SUPER SUPERS: Beat Goes on with Ryan Holmes at Gaylord Golf Club
By Greg Johnson –
Ryan Holmes has a goal, and it bodes well for him and Gaylord Golf Club.
He is the son of Paul Holmes, who retired at the end of last golf season after nearly four decades as the superintendent of the course long regarded for its great greens.
“I’d like to retire here like my dad, that’s the goal,” he said recently while standing behind No. 9 Green, which looked perfect as usual and stood ready for the member-guest event and the rest of the summer.
It seems to fit with destiny that Holmes would follow his father, but it took a few twists and turns first.
“I didn’t plan to be in turf at first, but I did start working for my dad at 14 and I guess it was meant to be,” he said. “This was my playground as a kid. I played every day that I could growing up. One of my best friends, the son of a member…we would get dropped off here and play all day every day.”
It’s long working days now, as golf course maintenance days tend to be, but Ryan, 40, says it feels good to be home.
“Once I finally decided on turf, I went to Rutgers (University in Pennsylvania) for their two-year program,” he said. “Then I was out east for seven years, worked at some high-end clubs, did my internship at Wannamoisett Country Club (Rumford, R.I.), worked as an assistant at The Golf Club at The Equinox (Manchester Village, Vt.) and then I came home in 2012.”
He worked at nearby Black Bear, then Otsego Resort, and most recently was working for Shanty Creek Resort on the Cedar River course.
He and his wife, Nicole, have a daughter, Hadley, who is 10.
“Nicole is from here and this is home,” he said. “Gaylord is a great community, not just a great place for golf.”
When his father decided to retire last year, Ryan was called by the Gaylord Golf Club board and interviewed. He said he couldn’t turn down the chance to come back to the course where he grew up.
“I never thought much about working here until probably the last couple of years,” Holmes said. “I loved working on Cedar River. That’s a great golf course. But I was also getting tired of the winter season at resorts, doing the ski stuff. Then last spring, my dad said, ‘Hey this is going to be my last year.’ That’s when it started to sink in. The board contacted me and stuff started rolling.”
Golf is the family business. Another brother, Kyle, is the general manager and head golf professional at Quail Ridge Golf Club in Ada.
Ryan said it feels good to be back working with the old-style push-up greens with undulation like those at Gaylord Golf Club. “We can double-cut and roll any day and they are going to be really fast, not that you want to do that every day,” he said. “It’s just nice to be able to do that and trust it.”
J.T. Aude, the longtime head golf professional at Gaylord Golf Club, said he felt wonderful about the move to have Ryan follow his father. “I just knew it would be in great hands, and that we could continue to have the golf course in great shape for the members and the public and destination golfers we get as part of the Gaylord Golf Mecca,” he said. “Paul did a wonderful job and Ryan is doing a great job, too. The members are very happy with the golf course. The guests are always saying how great the greens are, just like before. We haven’t missed a beat.”
Ryan said the hardest part of the job for him and others in turf management is finding enough employees. He said he was lucky that his father fought the battle before him and left a good crew, and that he added a crew member from The Natural, which was purchased for development and closed at the end of last year.
“It’s going great,” he said. “We had a really unusual winter without a lot of snow, and we usually get a lot of snow here, so that helped this spring. The members have shown great support, purchased us some equipment. It’s great to be at Gaylord Golf Club.”
