He was Augusta National’s superintendent, founder and mentor

Over the years, as coverage of the Masters has expanded to capture every shot from every corner of Augusta National Golf Club, many fans have felt like they know the course to the very end of the grass.

Paul Latshaw actually did.

From 1986 to 1989, Latshaw served as Augusta National’s superintendent, overseeing four Masters at a facility known for its meticulous maintenance. It was a shining light during a 40-year career that took him to some of the game’s most important stages – from Oakmont to Congressional to Winged Foot, and beyond – and made him the only master to oversee the host courses of every major US-based three-man tournament.

However, his influence extended beyond his reasons. To peers and protégés, Latshaw was a tireless innovator and generous mentor who helped shape the careers of many industry professionals. By some estimates, more than 100 of his former employees and students have gone on to become superintendents, turfgrass scientists or leaders in the game, including his son, Paul Jr., who is now the stadium director at Merion near Philadelphia.

In recognition of those contributions, Latshaw was honored earlier this year with the USGA’s 2026 Green Section Award, presented annually for exceptional service to the game through turfgrass management. Latshaw, 85, whose health has been faltering, was unable to attend the event at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America trade show in Orlando. His son accepted on his behalf.

“He was the Michael Jordan of the greats,” the younger Latshaw told GOLF.com

The man known as one of the most influential people in his field was not an avid golfer himself, and did not grow up playing the game. He grew up in Red Cross, Pa., served in the US Navy after high school and planned to study poultry production at Penn State before answering a newspaper ad for a golf course maintenance job. He took it and held it.

He entered Penn State’s two-year turfgrass program, graduating in 1964. But as his son puts it, his education never stopped.

“He was always looking for information, attending conferences, eager to learn,” he said. “He always wanted to be at the top.”

Latshaw’s first job as a manager was at The Country Club of Jackson in Michigan, followed by Shaker Heights Country Club in Ohio. In 1976, he arrived at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, where he oversaw the 1978 PGA Championship and the 1983 US Open. That proven track record — on a course with storied greens — helped Latshaw reach Augusta, where he arrived during Jack Nicklaus’ historic victory in 1986, 40 years ago this spring.

Moving from Oakmont to Augusta put Latshaw in a different agricultural world, away from the push greens and Poa annua and the warm season turf and fall oversight. He accepted changes with curiosity and confidence, always trying, even when it meant a bad meeting.

One afternoon, his assistant, Matt Shaffer, ran into Latshaw behind the 5th green, pumping air into the putting green with a storm of leaves.

“I said, you’re pushing 90-degree wind on the green at 70 miles an hour and you think something good is going to happen,” Shaffer recalled. “What are you doing?”

“We’re trying,” Latshaw replied.

In the direction of the wind, if that is the case, in an area with the shade of a tree blocking it. The results were promising enough that Latshaw soon began hacking fans from the maintenance shop and putting them to work on the course, a rare practice that became standard at Augusta and, eventually, elsewhere. He also revamped the club’s putting green program, shifting it to the fall (before Latshaw’s arrival, Shaffer said, the club only boxed in the summer, when classes were closed). It was a bold move, with professional (if not agricultural) risk, and it slightly disturbed the play and ruffled feathers. But it improved the health of the turf.

“That was his thing,” Shaffer said. “His most important thing was always: what’s good for the grass.”

Working under Latshaw, Shaffer said, sometimes felt like a daily chemistry lesson. Where Shaffer and many of his peers focused on the macronutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium – Latshaw worked in depth on the periodic table, fine-tuning elements such as boron, magnesium and calcium.

“He could push the grass to points I never imagined,” Shaffer said. “Right there on the edge, where you’d swear it couldn’t come back. Then it does.”

When the two first met, Latshaw was at Oakmont and Shaffer was working at a little-known club in Pennsylvania, feeling stagnant.

“I had a chip on my shoulder,” Shaffer said. “As if I didn’t get what I deserved.”

When Latshaw offered him an assistant job at Augusta National, shortly after the 1986 Masters, the pay was not life-changing, the title (assistant) was demeaning and the pressure much higher. Shaffer accepted anyway, seeing a rare opportunity to learn from a master.

“I thought I was a pretty good lawnmower,” he said. “I was standing next to him and I realized how much I didn’t know.”

If Latshaw’s expectations were strong, so was his work ethic.

“He didn’t just send some power,” said Shaffer. If we worked 150 days straight, he worked 160. He was smart, driven, and curious. He changed my life.

After Augusta, Latshaw’s CV continued to be filled with marquee club names: Wilmington Country Club, DRM Country Club – where he hosted his second US Open, in 1997 – and a one-time consulting role at Riviera. He closed his career at Winged Foot before retiring in 2001 to work as a consulting agronomist.

In total, he has run four Masters, two US Opens, a PGA Championship and two US Senior Opens. His broad legacy was strengthened by the people he trained, and by the practices he helped to mainstream.

“The maintenance methods he introduced that seemed strict are now standard,” said Darin Bevard, the USGA’s executive director of Championship agronomy. “He was always curious, always willing to learn from anyone, that’s what made him stay at the top for a long time.”

Years after leaving Augusta, Latshaw was still mentoring Shaffer, then the superintendent at Merion, preparing for the 2005 US Amateur under challenging weather conditions that left the course in poor shape. Latshaw came up with underground sensors that he believed could help. Shaffer refused.

“Tell him I don’t have time to mess with the sensors,” said Shaffer. “I have the lessons I need to be in good shape.”

Latshaw insisted. The nerves kicked in. And they worked.

In addition to this year’s Green Section honor, Latshaw also received the GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award in 2017. The following year, Penn State established a turfgrass graduate association in his name.

Over the years, Paul Jr. he said, he and his father didn’t always watch the Masters together.

On Sunday, they will.