Golfdom’S People of the Year

BY LARRY AYLWARD, People EDITOR IN CHIEF

This year’s of the Year honorees It’s time to pass out the awards for have no Golfdom’s People of the Year. May I say, we have some solid individuals shortage of as honorees — people who are hard integrity and workers and humble servants. Thank goodness these people have embraced character the golf course maintenance industry. Without them, our small world would be greatly diminished. As in past years, Golfdom’s People of the Year are recognized for actions that reflect integrity and character. So let’s get to it. Please hold your applause until all awards have been presented. Congratulations to this year’s well-deserving honorees!

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN GF1209_022.pgs 11.24.2009 13:04 jloch The “Unpretentious As They Come” Award

TERRY BONAR CERTIFIED GOLF COURSE SUPERINTENDENT, CANTERBURY GOLF CLUB Ben Franklin once said, “Humility makes great men twice honorable.” Franklin’s words could easily be directed at Terry Bonar, the longtime certified superintendent of Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland, who’s retiring from the club this month after 49 years. I’m sure Bonar has some great stories about his wonderful work at Canterbury, including overseeing a pleth- ora of PGA tournaments, but he prefers to keep such highlights close to his vest. Earlier this year, Bonar told me of the many times he’d gaze at the course while driving out of the parking lot at the end of a day’s work and say to himself proudly, “Man, the course looks good!” But so often, Bonar says he learned that such pride can be short-lived. “I’d come back the next morning and say, ‘What hap- pened here? ’ ” Bonar will tell you that Canterbury, which opened in 1922, is a historic club and that he was just passing through its il- lustrious annals. But Bonar has been part of those annals for nearly half a century. Just as Franklin has a great quote about humility, so does Bonar, who lived by this statement as a reminder to keep his pride in check while managing the turfgrass at Canterbury. “There’s a thin line between a hero and a goat,” Bonar said. He’s right, but Bonar earns the hero Ⅲ ILLUSTRATION BY: ISTOCK INTERNATIONAL INC. moniker in our book. Continued on page 24 www.golfdom.com Golfdom 23

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Continued from page 23 The “Giving Back” Award The “Money Where TODD VOSS SUPERINTENDENT, Your Mouth Is” Award DOUBLE EAGLE CLUB

JOE MCCLEARY CERTIFIED GOLF At the time, they were the hottest col- COURSE SUPERINTENDENT, SADDLE lege football game tickets around. If ROCK GOLF COURSE someone definitely worth educating. anybody had a ticket to the Ohio State- Joe McCleary will be the first to tell McCleary invited Mike, who was not USC game in Columbus, Ohio, last Sep- you superintendents need to educate fond of golf courses and their role in tember, you were going to one of the nongolfers about environmental stew- the environment, to see the wildflow- most anticipated games of the year. ardship on golf courses. And then ers and native vegetation in the out- Todd Voss, superintendent of the McCleary, certified superintendent of of-play areas at Saddle Rock. Double Eagle Club in Galena, Ohio, had Saddle Rock Golf Course in Aurora, It wasn’t the first time McCleary two tickets. He received them from the Colo., will be the first to go out and conducted the tour for a person Ohio Turfgrass Foundation (OTF) as find some nongolfers to educate. down on golf. He drove Mike in his a gift for the time he has spent on the All of us can talk a good game, golf car, making stops along the organization’s board of directors. Voss is but many of us don’t translate that 18-hole course to explore the flora OTF’s past presi- talk to action. McCleary does. He has and fauna. Early in the tour, Mike dent and donated gone on the offensive to promote confessed that “golf courses make much of his time golf courses as a friend, not a foe, of him shiver.” After the tour, I asked to help the orga- the environment. Last summer, I went Mike if his negative perceptions had nization succeed with McCleary while he gave a tour of changed. “They have for this golf and grow. his course to a guy named Mike from course,” he said. “Todd could’ve the Denver Botanic Gardens — and Thanks to McCleary. Ⅲ taken those tickets and gone to the game,” says Kevin Thompson, The “Seed Bag Is Half Full” Award OTF’s executive director. “He could’ve sold them and walked away with BILL ROSE PRESIDENT, TEE-2-GREEN $1,000. They were his tickets to do It has been one tough year in the golf course seed busi- whatever he wanted to do with them.” ness. With course construction at a standstill and renova- Voss ended up raffling off the tick- tion projects on hold because of the sour economy, seed ets, clearing hundreds of dollars. He do- growers and distributors have had to find ways to survive. nated the proceeds to OTF for turfgrass It’s easy for them to look at a partially used bag of seed research. Talk about giving back to the and view it as half empty rather than half full. profession. Not only that, Voss recog- But not Bill Rose. When Golfdom spoke with Rose nized that turfgrass research entities last summer about the state of the seed industry, he was need all the money they can get these surprisingly upbeat. Rose prefers to dwell on when things days because of declines in funding. get better, not on how they’re bad. Voss sold his raffle tickets during a “I’m always optimistic, and I’m generally right,” he says. “I think it will get field day event in August at The Ohio going again in 2011.” State University. He sat at an outdoor Rose, who has been involved with the seed business since 1951, says he table and peddled the raffle tickets like has been studying it, and that drops in his business normally don’t last long. he was selling hot dogs at a ball game. Rose estimates his business is down 30 percent compared to 2007. But Voss gave no inkling the tickets But rather than focus on how much business he has lost, Rose says he’s belonged to him. It wasn’t his nature to get focusing on business he could gain through other endeavors like interseeding. people to think it was cool of him to donate “The key in the United States is interseeding,” Rose says. “We have to fix up the the tickets to raise money for turfgrass re- courses we have. The ones that are in good shape are the ones that will do well.” search. He just wanted to raise money for The golf course industry — and the world, for that matter — needs a few turfgrass research, his livelihood. optimists to get us through the economic doom and gloom. We salute Rose for But we think it was very cool of Voss doing just that. Ⅲ to do so. Ⅲ

