From The Ground Up
This story appeared in the Spring 2024 Issue of New Jersey Golf. To read more from this issue click here.
Back in the 1990s, Rich LaBar spent his summers working as a general laborer at a new resort emerging in the hills of Sussex County — Crystal Springs. He was a student at Rutgers University at the time, studying economics with the goal of finding a job on Wall Street. His plan changed one day, when Gene Mulvihill, owner and developer of Crystal Springs Resort, approached him and asked him not to go and take a ‘real’ job once he graduated.
Odd, right? That’s because Mulvihill wanted to offer him a different kind of job after graduation - helping him build Black Bear Golf Club, one of the golf courses on the Crystal Springs property. LaBar agreed.
“Gene was a Wall Street guy - that’s where he made all his money,” LaBar explained. “He just said, ‘Don’t go and work on Wall Street. Stay with me and we’ll have a lot of fun together.’” It turned out to be one of the best decisions he’d ever make.
'At 24 years old, I built Black Bear with him as his right-hand man, overseeing the whole construction.”
Without any prior experience, LaBar dove in headfirst, learning alongside Mulvihill and his team. It would be LaBar’s first taste of golf course design. He was quickly hooked.
hile LaBar was growing up in northwestern New Jersey, his father, Richard LaBar, Sr. worked for Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Club (now Great Gorge Golf Club, in Vernon) as the assistant superintendent. He would often tag along with his father, falling in love with the game of golf, despite not playing.
LaBar lost his father when he was just 12.
“As a little kid I used to go to work with him and ride around with him and have a great time,” he reminisced. “That was my first love for the game. He bought his first set of golf clubs right before he died. I never got to play golf with him, and I didn’t start playing golf until I was in college. I certainly got bitten with the bug.”
In those days, LaBar was primarily interested in football, baseball — the typical childhood sports. Beyond his general familiarity with golf from what his father had taught him and his limited play in college, LaBar mostly got into the game by being fully immersed in the field — by learning on the job.
After he helped get Black Bear off the ground, LaBar continued eagerly into the golf course construction and renovation business alongside Mulvihill — full throttle. Ballyowen Golf Club and Wild Turkey Golf Club followed as new construction projects, both a part of the Crystal Springs Resort portfolio of courses.
The duo would end up creating some of the most highly regarded public courses in the state. Ballyowen is the consensus No. 1 public facility in New Jersey by Golfweek and Golf Digest, while Wild Turkey checks in on Golf Digest’s 2023 list at No. 11.
After 11 years working together, Mulvihill got out of the business.
However his friendship with LaBar continued, and he served as his mentor for many years to come.
“He took a lot of chances on me as a young guy,” LaBar said of Mulvihill. “I made some big mistakes, and he could have fired me, but he didn’t. He trusted me and let me grow with him. I learned everything building three brand-new golf courses for him. That whole time frame really gave me the foundation for everything we’re doing today.”
LaBar took his talents to Morris Golf, a golf renovation company based in Morristown. He brought along many talented staffers who had worked with him throughout his time at Crystal Springs. Most notably, the company had a hand in the 2004 renovation of Baltusrol Golf Club with Rees Jones, and several other high-profile projects proceeded during the 2000s.
2012 rolled around and after several years of success in the industry, LaBar set out to open his own firm, LaBar Golf. It was a long time coming, and it wasn’t easy, but it’s paid off in the tremendous work they have done to contribute to golf in New Jersey.
“It was a pretty stressful start because it was a lot more work and a lot more clients than we could handle as a new startup,” LaBar recalled. “The fun part of the story was that I needed some serious financing to start the company. My old boss, Gene, owned a little regional bank, and he helped me finance the start of the company.”
It was a full circle moment for LaBar, as his mentor had been one the major reasons he got into the industry. Just two months after LaBar Golf officially opened, Mulvihill suddenly passed away.
“Unfortunately, he never got to see the growth of the company,” LaBar said.
Setting LaBar Golf in motion had been a challenge, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 there were projects around the Garden State to be done almost immediately.
“There was so much damage to golf courses that fall,” LaBar said. “We were in Rumson helping get boats off of the course. There was tree damage at Morris County Golf Club. The storm brought us a number of different projects which helped get the company rolling.”
In the beginning, LaBar’s business primarily covered the New York metropolitan area, but he soon realized that for the company to survive, he had to expand past New York and New Jersey.
“We had a couple of bad winters the next few years with the cold and snow,” he said. Winter is often a busy season for golf course construction and renovation firms, as clubs like to undertake work while the club is closed. “We were forced to take the show on the road” It was as simple as that. LaBar Golf went nationwide and has done so effectively over the years.
The trick? Having talented and hardworking individuals on the LaBar team.
LaBar, now in his fifties, has worked alongside many of his employees since his days at Crystal Springs and Morris Golf, bringing them along to LaBar Golf.
“We started with about 35 employees and now we’re approaching about 400 employees,” he said of the growth of his company. “90% of our employees are New Jersey based, but they travel nationally. They’ll go pretty much anywhere in the 48 states.”
Despite having hundreds of employees, LaBar still steers the ship. He handles the pitches, sales, invoices, estimates, and spends time in the field. He works directly with the clubs and courses, remaining vocal with boards, general managers, superintendents and staff throughout the process.
“I don’t think anybody pitches my company better than I do,” he added.
LaBar is a testament to hard work. His forward-facing nature has helped lead LaBar Golf to exponential growth.
“I try to get to every job in the Metropolitan area at least once every three weeks and then nationally, I try to get to a job every four to six weeks,” he said. “It’s important to support the job and to support the client. Letting them know that I really do care about the project and it’s not just, 'hey, thanks for the project.’ I’m out there, and I try to support them.”
