my career, and he continues to be. He was totally different than superintendents or directors I had worked for in the past. When you’re young and coming up, you’re so turf focused. A lot of superintendents are turf focused. You have to be. But Pat was the first person I met in the business who was business focused. He prioritized the business. He always tried to teach assistants and superintendents working for him how to do budgets and read a P&L (profit and loss) sheet and how to politically engage members. Pat’s just a master of that.
“If you just look at his career, at what he’s been able to do and where he’s come from, just the expanse of experience he’s had in this business, his mentorship — there are so many of us. His tree of people in the business … I can’t think of anyone else more worthy.”
“Pat was one of my primary mentors,” White adds. “I am GCSAA president now because of a lot of things he taught me.”
A lifetime of serving
The Morley Award will be a full-circle moment for Finlen, who credits GCSAA and its members for making his career possible.
Finlen recalls grousing to the late David Fearis a handful of years before Fearis became the 1999 GCSAA president about some aspect of the profession. Finlen was not actively involved yet in the Heart of America GCSA.
“I remember Dave said, ‘If you’re going to complain about the Heart, you’re going to do something for the Heart. You’re the editor of (chapter newsletter) Heartbeat now,’” Finlen recalls. “I got involved in the chapter after that, served on the board, became president. I knew headquarters was in Lawrence, but I’d never been to headquarters until Dave said something to me. When I look back at all the different committees I served on, the more I realize, the more you give to anything, the more you take away. Serving on all these committees, serving on the board, as president, I met so many different people. They all come from different walks of life, different golf course, but there’s a commonality. That’s an education in itself.”
Denise and Pat Finlen and grandchildren Liam, Allie and Katherine. Photo courtesy of Pat Finlen
Though Finlen humbly suggests he has “killed more grass than any superintendent out there,” he always found a way, figuratively and literally, to get it to grow back better than before.
“I always loved to figure out how to do something,” he says. “I’m just a really good planner and thinker. I used to just grunt through it, but I learned how to plan things out. How are the ways this could go wrong? How would I react if it starts to go wrong? Then I’d know how to react because I’ve already thought it through. That’s what I’ve always tried to teach people.”
Andrew Hartsock (ahartsock@gcsaa.org) is GCM’s editor-in-chief.