Golf Course management team brings wealth of experience

WORLAND- Over the last year the Green Hills Golf Course has gone through some uncertainty and for a brief moment the doors were closed. Then the Worland City Council accepted a bid from Gary Shampeny, and his company Go Play Golf, to manage Green Hills.

Shampeny is no stranger to golf or the management of golf courses. He was the golf coach at Montana State University Bozeman and during one summer he helped out at a golf course there in Bozeman, from that moment on he was hooked. He would later run the golf course and eventually go on to work 15 years at Toro, one of the best in providing golf course management equipment. 

Working for Toro, Shampeny put together accounts and corporate sponsorships; this would allow him to travel the world visiting some of the world's finest golf courses. He has seen how the best courses do it from the historic grounds at Augusta to Pebble Beach.

Shampeny would eventually leave Toro to start his company Go Play Golf, which would turn around courses in Billings and Powell.

For the Green Hills course Shampeny has raised the greens fees. He understands there will be some resistance to the increase in greens fees, and other changes, but he's prepared to take his lumps. This won't deter him though, while it will cost more to hit the links than in years past it doesn't mean he and his crew are going to short the golfers.

"I believe if you charge a premium price you are required to put forth a premium product, and that's exactly what we're going to do here," Shampeny said.

He's also in the process of hiring a new golf pro, there have been promising leads and he looks to have someone brought on soon.

The changing of regimes tends to bring uncertainty and some nervousness. But with Shampeny and his experienced crew, like Ryan Swanson, determined to turn the Green Hills Golf Course into one of the best, that uncertainty fades when you see the craft, care, and hard work this team puts in their jobs.