 |
|
||||||||||
 From the News Desk...The 'real deal'by John ReitmanSome people, it seems, are destined to become a golf course superintendent, and then there is Clarence Wolfrom Jr. Wolfrom, 75, has spent his life around the game – literally. He was born in the family apartment above the clubhouse at Maple Lane Golf Course, where his father, Clarence Sr., was superintendent for 54 years. By the time he could walk, the younger Wolfrom was following his father around the golf course in Sterling Heights, Mich. When he and each of his three brothers reached age 5 their father taught them how to remove dandelions from the family’s side business – a Detroit-area sod farm. Once he was physically able, Wolfrom was running water to crew workers on golf courses around the Detroit area. Today, Wolfrom, otherwise known as Clem, is preparing to embark on his 48th year as superintendent at Detroit Golf Club in Highland Park. And he doesn’t plan on calling it quits anytime soon.  “I enjoy what I do,” Wolfrom said. “It’s 16 miles down Woodward Avenue from my house in Bloomfield Hills to the Detroit Golf Club. I’ve told my wife (Cheryl) that if there ever is a morning that I don’t look forward to going to work, that’s the day I hang it up. That hasn’t happened yet.”
Wolfrom’s longevity at Detroit has made a lasting impression on Todd Beals, the club’s chief operating officer. “I think he was born to do this job. It’s in his blood,” Beals said. “This is my sixth club I’ve been associated with, and I’m in awe of this man. “There are past superintendents from other clubs who I am friends with and who I hunt and fish with. But I’ve never met anyone who I respect more than I do Clem Wolfrom.” It is easy to understand why Beals might feel this way. Wolfrom excels in many of the typical duties associated with being a superintendent. He maintains detailed maintenance logs of every piece of equipment in the shop and provides detailed job instructions for each of the nearly 30 members of his crew on a daily basis. But it is in other areas of his job where Wolfrom excels – namely the relationships he maintains with members and his knack for proactively heading off challenges before they become major problems – that have impressed Beals and others. Consider this: Wolfrom has been superintendent for nearly half of the club’s 110-year history. A 1956 graduate of Michigan State University’s ornamental horticulture program, his career predates the school’s turfgrass program, which originated in 1969. An article penned by Cecil Kerr entitled “The future of golf course superintendents” noted how Wolfrom proactively reduced labor expenses at Detroit Golf Club by 10 percent over a three-year period in response to a flailing local economy – and that was way back in 1970.  Wolfrom’s cost-cutting measures at the inner-city course were in response to five days of riots in Detroit in 1967 sent many members fleeing to suburban clubs in the ensuing years.
“We lost a big percentage of our membership,” Wolfrom said. “We were really down and out then.” Things were so bad then at Detroit Golf Club that Wolfrom approached then green committee chairman Gordon Andrew to tell him he was considering putting a halt to construction on a home he was building in Bloomfield Hills. “I told him that I didn’t know how secure my job was,” Wolfrom said. “He told me to go ahead and build my house, that there would always be a Detroit Golf Club. We weathered that storm and other recessions since then, but we were bare bones then. We reduced our staff considerably. “I went on with building the house, and it’s the house I still live in now.” Today, those concerns seem almost laughable, but they speak to the relationships that Wolfrom has maintained with his chairman, committee members and golfing members through the past 57 years. He eats lunch with members daily in the club’s dining room. While much of the talk in the room might revolve around the Detroit Tigers and Lions, the opportunity for members to ask about conditions on the golf course is there. “I’ve always thought that you have to tell the truth. You have to always be present to answer questions – good or bad – about your golf course,” he said. “I make it a point to have lunch every day with the men’s club. I never miss that. Sometimes the golf course is not always in the best condition for whatever reason, but I still face those people. If they have a question, I want to be the one to answer it. I don’t want the pro or the manager answering for me.” Michigan State professor Trey Rogers, Ph.D., recalls one of those lunches. “I think the one thing that sticks out for me is when I asked him on a visit what was the secret to his longevity. He smiled and said, ‘come with me,’ ” Rogers said. “We went up to the men’s grill room in Detroit Golf Club where some 30 to 40 guys were eating lunch. We ate lunch, but as we were eating, (Wolfrom) spoke to the members, really about everything from golf to grass to football. Afterward, I remarked that the communication in that room was impressive. He smiled and said that his philosophy was to always be available and visible, especially in difficult times. It has worked for him, and many other superintendents who sought his counsel and heeded his advice. “He is, after all, the true dean of golf course superintendents in Michigan.” Wolfrom not only talks a good game over lunch, he also maintains personal relationships with many of his members. He plays golf with them (he is an 11 handicap) and takes a group on an annual outing to White Pine National Golf Resort, a course in Spruce, Mich.., that Wolfrom built and owns with younger brother, Bruce. Much of Wolfrom’s professional philosophy is directly attributable to his personal experiences. He learned the value of hard work from his father, who sent four children to college on earnings from the sod farm. Personal tragedies, including losing his first wife, Janet, to cancer in 1989 and their son, Larry, in a car crash in 1994, have taught him to take nothing for granted. “That was a tough stretch for me,” Wolfrom said. “You just have to continue on. There’s nothing else you can do.” 