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN GF1209_024.pgs 11.24.2009 13:05 jloch The “Helping Hand” Award mendous support Tim Gravert (left) helped network, including make Matt Henkel’s week. TIM GRAVERT SUPERINTENDENT, people he didn’t BETHPAGE BLACK GOLF COURSE even know, like the tournament.” When Tim Gravert heard about Matt Gravert, who grew In June 2008, when Henkel’s plight, he wanted to do what- up in a town not he watched the U.S. Open ever he could to help him. Gravert far from Henkel’s from a hospital bed, Hen- wanted to make Henkel’s day. He hometown. kel never dreamed he’d be ended up making Henkel’s week. “One of my at the tournament a year In 2008, Henkel, the assistant golf buddies from later — and in the middle course superintendent at PrairieView back home met Matt through a guy he of the action, at that. Back then, Hen- Golf Club in Byron, Ill., watched the U.S. worked with,” Gravert says. “He told me kel just wanted to be alive come June Open on TV from a hospital bed while about what Matt was going through.” 2009. But there he was at Bethpage, undergoing presurgical tests to have a Gravert’s buddy also told him about busting his tail for a week on little sleep brain tumor removed. This past June, a benefit, featuring a silent auction, to and loving every minute of it. Henkel not only watched the U.S. Open raise money to help Henkel pay his “It was nice to help make a dream live from Bethpage Black Golf Course, medical bills. Gravert worked his United come true for him after he had been he worked on the grounds crew as a States Golf Association connections through something like that,” the 28- volunteer — thanks to an exclusive invite and came up with two tickets to the year-old Gravert says. “If there’s ever from Gravert, superintendent of the U.S. Open to be auctioned at the benefit. anything I can do to help somebody out Black Course. “When Matt found out about that, he who has gone through something like The 30-year-old Henkel was dev- wanted to get in touch with me,” Gravert that, I will do it.” astated when he was diagnosed with says. “We talked, and I asked him if he May a golf course-size of good the brain tumor. But Henkel had a tre- wanted to come out and volunteer for karma come to Gravert. Ⅲ

