What Golf Taught a Project Manager About Work and Life

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At Swanson Russell, we’re passionate about the outdoors on the clock because we live the outdoors off the clock as well. From hunting and fishing to gardening and golf, we thrive doing anything outside. It’s a love that makes us great at what we do — and the Nation’s Leading Agency for Brands That Work and Play Outdoors.

Our Outdoor Passion Profile series was created to share the stories of our people and the heart behind what they do. Kenny Bottoms has been a Project Manager at Swanson Russell for a few years, but he’s been an avid golfer from a young age. Over time, he’s learned a lot about the game and the green industry professionals who keep courses running smoothly behind the scenes. Kenny keeps track of constantly evolving projects for a spectrum of clients, but lessons learned from the game have taught him a lot about his job and life in general.

Swanson Russell: When did you start playing golf?

Kenny Bottoms: I started in elementary school — just going to the driving range with my dad, hitting balls willy-nilly, in any direction, with any club I could get my hands on. And then we started going to a par-three course, probably late elementary school into middle school. I didn’t play 18 holes until I was in eighth grade, but I played on the high school team, some in college in a golf management program and recreationally throughout.

SR: Tell us more about the golf management program you participated in.

KB: The program was offered at my undergrad the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, during my second and third year of college. You learn the business of running a golf course while learning golf itself — how to play and teach. You get exposure to running the pro shop, which includes selling tee times, running a tee sheet, coordinating tournaments, merchandising, dealing with angry customers — all that stuff that goes into the business side. And then on the playing side, you have to meet a certain level of skill by passing what’s called the playing ability test. You have to play below a certain score in two 18-hole rounds in one day. And that’s why I ended up leaving the program — I couldn’t quite get to that highest level of playing. But the purpose of that is if you’re going to be representing your course and you're going to be giving golf lessons, you have to have a really high baseline level of game for yourself.

SR: Are there any key takeaways you learned from that program about golf business or course maintenance?

KB: I would say I have a much deeper understanding of running a golf course. People take for granted the amount of work that PGA professionals and superintendents do on different sides of the business. It really gives you the perspective they probably get to golf a lot less than most of us because it’s a tough job. It’s something you have to be really passionate about because it's long days, early mornings and few weekends to yourself.

SR: Can you share any memorable highlights from your golf career?

KB: My playing skills didn’t start strong in my college golf program, but I committed to improving my game over the winter. That meant indoor practice and putting all-day, every day when I wasn’t in school. And then I came out in the first tournament in the spring and shot my best ever tournament score. It was very validating to have spent all that time wondering if the work was going to pay off, and then it showed itself on the course. You could see the hard work I put in. My second highlight was at a silly tournament where each hole was only 100 yards, and I got a hole-in-one. My friends were all there so that was kind of fun running around celebrating and practically fainting after hitting it into the hole.

SR: Tell us about your role here at Swanson Russell. Do you work with any golf or green industry clients?

KB: I’m a project manager, which means I’m a liaison between our internal teams and clients for day-to-day work. Basically, I communicate with the client about what they need and the status of their projects. Internally, I create schedules for projects and monitor their progress among other tasks. I try to make our internal team’s job as easy as possible. We have experts on our internal teams, and it’s my job to make sure they don’t have any impediments keeping them from doing what they’re good at.

I do have one green industry client, Nufarm Turf and Ornamental. They are in the greenhouse, lawn care and golf segments. So, I have much more experience with golf, but we deal with all of those markets for them.

SR: Have your golf experiences influenced your work as a project manager?

KB: For sure. I’ve learned a good deal about the priorities of golf professionals and superintendents — what their day-to-day jobs look like, the kind of promotional items companies are providing them, what they want to see when they’re getting products, what their goals for the golf course are… understanding things like that has been very helpful, especially with green industry clients.

From an abstract perspective, golf, famously, is “not a game of perfect”... a reference to a book of the same name. What I take away from that is no matter what shots you hit during your golf round, almost none of them will be perfect. But you still go out and pursue getting better and being the best you can be. I think that’s applicable to my job. It’s not going to be perfect, but it helps me to not get down on myself if mistakes happen because I have that forward-facing attitude.

Say you hit a bad shot — you’re in the woods or something like that. You might have to switch clubs or adjust your swing to get back into play. If you try to hit the shot you were planning on, it’s not going to go well. Project management is kind of like that.

“No matter what shots you hit, few will be perfect, but you go out and be the best you can be.”

SR: How often do you golf these days?

KB: I try to get out and either play or practice once a week — whether that’s playing a round or practicing at a little chipping and putting green by my house. My main form of practice is just short game, working around the greens with chipping and putting. It’s free, and I can spend as much time there as I want. It’s just a relaxing way to spend an evening.

SR: What advice would you give to someone who's interested in getting into golf?

KB: The number one thing is to just get started. It’s really hard, but it's very rewarding. And I would say anybody can play. It's an adaptable game to any ability.

When you’re getting started, a lesson or two or getting a friend who knows golf to help you would be very, very helpful. This will help you learn setup, grip and things like that. If you don’t have that instruction from the start, it’s going to be much more of an uphill battle. The common saying is “practice makes perfect”, but that’s a little bit of a misnomer because you could go and smack balls all day long and not get any better. You could learn bad habits. It’s really more “perfect practice makes perfect.” Not that you’re going to have that right away, but it has to be intentional.

I would also say to keep in mind that golf is a very difficult game for everyone, including even the best players. So it’s important to understand that and not get too frustrated while you’re playing and understand that it’s all a part of the game.

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