Shaping the Next Generation of Golf Course Superintendents
ENGAGING AND NURTURING TOP TALENT TO DRIVE EXCELLENCE ON AND OFF THE COURSE
Workforce Trends: Build a winning culture
Discover what today’s assistant superintendents want, value, and prioritize—and how golf course leaders can develop a top workplace culture.
Many golf courses struggle to find qualified assistant superintendent candidates due to a shortage of young professionals entering turf management. In fact, 3 in 4 employers say that it would take them more than three months to fill these mission critical roles. Despite increased salaries, the demands of the job, lack of clear development paths and industry recognition makes it harder to retain top talent in this critical position.
Our 2025 Golf Course Superintendent Employment Trends Study provides a comprehensive analysis of the current landscape, uncovering the expectations of assistant superintendents, their views on career opportunities in the golf course industry, and their thoughts on the key factors influencing attraction and retention.
This study offers valuable insights into how golf course leaders can adapt to the evolving workforce. As the industry faces significant challenges, understanding these trends is essential for enhancing member experiences and building high performing teams. The findings confirmed trends, but also unlocked surprising insights.
Here were the four key findings:
KEY FINDING #1
Creating a great workplace culture is their #1 goal
When assistants are promoted to superintendent roles, they recognize that their success isn’t just measured by turf conditions—it’s also about the team they lead.
Their top priority is fostering a healthy workplace culture, ensuring that staff feel valued, motivated, and supported. This focus is followed closely by the challenge of maintaining work-life balance, both for themselves and their teams.
KEY FINDING #2
Assistants seek clearer connection between performance, compensation and advancement
One of the biggest frustrations assistants face is a lack of clear career progression—leading many to feel overlooked or unsure of their future in the profession. They want structured development opportunities that provide clarity on how to advance compensation and advancement.
KEY finding #3
Soft skills trump agronomics
For years, the golf industry has emphasized agronomic expertise as the foundation of a superintendent’s success. However, today’s rising leaders recognize that technical skills alone aren’t enough.
In fact, leadership, communication, and business acumen are now considered four times more important than agronomic knowledge when it comes to long-term career growth.
KEY FINDING #4
Experience and mentorship over education
While formal education remains valuable, most assistants believe that hands-on experience, mentorship, and a two-year degree are more impactful than a traditional four-year degree when it comes to career readiness.
At the same time, the industry faces a commitment gap—while 60% of assistants are fully committed to a long-term turf career, 40% remain uncertain about whether they’ll stay in the profession.
THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED BY
Bloom Golf Partners
Bloom Golf Partners is the premier executive search and business consulting firm serving the golf and club industry. We empower golf courses, private clubs, and industry leaders to build high-performing teams, streamline operations, and achieve outstanding results.
Our proven methodologies and innovative solutions stem from decades of experience collaborating with top-tier clubs, historic landmarks, and national associations. We’ve led groundbreaking employment studies, pioneered workforce strategies, and delivered measurable success in recruitment, team building, and organizational performance.
Our expertise has been featured in Golf Digest, USGA, Boardroom Magazine, GCSAA, PGA of America, CMAA, and the British International Greenskeepers Association.
Bloom Golf Partners is uniquely positioned to provide both visionary strategies and hands-on execution to help organizations attract, retain, and develop the talent they need to thrive in today’s competitive golf and club landscape.
THE STUDY WAS FIELDED BY
Flagstick LLC
Pat Jones has been a passionate advocate for superintendents and the golf industry for 30 years.
Now, as head of Flagstick LLC, he’s using that passion to help companies and organizations in the industry communicate with customers and drive sales more effectively and efficiently.
Jones has been a business media executive for most of his adult life, profitably steering the sales and editorial operations of Golf Course Industry, Lawn & Landscape, Golfdom and GCM over the years. He specializes in researching and tracking the state of the golf course maintenance market and shining a spotlight on the industry’s best people, practices and products. Jones got his start in the business running lobbying, public relations and fundraising for the GCSAA.
He’s best known for communicating candidly about golf, business and life as a writer, speaker and teacher. He is a frequent keynoter at conferences and industry events and often teaches classes on social media, communications and career development.
