Since 2004, this birdhouse has been a fixture at the 1st tee. It was my first year as Super; I just returned to HCC after a very short stint as the Super at Champion Hills Club in Hendersonville, NC. Prior to that, I was Assistant Superintendent at HCC for 3 years. Regardless, it was an exciting time in my life and Rickey Holland (an HCC employee on the green staff for 30 years, who passed way in 2010 after a 10 month fight with lung cancer) was helping me with our Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Certification the year prior. At that time, Rickey got into the bat house installation business during non Club working hours. In June 2004, he and I made a presentation to the ladies garden club in the living room of Carolyn Tynes (a wonderful gardener and friend to Rickey) about our Audubon Certification. After that, member after member would call him, wanting him to get them a bat house and hang it in their yard because in that presentation he talked about the benefits of having bats around- specifically, one bat can eat 3,000 insects in 1 evening. Ideally, bat houses need to be hung 30' high, making this no easy task to install. It was good money for Rickey and something he really enjoyed! I would chauffeur him around town as I normally did, this day going to the Bird Barn so he could place an order for bat houses (a Retail shop in the Falls on Main, next to Mountainfresh Grocery) . That summer, they had a deal where you bought this particular birdhouse and could have a logo engraved on the front of it. Just after we completed the Audubon program, I bought Rickey 250 business cards with the title, Wildlife Manager. He loved it, and took a lot of pride in the job. It was his life! Educating members about various wildlife topics was a passion; he was always buying different books about owls, fish, birds and bears, many of which I have in my office today. HCC meant the world to him because it defined who he was as a person. If you took HCC away from him and the relationship he had with the membership, Rickey was just a shell of a person. Back to the Bird Barn- I remember him picking up this birdhouse and giving the store clerk one of his business cards that of course had the Club logo on it, the Highlander Man. "I want the logo put on my birdhouse and I'm going to hang this where every member can see it," he said. His order was placed and it arrived 3 weeks later. That afternoon, he hung his HCC logoed birdhouse on that very tree where it is today. In the last 12 years, it fell off the tree after a windy nights a few times, it was crushed when the top of that tree snapped out of it, the entrance hole has been hollowed out by ground squirrels (boomers, Rickey called them) and of course, it suffered from the normal wear and tear that all natural wood does in this damp environment. And every winter since then, we've taken it in and under the detailed craftsmanship of Jerry Dalton, restored it to the look it had when Rickey first hung it. If it were any old bird house, it would never have received this care. But the pride of the Highlands CC logo and the love behind the story, make it something very special to me. A great memory of a man that is missed daily. I guess that is life, things change, people come and go and we always look back on "the good ole days." I wish we only knew they were going to be the good ole days when we were living them. Would that have changed anything? Perhaps I would have slowed down a bit more and enjoyed the journey rather than always focusing on the future. There aren't many superintendents or club industry professionals who can look back on their jobs like we do at Highlands CC with such a warm feeling and appreciation. It's just not like that in this business where it is all too often based on unrealistic expectations from members who don't have the same vested interest in their Club. As a Club, we are 1 in a million; a day never goes by where it doesn't cross my mind, and I ask myself how lucky I am to have a job I love, the family I have and the quality of life I get to live day and day out. Who would have thought a simple birdhouse could bring back such memories, appreciation and feelings. Each year I relive it when I hang it back up after its restoration- this year with its new roof, paint and teak oil finish that brings out the definition of the Highlander man that originated from Ricky's business card in 2004. Today was that day for me and now that it is back where it belongs, I hope you also enjoy it when you approach the 1st tee because it's so much more than just a wooden birdhouse hanging next to #1 tee box.
