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The average annual salary for golf course superintendents has climbed to more than $93,000 in 2019.
This and additional data are from the latest biennial Compensation and Benefits Report from GCSAA. The 2019 report shows that the $93,176 average salary is an increase of 4.5 percent over the average in the 2017 report, continuing the trend of increases in every two-year period since GCSAA began tracking the data in 1993. Superintendents’ salaries have more than doubled in the quarter-century since that first report, when the average salary was $44,500.
Certified Golf Course Superintendents — those who have achieved the highest level of recognition through education, experience and service — have seen a salary increase of more than 1 percent since 2017. Their average salary has risen to $111,250, an increase of $1,630 compared with 2017.
Assistant superintendents and golf course equipment managers have also seen increases in their incomes. Assistant salaries have grown 7.3 percent, and equipment managers’ average salaries have risen 7 percent compared with two years ago.
“It is heartening to see golf course owners continue to invest in golf course superintendents and their staffs,” says Rhett Evans, GCSAA CEO. “They know the value of these highly educated professionals who oversee the golf facility’s top asset.”
The 2019 Compensation and Benefits Report also offers a profile of GCSAA superintendents and their operations. The average age of a superintendent is 46.5 years, and he or she has spent 16.4 years in the profession. The average number of years a superintendent has spent in his or her current position has stayed steady at 10.5 years.
Between December 2018 and January 2019, the association research firm Industry Insights sent the 2019 survey to all GCSAA Class A and Class B members. The response rate was 45 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percent and a 95 percent level of confidence.
Get more information about GCSAA’s 2019 Compensation and Benefits Report.