While attending the 2026 Masters, I found myself doing what golf course superintendents always do: watching the turf.
As the week progressed and temperatures rose, it became clear that conditions at Augusta National were beginning to stress some of the overseeded perennial ryegrass, as well as a few areas on the greens. With firm and fast conditions clearly the priority, it was interesting to watch how the golf course responded from day to day under those circumstances. Most people may not notice those subtle changes, but superintendents do. We cannot help ourselves; it’s how we are wired.
As I watched those daily changes throughout the week, I was reminded of a conversation I had a little over a year ago with Steve Rabideau, Golf Course Superintendent at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York. Steve and I were standing along the cliffs at Torrey Pines while attending the GCSAA Golf Championship, talking about the profession, the challenges, and the realities of trying to grow and maintain exceptional turfgrass.
He asked me how my season was going, and I remember saying, “Well, it’s been a little challenging with the weather.” At the time, my team and I were in the middle of managing through a very strong El Niño pattern—excessive rainfall, very little sunlight, and conditions that simply did not allow the golf course to respond the way it typically does when it has everything it needs to thrive. For warm-season turfgrass, sunlight is essential. Without it, you can manage, but you are rarely able to achieve the consistency and quality you expect from yourself.
That was certainly the case for us that year. Still, we managed to keep the golf course moving in the right direction. We had turfgrass on every surface, but it was not performing at the level we are accustomed to delivering during the vast majority of the course’s 30+ years. That is extremely frustrating when you care deeply about your work and hold yourself to a very high standard.
The truth is that golf course superintendents spend a great deal of their time managing variables they cannot control. We try to produce healthy, consistent playing conditions while working with living plants in an outdoor environment. Weather changes. Moisture changes. Sunlight changes. Pest pressure changes. Disease pressure changes. Growth rates change, often affecting clipping yield and green speed. And through it all, expectations rarely change.
Clearly, I understand those expectations. In many ways, they are a compliment. People care about the golf course. They notice the details. They appreciate good conditions. They want it to be great. I respect that. But I have often said and believe wholeheartedly that nobody who has ever played my golf course has higher expectations for it than I do.
That is why a comment Steve made that day stayed with me. When I asked how things were going for him, he said they were doing well, but they had also experienced their share of ups and downs over the years because of weather and all the challenges that come with managing turfgrass. Then he shared an analogy he had used with some of his members, many of whom work in the financial world.
He said that when a member would question why the golf course could not be 100% perfect every day of the year, he would sometimes explain it this way: “The market is not much different than the turfgrass a superintendent manages.”
Just as a financial advisor, no matter how experienced, intelligent, or successful, cannot predict or control every rise and fall of the market, a golf course superintendent cannot predict or control every weather pattern or growing condition that comes his way. That comparison resonated with me immediately, and it still does.
Of course, experience matters. The longer you work in this profession, the more patterns you recognize, the more adversity you have been through, and the better prepared you are to respond when conditions become difficult. Experience sharpens your instincts. It helps you anticipate problems. It teaches patience, and it gives perspective. But experience does not eliminate uncertainty. It simply helps you manage it better.
Watching the Masters this year reminded me of that again. Even on one of the most admired golf courses in the world, turfgrass is always responding. It is always changing. There is no pause button. There is no perfect formula that overcomes every environmental challenge. There is only preparation, observation, adjustment, and the ongoing commitment to do the very best you can with the conditions you are given.
That is the profession.
Yes, perfection is always the goal. It should be. High standards matter. Pride matters. Attention to detail matters. But perfection every single day of the year is not always realistic when you are working with nature.
What matters most is showing up every day with knowledge, passion, perspective, and a willingness to manage through whatever comes your way. That, to me, is one of the great challenges of being a golf course superintendent. It is also one of the things that makes the work so meaningful.
