Senior Assistant Superintendent

Senior Assistant Superintendent

Course Presentation and Detail Standards

The Institute Golf Club requires an exceptional level of detail and consistency across the property.

The Senior Assistant Superintendent will support a culture of quality, ownership, and accountability by identifying small issues before they become larger problems.

This includes monitoring sprinkler heads, irrigation leaks, unfinished project areas, bunker edges, exposed drip lines, detail around feature trees, inconsistent mowing quality, unrepaired turf damage, and areas showing mechanical or environmental stress.

The successful candidate will identify these issues early, communicate them clearly, and help ensure corrective action is completed to the required standard.

Attention to detail should extend beyond the primary playing surfaces, creating a consistently presented property where unfinished work and avoidable maintenance issues are addressed quickly.

Required Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate will have strong experience in fine turf management, preferably including bentgrass putting greens, together with proven spray application and spray-program execution experience.

A strong working knowledge of fertilizers, fungicides, wetting agents, plant growth regulators, herbicides, tank-mixing principles, application intervals, and spray timing is required.

The candidate must be able to calibrate, operate, clean, and maintain spray equipment accurately and understand foliar and soil-directed applications, including appropriate irrigation requirements.

A practical understanding of plant growth regulation, light and frequent nutrition, controlled turf growth, moisture management, and disease prevention is important.

Strong record-keeping, reporting, organizational skills, and attention to detail are essential. The successful candidate must follow an agreed agronomic program accurately while communicating confidently with the Superintendent, ownership, management, and consulting agronomist.

The role requires calm decision-making under pressure, a hands-on work ethic, and the ability to identify turf stress, disease activity, moisture issues, nutrient response, growth changes, and mechanical damage.

The ability to work independently while respecting the club’s leadership structure and agreed decision-making process is essential.

Preferred Qualifications

Preferred qualifications include a degree, diploma, or certificate in turfgrass management, agronomy, horticulture, plant science, or a related field.

A valid California pesticide applicator license is preferred, although candidates with the ability to obtain the appropriate license will be considered. Sprayer calibration and chemical handling certification are also desirable.

Experience at a high-end private club, championship venue, or tournament-conditioned golf course would be beneficial, particularly experience managing creeping bentgrass putting greens in warm or stressful climatic conditions.

The candidate should understand golf course playing quality and the practices required to deliver consistent green speed, firmness, smoothness, trueness, density, and overall surface consistency.

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate should be detail focused, reliable, organized, disciplined, accountable, technically curious, and calm under pressure.

They should be comfortable working with agronomic data and communicate clearly and proactively.

The candidate must respect the leadership structure while being confident enough to take ownership of the spray program. They should follow the agreed agronomic direction while having the confidence to raise concerns when field conditions suggest a program should be reviewed.

A practical, hands-on approach is essential. The successful candidate should naturally identify small problems before they become larger issues and take pride in achieving high standards of course conditioning and presentation.

Key Performance Indicators

Success will be measured by the accuracy, consistency, safety, and timeliness of spray applications and the quality of spray and application records.

Consistent execution of the agreed ION 54-Turfgrass® agronomic program will be a primary measure of performance.

The role should contribute to improved consistency and performance of the bentgrass putting greens, reduced unnecessary growth flushes, improved growth control, reduced scalping risk, and lower levels of avoidable mechanical stress.

Clipping volume should become more consistent and be used alongside field observations to guide growth-management decisions. Growth regulator, nutrition, wetting agent, and disease-management intervals should be completed according to the agreed strategy.

Communication between the golf course team, management, ownership, and ION 54-Turfgrass® should improve, with clear information regarding planned applications, completed work, turf response, and emerging concerns.

Disease, moisture stress, mechanical damage, and turf decline should be identified and communicated early. Attention to detail across playing surfaces and surrounding course features should improve.

There should be clear confidence among the Superintendent, ownership, and consulting agronomist that agreed agronomic programs are being followed accurately and consistently.

Ultimately, the role should improve consistency in nutrition, growth regulation, moisture management, disease prevention, plant health, and overall playing quality.

The successful candidate will play an important role in translating agronomic strategy into consistent daily execution. The position requires technical spray expertise, fine turf knowledge, strong organization, accurate reporting, and the ability to work effectively within a high-performance golf course maintenance team.

The overall objective is straightforward: execute the agreed agronomic program accurately, communicate clearly, identify issues early, and help deliver consistently exceptional playing surfaces at The Institute Golf Club.