The “Wonderful Work Ethic” Award Carlson’s toughest challenge, but there are no reliable bio- herbicides to kill them. Carlson’s best tool to control weeds is KWAME KANKAM, NANA AMANKWAH, SLAVIC GRECU AND IGOR TURCAN the four-member crew he employs to remove them manually. MAINTENANCE CREW MEMBERS, VINEYARD GOLF CLUB The team members — Kwame Kankam, Nana Amankwah, Slavic Grecu and Igor Turcan — work together in sections At the Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, golf course with large, fork-like tools in hands. They remove the weeds superintendent Jeff Carlson can’t use any pesticides to treat from the turf with precision and fill the barren areas with a turfgrass disease, control insects or eradicate weeds. Carlson, soil and seed mix. They perform the task 40 to 50 hours a with the help of several organic products and intense cultural week during the golfing season. Kankam and Amankwah are practices, has succeeded in keeping turf disease and insects from Ghana, and Grecu and Turcan are from the Republic of at bay. But weeds are another story. Mondova. Dandelions, crabgrass and other broadleaf weeds are “The hard part about weeding is there’s so little progress,” Carlson says. “It takes such a long time. It can become discouraging.” That’s why Carlson is so im- pressed with his crew, which he calls his “pre-emergent.” They go out and do the same tedious job every day and never complain. Carlson is wowed by their collective work ethic. “It’s a really important project they do,” Carlson says. “They play an important role.” Ⅲ Nana Amankwah, Slavic Grecu, Kwame Kankam and Igor Turcan Continued on page 27

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN GF1209_025.pgs 11.24.2009 13:06 jloch People of the Year Deader. Continued from page 25 The “Superhero” Award Faster.

DOUG HIGGINS AND BRUCE NELSON SUPERINTENDENTS REGATTA BAY GOLF CLUB AND FOX HOLLOW AT LAKEWOOD GOLF COURSE It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super-superintendents! The incredible stories of superintendents Doug Higgins, 48, and Bruce Nel- son, 57, are those of comic-book superheroes. Last April, Higgins, superintendent of Regatta Bay Golf Club in Destin, Fla., was making his morning rounds on the course when, while on the 16th hole, he heard tires squealing. Then Higgins Faster, better saw a car sinking in one of his golf broadleaf control. course’s ponds. He called 911, took off his shoes and jumped in the pond to Because you rescue a woman whose car was almost can’t afford to wait. entirely submerged in the water. Higgins swam to the car, which was in water over his head. He couldn’t Doug Higgins get the front door of the car open be- Can a weed be deader, faster? It can if cause it was submerged in water. He it’s hit with the power of 4-Speed™ or was able to get the back door open ™ and pulled the woman to safety. The 4-Speed XT herbicides. These new, woman probably would’ve drowned if hard-hitting herbicides deliver symptoms it weren’t for Higgins because the fire in 24 hours or less, and control a wider department wouldn’t have arrived in spectrum of weeds more effectively*. The time to save her. “Your instincts take over in a situation like that,” result: fewer complaints, fewer callbacks, Higgins says. “I wasn’t scared. My adrenaline defi- and more time to move on to the next nitely took over.” job. For more information, contact your In January, Nelson, the certified superintendent distributor or visit www.nufarm.com/us. at Fox Hollow at Lakewood (Colo.), was quietly Bruce Nelson fishing the South Platte River with his buddy when a woman yelling for help startled them. The woman had just watched someone slip on an icy bank of Better Choices. the river. After about 20 minutes, Nelson found the man, who was badly injured. Better Business. The man was also pinned between the sloping ice and a boulder. After Nelson risked life and limb to get to him, he and his buddy stabilized him, built a fire and waited until after nightfall when a search-and-rescue unit arrived to take the man away. The man, who suffered a broken left arm, a fractured pelvis, a fractured left hip and a punctured lung, has since recovered, and he and Nelson have kept in contact. “He’s really grateful,” Nelson says. “For me, it was really, really rewarding.” Here’s to Higgins and Nelson — they aren’t only heroes, but also are super superintendents. Ⅲ

Editor’s note: Contributing editors Geoff Shackelford and Anthony Pioppi also contributed to this report. For www.nufarm.com/us previous honorees of Golfdom’s People of the Year, visit

www.golfdom.com and type “people of the year” in the © 2009 Nufarm. Important: Always read and follow label search command. instructions. *Compared to standard 3-way herbicide mixes. 4-Speed™ is a trademark of Nufarm.

