Recreation Books

Navigating the Fairway

author finds golf-course owners defy stereotypes

Rachel Mickelson, photos by Timothy Mather |

CAPTAIN OF THE GOLF CART ARMADA. Author and retired UW-Stout psychology professor Tom Franklin shows off his new book, Sun-Up to Sun-Down: The Lives of Golf Course Owners.
CAPTAIN OF THE GOLF CART ARMADA. Author and retired UW-Stout psychology professor Tom Franklin shows off his new book, Sun-Up to Sun-Down: The Lives of Golf Course Owners.

Tom Franklin, author of Sun-Up to Sun-Down: The Lives of Golf Course Owners, is not your average golf enthusiast. A retired UW-Stout psychology professor with an impressive beard which alone spans four decades, Franklin will be the first to laugh and tell you he’s not exactly what you’d call the stereotypical “face of golf.”

Expectations and appearances aside, Franklin has been an avid golfer since age 13. Raised on a U.S. Navy base in Virginia, he cultivated a love of the game on one of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s myriad golf course installations. Since his youthful days of midnight shenanigans, dodging security vans and raiding the pond for pillowcases of golf balls, he hasn’t lost sight of the ball and isn’t afraid to direct it down a new course.

With his new book revealing the personal challenges and achievements of golf course entrepreneurs, Franklin is pioneering an entirely new topic in golf literature. Since embarking on his Studs Terkel-inspired project in 2007, Franklin has compiled 18 vulnerable, in-depth interviews with golf course owners nationwide. Interviewees range from multimillionaire golf course owners to entrepreneurs with independent “mom and pop” businesses. Each interview highlights the sometimes unimaginable risk golf owners take in a business that is rife with uncontrollable variables. Whether it’s a New Orleans owner rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina; a generator-equipped Californian golf course that takes a powerless community under its wing during an earthquake; or Alaskan owners who stay open 22 out of their 24 daylight hours during the short golf season, Franklin candidly documents each unique story of perseverance, relationship-based service and community dedication during the years of “The Great Recession.”

Franklin – self-defined in his book as the “shaggy psychology guy” and “aging hippie” – admits to some initial apprehension about fitting into an inner circle traditionally dominated by affluent white men.

Franklin – self-defined in his book as the “shaggy psychology guy” and “aging hippie” – admits to some initial apprehension about fitting into an inner circle traditionally dominated by affluent white men. During the interviews, however, Franklin’s anxiety quickly dissipated.

“It was more my hang-up than theirs,” he says. “I had a lot to learn. It was all about my prejudged stereotypes about who people might be, and I was totally off base because they were interesting, open, and welcoming people. Whether it was the farmer who’s got dirt under his fingernails or the multimillionaire multicourse golf course owner, what matters in their lives are the same things that matter in everybody’s lives.”

Although Franklin has experienced his own revelations, he’s all too aware the industry itself still struggles with its own detrimental “hang-ups.” Franklin deems inequality in the sport “an embarrassment that continues to haunt the industry” and says it’s one of the most important issues facing the golf world today. For example, the Augusta National Golf Club, host of the Masters Tournament, didn’t admit female members until last year and excluded people of color until 1990.

“There is a collision of tradition and change,” Franklin says. “It’s a struggle of exclusion versus inclusion. For most golf businesses to survive, change is going to have to win over maintenance of the old traditions of who plays and how they play.” Franklin’s book offers a poignant break from stereotypes while amplifying the voices of change within the industry. “Affluent white guys have been the traditional golfers for too long,” he says. “The golf course owners I interviewed were interested in changing the old traditions of the game that limit business opportunities and people’s enjoyment of golf.”

Franklin also works toward change. When he wasn’t on the course during his latter years as a professor, he was developing a course of his own: UW-Stout’s four-year golf enterprise management degree program, which has been popular and successful since its inception in 2005.

When asked about the biggest lesson learned from writing the book, Franklin derides his initial apprehension: “I keep remembering the things I told myself I would never forget. That was the lesson of the book for me. Wow, what a fool. Why would I keep making these assumptions that have no test in reality?”
A book release, discussion, and signing for Franklin’s book will be at 5pm Thursday, April 25, at Bookends on Main, 214 E. Main St., Menomonie.