Ken Mangum
Inducted 2015
Ken Mangum of Cumming, Ga., is the Director of Golf Courses and Grounds at Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Ga., and is a leader in the turfgrass and golf course industries. He continues to serve as an ambassador for the game of golf in Georgia, nationally and internationally, and for that is part of the Class of 2015 of the Georgia Golf Hall
of Fame.
Mangum was born in Anniston, Ala., and attended Alexandria High School and later Lake City Community College in Lake City, Fla., graduating in 1975 from the School of Golf Course Operations. Mangum moved to Georgia and served as Assistant Superintendent at Mystery Valley Golf Course in Atlanta from 1976 to 1978. He returned to his home state of Alabama in 1978, taking the role of Golf Course Superintendent at Lagoon Park in Montgomery.
Mangum then served as Golf Course Superintendent at Idle Hour Club in Macon, Ga., from 1981 to 1988. At Idle Hour Club, Mangum installed the first computerized irrigation system east of the Mississippi River, and established a golf course management program and hosted seven Peach Blossom Invitational tournaments. He designed and managed construction of a golf course operations center and implemented a master landscape program for the course.
In 1988, Mangum joined Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Ga., where he currently serves as the Director of Golf Courses and Grounds. Under his leadership, Mangum prepared the course for the 1990 U.S. Women's Open Championship, the 2001 PGA Championship, the 2002 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, the 2011 PGA Championship and the 2014 U.S. Amateur Championship. He was Project Manager for six major golf course renovations and designed and built the par 3 course in 1993. He also developed a management program that has produced many successful superintendents across the United States.
An active member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, Mangum served on its Board of Directors from 1996 to 2001. He also served as President of its Georgia Chapter in 1987. He is a current member of the Rain Bird Irrigation Select Superintendent Advisory Board and sits on the USGA Green Section Committee. In 2004, Mangum was appointed by then-Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame Board of Directors, where he served until 2009. He has served as an instructor at the John Deere/Bayer Green Start Academy since it began in 2006.
Mangum was inducted into the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association Hall of Fame in 2013, and was the recipient of the USGA's Ike Grainger Award and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award that same year. He was named Georgia Superintendent of the Year in 2002 and the Georgia Turfgrass Professional of the Year in 1996.
Mangum and his wife, Pam, are parents of two daughters, one son and three grandchildren, and reside in Cumming, Ga.
