Tennessee Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com
The Turf Zone: Welcome to The Turf Zone. In this episode of Tennessee Turfgrass, we’re interviewing Paul Webb, General Manager and Golf Course Superintendent at Humboldt Country Club and TTA Board Member. Good morning Paul, how are you? 
Paul Webb: I’m doing well, how are you? 
TTZ: Doing good. Thanks so much for taking some time to talk to us this morning. I’m just going to jump right in and ask a little bit about your current position there in Humboldt. How long have you been in that job?
PW: I’ve been the general manager and golf course superintendent since August of 2011, so just a little over nine years. I came to Humboldt Golf and Country Club in February of 2010 as the superintendent alone and after a year and a half of being here, there was some turnover in different management positions and I was asked by the Board to become general manager and superintendent on an interim basis and nine years later we’re still here. 
TTZ: In having both of those titles, what additional responsibilities do you have and what does a day look like when you hold both of those titles? 
PW: It’s more focused on the turf side because I still feel like that’s the most important asset of the club and it is my background, so I feel more comfortable in it as well. As far as the general manager, I used to have to do a lot more day-to-day tournament operations and food and beverage, and over the years, our club has expanded in a way of hiring some more management underneath me and it’s given me an opportunity to do more oversight and not as much hands-on with those different operations. I’m still responsible of reporting to our Board of Directors on a weekly and monthly basis, I work hand-in-hand with our club officer and committee members and I’m responsible for the yearly budget of the entire property, so every day is a different challenge. Whether it’s something on the golf course, in the clubhouse, dealing with a swimming pool – just all aspects of a country club. 
TTZ: That is a wide scope of work and responsibility. I frequently hear that there are unique challenges to addressing what the Board wants to see and also what members want to see. Do you feel like that’s sometime an uphill battle or have you leveled off on that part of the job? 
PW: It’s somewhat leveled off. I’ve been here so long that I know for the most part what they expect and I know what are the areas where we need to improve. Our Board is constantly looking at ways to make things better, which is exciting for someone like me, that they don’t want to just have status quo, whether it’s on a monthly/yearly basis, the entire club is looking at any facet or any angle to make this place better and that’s a good thing for me because we don’t just get stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over. 
TTZ: Let’s rewind a little bit. How did you get into turfgrass and what jobs and what path led you to your current position?
PW: I’m a little bit different than your typical turf manager. I did not start out in college to go through the Agronomy path. I went to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville looking, started out as a business major and then after a couple of years decided that I wanted to do something within sports, but I didn’t know what. So I got a degree in Sport Management and I minored in business. In sport management I did a couple internships at various golf courses like Fair Oaks in Oakland, Tennessee and Gettysvue in Knoxville and Covington Country Club in Covington, TN. After graduation, those opportunities opened my eyes to the fact that I wanted to be on the Agronomy side of it. So once I graduated from Knoxville, I began dating my wife and she was a nursing major at UT Martin, so I decided why not go get another degree, so I went to Martin and continued to work in golf at a couple different...