E
very morning, Kyle Moore checks off boxes on his to-do list at Rolling Hills Country Club in Arlington hours before most of us pour our first cup of coffee. That’s just life as a golf course superintendent, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Long known as the game’s unsung heroes, superintendents and their crews routinely beat the sun to work in order to maintain the fairways and greens where we love to play. Sure, we grumble when it’s time to aerate or top-dress, but these agronomy experts know what it takes to keep their courses in the best condition possible for the highest number of days throughout the year.
In short, without supers and their crews, a round of golf would be a long slog through an unkempt wilderness. And the truth is they don’t get enough recognition.
Back in August, we ran a social media and email campaign that called on you, the TGA Members, to give a #SuperShoutout to the hard-working men and women at your home clubs and courses to acknowledge their efforts. We were delighted to receive more than 330 responses. Several supers at TGA Member Clubs garnered double-digit compliments, but none received as many as Rolling Hills’ Moore.
“I was surprised,” said the 41-year-old Moore, the superintendent at Rolling Hills since 2006. “I was told a few people wrote in, and I appreciated that. Then I came up and played golf one Saturday, and that’s when I started to hear how many people did the shoutout. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It was a huge honor for me. One of the best things about working here are the members themselves. They take such great care of me and my crew. They make it a joy to come here and work every day. They’ll back me up in anything and everything I do.”
Moore grew up in the tiny East Texas town of Loraine. When he graduated high school, the population was fewer than 800 people. His dad Stanley was a cotton farmer. When Moore turned 7 years old, his grandfather John bought him a junior set of golf clubs. Just as grandpa did for Moore’s older brother Michael two years prior when he turned 7.
Clubs in hand, the Moore brothers pegged it every chance they got at a little nine-hole muni course near grandpa’s home in Sweetwater. That’s when they both fell in love with the game – and the surfaces on which it’s played.
“It was one of those courses where you put your ball up on a weed, hit it and then go do that all the way to the green,” Moore said. “The layout of the course, we just loved it. My dad being a cotton farmer, he did not want us being cotton farmers.”
During Moore’s junior year in high school, he and his brother decided to go to Texas Western College and pursue turf degrees.
“We were still going to be farmers for a living, but we were going to farm grass,” Moore said. “We decided to grow grass for a living.”
After college and a few internships, Moore landed a job at The Woodlands Country Club. He started as a spray tech, then got bumped up to an assistant superintendent. After a little while, he moved up to the Metroplex and took a job as an assistant super at Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth.
That’s when he started working for Duane Janssen, the gifted super there. Janssen took Moore under his wing and became his mentor.
“I’ve been at Ridglea for 28 years now, and I’ve worked with a lot of other assistants,” Janssen said. “Kyle and I had one of the best working relationships. He puts a capital T in the word ‘Team.’ He’s an extremely hard worker and inspires the staff around him. He’d never ask someone to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He’s just the kind of guy you want around you.”
Near the end of 2005, Moore learned of an opening for a head superintendent at Rolling Hills. He decided to go for it. Tom Burns, a longtime Rolling Hills member, was the Chairman of the Greens Committee and an integral voice in the hiring process.
After Burns and a few other members met with Moore, the rest of the competition for the job had no chance. Moore blew everyone away. All the candidates were allowed 30 minutes, but Moore’s interview ran longer.
“He had two pages of notes written down on things we could do right away to make improvements that wouldn’t cost much money,” Burns said. “Unbeknownst to me, he came to the club a few days ahead of the meeting, asked the pro for a cart and drove the course to make his list.”
What a smart move. As Moore drove the course, he saw faded irrigation satellite boxes leaning crooked. Add a little paint, make a quick realignment and boom. That would look better! Same with some of the flowerbeds that looked tired and drab. Janssen was a wizard with the flowers at Ridglea, and he taught Moore how planting the right kind of flowers could add a splash of color and beauty to the bed. It was little things like this that filled Moore’s legal pad.
“It was Kyle’s attention to detail and that interview that got him the job,” Burns said.
Moore, true to his personality, won’t even accept compliments for the plan of driving the course ahead of the interview.
“I would love to take all the credit on this, but I’ll give it where it’s due,” Moore said. “My old boss at Ridglea, Duane, helped me get my resume to Rolling Hills. He gave me the idea to drive the course, so I’d know what I was talking about in the interview.”
The teamwork between mentor and protégé has benefited everyone involved. Moore got his first head superintendent job. Janssen has the satisfaction of seeing one of his former assistants embark on a rewarding career. Rolling Hills got a talented, hard-working manager who gets the most out of his crew. And the club members? They got the very best of it: a better maintained golf course with some of the best greens in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Here are a few examples of the #SuperShouts we received on Moore’s behalf from the Rolling Hills members:
Kyle does an amazing job despite his limited staff and budget. The countless hours he spends shows how much pride he takes. The results show in our greens day to day.
They call him the Grass Whisperer. He works miracles with less resources. We have the best greens in the Metroplex.
Kyle keeps our course in amazing condition. Greens are superb, as are the fairways. He does a great job of letting us know of upcoming maintenance. He and his crew go all-out in getting the course ready for tournaments. I believe he is one of the best there is!
Kyle Moore is a great person on and off the course. His hard work and dedication to Rolling Hills Country Club is incredible. And his knowledge of maintaining the course is extraordinary.
There were 23 other Rolling Hills members who submitted similar shoutouts. You can feel the pride and love for Moore in every single one of them. Congrats to Moore and Rolling Hills for giving Moore the credit he deserves.
For all the other superintendents and grounds crews at TGA Member Clubs – including Moore’s brother Michael, the Director of Agronomy at Stonebridge Ranch Country Club in McKinney – we all thank you over and again for your hard work and dedication to the game of golf.