After decades of wishing away his summers on New York's Long Island, John Carlone is looking forward to a bit of respite.
The 63-year-old Carlone, who has been a superintendent on Long Island for 40 years, including the last 29 at Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, will retire after the current golf season.
Carlone (right) comes from the old school where work weeks of 60 or 70 hours or more per week are necessary to produce the conditions that members at clubs throughout the MetGCSA area have come to expect — and demand.
"Retirement first popped into my head during Covid in 2020. That year was so difficult," Carlone said.
"I want to have a summer weekend off. Between my internship at Westchester Country Club, three years as an assistant at Stanwich (Golf Club), and then 40 years as a superintendent, that's 44 years of wishing summer away. Everybody else looks forward to summer. It's fun. They go to the beach. I hate summer."
His retirement is effective Oct. 15 when his replacement, Max Claassen, director of agronomy at Oakmont, takes over. Carlone will remain on to help Claassen with the transition and eventually will return to his native Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where his sister, Carol, still operates Carlone's Florist, the family business started by his parents in 1954.
I'm going to spend time with my grandkids. . . . I'm tired of wishing summers away.
"Part of my retirement package is to be available for him through the rest of the year," Carlone said. "I'll be here as much or as little as he wants me to."
A graduate of the University of Rhode Island four-year turf program, Carlone studied under Drs. Conrad "Doc" Skogley and Noel Jackson and learned his trade on the university's turf plots that were first planted in 1890.
It was Skogley who helped Carlone get his first job as the assistant under Scott Niven at Stanwich Golf Club in Greenwich, Connecticut.
"When I was working at the experimental turf plots in January 1983, the beginning of my last semester, Doc Skogley came to me one day and said 'Hey, I have a former URI graduate who is looking for an assistant, and I think you would be great for that position.' Scott had just gotten the job there," Carlone said.
"That's kind of the way things worked back then with Doc Skogley. You really didn't have to apply for a job. He placed you where he thought you would fit."
It was during his days at URI that Carlone shared a house with fellow alumnus and current Cornell University professor, Frank Rossi, Ph.D.
Rossi recalls his former housemate as a detail-oriented professional who has consistently provided members with flawless playing conditions, often under severe circumstances, throughout the duration of his career.
"John is a consummate pro," Rossi said. "From early days it was clear he had a singular focus: be the best superintendent in the region. No question John was that and more, as he was a leader of the many associations he participated in and a leader of men at his course."
Years after graduation, Carlone enjoyed catching up with his former professors at regional events and the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show.
"It was fun to see them when I was established in my career," he said. "I was one among many, and I think we all felt a sense of pride that they had students that had made it."
After interning at Westchester under the legendary Ted Horton, CGCS, and working three years as assistant at Stanwich, Carlone spent 11 years at Middle Bay, before finally moving on to Meadow Brook in 1996.
I would go into work on a Saturday morning, and my father would say 'Hey, Johnny, go get that bucket of chrysanthemums and put them in the garbage can. Mrs. Spencer is going to be here at 8 o'clock.' He would put good flowers in the garbage knowing she was coming in. . . . That's how I learned both my work ethic and my compassion for people. You have to manage your staff, but you have to remember everybody's human, too.
In that time, he has seen many changes, most notably improvements in equipment and chemicals that have allowed, or forced, superintendents to maintain heights of cut that are lower than anyone could have imagined 40 years ago, especially on Meadow Brook's bent/Poa greens that have been almost untouched since 1955 when architect Dick Wilson renovated the 1916 Devereux Emmet design.
"I remember cutting greens at Middle Bay in 1986, '87 and '88 at 0.154, and we thought we were hot shots when we dropped them to 0.140," he said. "By the time I got here to Meadow Brook in 1996, we were at 0.120, and green speeds of 10 were expected. Now, I'm at 0.80. I don't think we can go any lower."
He is able to maintain that HOC during the mildest of summers or the most extreme, like in July when overnight lows, according to the National Weather Service, remained in the low- to mid-70s for 13 of 31 days.
"I don't change. I don't raise them; I don't lower them," he said. "I may switch to solid rollers, or skip a mow, but I don't raise them."
Meeting and exceeding the expectations that are heaped upon Long Island superintendents requires exceptional managerial skills if a superintendent wants to first, keep his job and second, retain his staff in times of intense labor challenges.
Carlone says he learned his unique brand of tough love from his parents, Pete and Peg.
Carlone was a standout golfer and soccer player in high school, but he had a host of chores to complete when he came home after practice before he could have dinner.
"I'd come home at 5 or 5:15 and my mother and father were about to sit down for dinner, and my father would say, 'Did you clean the shop yet?' I said, 'No. I thought I'd do it after dinner.' 'Go do it before dinner. You don't eat till the flower shop is clean.' " Carlone said. "So I'd go out and clean the shop. Work came first, and that's how I learned my work ethic. But on the other hand, I learned my father's compassion for people too, and tried to manage my staff that way."
He recalled a story about the caring his father showed to a customer when Carlone was younger.
"I grew up in the flower shop. Every Saturday morning, an older lady would come in whose husband who had passed away had been an admiral in the Navy and she had his picture on a table," he said. "She didn't have a lot of money, and she would come in every Saturday at 8 in the morning and ask my father if she could go through the garbage cans to take flowers he was throwing away so she could put them with her husband's picture in her house. I would go into work on a Saturday morning, and my father would say 'Hey, Johnny, go get that bucket of chrysanthemums and put them in the garbage can. Mrs. Spencer is going to be here at 8 o'clock.' He would put good flowers in the garbage knowing she was coming in.
The four old greens were 25,000 square feet. The four new greens were 25,000 square feet. We only lost three or four pieces of sod in the process. I think we did pretty good.
"That's how I learned both my work ethic and my compassion for people. You have to manage your staff, but you have to remember everybody's human, too."
Meadow Brook retained Bradley Klein, Ph.D., for a 2016 renovation by architect Brian Silva that included new teeing areas, bunker work, a short-game facility and practice range, as well as reworking five greens.
"The newly restored Meadow Brook Club reopened in April 2017. It sported freshly honed bunkering with crinkled edges that looked classical, not laser-edged like some modernist construct," Klein said. "A big part of the new look were the expanded areas of wavy, knee-high e native grass. Carlone worked closely with the legendary fescue doctor John Seib Jr. of All Pro Horticulture Inc. to establish easier-to-maintain, more indigenous mixes."
The result was a mix of sheep and hard fescues that are easier to maintain and easier for golfers to find their ball.
The greens project involved completely rebuilding one putting surface, removing the sod from the others, reworking contouring and reinstalling the original turf.
"The four old greens were 25,000 square feet," Carlone said. "The four new greens were 25,000 square feet. We only lost three or four pieces of sod in the process. I think we did pretty good."
In retirement, Carlone plans to make up for lost time with Leslie, his wife of 38 years, and their children Emily Lowney (Lucas) and their three children, as well as sons David and Daniel, and the latter's wife, Sydney.
Both sons are Army veterans and former officers — Daniel, a West Point graduate who played football for Army before his career was cut short by injury, rose to the rank of captain. Dave, a Hofstra graduate, was a first lieutenant in the Army when he completed his commitment. Carlone still enjoys making the short trip up the Hudson River for visits to the West Point campus and the occasional football game.
Daughter Emily and husband Lucas have three children, Savannah (7), Cassidy (4) and 2-year-old Tyler.
"I'm going to spend time with my grandkids," he said.
"I'm tired of wishing summers away."
