  
WORKING THEIR WAY UP
It was Michael J. Fox’s character Brantley Foster who showed us a real overnight success would take about two weeks. 1987’s “The Secret of My Success” is a funny lampoon of business life, but we all know that kind of story just doesn’t happen. Even rock’s Huey Lewis once quipped he was a 10-year overnight success. But can someone from the low ranks really rise to the very top of an organization? At Little Turtle Country Club in Westerville, the answer is yes, times two.
Mike Hill was 18 years old when a buddy from the pro shop at Little Turtle got him on staff raking traps. “I worked that summer knowing I was going to Bowling Green to study physical education,” says Hill. “I worked another summer after my freshman year and decided to transfer to OSU to study agronomy.” The superintendent liked Hill’s style, so he worked at the club mornings and then attended class in the afternoon. “I graduated in ’77, and began to work for a new super. He was in from Scioto Country Club,” says Hill. After a couple years, he left for the Carolinas, so the job was open. “Andy Inman was the director of golf and John Meade came in roughly the same time as general manager,” says Hill. It was Inman who hired him as the superintendent.
Somewhere around that time a fresh faced 16-year-old named Garth Walker showed up looking for work, so Hill hired him to edge traps. “I worked with a guy running the backhoe,” says Walker. “I loved tractors and stuff like that, plus I was making $4.85 an hour. It basically helped me pay my way through Otterbein.”
After graduating Otterbein College in the summer of 1986, Walker left looking for work in communications and ended up working for the likes of the Westerville Public Opinion and The Other Paper.
“I knew John Meade through the grapevine and in early ’97 I was looking for a change,” says Walker. “I came back to Little Turtle to handle food and beverage, became the interim club manager a short while later, and then moved up to general manager.” Walker did leave the club for about three years starting in ’03, but when Meade called him in Florida to say he was thinking of selling the club, Walker immediately called Hill.
“We had talked about it from time to time when we worked together, but never really thought we’d have the chance,” says Walker.
“I’d kicked around owning a mom and pop type course in Johnstown, but never really considered owning Little Turtle,” Hill says. “Ownership was not a burning desire, but the timing now seemed right.”
Meade had almost always left Hill alone so it had actually been very close to being the decision maker and after chatting a few times with Walker, Hill decided owning the place wouldn’t be all that different.
“It took us 10 months to get the deal done,” says Walker. “John was patient with us and wanted us to be successful.” If the buyer had been an established course owner, the deal would likely have been done in a month or two. Hill says the 52 combined years of experience he and Walker have showed through during negotiations with banks.
“Many said it was not a good time to buy since the golf business was declining, but we knew it was the right time because we were buying right,” says Hill. “Our experience at this club made it a lot easier and our relationships with the members helped seal the deal.”
Hill and Walker were announced as the owners May 7th, 2007.
“We think being an affordable Pete Dye course with easy access from just about any point in Central Ohio makes our jobs easier,” says Walker. Sure, they don’t have the boss’s rich wife on their side like Brantley Foster did, but Walker and Hill show that the secret to success is part timing, part experience, and mostly seizing the opportunity when it comes knocking.
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