This past year, LaBar expanded yet again, adding irrigation to the organization’s arsenal of services.
“It was an opportunity that I just didn’t tap early on. They’re two separate companies, but there’s a lot of economies of scale that have us working on a project doing both (renovation and irrigation). We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from clients that want us to do both because the reputation of the renovation and construction company is so good. It’s a perfect match for clubs to hire both.”
With this branch added to LaBar, he’s now onto his biggest and potentially most exclusive project yet. Trout National - The Reserve, a private club established by MLB star Mike Trout and local businessman John Ruga, is currently in the works. Raising the profile (and the stakes) of this new course even further, 15-time major champion Tiger Woods will serve as the designer.
“Mike (Trout) really has a passion for golf,” LaBar said. “His goal for Trout National is to be the number one new private course in the country next year when it opens. We’ve stuck with them for the last two years and they’ve stuck with us for the last two years. Everybody’s committed to making it something really, really special.”
Similar to Pine Valley Golf Club, Trout National is in one of the most secluded areas in the Garden State. It’s located halfway between Atlantic City and Philadelphia in the town of Vineland.
“It’s in a fairly rural area, but it’s going to turn some heads when it opens,” LaBar explained. “The land is unbelievable. You wouldn’t believe the movement the land has. You’d think it’s flat, but it’s anything but flat. There’s some really cool contour and landforms on it. It’s going to be pretty wild when it’s done.”
The facility will feature a slew of special amenities: A Himalayas-style putting green, an expansive driving range, and a par 3 course.
In the past few years, original golf course projects like Trout National have been few and far between, but the new-build market has recently been picking up a bit, and LaBar has taken full advantage of these fresh opportunities.
“There are probably four or five new construction projects coming up in the next three or four years that we’ve got our fingers on,” said LaBar. “It’s been a market for us that we never thought we’d get into. Our name is LaBar Golf Renovations, not LaBar Golf Construction,” he laughed. ‘’It’s a neat little thing that’s happened to us, surprisingly.”
Although LaBar is eager to get into new construction, working on historic golf courses, helping shape them back into their origins or just an improved product, has been special for him. He’s played a big part in recent New Jersey golf history. LaBar Golf has worked on five courses that are on the 2024 NJSGA Championship schedule, most notably the 104th New Jersey Open, held at Plainfield Country Club, and the 2nd New Jersey Women’s Open, at Knickerbocker Country Club.
“When I started in 2012, Plainfield was one of the first handful of clients that have stuck with me,” LaBar commented. “We’ve been through a lot of tournaments at Plainfield. The Barclays was there twice and other events of importance. It’s been fun because every time they host an event, they usually have us come in ahead of that. Maybe we’ll build new tees or spruce up the bunkers or do something to improve the golf course just to make it that much better than it already is. Knickerbocker is a relatively new client that we’ve been at for two years now, finishing up a project. They are trying to renovate the golf course back to the old course that it was. They put back a lot of old features.”
If you’re from New Jersey, you’re biased — you know golf in this state is unrivaled. It’s the people, the history, it’s without a doubt the courses. But it’s clear on a national scale that New Jersey golf is just different.
In LaBar’s case, he’s had firsthand experience in golf as not only a golfer, but as a professional. He’s worked on high caliber projects like Alpine Country Club, Essex County Country Club, North Jersey Country Club, The Ridgewood Country Club… the list goes on and on.
“Golf is special in New Jersey,” he said. “There are a lot of great clubs in this area not only just for the state, but the region and the United States. I’m a member at three clubs here in New Jersey: Baltusrol, Morris County and Trump National - Bedminster. It (New Jersey) has a special place in my heart because of all the golf I play in this state. The relationships that I’ve built, not only professionally, but personally at the clubs, it’s been pretty cool.”
For LaBar, New Jersey has been home, but expanding is paramount for the progress of the company. LaBar will be heading west to open an office in California in the spring of 2025.
“There is so much work going on in the desert of California, Scottsdale and in Las Vegas. We are in the planning stages right now because we have some work this summer in California. We’re lining up enough work starting in the spring of 2025 to launch and have full-time, year-round teams and equipment in California that can travel to Arizona, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. We’re going to try to make a huge footprint in that market.”
What’s the difference maker for LaBar Golf? His trusted family and staff, and their willingness to operate efficiently. Quality and timeliness have been at the forefront for the company.
“We staff jobs with more people than less, because one thing we’re known for is always delivering the project on time, so that there’s never going to be a delay in reopening the golf course,” LaBar said. “There’s never going to be a problem hitting their deadlines because it’s important to them. If they don’t open up, it’s revenue loss and they look bad if they tell the members they are going to open. That’s why we get so much repeat business in the state and in the region and all over the country — because we deliver on our promises.”
On top of the support LaBar receives on the golf course, his wife, Bridget, has played a major role in helping LaBar grow over the years.
“When I started the company, she had a very big job with NBC,” LaBar said of his wife. “During those couple of tough winters, she was still working but was very instrumental in holding the company together. Having that resource and my sounding board to support me has been unbelievable for the last 12 or 13 years.”
LaBar Golf Renovations’ skillful work is continuing to draw attention in the Garden State. Moving the dirt and helping to make architects’ visions a reality is now the benchmark for LaBar and his group of reliable employees. With their footprint now covering irrigation, as well as a new West Coast base on the horizon, LaBar Golf Renovations has set a standard, helping shape golf courses far and wide. And it all traces back to those days at Crystal Springs, and a developer willing to take a chance on a young person.
“It’s been a great ride, and a rocket ship ever since.”
This story appeared in the Spring 2024 Issue of New Jersey Golf. To read more from this issue click here.
