Agronomist  ·  Founder & CEO of Turfile

Stephen Feeney

Turfgrass professional with nine years of experience, including two World Top-100 clubs and championship tournament preparation. Now building the future of golf course management with data.

Get in touch Resume (PDF)
Stephen Feeney

Professional Philosophy

Preventative, not reactive.

If you have the capacity to change the plan on the fly and reallocate labour, you had the capacity to foresee that the work was coming. Everything on a golf course should be planned for, scheduled, and prevented before it becomes a problem, and data should back every one of those decisions.

World-class conditioning is achieved not only through agronomic skill, but through strong communication, clear prioritization, and consistent leadership.

C3 · Bent · Poa · Rye · FescuesC4 · Bermuda · Paspalum

2×World Top-100 clubs
91%low-cut weed population eliminated at Marine Drive, 2024
7%reduction in annual water usage at NSWGC
500+documented instances of staff training

Career

Experience

Apr 2025 – Present

Founder & CEO · Turfile · Remote

Turfile is a GIS platform designed specifically for golf course superintendents, allowing them to manage their assets, team, and property in a spatial environment.

Jul 2026

Agronomic Consultant · The Algonquin Resort · St. Andrews, Canada

Assisted the transition of an incoming superintendent, building out the club's fertility and chemical program, inventory management system, and labour management plan, with team training and irrigation work.

Jul 2025 – Jan 2026

Agronomist · Mid Ocean Club · Bermuda

Deacon, GS3, moisture, and firmness. GPS sprayers and Kress robotic technology.

Jan 2022 – Jul 2025

Assistant Superintendent · Marine Drive Golf Club · Vancouver, BC

Mentorship of all 27 Links staff members. Eliminated 91% of the low-cut weed population in the 2024 season. Created and implemented a bunker depth check program, improving the playability and consistency of all bunkers. Led course improvement projects: tee rebuilds and bunker face reconstruction.

Oct 2023 – Mar 2024

International · New South Wales Golf Club · Sydney, Australia

Led the proposal and installation of a $21,000 irrigation upgrade, resulting in a 7% reduction in total annual water usage. Repairing and auditing Toro irrigation system.

Jan 2021 – Dec 2021

Assistant Superintendent · The Algonquin Resort · St. Andrews, Canada

Daily supervision of 15 grounds staff. Prepped and grew in a 23,000 sq ft bentgrass nursery. Repairing and auditing Rain Bird irrigation system. Project lead for course improvements: drainage installation, sod jobs, turf establishment.

Around the World

Where the Work Has Taken Me

Drag to spin the globe. Click a pin to fly down to the course.

"World-class conditioning is achieved not only through agronomic skill, but through strong communication, clear prioritization, and consistent leadership."

Selected Work

Project Case Studies

Low-Cut Weed Removal

Marine Drive Golf Club

Over the 2024 growing season, under my supervision we removed 91% of the low-cut weed population at Marine Drive. A section-based IPM approach combined with diligent monitoring of 22 plots across fairways, tees, and aprons let us quantify the weed population through the season: promoting resilient turfgrass, manual removal, and targeted chemical applications. Initial scouting put the average weed count at 0.55 per 10 m². By season's end we were down to 0.049.

Monitoring plots across Marine Drive
22 monitoring plots
Weed counts per 10 square meters trending down through the 2024 season
Season trend: 0.55 down to 0.049 weeds / 10 m²

#13 Bunker Renovation

Marine Drive Golf Club

Thirteen years of persistent sand splash had collapsed this face under 7 inches of buildup. As project lead, I had the face stripped to the original bunker lining, built the liner up vertically with thin plywood and rebar, backfilled with 50/50 mix, graded to the original face shape, and sodded, leaving a 4-inch bare lip once rooting allowed.

BeforeCollapsed bunker face before renovation
AfterRebuilt bunker face after renovation

Irrigation Upgrade: 140 Adjustable Heads

New South Wales Golf Club

I oversaw the proposal, installation, and record keeping of 140 adjustable irrigation heads at NSWGC. The board-approved proposal I authored projected a 7% reduction in total annual water usage across the property, and it delivered.

Board-approved irrigation proposal document
Board-approved proposal
Hole-by-hole installation tracking spreadsheet
Hole-by-hole install tracking

#4 Tee Construction

Marine Drive Golf Club

Stripping, reshaping, and resurfacing the bottom two tiers of the #4 tee. I assisted in the management and oversight of this project.

Before#4 tee stripped before resurfacing
After#4 tee in play after construction

#8 Tee Construction

Marine Drive Golf Club

Stripping, reshaping, and resurfacing of this double-tiered tee. I was the primary oversight for grading and shaping the deck.

Before#8 tee graded before surfacing
After#8 tee grown in after construction

Nursery Grow-In: 23,000 sq ft

Algonquin Golf Course

A 23,000 square foot bentgrass nursery grow-in, begun in the fall of 2020, with sod in use as soon as the course opened in early spring 2021.

BeforeNursery site being graded
AfterEstablished bentgrass nursery

#11 Approach Repair

Algonquin Golf Course

This washout beside the 11th green was arguably the course's largest blemish, persisting across multiple seasons under heavy traffic and surface runoff. The area was stripped, reshaped, and resurfaced.

BeforeWashout beside 11 green before repair
AfterRepaired approach at 11 green

#1 Fairway Expansion

Algonquin Golf Course

Part of the Algonquin renovation included expanding the #1 fairway over a stream where inadequate drainage had been placed. A considerable amount of drain tile, topdressing, fertilization, and seeding went into fixing this hole. The new section is now indistinguishable from the old.

BeforeWaterlogged fairway expansion before drainage work
AfterStriped healthy fairway after renovation

Turfile

Why I Built Turfile

Across every course I've worked on, the same problem kept surfacing. The knowledge that keeps a property running, like where assets are, what's been done to them, and when, lived in binders, spreadsheets, and people's heads. While at New South Wales Golf Club I was hand-building spatial records just to track 140 irrigation heads. That record keeping became the seed of something bigger.

Turfile is a GIS platform built specifically for golf course superintendents: a spatial environment for managing assets, team, and property. Golf Course Industry likened it to Google Earth, but for turf. Simple and intuitive by design, because the people using it are busy growing grass.

Visit turfile.com Read the Golf Course Industry story →

Press

In the Industry Media

Golf Course Industry "From the publisher's pen: Guided by maps" Read the article → Golfdom Stephen Feeney demonstrates Turfile, the online platform for keeping tabs on your golf course Watch the interview →

Education & Development

Credentials

Harvard Business School Online CORe credential

CORe: Credential of Readiness

Harvard Business School Online · 2024–2025
Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, Financial Accounting

Ohio State Advanced Golf Course Management certificate

Advanced Golf Course Management

The Ohio State University · 2021 · with Distinction

Ohio State Golf Course Management certificate

Golf Course Management

The Ohio State University · 2020 · with Distinction

Penn State Turfgrass Management certificate

Turfgrass Management

Penn State World Campus · 2021

Championship & Volunteer Experience

  • Butterfield Bermuda Championship · Port Royal Golf Course. Data collection; spent the week with Paul Vermeulen of the PGA Tour.
  • The Genesis Invitational · Torrey Pines Golf Course, San Diego. Data collection, moisture management.
  • Australian Open · The Australian Golf Club, Sydney · Dec 2023.