New lease on life: Superintendent making improvements to South Park Golf Course
South Park Golf Course was established in 1929.
Steven Turner is superintendent of South Park Golf Course.
South Park Golf Course superintendent Steven Turner stands on one of the greens he meticulously maintains.
Steven Turner
South Park Golf Course superintendent Steven Turner stands in front of a water tower.
It’s 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and thick clouds threaten rain over South Park Golf Course as superintendent Steven Turner sends his crew home for the weekend.
They’ve spent another week chipping away at a long list of improvements Turner has kept in mind for the South Hills municipal course. His union crew, whose numbers shrink and swell seasonally, say their farewells and drive off from the meticulously organized maintenance shed where they meet at 5:30 a.m. each morning to attend to the ever changing needs of the 27 holes that make up the public golf venue.
“I hope it rains,” Turner says, “the course needs it.”
It has been a dry summer and although his specialty is irrigation, something he was responsible for in his previous tenure at one of the country’s premiere courses, a heavy downpour would benefit the course.
For those unfamiliar with what a golf course superintendent does, they are the wizard behind the curtain, or more often, behind a pair of computer monitors and radios that trigger irrigation heads to pop and water fairways. They maintain bunkers, keep crabgrass at bay, move pins between greens, don hazmat like spray suits in 90 degree weather to spray fungicides and other chemicals – all in service of ensuring the ground underneath goflers’ feet is pristine when they contemplate whether to lay up or go for glory on 11.
A superintendent’s work is never done.
Currently, in addition to regular maintenance, Turner’s big project is drainage work.
All 27 fairways have a pair of drainage pipes that run their length on either side. When these drains become compromised, a wet spot pools on the fairway and must be roped off, a hindrance to the unfortunate golfer who can’t help but drive into the swampy area.
Turner works to keep the drains flowing, which sometimes means digging them up and replacing them.
“I’ve found drains that were just covered in soil when they were installed,” Turner says.
In order for the pipes to drain properly, they need a layer of gravel between the drainage pipe and soil to allow water to pass through.
Although he originally studied meteorology at Penn State, Turner graduated with around 40 other students from the Turf Grass Science program. He immediately took an internship at Oakmont Country club, which he was able to turn into a position on the crew before ultimately moving up to assistant golf course superintendent.
Oakmont, which has hosted nine U.S. Opens and is one of the crown jewels of the PGA Tour, was a rigorous training ground for the detail oriented and tenacious Turner.
After more than a decade of six- and seven-day work weeks and two kids later, however, the young father’s priorities changed and he began seeking out a new challenge.
Turner interviewed with, among others, South Park Golf Course manager Bill McGrady.
“He was very knowledgeable about golf course operation,” McGrady says of Turner’s interview. “He really impressed me.”
Turner was hired in April of 2019 and has indicated it is where he would like to spend the rest of his career.
The newly minted superintendent immediately got to work.
Turner’s team cut down more than 40 dead trees over the winter and if when playing either the wide open 18-hole course or the more shaded nine holes in the back, the lack of crabgrass noticeable and the greens are patched, a practical improvement as well as an aesthetic one. Upgrading bunkers and placing them in logically challenging geography is also on Turner’s list.
“It’s only going to get better, I can guarantee you that,” Turner promises.
McGrady is not the only one who is impressed with Turner’s knowledge and work ethic.
“People who have been playing here for years have noticed an immediate improvement,” McGrady says, praise that he passes on to Turner when he can, whom he calls “very personable and easy to get along with.”
Turner, a perfectionist who often responds to compliments with, “Well, yes but there’s always room for improvement…” shows up every morning 30 minutes before his crew to make sure anything that was set to run overnight, like irrigation, ran properly.
If it hasn’t, he addresses the issue before his team arrives to keep his schedule intact. On a golf cart tour of the course he points out problem areas that would be invisible to the regular municipal golfer hacking their way through a quick nine holes.
When asked how often he plays his own course, Turner, a 10 handicap, laughs before he responds.
“That’s always a funny thing when you ask a superintendent how often they play their own course cause the answer is always not very much.” says Turner, who indicated he tries to play South Park Golf Course a couple of times a year to provide a useful and different perspective, despite being unable to help himself from being overly critical.
The last time he played he brought along his wife, herself an avid golfer whom he proudly admits regularly beats him. At some point she told him, “will you please just golf already and don’t worry about the course?”
A reasonable, albeit impossible request for Turner.
Thunder rumbles overhead and the clouds have gotten darker. Turner parks the last of the maintenance vehicles inside the garage and cracks a smile when the skies open up. It rains, hard, and most golfers take cover while a few others try to finish up for the day instead of calling it quits.
The course needs the rain, but not as much as it needs Steven Turner.