As time progressed, Rickey became the Club's foremost expert on the bat. He always had "after work" jobs that he did for members, doing things I never questioned because quite frankly, I never knew how he got himself into these jobs. That next fall, it was late September if I recall, he came in from the golf course and asked me to drive him to the Farmers Market, the gas station on the corner of Maint St and Dillard Road. "Hop in Rickers (that's what I normally called him), I'm not asking any questions because I don't wanna know," I said. I sat in the truck while he shopped, coming out with a brown paper bag, slammed full. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to sneak a peak at this point and sure enough, it was filled with cheap cigars and a 2 liter bottle of RC Cola. Not Coke, not Pepsi, but RC Cola. Maybe it went down smoother with his Crown Royal, his drink of choice...but when he bought his RC Cola in Highlands rather than Franklin like he normally did, I knew he was in for an "all-nighter." The swisher sweets (plastic filter tip and all), Phillies blunts and Extendos, along with a pile of plastic Bic lighters, I was dying to know what he was going to do this evening. I drove him to the top of Hudson Road, dropping him off at the home of my then Green Committee Chairman, Jimmy Watts. A week prior, I recall Mr. Watts asking me what he should do about bats living in his attic and I started to put it all together. Sure enough, he was going to smoke 'em out! And that's what he did. He smoked cheap cigars all night long till the bats had enough and left. On the way out, he sealed the hole that gave the bats access. Problem solved. That next morning, he arrived at the shop, eyes bloodshot, and smelled like something I can't quite put into words. I think if I did what he did, I may have turned green, threw up, passed out, died or a combination thereof. My body wouldn't be equipped to handle a grocery bag of cigars in one evening...some might call me a lightweight. I never knew what he was paid for his services that night but his overhead; lets say 90 cigars @ 3 for $1.39 equates to $41.70, plus $1.99 for the RC cola and you may or may not include the Crown Royal which was probably going to be purchased regardless of said activities. I always wondered if he covered his expenses that night. He clearly did all things because he wanted to help people' particularly members. It was his passion to give back to the members of HCC who gave him so much. Rickey had a solution for everything, even if it didn't promote a healthy lifestyle or make much sense to the layman. I questioned often why Mr. Watts didn't just call Terminex? He knew the pride Rickey would take in that job. I often wonder if I could go in the attic of Mrs. Watts home today, could you still smell the faint scent of all those cigars? And if you do smoke that many cigars in one night, how long would it take to air out the attic? And finally, what made the bats leave, the smell of swisher sweets' stale tobacco or simply the smoke itself?
Rickey was the face of my staff at HCC for many reasons, someone who would give you the shirt off his back. He became unreliable in the mornings because his attention span was so short to begin with, but he was always pulled in many directions by members. Whether it was killing a mole in someone's yard, trapping a raccoon or taking grandkids fishing, he had an endless 'to-do list' for the membership. One morning I looked everywhere for him, he wouldn't answer his radio, and none of the staff knew his whereabouts. I rode the course looking for him, cursing him under my breath. I rounded the #10 green path and got to 11 tees where spotted his utility cart out of the corner of my eye. You couldn't miss it because it had a big, green, wooden toolbox in the back that David Carver made him to keep his tools in. It just so happened, he was having tea and scones (I am told) with Ms. Biggers, in her dining room. I could see Rickey's silhouette through the sliding glass door. Those two had such an appreciation for one another and looked after each other. Again, something you can only associate Highlands CC with. This stuff doesn't happen elsewhere. Or at least it never happened at the 7 other golf facilities I've worked at. Our caring culture at this Club is something you can't begin to explain to someone else in the industry.
For me, the stories are endless and the memories are priceless. For today, hanging that bird house in rain brought back a special time, one I wish I appreciated more at the time. When I graduated from Penn State in 2001, I was a humble, quiet, 22 year old ready to start a career. We knew of Highlands and HCC from Augusta National connections, where I spent the prior year. Hilary and I moved to Highlands on a Friday after my last final exam in State College, PA. Two days later, that Sunday, we all worked the evening to get prepared for Head Golf Professional at the time- Buddy Manson's, PGA section match play event, which was set to start early on Monday. I was riding the golf course, learning my way round, and when I got to the ladies tee on #13, Rickey was standing there, filling the ball washer with soap and water. I smiled at Rickey and said hello but he didn't say anything right away. After an awkward stare he opened up. "Look Brian, I'm going to tell you this once so listen up. You can come in here with all this fancy work experience but I'm going to be honest with you- it doesn't matter what you do here because this is my golf course and the members know it. You go ahead and ask anyone of them and they'll tell you...this is Rickey's golf course." I never could fault him for not taking ownership in the job! I learned a lot from that man in the 10 years I knew him but like to think I softened him up like no other person could. I like to think I helped him take the edge off and see what a unique individual he really was. In 2010, he and I had a lot of conversations as he was dying and those are some of the most treasured memories I have with Rickey. To be able to tell someone what you really think of them while they can hear it, is pretty special. I don't think I will ever have such a candid relationship with anyone like I did him. Under that rough looking, weathered exterior was an emotional, gentle, loving man who wanted good for everyone. In fact, I always thought he overcompensated for that because he didn't want anyone to know that. But for me, my team and the members that really knew him, saw through it and it was the reason he was such a well liked individual.