Member Spotlight

Mark Baughman - Superintendent @ Sharpstown Golf Course

Raised in central Illinois. Cornfields and soybean. We moved to central Illinois when my Dad got promoted to the corporate office of Illinois Farm Bureau. Prior to that we lived in northern Illinois, about an hour from Mississippi. My dad liked to fish, so we did a lot of that. When we moved to central Illinois, the fishing slowed down, so we took up golf. I played golf in high school, and became senior team captain after beating my best friend for that role. We both thought it would be cool to build golf courses; or so we thought! An opportunity came in 1982 when I had some friends from the landscape company I was working for move to Dallas to work at Las Colinas. It just so happened that they were going to build another golf course which was to be designed by Joe Finger with Byron Nelson as a consultant. I started working in irrigation on this project, cleaning ditches then moving up to laying pipe and so forth. I worked in golf construction for about 10 years for various contractors, completed projects in Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Georgia.

I met Monica, my wife, in San Antonio at Oak Hills CC where the company I was working for was doing a renovation for Jay Morrish. We traveled for a bit doing construction projects, then she had enough of the travel, though it was a fun experience. We ended up in Houston doing an irrigation installation at Champions Golf Club and had our daughter during that project. We traveled a bit for golf work after that, but it wasn’t the way we wanted to raise children. Another opportunity came about to work for AMC Industries in golf irrigation sales, so I started there in 1992 and left in 2015 when they sold to SiteOne. I then went to work for Ewing Irrigation in early 2016 through July of 2018. I started with PTP in August of 2018 in the irrigation sales and in March of 2020 was laid off due to Covid19 along with several others, so I went to work for GreenScape Methods until July of 2022.

A new opportunity came up at Sharpstown GC to be Superintendent. Mike Yarotsky said I ought to do it, it’s an easy job; well I knew it wasn’t that easy, but took it on in October of 2022. That is where I’m at and with a lot of help not only from Mike, but many others in Houston making my way as a superintendent.

I’m sure there are many people who say their chosen profession is the best, but not many compare to the golf industry. I have made tons of friends throughout the years. The people in this industry are some of the most helpful and genuine people I’ve ever met.

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When Golf was Fun” is a collection of tales from what is known as the “beer and barbecue circuit” of golf tournaments. These tournaments held in small town all across the state of Texas were not only the beginning of the careers of many great golfers but also produced some local legends. It was a time when golf was still a game, not a big business. This collection of 38 stories will entertain and amaze as you read first-hand accounts of some of the greatest exploits in the history of golf. You will read about local golf pros who are unknown outside of their local country club and you will also read about legends like Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Lietzke, Charles Coody, Miller Barber, Ben Hogan and others. Texas has a very rich golf history and much of it is captured in “When Golf was Fun.” The late, great beer and barbecue circuit was a bygone era of Texas golf in which many Lone Star legends were born and raised but has since given way to the more civilized and organized golf industry we know today. Much like baseball’s barnstorming days, the barbecue circuit was a series of unaffiliated events that brought an extremely high level of golf and excitement to tiny towns like Center and Athens; Quanah and Pampa places you might otherwise never have known even existed.