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2009: SHACK’S LOOK BACK Golf Course Maintenance — Front and Center

It’s hard to imagine BY GEOFF SHACKELFORD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR he state of golf is typi- gether. An even more enigmatic Lucas a year when the world cally reflected by its major Glover finished off his rain-plagued U.S. events. Even as 2008 Open win on a Monday at a Bethpage hasn’t heard more ended with a little stock State Park miraculously held together market collapse and the by Craig Currier, his crew and army about superintendents, ensuing economic melt- of volunteer saints. Then, just when it down,T golf held its head high after a looked like order would be restored with the efficiency of combination of Tiger Woods’ unforget- a historic Tom Watson win at the Open table win at Torrey Pines, two dynamic Championship, the 59-year old legend modern irrigation Padraig Harrington Major victories bogeyed the final hole and stumbled in and then was gift-wrapped with an epic a playoff loss to Stewart Cink. For good and the potential for American Ryder Cup triumph. measure, someone named Y.E. Yang What about 2009? Well, have you ever dramatically took the PGA Champion- a green revolution received a used gift card as a present? ship from Tiger Woods, who went Ma- The enigmatic Angel Cabrera won jorless for the first time since 2003. on a Masters Sunday when Tiger and Oh, and not since the Great Depres-

Phil Mickelson were finally paired to- sion has golf seen anything like what else PHOTOS (ABOVE, RIGHT) BY: GEOFF SHACKELFORD

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN GF1209_028.pgs 11.24.2009 13:09 jloch it witnessed in 2009: high-profile course and environmentalists may find a rap- closings with more on the way, a mori- prochement,” reminding readers that bund new-course construction industry “as metropolitan areas sprawl outward, that has essentially shut down stateside, golf courses may be the only large-scale widespread layoffs in all sectors, the de- green space for miles around, offering mise of the second-tier country club, mas- crucial potential habitat for migrating 3 sive hits to golf’s image and no end in sight birds and other wildlife.” to concerns about the game’s future. That was not breaking news to any- One ray of hope remained — the golf one in the golf industry, but when such course maintenance industry and its abil- statements appear in a front-page New ity to adapt in the face of serious ques- York Times story and are syndicated in 4 tions about the future of water, green and papers throughout the land and widely sustainability. It’s hard to imagine a year read online, the development can easily when the world has heard more about be viewed as a breakthrough moment the role of the superintendent, the effi- when golf courses face more environ- ciency of modern irrigation systems and mental scrutiny than ever. the potential for a green revolution. In May, New York Times golf corre- spondent Larry Dorman looked at three Front-page news companies “competing in the market for Most striking was a front-page New subterranean wireless sensors.” The story York Times article by Leslie Kaufman was accompanied by superlative graphics extolling golf’s “contributions to help- showing how the monitoring of mois- ing better understand water manage- ture, temperature and salinity in soil can ment,” specifically in Georgia, where be fed to a software network accessed re- tenance and golfers’ odd expectations. “golf course managers have emerged as motely on a laptop, a handheld device or “Merion is an old-fashioned golf go-to gurus on water conservation for a desktop computer. course in a modern world,” Shaffer told both industries and nonprofit groups.” It was another victory for golf’s place the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Television has The August story also noted that, as a leader in technology and innova- changed everything. Appearances are all