Wolfrom and brother Bruce completed construction of White Pine in 1993. The course, built with money they had inherited from their father, was intended as a memorial to their parents. The street on which both men own homes on the property is named Viola Lane, in honor of their mother. Wolfrom’s son, Larry, had served as construction foreman throughout the duration of the project and was going to be the course superintendent – after a well-deserved vacation. However, he died on a Montana highway while returning to Michigan. Wolfrom remarried in 1993. He and Cheryl have a 15-year-old son, Cody, who is a high school sophomore. Stepson Zach is a senior at Michigan State University. “She is a great wife and a great mother to my kids. Life is good – for now,” Wolfrom said, noting the uncertainty tomorrow brings. His mother, Viola, died on the operating table at age 72 while doctors worked to repair a heart valve, and his father died in his easy chair, listening to Ernie Harwell call a Tigers game in their World Series-winning season of 1984. “Life is always a mystery, and you have to keep going. I’ve had a great life. The good Lord has tossed me a couple of curves, but I’ve handled those, and life moves on.” Life’s lessons have reminded Wolfrom that he must occasionally stop to smell the roses, or in this case the freshly mown turf. During the club’s member-member tournament this summer, he would park his utility vehicle on a hill behind the third green after the morning’s activities were complete and watch golfers coming through, marveling at the work he and his crew had accomplished. “You have to take time to do that,” he said. “I do that off and on. I just look the place over. It’s relaxing and gives you a lot of self satisfaction.” Even at 75, Wolfrom remains a tireless devotee to maintaining a near-perfect golf course. He is proud of the work he does, and defies anyone to find even one small plot of managed acreage that is not covered in turf. He also admits that turf management has changed dramatically throughout his career. “We cut tees closer today than we did greens in 1962,” he said. “Putting surfaces today are so far superior to those in the ’50s, ’60s and even the ’70s.” He stays abreast of the latest turf management trends by reading volumes of books and scientific articles, and regularly attends the Golf Industry Show and its predecessors. When he missed this year’s show in New Orleans because of son Cody’s swim meet, it marked only the second time since graduating from Michigan State in 1956 that he missed the GCSAA’s annual conference. He has served on the Michigan chapter’s board for 24 years and was president for four. He also is a past president of the Michigan Turf Foundation and was a five-time member of its board beginning in 1963. All the while, he never has forgotten the needs of his employees, advocating for their rights and wages to the club’s board members. “He is a leader with the members and within his profession. . . . He keeps me and the pro abreast of what is happening with the golf course. He is the real deal. He is full of humility, but he stands up for himself and his employees.”Something must be working because one member of his crew, Charles Ingraham, has worked at Detroit Golf Club for 51 years, that’s four years more than Wolfrom has been there. “A good crew, there is nothing better than a good crew,” Wolfrom said. “I have tried to keep wages up and benefits up for my people. I figure they have to buy bread from the same place I have to buy it, and they pay the same price I do. They help provide entertainment for the members, and they should be rewarded for that.” Something must be working because one member of his crew, Charles Ingraham, has worked at Detroit Golf Club for 51 years, that’s four years more than Wolfrom has been there. “He is a leader with the members and within his profession,” said Beals, the club’s COO. “He keeps me and the pro abreast of what is happening with the golf course. He is the real deal. He is full of humility, but he stands up for himself and his employees.” Wolfrom said the secret to his longevity and success is nothing unique. Or is his approach, once the norm, now truly the exception? “I just try to lead a good life and be honest and do the right thing – most of the time. I’m no saint by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “You have to keep everything in balance. “Right now, I still have my health, and I still provide a pretty good golf course. I’m looking forward to next year, but maybe next summer I’ll say ‘that’s enough.’ But we’ll see.” 
|
In other news... Study examines spring pre-stress fertility programs Research finds no correlation between biostimulant applications before spring core cultivation and recovery. Posted: 09/02/2010 Read more » Aquatrols, TurfNet present Water Week The series of five Webinars is aimed at helping superintendents manage water and soils more efficiently. Posted: 09/01/2010 Read more » News and people briefs Registration opens soon for Irrigation Show, Briggs & Stratton elects new chairman, FMC taps new director for professional solutions division Posted: 09/01/2010 Read more » GCSAA selects firm in search for new CEO Kansas City-based company will open search process for Mark Woodward's successor in October. Posted: 08/31/2010 Read more » Water foul! Research shows that droppings from non-migratory geese on turf can result in nitrogen runoff into adjacent bodies of water. Posted: 08/26/2010 Read more » Complete news index » |
|
 |
 — The TurfNet Media Network: TurfNet.com, TurfNet TV, TurfNet Monthly, TurfNet University — Connecting golf course superintendents worldwide, since 1994. © 1994-2010, Turnstile Publishing Company. All rights reserved. |
 |