It's a relationship that was almost over before it began. In 2000, Steen was back in Canada, fresh off a stint as an assistant superintendent at a club in the Bay Area. During his time in California, he met Mark Michaud, then the superintendent at Pebble Beach, and secured a spot on the volunteer list for the Open. Even after Michaud left Pebble shortly before the event to take the job at Shinnecock, Steen figured they wouldn't undo the work that Michaud had done prior to his departure and made his plans to travel south for the tournament.
He figured wrong. Something had clearly been lost in translation and when Steen arrived at the course for an orientation meeting, he found his name wasn't on the guest list. This made for a few very nervous moments, both for Steen and the security detail manning the gate he was trying to enter, but eventually he was able to talk his way in, get things squared away with new superintendent Eric Greytok and get to work as a member of our battle-tested bunker team.
It was a bit of fast talking that he can thank for the career he has today. During Open week, Steen was introduced to Tom Huesgen, who was then the superintendent at Spanish Bay and would later take the reins at Pebble when Greytok left for Winged Foot. The two struck up a friendship, kept in touch and caught up when they could (sound familiar?). When Steen returned to school back in Canada to finish up his formal education, he landed a three-month internship at Spanish Bay with Huesgen as a part of his schooling. And a little while later, when Huesgen went looking to fill an open assistant superintendent's position after he had moved over to Pebble, who did he think of first? Yep, Jeff Steen.
Now, fast forward a few years to Huesgen's announcement that he too was leaving Pebble Beach, to guide construction of a new Greg Norman course near Montrose, Colo. The Pebble Beach Companies made the decision to fill that new void from within, moving Chris Dalhamer, CGCS — who I'll meet with tomorrow as a part of my work on the preview story for this year's U.S. Open — from Spyglass Hill to Pebble. That set off a game of internal musical chairs, and when the music finally stopped playing, Steen was the new head superintendent at Spanish Bay.
You hear plenty of interesting stories about the circuitous routes that superintendents took to their careers in this business, but Steen's has to rank right up there. A Canadian who gravitated more to hockey than golf narrowly avoids a trip to jail for trying to weasel his way onto a course hosting a U.S. Open, only to use the connections he made at that Open to jump-start a career that would ultimately land him at the very course he had to talk his way onto all those years earlier ... they don't come much more interesting than that.
Now, don't get me wrong; if good fortune opened the door, Jeff's considerable talents as a superintendent closed the deal in getting him to where he is today. He's conscientious, smart, alert and forward thinking. He's one of a select group of guys in this business I go to when I need to pick a super's brain about something that a novice like myself just doesn't understand. He's earned everything he's achieved.
Steen and I caught up with each other again this morning, this time on his home turf. We traded stories about work, family and sports (trust me, he's still quietly crowing about Canada's hockey gold medal win over the U.S. during the Winter Olympics) over breakfast and a quick tour around the course. We talked about the struggling economy and how far it had reached into the usually idyllic world of Pebble Beach (won't share secrets, but it reached pretty far). We talked about his dog, Georgia, a Bernese Mountain Dog who may be the most recognizable figure at Spanish Bay.
Tomorrow, it's over to Pebble Beach to visit Dalhamer and his team and check in on preparations for this June's U.S. Open. From what I already know, the 15-year GCSAA member has his own interesting story to tell about how he came to work in golf. It probably doesn't include any gate crashing of major golf tournaments, but I'm looking forward to hearing it anyway.
Comments