Features Profiles
Ajax superintendent renews professional certification

Neil Acton, director of golf course management at Deer Creek Golf Clubs in Ajax, Ont. has completed the renewal process for maintaining his status as a certified golf course superintendent with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

A 32-year member of the GCSAA, he has been at Deer Creek Golf Clubs since 1989, originally achieving his certification in 1984. About 1,600 superintendents worldwide currently hold CGCS status.

To qualify for the GCSAA's competency-based certification program, a candidate must have at least three years' experience as a golf course superintendent, be employed in that capacity and meet post-secondary educational requirements and/or continuing education points. The candidate's knowledge, skills and abilities are validated through the development of a portfolio consisting of their responses to skill statements, case-study scenarios and submission of work samples, an on-site inspection of their golf facility, and a rigorous six-hour examination covering equipment, irrigation systems, materials and technology, golf course and grounds, human resources, rules of golf, financial and administrative systems, regulatory and programmatic systems, crisis management, project management, and ethics and values.