A superintendents daughter was having a mental-health crisis. Then his membership stepped up | Courses [Video]

Golf course superintendents have perhaps the most thankless job in golf. Early wake-up calls, 16-hour days and should their course not meet a high standard, they are Golf Club Enemy No. 1. The stressors of the job have become so intense that a few years ago, Golf Digest’s Ron Whitten wrote about the mental-health crisis amongst supers, including some who have tried to take their lives.

Managing these high standards is familiar to Shannon Wheeler, director of agronomy at The Plantation in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., though it was his high school daughter, Mallory, who dealt with serious mental-health struggles. Shannon has the club’s membership to thank for helping his family through those challenging years.

“Mallory was having some difficulties—depression and suicidal ideations,” he says. “It was quite scary as a parent. We were in the midst of COVID, so everything was uncertain. She had some issues where we had her hospitalized and had her in …