Laurel native to take over as greenskeeper at Hartington golf course

HARTINGTON — Laurel native Jamy McCoy will take over as the grounds superintendent at the Hartington Golf Club effective the first day of 2024.

McCoy will be replacing longtime superintendent Gary Kuehn, who retired recently after being the head grass-grower, beautification manager and course curator since 1988.

“I always cared about the way the place looked,” Kuehn said in an earlier interview. “It meant a lot to me.”

Kuehn decided to retire at some point last summer, leaving the golf course board with the unenviable task of finding a replacement.

It did just that. Enter McCoy. McCoy graduated from Laurel-Concord-Coleridge School in 2014, where he was a member of the golf

team that qualified for the State meet a couple of years. He, himself, qualified twice individually.

He also worked for Chad Johnson at Cedarview Country Club in Laurel while he was in high school. “I love to golf and it was great to learn about keeping care of a golf course at a younger age,” McCoy said. “I learned a lot then and I just knew that was what I wanted to do — be involved with golf.” After a high school career in the sport that saw him play in the State tournament his junior and senior years, qualifying as a team and an individual, he pursued his dream.

He went on to Northeast Community College to get a degree in golf course management and played golf for the two years he was in

Norfolk.

From there, he went to Tatanka Golf Club near Niobrara where he began working in the summers and worked his way up to assistant course manager.

“I learned a lot in school, but you can always learn more working,” McCoy said. “I learned the horticulture part of everything from the books, but getting out with the people and seeing how it all comes together made me really want to make it my vocation.”

The son of Mark and Margaret McCoy of Laurel seems to know what’s in store.

“I feel like I know how everything works,” he said. “But there are always surprises, I just want to make the course the best I can.”

Kuehn is still on board until the end of the year, but McCoy is ready to make his mark in Hartington.

“I would like to stay around here for a long, long time,” McCoy said. “I like this area, I like the people, it should be great for all of us.”