John Henley Jr.

Weekly Vista Staff Writer

Tending a golf course isn't so much maintenance as it is art.

"I'm an artist," says Shannon Billingsley, assistant superintendent of Scotsdale Golf Course.

"This is my canvas out here." He gestures toward the window as he says this.

Billingsley has been around golf courses his entire life, in one capacity or another. While growing up in Minnesota, his parents ran a golf course there.

"Basically, the only thing I've ever known is golf," he says.

He has worked as an irrigation tech at Greystone Country Club in Cabot and at Chenault Country Club in Little Rock.

"I love it," he says. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing. If I wasn't doing this, I don't know what I'd do."

Except for a short time when Billingsley traveled around the concert circuit selling tie-dyed T-shirts and hemp necklaces and bracelets, he has always worked on a golf course.

And if anyone doubts Billingsley's skills as a "painter and artist," they need only look at the No. 5 green at the Country Club Golf Course or the No. 17 at Scotsdale.

Both greens suffered extensive damage as a result of vandalism. Billingsley was a key member of the team that restored the Country Club green and the main individual responsible for repairing the green on the Scotsdale course.

However, Billingsley is not content to just work on a golf course -- he is also an avid golfer.

His favorite club is his sand wedge, a Wilson R-90.

"I can hit it just about anywhere," he says. "I don't necessarily hit it far, but I can hit off sand, off grass or off the rocks."

"When I die, it'll go in my grave with me. No one gets my R-90."

He broke 100 for the first time when he was about 10 years old, and broke 70 when he was 15. He even remembers the date he recorded his first and only hole-in-one.

"It was May 18, 1986. The No. 15 hole at Westpark Golf Course in Duluth, Minn. It was 119 yards."

And not only does he remember the course, the hole and the yardage, but also what club he used.

He even kept the ball, the flag, the tee marker and the scorecard.

However, he is quick to add that he didn't steal the flag and the tee marker.

"Fortunately, they'd just gotten new flags and tee markers," he explains.

But golf isn't the only thing in Billingsley's life, although it is definitely the main thing.

"I married my job a long time ago and we're very happy together," he says, adding, "With this job, you spend all your time on a golf course, if you're dedicated.

Billingsley is also fiercely devoted to his pet snake, a Ball python named Zeek.

He's not married and says that he would have to find a woman who could deal with his pet because, "She'd go before the snake."

Seven years ago, Billingsley drove to a convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes and came home with a snake.

He met an individual in the parking lot who'd bought a snake while his wife was on vacation, and was not allowed back at his house until he got rid of the snake.

A constant companion, Billingsley laughs as he explains some of the looks he receives while driving down the road with a four-foot python hanging from the rearview mirror.

Many are fearful of snakes and what they are normally known for doing to people. Billingsley has been bitten before, but says it didn't hurt.

"It startled me more than anything."

He recalls an incident when he had to pull over on the side of the road because Zeek became entangled with his necklace, choking him while he was driving. It is not unusual for his snake to wrap around his neck.

"It doesn't really bother me, because I know I can get him off. But the first time he did it, it freaked me out."

Billingsley takes Zeek in his car with him because the snake likes it.

"He likes hanging his head out the window, like a dog," he says. "He likes the warm breeze."

Billingsley is not especially interested in money, which is a good thing, he explains, because, "You're not going to get rich doing this job."

However, he does have ambition. Right now, he says he is happy being an assistant superintendent as there are things he has yet to learn.

Eventually, he would like to be a superintendent, maybe in Bella Vista, maybe not.

"I love it here. It's nice, quiet. It's safe here, not like Little Rock," he says.

However, he doesn't see himself as a villager in 10 years.

"I'd like to see other places." Right now, he's not exactly sure where the next stop will be, possibly New Mexico.

He's taking a golfing trip to Santa Fe, N.M., in April with his father and will check it out then. But he doesn't like having set-in-stone plans.

"I want to see different parts of the United States, and being single, I can do that," he says, adding, "I will not live in a northern state because I couldn't take my snake with me. It'd be too cold."