Having worked at golf courses since he graduated from Cincinnati’s Greenhills High School in 1978, the 58-year-old Fink feels right at home behind the counter in the Kittyhawk pro shop.
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“I’m back in the saddle,” he said when I visited him a few days ago. “I’m not ready to retire. This reminds me of the old days. This place rocks. We do 60,000 rounds a year on three courses. We have a lot of outings. It’s very exhilarating. I’m looking forward to being involved.”
During the 15 years he and his wife have leased and operated Rollandia, Fink was usually behind the scenes because they also ran the adjoining driving range, batting cages, executive course, miniature golf course and Magic Castle arcade.
They will continue to run the Magic Castle after Rollandia’s golf facilities close at the end of May, but the remainder of the property will become a housing facility for seniors.
The sport of golf was booming in 1978 when the 18-year-old Fink was hired as an assistant pro at Winton Woods Golf Course. In 1982 he moved to the Golden Tee Center, a thriving facility which had an 18-hole lighted par 3 course and 54 holes of miniature golf.
He spent three years as an assistant for widely known professional Tommy Ritter, giving lessons and supervising the billiard hall and the game room.
“It was a factory,” he said. “It was really busy. The (nearby) GE plant had a lot of people who hit balls there during lunch hour. That was back in GE’s hey day. They probably had 15,000 employees at the time.”
Over the next five years he was an assistant at Indian Valley, and Belwood Country Club in Morrow. Then he worked for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission at California Golf Course. When Kemper Sports Management took over the CRC courses, he began working for Kemper.
Kemper transferred him to Chicago, but after two and-a-half years in the Windy City, he and his wife wanted to get back to Ohio. In 2003, he took over management of Rollandia and continues to lease it.
“This is an absolutely beautiful facility,” he said of Kittyhawk. “This is 450 acres thereabouts of just really scenic property. All of the golf courses – the Hawk, the Eagle and the Falcon are challenging and fun to play.
“Golf being what it is, we’re all struggling for our piece of the pie. There are rate wars. We can only charge so much because discounting has become so popular in golf. Rounds are down, but the cost of doing business isn’t going down. It’s a real challenge to make these courses profitable so tax players don’t have to be involved.”
Fink is excited about his new challenge.
“I feel honored and privileged to have this opportunity,” he said. “I’m easing into this. I don’t want to come in here and pretend that I know everything. It’s a learning season for me. We’ll see at the end of the season what we learned and we’ll try to make it better. Right now I’m just trying to be nice to people.
“I feel my job as a PGA professional is to be an ambassador for the facility I’m managing. I take that seriously.”
Chip shots
Credit me with a bogey for writing in last week’s column that the Friends of Community Golf Course Renovation Project group is raising funds for improvements at Kittyhawk. They are, of course, raising funds for projects at Community.
Julian Jeter-Davis, Bill Kumle and John Kelly are working as assistant professionals at Kittyhawk.
Ninety-six golfers have registered for Monday’s Spring Better Ball competition at Wildwood Golf Club in Middletown. It’s sponsored by the Miami Valley Golf Association.
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