Like and Follow Golf Oklahoma
By Ken MacLeod
Harold Neal has many fond memories of the more than 30 years he served as a golf course superintendent, culminating in his induction tonight into the Oklahoma Golf Course Superintendents Association Hall of Fame.
Neal’s contributions to the game didn’t end with his abilities to successfully lead a crew dealing with the ice, heat and wild winds of Oklahoma weather. Though he worked mostly at country clubs, he also has been a staunch defender of public golf and through his role as a city counselor in Sand Springs is as responsible as anyone for the revitalization of The Canyons at Black Jack Ridge.
And in his spare time, thanks to the lessons of former Tulsa Country Club and later long-time Southern Hills pro Dave Bryan, he became quite the golfer as well, good enough to reach the round of 32 in the Oklahoma State Amateur Championship.
Neal will be appropriately be inducted in a dinner at Tulsa Country Club, where he was the superintendent from 1981 to 2000. His two fellow Class of 2025 inductees also have ties to TCC. The late Scott Countryman worked at TCC with current superintendent Brady Finton among the many area courses he served in his career. And inductee Terry Sisco, longtime owner of Sisco Turf Services, got his start in the golf industry working as an assistant for Neal at Tulsa Country Club.
Neal, 73, is still enjoying the game and his work running his own irrigation company from his home in Sand Springs, His son Nick is the superintendent at South Lakes Golf Course in Jenks and the two talk shop on occasion. But Neal also devotes a great deal of his time to another passion, which is woodworking. His handiwork – memory and jewelry boxes, bowls, sleighs, snowmen, etc. – adorn the homes of hundreds of Tulsa area residents, including this writer when Neal thoughtfully volunteered to make a bowl and a baseball bat that would knock out a Demogorgon from a limb of an ancient oak tree that died.
Harold Neal
“I did some woodwork in high school so I talked my wife into letting me get a lathe,” Neal said. “Soon enough I had four of them, along with band saws and everything you need. I never make two of anything, I don’t make any money out of it, I just enjoy it.”
Neal began his career as an assistant in 1970 at Southern Hills Country Club, went to Hardscrabble CC in Fort Smith, Ark., in 1977 then to LakeRidge Country Club in Lubbock, Texas in for a brief stint before being hired at TCC in 1980. The retiring superintendent was Ron Reed, father of long-time Oaks CC head professional Rick Reed.
Neal guided the A.W. Tillinghast-designed TCC through the completion of a major renovation by Jay Morrish and there were numerous big events during his tenure, including the NCAA Women’s Championship in 1999. He started his own irrigation company in 2000, was hired by Ewing Outdoor Services in 2007 and retired from that post and back to managing his own company in 2015.
He served as a city counselor in Sand Springs from 2003-15, helping push the city to invest in The Canyons at Blackjack Ridge, which has resulted in a new clubhouse and extensive work throughout the course.
“We had a lot of folks asking why we should put any money into golf,” Neal said. “But basically nobody could out talk me. We got golf moved into the parks department where it should be. Golf has a huge impact on a community. Those 20,000 people who come there also spend money in town, they go to restaurants, they might buy houses. It’s a way of life.”
The superintendent at Southern Hills who originally hired Neal was Leslie Snyder, also the man who supervised the construction of The Canyons in the early 1950s. Neal took him on several tours as the course improved, which meant a lot to both.
As for his playing abilities, Neal was a four-time champion of the OKGCSA Championship and earned the final spot in the OGA State Amateur field of 64 one year, where he promptly knocked off the No. 1 seed in the first round before losing in the round of 32. He was a scratch player for many years.
Terry Sisco
A native of Tulsa, Sisco was working as a welder when hired by Neal to his grounds crew in 1981. He went from TCC to Flint Ridge Golf Course, falling more in love with golf by the year. He went to the supplier side with his first job at Knick Knott Turf, traveling the state delivering fertilizer. That inspired him to start his own company, Sisco Turf Services in 1998, supplying courses and others with aerification, stump grinding and other services. It is still going strong today and two sons work on the company as well.
Scott Countryman (1971-2023)
A popular and versatile superintendent, Scott Countryman passed away of an illness in 2023.
He began his career working for Milton Hale at Shangri-La Resort in high school, then was an assistant superintendent at Heritage Hills in Claremore while finishing his horticulture degree at Tulsa Community College. He joined Hale at Peoria Ridge in Miami during the construction of that course then became superintendent at Dawn Hill in Siloam Springs, Ark. He was superintendent at Silverhorn Golf Club in Edmond and White Hawk in Bixby, where he also helped with the building of Bentley Park.
Countryman helped Oaks CC superintendent Dan Robinson with the remodel of that club and then took a post as superintendent at Heritage Hills followed by working with Finton at TCC. He then became the manager for Oklahoma Dryject (turf aerification and soil services) covering Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas.
