Fifteen years delivering firm, fast, true, and fun conditions, because a superintendent's job is to create an exceptional experience for members and guests, not just grow grass.
Prepared for the Radnor Valley Country Club Search Committee: Thank you for taking the time to consider me for the Director of Golf Course and Grounds opportunity at your club. Radnor Valley's position in the Philadelphia golf market aligns perfectly with my background and expertise. I am confident that my family and I are the right fit for your club, and the contents of this site will showcase that.
Tom is a product of the Philadelphia golf market through and through. A native of Delaware County, Tom resides in Broomall with his wife Briana and their three children, Jaxon, Mackenzie, and Tommy Jr. Throughout his career, Tom has led agronomy operations across facilities of every size and scale, with resources ranging from moderate to high-end, at 18-hole, 36-hole, and 45-hole clubs alike. He currently leads the South Course program at Wilmington Country Club, host of the 2022 BMW Championship.
Rolling, disciplined water management, and precise mowing, all aimed at conditions that are firm, fast, true, and genuinely fun. A golf course is an experience, not a surface to grow grass on.
The experience is what separates a good club from an exceptional one. Clear, proactive communication and standing presence with committees and membership, aimed at hospitality as core to the mission.
Hard data and years of on-course judgment, weighed together. Data collection tools, GPS software, and autonomous equipment are used to blend art with science, improving operational efficiency without replacing the human element.
A player's understanding of the game shapes pin locations, tee marker placement, and daily setup, built for variety and genuine enjoyment over sheer difficulty.
Golf Digest's #1 Best in State course in Delaware since 2003. The South Course hosted the 2022 BMW Championship, a PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs event.
Wissahickon is a top-5 Golf Digest-ranked course in Pennsylvania and hosted the 2025 Truist Championship on the PGA TOUR.
Site of the 1958 PGA Championship, a permanent entry in major championship history, and ranked among Pennsylvania's top 25 courses by Golf Digest.
A William Flynn design ranked among Pennsylvania's top 20 courses by Golf Digest, and host of the 1976 U.S. Women's Open and 2016 U.S. Women's Amateur.
The variety runs deeper than prestige. Different facility sizes and budgets, the same standard of conditioning throughout.
Organized, scheduled, and supervised a grounds staff of 120+ throughout tournament week, working alongside PGA TOUR agronomy staff to deliver championship conditions on an international stage. Executed pre-event grow-ins requested by the TOUR, then led post-event restoration: 18 acres of aeration and seeding, 15 acres of green-surround re-grassing, and a full resurfacing of the practice tee to Tahoma 31 bermudagrass.
A key contributor to the multi-year planning process for a full property-wide irrigation system replacement, from initial design through presentations to the various membership committees and final approval. Materials are now arriving on-site, with installation underway. It's a rare opportunity to help guide a project of this scale from the ground up.
A servant leader first, visible and present with both the team and the membership. Leading with clarity and calm that shapes good decisions and inspires the crew. The same commitment to member experience extends to employees too. Engagement and retention start with creating something people want to be part of.
Working alongside PGA TOUR agronomy staff, Tom helped deliver championship conditions on an international stage, including pre-event grow-ins requested by the TOUR, firm and fast playing surfaces all week, and a full restoration effort once the grandstands came down.
A member or guest's experience of the club isn't limited to 18 holes. Racquet facilities, practice areas, clubhouse grounds, and Wilmington's Dick Wilson-designed North Course all carry the same weight as the South Course itself. Getting that right across an entire property takes balance, knowing where attention is needed most on any given day without letting another area fall behind.
Wilmington's second 18, designed by Dick Wilson, gets the same standard of care and attention as the South Course.
Tennis, platform tennis, pickleball, squash. Every racquet surface maintained to the same standard membership expects from the golf course.
The walk from the parking lot to the first tee, the view from the dining room, the beds around the pool. Small details, but the ones members notice most.
"We took out four groups who got to see WCC in its glory. What was remarkable, in addition to the course and the service, was how well the course held up during substantial rain. When we finished and went to the bar, I was met by friends who had come from other golf course events that day. Their situations were much different: they suffered soggy fairways and water-filled bunkers. Our course actually had fast greens and approaches in the middle of a storm. I found that to be remarkable. In addition, the condition of the course, the beauty of the landscaping, and the caliber of difficulty were on full display. Most of all, thank you for approaching our day with a can-do attitude."
Wilmington Country Club is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, a status earned through ongoing habitat, water quality, and wildlife monitoring work across the property. That includes maintaining nesting structures for native cavity- and colony-nesting bird species, and running turfgrass research and trial plots tracked season over season as part of the club's environmental and agronomic record.
Long-term improvement projects matter as much as daily conditioning. Tom's renovation experience spans green surface expansions, bunker reconstruction, drainage installation, and pond work, all of it carried out while maintaining daily standards across the rest of the property.
World-class conditioning comes down to daily discipline. Clean mowing lines, sharp collar definition, and firm, consistent bunker faces. These are the details members notice, even if they can't always name them.
Overseeing the South Course program means owning the numbers behind it. Building annual assumptions, tracking actuals against forecast month to month, costing out plant protectant programs per acre, and maintaining an accurate equipment inventory for replacement planning. Frugal where it counts, and accountable for every dollar spent.
Decisions here are backed by real data. Independent lab testing and modeling software drive the agronomy program, and task-level labor tracking shapes how the crew is staffed and scheduled.
Regularly playing rounds at other clubs keeps him a student of the game, exposed to different maintenance philosophies, architecture, and setups that bring fresh ideas back to the South Course program.
Fifteen years working the specific turf types, climate patterns, and disease pressures this region presents. Deep, firsthand regional expertise, and a strong commitment to the place he and his family call home.
An expansive network of fellow superintendents, consultants, and industry vendors, particularly within the Philadelphia golf market, supporting faster problem-solving and a standing exchange of ideas across the region's top clubs.
None of this happens without a family that's on board with early mornings, tournament weeks, and a job that doesn't really clock out during the growing season. Briana, and their three kids (Jaxon, Mackenzie, and Tommy Jr.), along with Jazz the yellow lab, are the reason for the firm-and-fast conditions and the long weeks. Tom loves what he does and doesn't take it for granted. He considers himself lucky, in his career and with his family.
