Meet the woman behind Hobe Sound's tough course conditioning at the U.S. Senior Challenge
Julie Williams
Special to Golfweek
Jackie Byler puts a lot of stock in the quality of a golf course's greens. They have been her primary focus these past two years as superintendent of Hobe Sound (Florida) Golf Club, a private facility with a small membership that sits amid some of South Florida's most prominent courses – Medalist and McArthur to the north, Jupiter Island Club to the east.
This is something that Byler, 38, picked up from Dick Gray, the former head greenskeeper at PGA Golf Club in St. Lucie, Florida, who became an important mentor for her as she navigated her way to the superintendent position at Hobe Sound.
'When I first started, my biggest focus was the greens and just kind of start getting my program figured out on what products I wanted to use and the timing of all of it,' Byler said, 'and I felt like just with my experience working with Dick Gray, he was kind of always known for his greens also.
'Kind of sticking with the program that was very similar but knowing that the greens are the most important anywhere and that if you have good greens, that's the thing – sometimes you'll have a little bit more forgiveness in other areas. But the greens are the things that make or break people's careers.'
Hobe Sound doesn't often open its doors to outside events, but the course welcomed 26 four-man teams of senior amateurs – including several nationally ranked players – on April 28-30 for the U.S. Senior Challenge.
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'Our interest with this was we just felt that bringing some of the best senior amateurs to the club and putting our course to the test was something that was very interesting to us,' Hobe Sound general manager Jason Hayes said before the tournament.
And truly, it was a test. Players raved about course conditioning on a challenging layout that never offered a break.
Having come from PGA Golf Club, Byler knows something about putting a course in tournament condition.
Byler is a former field hockey player who graduated high school in 2005 knowing she wanted a job outdoors. She attended Penn State for the turfgrass science program and stepped into the golf industry by way of a pair of back-to-back internships at Disney's golf facility.
'That's when I realized being in Florida during the winter is a lot better than Pennsylvania,' said Byler, a Pennsylvania native. 'So that's where learning to work with the warmer season grasses started.'
Byler transitioned to PGA Golf Club at the beginning of 2012 as a second assistant/irrigation tech. Over the course of 11 years, she worked her way up the ladder.
As a kid, Byler loved helping her mom with the flower beds every spring and summer – picking out plant material, putting down mulch and generally spending time outside. She dabbled in golf with her father, Jeff Byler, from the time she was 11 years old. First she would just hit a shot or two, then she'd drop a ball by the green and play in and eventually, she could put together a full round. The combination drew her to a career in golf, even though she very nearly bailed on that idea after a foray into athletic field maintenance that began with a quest for Penn State football season tickets.
After missing the online ticket sales window because she was working at the university's Valentine Turf Research Center, she decided to approach some of the stadium grounds crew while working in a shared wash area for equipment.
'If you guys need somebody for the fall to work on staff, let me know,' she told them.
That led to a grounds crew job in which Byler pitched in on jobs like maintaining the perimeter of the stadium, the parking areas and the intramural fields.
'That was a great trade-off because then doing that, yes we had to do some work early in the morning on game days but we got paid to sit on the sideline and watch the games,' she said. 'For awhile, I thought I wanted to get into athletics because I really enjoyed that side of things and really enjoyed college football.'
Alas, golf won out.
Throughout her time at Penn State, Byler, as a woman in turfgrass science, was in the minority. Often, her classes would include 30 to 50 students, and she'd be the only female. As her career progressed, she sometimes felt brushed to the side or like people would discount what she was saying simply because she was female. Just as often, though, people were welcoming and gender wasn't a factor.
Word of Byler's skillset traveled, and ultimately, it's what afforded her the chance to take the next step from PGA Golf Club in 2023.
When the Hobe Sound job came open, Byler's name seemed to be coming up over and over again to the course's greens chair. Byler got a call one Saturday that he'd like to meet with her and when that went well, Byler found herself driving the golf course two days later with the outgoing superintendent. By Thursday, she had a job offer.
'I didn't necessarily know if I would ever have a chance to work at a private club,' said Byler, who is eager to continue building up Hobe Sound.
She's making the most of the one that came her way.
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