The Cutter family sold one family business and now enter a second venture together as a family.

Paul Cutter of Turner started Veterinary Support Services 30 years ago and sold it two and half years ago to a Canadian company. His son Alex, who was a part of that business, always loved golf. So, when George and Donna Chiasson put Turner Highlands Golf Course up for sale, the Cutters reached out in purchasing the course.

“Alex kind of had an interest and he was trying to figure out what he was going to do, and he maybe thought (running) a golf course might be interesting,” Paul said. “We both live in Turner and we have played out here for a long time. (The Chiassons) had it for sale and we had an interest and the rest of history.”

Alex said everything came together at the right time, as the family officially purchased the course last November.

“I grew up playing the course. We grew up on Pleasant Pond right down the road,” Alex said. “My mom and dad started playing golf ever since I started playing golf. It’s one of those things you talk about and it was one of those things that eventually presented itself as an opportunity. We had another family business that we sold two and a half years ago now. We were in the process of phasing out of that business and the Highlands came up on the market. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Joining Paul and Alex in the Turner Highland ownership is Jan Cutter — Paul’s wife and Alex’s mother — along with Alex’s wife Eliza.

Alex runs the pro shop side of the business while Eliza helps manage the restaurant side of the business. Alex’s parents help where there needs help. Jan helped update the clubhouse by choosing paint colors and adding flowers around the grounds. Paul is helping coordinate a new maintenance building on the course.

There are challenges that the Cutter family has dealt with the past eight months since taking over the course.

One of the first moves the family made was hiring a new superintendent and they got the guy they wanted.

“One of the first big hurdles we had was we hired a gentleman by the name of Paul Waldron, who used to work at Wilson Lake Country Club, and before that he worked at Maple Lanes Golf Course. He was a widely sought after superintendent and we brought him on in November, and he passed unexpectedly in early December,” Alex said. “That was the first big oh-oh moment.”

The Cutters wanted an experienced superintendent, as this is the first time the family has been in the golf industry. They offered Paul’s assistant Cody Austin the head superintendent’s position in March.

Turf is something the Cutters are eager to learn about.

“My father and I over time hope to learn more the ins and outs of the golf course on the turf side of things,” Alex said. “We have been so busy with everything else we haven’t been tutored by Cody as much as we thought we were going to be. In the future we hope to maybe take the responsibility away from him to lighten his workload.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, it was frustrating that they had delay to opening the course as they were ready to get their first season underway.

“We are rookies running a golf course,” Paul said. “We figured we could take a shot at it and make work somehow, and of course the virus came around. We didn’t expect that.”

For Alex, while the family was frustrated in the moment, the delayed start to the season wasn’t the worst thing to happen to them as he looks back on it two months later.

“We had to open the restaurant kind of slowly and a little bit more slow than we wanted to with the restrictions because of the pandemic,” Alex said. “In the long run, we will see it as a blessing in disguise because we got a chance to get our systems, our employees, our staff and ourselves honestly used to the whole thing at a slower pace. We didn’t realize it at the time, we were bitter as like everyone else, but like I said, it was a blessing in disguise even if we didn’t want to admit at the time.”

Alex said the Chiassons have been helpful this season so far when the Cutter’s have had questions. George Chiasson has even helped Austin with some of the equipment.

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