John Gosselin is the Aronimink Golf Club superintendent.

Grounds guys got game

  Jim Rattigan, Joe Owsik and John Gosselin share similar stories.

  Eerily similar.

  Golf grabbed all three during their early teens. It might not have been the main focus of each early on, but they all would eventually become so enamored/enraptured by the game that, in some way, they wanted to turn it into a career.

  Owsik and Rattigan wanted to become professionals. Rattigan even headed down south to Coastal Carolina University to study professional golf management. Golf wasn’t in the forefront for Gosselin either.

  While he spent his summer on the maintenance staff at Merion Golf Club, Owsik, who quickly realized becoming a golf professional wasn’t for him, stayed close to home to study accounting at St. Joseph’s University.

  All three ended up in the turfgrass management program at Penn State, headed toward a different sector of the business.

  After working at Merion during the 1981 U.S. Open Championship and befriending some Penn State interns on site for the tournament, Owsik learned more about the turfgass program. By the end of the summer, he was headed to State College.

  Sean Remington’s story isn’t far off.

  A native of western New York, Remington and his friends fell for the game at 13. They set up camp at an executive course nearby and played 54 holes a day. After playing for his high school team, Remington knew he wanted to stay involved with the game. When it came time to make his college choice, Remington remembered a family member who’d attended the University of Maryland to study golf course management.

  Remington did the same, opting for the dual turfgrass/golf course management program.

  Today, Gosselin, Owsik, Rattigan and Remington are long-time superintendents at Golf Association of Philadelphia Member Clubs. And although their current gigs are accompanied by 60-hour work weeks with nary a day off, with some careful planning and a supportive staff, they still manage to squeeze in time to tee it up and to satisfy an ever-burning desire to compete.

  All four men are loyal representatives of their respective clubs in the GAP Team Matches and participated in all three weeks of play in 2012.

  Owsik has competed for Philmont Country Club since he became its superintendent 20 years ago.

  “I enjoy it,” said Owsik, who carries a USGA Handicap Index of 5.1. “It’s fun and the club likes that I play. The [other players] are happy to have me on the team and it’s nice to get to spend some time with them.”

  Owsik tallied seven out of a possible nine total points for Philmont’s first team this year.

  Gosselin, superintendent of Aronimink Golf Club, has competed in the GAP Team Matches nearly as long. He began in the early 90s while at DuPont Country Club and continued after moving on to Rolling Green Golf Club.

  “When I was superintendent at Rolling Green, they made sure that I was part of the men’s association and I had membership privileges to make me eligible to play,” said Gosselin, who also competed for Inniscrone Golf Club and now plays out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club. “Since I was always there on Sunday mornings, I was the backup guy in case somebody didn’t show. I ended up playing quite a bit.”

  Gosselin compiled 5 ½ points out of a possible nine in three Team Matches this year, two of which were played at familiar spots: Aronimink and DuPont.

  When Rattigan added the title of general manager to his golf course superintendent duties at Schuylkill Country Club, one of his first acts of business was to get the club into the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

  “As a competing golfer, I knew what the GAP was all about and I really wanted our club to be able to experience everything,” said Rattigan, whose USGA Handicap Index is a paltry 0.8. “We’re a little further away from Philadelphia and we really didn’t know what we were missing until we joined the GAP. Now we have two teams that play GAP [Team] Matches for our club and we’ve gotten a lot of camaraderie out of those matches. The guys have a lot of fun with it.”

  Like Owsik, Rattigan relishes competing alongside his members.

  “It’s great,” said Rattigan. “Going to another club and playing with our members … one year I got to play with the club president as teammates in an away match; you get to talk to each other and build teamwork while playing in a match together. It’s a lot of fun.”

  Rattigan racked up 6 ½ points while helping Schuylkill CC to a victory in Section 11 of Division B.

  This is Remington’s fourth year competing for his club, Green Valley Country Club.

