By John Beisser, Feature Writer

Rich LaBar is living his dream of heading up a firm regarded as one of the industry leaders in golf course redesign and construction. And he credits much of the success he's enjoyed running LaBar Golf Renovations to the education he received at Rutgers.
 
A 1991 RU graduate, LaBar attended Cook College where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and Business. LaBar's original plan was to pursue a career on Wall Street but a job working summers as a general laborer at the then newly-formed Crystal Springs Resort in rural Sussex County altered that path. One day Gene Mulvihill, owner and developer of Crystal Springs Resort, a Wall Street maven regarded by many as being the father of the mutual fund, in addition to being then-owner/founder of Action Park in Vernon, New Jersey, approached LaBar about dissuading him from taking a 'real' job once he graduated.
 
"For whatever reason, he just really liked me," said LaBar. "We'd have lunch together and we'd talk about my future. He basically talked me out of pursuing a career on Wall Street. He said, 'Why do you want to do that? It'd be a lot more fun to come and build golf courses with me.' And he convinced me to do it.
 
"Beginning when I was just 24 years old, we built the next three golf courses up in Sussex County (Black Bear Golf Club, Ballyowen Golf Club and Wild Turkey Golf Club) in the course of I think it was 11 years, and we had a lot of fun doing it,: he added. "And it quickly became my passion."
 
Ballyowen has been named the consensus No. 1 public facility in New Jersey by both Golfweek and Golf Digest, while Wild Turkey checks in on Golf Digest's 2023 list at No. 11.
 
LaBar is quick to credit the business background he learned at Rutgers as a vital part of the career that he presently enjoys as founder/owner/CEO of Labar Golf Renovations in Morristown, New Jersey.
 
"There's no question, the education I received in studying business at Rutgers played a huge part in all of this," he said. "As the CEO, owner and founder of the company, my business degree from Rutgers was paramount in everything that's going on. After 13 years I just hired a CFO. And I'm now getting ready to hire a COO. So, I've basically done everything from the business end myself for the first 13 years. It becomes overwhelming now as big as it's gotten, I just can't do it anymore by myself. I was the HR manager, I was the controller, I was, you know, everything, even the internal accountant."
 
What began in 2012 as a startup company with less than 40 employees, LaBar Golf Renovations is now approaching a 400-employee operation.
 
"We've since hired a big accounting firm and hired HR managers, hired an HR consulting firm just to help me with growing the business," he said. "But having that foundation and knowing everything I know about business really helped grow this thing to where we are now."
 
LaBar Golf Renovations numbers more than 100 clients, a veritable "Who's Who" of some of the nation's most renowned and prestigious clubs, which includes Jack Nicklaus' Muirfield Village, Pinehurst, Merion, Oak Hill and Oakland Hills to name a few. In the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, where the company first cut its teeth and made its mark on the industry, LaBar Golf Renovations has performed reconstructions at esteemed clubs such as Winged Foot, Plainfield, Ridgewood, and Upper Montclair, as well as several of the Trump National properties, among many others.
 
Most of LaBar Golf Renovations projects are just that, major renovations of existing golf courses, but the firm also prides itself on building brand new construction projects from scratch. One of the highest profile new construction projects LaBar Golf Renovations is presently building is Trout National Golf Club in South Jersey, an exciting brain child of Major League Baseball standout Mike Trout. The course designer? A man of a certain golf pedigree named Tiger Woods.
 
Spearheaded by Director of Athletics Pat Hobbs, there is a current exploration for a potential major reconstruction of the Rutgers University Golf Course. Preliminary talks have begun about LaBar Golf Renovations potentially partnering with a high-profile course designer to develop a world-class facility, either a brand new course, or a major reconstruction of the current layout, that would serve as the Big Ten home of the Scarlet Knight men's and women's golf programs as well as the general public.
 
Rutgers golf was in the news recently with 2020 graduate and former Scarlet Knight All-American Chris Gotterup earning his first career PGA tour win when he earned a six-stroke victory at The Myrtle Beach Classic. The women's team advanced to its first postseason tournament in program history in 2024, winning the National Golf Invitational Championship.
 
"How exciting was that win?," asked LaBar. "Hopefully [Chris] can rack up a couple more wins. Truth be told, his sponsors would be a good target to sponsor some things. I could envision his name one day being on the team practice facility, how cool would that be?"
 
Not far from the exciting things happening on the course with the Rutgers golf teams, LaBar and wife Bridget and their two children are avid supporters of Rutgers Athletics. They take pride in dad's alma mater, rooting for the Scarlet Knights.
 
 "We're season ticket holders for Rutgers football and they come to the games with me and we try to get to as many basketball games as possible and they absolutely love it," he said. "We're developing some very big Rutgers sports fans in my kids."
 
A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relatons at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 14-year old daughter Riley.