Members in The Field

Brian Schweihofer

Brian Schweihofer has been the Superintendent of Franklin Hills Country Club for 17 years. During that time, he has helped guide many improvements and transformed it into one of the premier clubs in the Midwest. Franklin Hills currently ranks #77 on Golfweek’s Top 100 Classic Course list and #5 on Golf.com’s Best Courses in Michigan list. Before he took over at Franklin Hills, Brian was the Superintendent at Indianwood Golf and Country Club and worked as an Assistant at Lochmoor Country Club.

The Renovation

The club has recently completed phase one of a twophase renovation. It had been twenty years since the Ron Prichard restoration of 2003-2004, so it was time for a refresh. Golf Course Architect Andrew Green leads the new renovation. Green’s recent renovation work includes Oak Hill, Congressional Blue, and Inverness Club in Toledo, OH, in 2018, which was awarded the Restoration of the Year from Golfweek.

The Master Plan includes new bunkers, green expansion, fairway expansion and reshaping, and a new irrigation system. Schweihofer describes this as his first “really big renovation” after having done many smaller projects. The project took a few years to get up and running, with budget requirements and contractor availability as just some of the things It takes to get started. “It’s a pretty complicated process to develop a plan and get membership approval, and then there’s doing it all, which is equally as difficult.”

It’s something that evolves over a lot of discussion with the greens committee and members. Finding the members’ issues with the course, then developing a plan over time. Then comes the process of choosing and contacting an architect, working through a set of plans, and understanding what the membership wants and what the architect feels he can improve upon.

McDonald and Sons Golf Course Builders, from Virginia, was hired for the golf course construction. They came in with a crew of about 15 people to complete all the earth moving and feature shaping. “Our crew did a lot of work; we completed all the sodding and many other tasks. It was a big team effort.” Mike Kuhn designed the new irrigation system, and Thielen Turf Irrigation was hired for the installation. “Everyone worked extremely hard and did a fantastic job on any given day there were probably 50-55 people working on the project.”

In 2022 three holes were closed after Labor Day. The remaining 15 holes were left open as phase one was completed. Schweihofer is planning on completing the remaining 15 holes of phase two in 2024. “It happened that a lot of work was being done on these three holes, specifically the 17th hole. We expanded the size of the pond, raised the fairway, built a new green, pretty much built a new golf hole.”

Michigan State University and the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation

Brian graduated from Michigan State University in December of 1993 and has been in the Turfgrass business since 1989. Now his son is enrolled in the two-year program at MSU and planning to transfer into the four-year program. This summer, he will be doing an internship at Bel-Air Country Club (Los Angeles, CA) “He’s worked for me the last 3 years and has gotten some great experience, I am looking forward to watching his career develop.”

Brian served as the President of the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation for 3 years (2013-2015) and on the board for a total of 9 years. He was instrumental in the revitalization of the Michigan Turfgrass Conference and still attends that event regularly.

Brian believes the Turfgrass degree helps greatly in his profession, but it is “only a part of what we do. A Superintendent’s job is about providing a great golf course, communicating with members, motivating staff, and finding creative solutions for so many issues. Our maintenance operation is a lot like running a business with many different types of challenges.”

“In today’s world, hiring people is a challenge. Recruiting and managing staff is quite a bit different than it was 15-20 years ago. Our full-time staff goes from 6 in the winter time, to 24 during the summer. Consequently, we lose a lot of really good people from the layoff period. Trying to recruit and train a new group of people to work during the summertime that can meet the expectations of your membership is quite a challenge.”

“The MTF and MSU are a great support mechanism for training the next generation of Turf professionals, which is needed in the industry. We (Superintendents), in turn, inspire young people to become turf students at MSU. The relationship is very important.”