USGA program trains golf-course superintendents. One graduate says it changed his life

DJ McClellan’s lunchtime can come during breakfast. By 8 or 9 a.m., he has already worked an eight-hour day while others are just getting ready for work.

“I’ll probably do this until the day I die,” McClellan says of his job as a golf-course superintendent.

His path into the profession began with the USGA’s Greenskeeper Apprenticeship Program (GAP), which is helped along by Jordan Booth, senior director of the USGA’s course consulting service. The program is now in its fourth year and is led by Brett Rusek.

GAP brings in apprentices who go on to work at courses across the Pinehurst, N.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., areas, including Pinehurst Resort. At the same time, they study at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst or Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway, S.C. Apprentices are not charged for the program and work full-time at courses.

The program covers every aspect of golf-course maintenance.

“We identified this as a real challenge, workforce development in the game of golf, specifically in golf-course maintenance,” Booth said. “We feel like we’re really focused on folks who may have worked in the game of golf for five-plus years but don’t have the education to understand why we do what we do. They may know the how. What we feel like the apprenticeship program provides is the why.”

Before joining the program, McClellan said he, like many younger professionals, did not know what he wanted to do. While working in the golf shop at Pinehurst, he met Booth and became interested in working on the course.

“He’s very personable,” Booth said. “DJ was super-interested in working on the golf course, but he didn’t know how to do that. So he finished the apprenticeship program and went from not working in golf at all—or at least in golf-course maintenance—to being an apprentice and now what we call a graduate.”

McClellan is now the superintendent at Pinewild Country Club in Pinehurst. He is the first GAP graduate to be hired as a superintendent, and he says the program changed his life.

“It’s a great honor to be able to represent the GAP program and to show somebody out there who’s just starting off in golf, hey, this is somewhere I can get to,” McClellan said. “I just put my head down and worked hard. All the different things I’ve done were jobs, and now this is finally a career. I finally feel at home.

“I get up in the morning, I’m ready to come to work. I just love it. I’m here all the time. This is probably my favorite place to be: on the golf course.”

According to GOLF.com, videographer Connor Federico recently spent time with the GAP program. His video is available in the player in the original article and on YouTube.