Michigan Golf Journal August 2021

maintenance – including being part of the grow-in team at Treetops for the first Jones Course that put the resort on the map. She has previously led crews up to 13 people at Treetops, Oak Pointe Country Club in Brighton and at Black Bear Golf Resort. She is 54 years old. “The farm is where I learned to work hard, and so this just kind of came easy to me,” O’Dell said. “I’m not ready to retire, but my body is. I am sitting here now with icepacks on my knees. It’s hard work, and your body takes a beating.” “One of my favorite parts of being a superintendent is doing something different every day. One day you’re fixing irrigation, the next day it’s a mower, or you’re spraying. That is huge to me to be doing something different each day.” At this summer’s U.S. Women’s Open near San Francisco, the Olympic Club brought in a couple dozen other women superintendents from across the country to volunteer on the grounds for the week. The leadership at the club publicly praised their work as equal to or better than any man on similar crews, citing not a single ‘call back’ was needed to fix something that got missed in course preparations for the Open. O’Dell did not work on that crew but did applaud the women for their flawless efforts. It’s a physically demanding job – which I will add that most golfers they serve don’t recognize nor appreciate enough. “I truly believe that women who come into this industry, they then realize how physically hard it is,” O’Dell said. “And in my position, we’re only a two-person crew, so we do everything. I’m my own mechanic, I spray my own greens, do the fertilizing, we split mowing cycles. I’m pooped at the end of the day. My knees hurt, my elbows hurt, my wrists hurt. I truly believe that’s what happens,” to women initially giving the job a try.” O’Dell said she was one of five females in her turf class at MSU – where Continues on next page >> 25 August 2021 www.michigangolfjournal.com