The People Behind the Course: Mike Bankert
Do you ever wonder how a golf course is setup? How a kitchen is managed? How equipment is maintained? Then this series is for you. In our first installment of “People Behind the Course” we follow Mike Bankert, director of agronomy at Legends Golf & Resort, and his crew on what a normal day of prep looks like around the resort.
Mike Bankert:
The dedication that these guys show on a daily basis, the ability to wake up early with a smile on their face and get the job done … They get satisfied when they look back and they see the work that they perform.
A hard day’s work means something. You feel good about a hard day’s work. It kind of becomes addictive and then you want to do it again and again and you want to try to outwork yourself from the day before.
There are days when you ride out here and you’re like, “Wow, we’re doing something special.” I just love the job. I’m addicted to it. It’s more like a way of life now than a job. No problem waking up early.
I just get really, really motivated every day. The ride into work in the morning is where I try to kind of focus everything, get us ready for the day. Before the golfers get out there, we’re cutting cups, we’re spraying greens, we’re mowing greens, we’re mowing tees, mowing fairways, we’re blowing.
I don’t ever see these guys have any type of attitude issues. They enjoy being here. They enjoy being outside. They know what their job is. So some of the guys are having to fix some leaks and that’s hard work. It’s pretty out there in the morning. Most of the guys enjoy just being out there.
I was kind of floundering around a little bit and then found this business and that was the dream. That was the goal. I was just lucky enough to be in a good spot to reach that goal, but I cherish it. I don’t take it for granted at all. It’s a big responsibility and there’s not a lot of us to get to do it.
When you come to one of my golf courses, you can expect that we’re always going to have the short grass cut. We’re always going to have the greens mowed and rolled. We’re not always going to have cups in the perfect spot, but you’ll see that the tee markers are always facing down the right way. You’ll see that we pick up all the trash. Cleanliness and playability is something that we go for.
When I was younger, I was a little harder on the crew and the guys, and as I age I learned to appreciate the different personalities and try to really get to know each one of them, figure out what they like. Just such a great group of guys. They enjoy each other’s company. Camaraderie is high. They give each other grief, but they’re there for each other when they need it. These guys out here just enjoy it and work hard at it and they have that self-satisfaction, that pride.
When you’re cutting cups and you’re moving tees, you have the ability to set the expectation for that day and by that I mean the distance of the hole. If the tees are up, is the pin back? If the tees are back, is the pin up? Those guys that are avid golfers, they enjoy the setup procedure because they get to set the course up how they would want to play it.
When you play your own golf course, you see a lot more and it seems to be a lot less enjoyable than when you’re playing somebody else’s golf course. But it’s the same stuff. I’m competitive. I want to beat all my buddies. I want to make sure my golf course is better than theirs. So when I play, I definitely pay attention to what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. And if I feel like they’re in a better spot than we are, I definitely come back and I try to step up our game a little bit out here.
I’m kind of an easygoing guy. I try not to get too stressed. Blood pressure, not too pumped up. I generally don’t think of a problem as, oh no. I just think of it, all right, we got to solve this thing. So I think that part of my personality helps with golf course work for sure. I never really feel I can’t control this or I don’t know what to do, or how are we going to get past this? It’s always just, what do we have to do to get past it? What do I need to get? So it’s always just problem solving.
I don’t ever feel like we need any kind of props, any kind of praise. And our goal is you feel value in what you pay to play here. That’s what we do. We want you to leave here thinking you got a real good deal. You have enough people working underneath of you and for you, and if you treat them right, you can leave a legacy of, I really enjoyed working for that guy. I worked a long time for him and he always treated me fair with respect. And to me, that’s worth it just as much as getting out there and seeing what kind of playing conditions you can produce. Feel lucky.
