Superintendent trailblazer

Ever hear of a woman who drove a beverage cart and seven years later became a golf course superintendent? Probably not. Meet 30-year-old Maddie Storm, the rare example of someone who followed that very unorthodox career path.

Storm had never stepped foot on a golf course until that beverage cart job in 2011 at McDowell Mountain Golf Club in her native Scottsdale, Arizona. And she only did it to make some money while attending art school.

But after picking up some shifts in the golf shop, she volunteered to help the agronomy team during the annual overseeding process.

“I thought, ‘Dang, this is cool,’ ” Storm said. “I didn’t know this was part of golf. So I continued to help out there. Eventually the head pro (Chris Johnson) pulled me aside and said, ‘You don’t enjoy folding sweaters. Go work full time on the grounds crew.’ He was right. And that was that.”

Then, all she did for the first 18 months was rake bunkers. “It was a smaller crew, so that was what the new guy did,” she said. “Once another new...