Jim Haines, who went to work at Denver Country Club in 1925 as a mechanic, was an innovator of course maintenance equipment and an accomplished researcher in golf course turf. He founded the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association.
In 1968 he became one of the first superintendents to receive the coveted United States Golf Association’s National Superintendents Award, and when he retired that same year to Granby, Colorado, he had given 40 years as head superintendent at Denver Country Club.
His inventions include a special fairway leaf rake, a root cutter and equipment used within the maintenance shops. Other design and experimental work came in the areas of irrigation methods, including the timing rate of water use, and in the area of fertilization for both greens and fairways.
He once replaced an entire green at the DCC during the winter period by constructing a polyethylene plastic “greenhouse” over the entire seeded area. The back nine at Green Gables Country Club is his design.
It was through his efforts that a turf management major was established at Colorado State University where USGA and Trans-Mississippi Golf Association scholarships have been established.