  “My approach is, if my club asks me and they need me to play then I’ll play,” said Remington, who holds an official index of 5.7. “I’d always rather have the members fill the team in if possible. But again, if they need me, I totally embrace it and I’ve had a great time. I’ve won some matches. I’ve lost some. It’s been a great thing to go to other clubs and meet their members.”

  Through the rest of the golf season, all four superintendents find time to participate in other GAP and Pennsylvania Golf Association events as well. Perhaps the most accomplished player in the group, Rattigan has competed in multiple Pennsylvania State Amateur, Middle-Amateur and Open Championships. Last year, he qualified for the State Open, Mid.-Am., GAP Amateur Championship and GAP Mid-Amateur.

  “I’m very fortunate to be at a club where they really do appreciate me going out and playing in these events and representing our club,” said Rattigan.

  Gosselin qualified for the 2012 Mid.-Am. at Chester Valley Golf Club and competed in three of GAP’s Majors in 2011. Remington failed to qualify for the Mid.-Am. last year but did advance to the Championship proper in 2011.

  “I’m not able to play a full schedule, but I try to go through the schedule and pick out maybe two or three events that are more at my level and are kind of at the right time of year when I feel like I work them into my schedule,” said Remington, who has been at his post at Green Valley since 2000. “With good preparation and planning and a good staff behind me, I’m able to do that.”

  Owsik, whose competitive career includes five wins with his older brother Mike in the Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association Better-Ball Championship, most recently in 2000, wishes he could squeeze some practice time into his hectic schedule.

  “That gets frustrating,” said Owsik, who said he plays a few holes once or twice a week after work during the season. “That’s probably why I haven’t played in anything in a couple years. I just can’t apply enough time to practice to get to the point where I feel like I can compete. For probably the last 10 years or so, I’ve played just to see the courses, see how guys prepare their golf courses for tournaments. It gives me a chance to view how somebody else does it and then how we could do some things differently and how we stack up.”

  “It’s easier to find time to hit a few balls or to hit a few putts,” said Gosselin. “To actually [find time to] play, it comes in spurts. All of a sudden you may have a week where you can get out two or three times and then there’ll be a three-week stretch where you can’t get out at all.”

  Without prompting, all four superintendents shared similar thoughts.

  “I think it’s really important for a superintendent to get out there and see all of these other great golf courses at their peak in these tournaments,” said Rattigan. “You feel motivated to get back to your club and see how good things can be. You really want to work harder with your staff and things like that to try to help get to that level.”

  “I try to visit as many courses as possible every year just because I‘m always picking something up or learning something new,” said Gosselin. “And everybody does it a little differently depending on budgets and the climate and their particular course so I’m always picking up good things to bring back to Arominink.”

  Another commonality was the ribbing the supers receive from the other GAP competitors.

  “They’re very surprised,” said Rattigan. “Because it really is hard for a superintendent to get away in the middle of the summer. I have a great staff, a great assistant superintendent that allows me to do that.”

  “Some guys are a little surprised when I tell them that I’m the superintendent,” said Remington. “If you have a good day you hear the same old thing, ‘You must be spending a lot of time playing golf.’ But I just kind of laugh. It’s fun.”

  And all are thankful that their paths have provided them with an opportunity to play the game they love.

  “I enjoy the competition and I enjoy meeting people, but I just love the game,” said Gosselin, who got his start at General Washington Golf Course (now The Club at Shannondell). “That’s why I got into the business. I was just a kid who liked being around golf courses. I worked on golf courses in high school, putting away golf carts at night, changing cups on the weekends, stuff like that. Eventually, through a roundabout way, I ended up making a career out of it.”

  “I love the game of golf,” said Remington. “That’s why I got into being a superintendent. I love the competition. It’s always nice to measure yourself against a field even though most times I know that I’m outmatched because I don’t get to play a lot and I don’t get to prepare a lot. But I still love to put myself into that situation because you learn a lot about yourself. And the Golf Association of Philadelphia is a great organization. They run a great schedule and I look at it that it’s my way to be a part of it and to do something to help support it.”

Nate Oxman is a freelance writer and the editor of phillygolffiles.com. He's a resident of Havertown, Pa.