ALEXANDRIA
— Donnacha O’Connor has made a big impact at the Alexandria Golf Club.
O’Connor is the course superintendent, a role he has held since 2001, after moving from Wayzata.
The golf season has many highlights for O’Connor, including the yearly Resorters Tournament, but that’s just the culmination of months of hard work.
“The Resorters is the highlight of the season, but it all starts when the snow melts at the end of the winter,” O’Connor said. “You see what hand you’re dealt, and then adjust. Another big part of this is the end of the golf season and preparing for winter. You see the golf course, you touch it, you’re on it every day for about seven months. Then November comes and you put it to bed for five months and don’t see it again until maybe late March.”
The week of the Resorters Tournament is a long yet fulfilling week for the tournament organizers, AGC staff members, and volunteers.
For O’Connor, his day starts at 4:20 a.m., preparing the course for play.
“We turn the coffee on and talk about the day at hand,” O’Connor said. “Everybody’s kind of moving out the door. We’re losing so much light right now that it’s not reliably bright until 6 a.m., just before the first tee times of the day (6:40 a.m.).”
For the last couple of decades, O’Connor and his team currently consists of around 20 people, have had the responsibility of ensuring that the course is in tip-top shape for the golf season.
One challenge they encounter is an unpredictable winter and spring.
“This year we had some winter damage on the greens, which is not what you want, but we got through it,” O’Connor said.
Once the season begins, O’Connor organizes his staff to ensure that all course needs are met.
“We do a lot of turf management, making sure that the irrigation system works and the spray program is right and that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities,” O’Connor said. “So much of what the product is is dictated by the weather, so you don’t have control over it. You have to adjust and adapt.”
His job includes maintaining good course conditions and preparing for the Resorters Golf Tournament.
“There’s a lot of fine-tuning and tightening things up for the tournament each day,” O’Connor said. “I think we have a product that everybody likes to be part of.”
O’Connor also implements new ideas that the course has.
Examples of this include the tee box extensions on holes No. 5, No. 9, No. 11, No. 12, No. 15, and No. 17 to make the course longer.
“This is the year of the tee boxes,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor has also helped reshape hole No. 11 from a par 4 to a par 3 and started redesigning the area around the old hole No. 11 into an amphitheater of sorts.
O’Connor grew up in the golf industry. O’Connor’s family was in the golf business in Cork, Ireland.
Growing up in a golf family, O’Connor quickly developed a passion for the sport.
O’Connor graduated from Reaseheath College in Nantwich, England, with a degree in sports management, worked at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club in Ireland for a year, and then moved to the United States.
“I just came over (to the states) looking for something to do,” O’Connor said. “I started out at the Wayzata Country Club and worked my way up to the assistant position.”
O’Connor applied for the open Alexandria Golf Club superintendent position in September 2000.
After a few rounds of interviews, O’Connor was hired for the job.
“I had a young family at the time and my desire was to be a superintendent,” O’Connor said. “I applied for the job, went through a series of interviews, and was hired by the board. It’s awesome here.”
Sam Stuve covers a variety of sports in the Douglas County area. Sam is a December 2021 graduate from Iowa State University. Sam joined the Echo Press in January 2022 and became the Sports and Outdoors Editor in February 2023.
