Micah Destival was recently hired as the new golf course manager for the Jefferson Community Golf Course.

He moved to Jefferson with his family in the mid-1980’s and graduated from Jefferson-Scranton High School in 1997.  He went on to earn a geography degree from Northwest Missouri State University.  He sold insurance for a while until the recession of 2008.  Destival points out that he was always interested in the golf industry and loved the sport so he went to work at Fox Ridge Golf Course in Dike, Iowa.

Towards the end of 2013, he worked as a golf consultant at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Waterloo.  This past July, that position was eliminated and Destival taught golf lessons.  During the past couple of years, he went through the necessary steps to become certified by the Professional Golfers’ Association for golf operations.

Now the Jefferson golf course manager, Destival shares his thoughts about increasing golf participation other than through regular memberships.

“Ten years from now, you don’t know how many members we may have.  And we’ve really got to do a good job of marketing to kids and getting kids interested in the game (of golf) in general and trying to find creative ways of getting younger people into the game.”

He suggests offering a four-hole rate because holes one through four lead people back to the clubhouse, which would be beneficial for parents of younger children to not have to play nine-holes.  Other ideas include additional advertising to area businesses and offering out-of-county membership discounts.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says he believes Destival will help to bring membership up and likes his ideas to make the golf course more profitable than it has been in the past.

Destival is a City seasonal employee for 8 ½-months with a salary of $3,700 per month.