PHOTOS BY: HOWARD P. NUEMBERGER (RIGHT, TOP); LARRY AYLWARD “Water is just one area where golf courses tion when Dorman concluded: “Early that matter. At Merion, we are less sen- adopters say they will cut an average of sitive to matters of aesthetics and more 10 percent of their typical water use, interested in playability. Other courses 2 amounting to millions of gallons of use much more chemicals and fertilizer water each year. At that rate, the sys- than we do, but if more golfers were less tem would pay for itself within the first concerned about brown grass, golf would year, depending on the volume of water be a lot cheaper for everyone.” a course uses.” November witnessed Golf Digest focus- More positive ink arrived in Sep- ing on golf and the environment by featur- tember, when NBC aired the story of ing a spread of top superintendents talking Sherwood Golf Course manager Brian about their roles. Besides including pho- Lautenschlager and superintendent tos of each (and no one looked like Carl Mark English, who have brought 11 Spackler), readers could go to Golf Digest’s llamas to the Brevard, N.C., country Web site and hear extended audio clips club to work as caddies. that revealed how articulate and provoca- “They go at the speed of a golf car,” tive some of the nation’s top superinten- 1 Rain swamped Bethpage Black, but Lautenschlager told the NBC reporter dents can be if given the chance. Craig Currier and his staff prevailed. for a feature that appeared on the net- 2 Lucas Glover also prevailed at Bethpage work nightly news. Hope? with a win. 3 Matt Shaffer spoke his mind. Also in September, Merion Golf Amid all of the gloom and doom in our 4 Tiger Woods went Majorless, but still Club superintendent Matt Shaffer used economy, there seemed to include an al- won a ton. attention brought on by the Walker most weekly black eye for the game. For Cup to not sugarcoat the state of main- Continued on page 30

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Continued from page 29 5 Gary Player said “change is the instance, Congress held hearings on banks price of survival.” 6 Golf course that received government bailout funds closings were the result of a and the hospitality industry took huge hits downturn in the economy. after Northern Trust Bank was exposed for hosting opulent celebrations during the PGA Tour event it sponsored. Yet for all of the embarrassing mo- to build golf courses for ments, President Barack Obama teed it up the people. We have to 24 times in his first year in office. Not since change. Change is the new Golf Hall of Fame inductee Dwight price of survival. We Eisenhower has an American president so cannot go on in the golf devoted his leisure time to the game. Yet, business as we are now. that didn’t stop a number of golfers from We have to get more complaining that the hard-working presi- people playing, more dent should stay off the links. people out, more chil- As for golf’s executive ranks, there was dren playing, and we’ve little hesitation to pat themselves on the got to change our whole back after uniting to get golf back into concept.” 6 the Olympics. With backing from every Tony Jacklin, a coun- noted player (all conspicuously happen terpart from Player’s era to have golf course design businesses), the and an always-shrewd observer of the lenges, and even the most promising- movement has been billed as a savior for sport, remarked to Golf World UK that seeming discoveries have a history of the game and course construction indus- the state of golf “is a bit like the financial carrying unintended consequences and try. The thinking goes like this: When mess the world is in.” hidden costs. Golf’s governing bodies tennis became an Olympic sport, govern- “For too long, no one wanted to ad- have dithered on the distance question ments in Russia and elsewhere suddenly dress the underlying problems in the since the early 1990s, but that attitude invested in the development of tennis world economy but then all of a sudden seems increasingly unsustainable. We academies and the world became a hap- it was too late. No one wants to believe can take the initiative in shrinking golf’s pier place because we were introduced to the game today is not as good as it was. landscape, or we can allow economic cri- the likes of Maria Sharapova. Tiger disguises a lot of the problems.” ses and environmental disasters to shrink The less-than-subtle inference is the Jacklin, like many, believes the prob- it for us.” sport will grow magically worldwide, lems started with the chase for distance In 2010, we’ll see the first effort to thanks to new Olympic funding in that led to absurdly long new courses, rein in distance with the introduction of countries that don’t have golf. With and a devaluing of much-needed short new groove rules that some believe will almost no golf courses under construc- courses. “It will take strong leadership force better golfers to use softer golf balls tion in the United States, architects and but men like that are few and far be- that don’t fly as far, and therefore end the builders view the opportunity to work tween,” he said. race to lengthen courses. While the rule is overseas as a godsend. Just as striking was a David Owen- a nice a start, the golf industry realized in authored story in the November Golf 2009 that the game’s recent direction has The year a connection was made Digest. A noted New Yorker staff writer put the sport in a bind and a contraction In reaction to the Olympic news and and author of Augusta National’s club of some facilities and the model for golf realizations the golf industry will remain history, Owen used pages once devoid is inevitable. More importantly, serious stagnant until a new model emerges of any suggestion to say the distance introspection and much-needed discus- based on fun, faster rounds and envi- chase was bad for the game. sion has begun in earnest. ronmental sustainability. Several noted “Many exciting technological ad- Here’s to 2010 becoming the year figures began to speak out about the role vances related to conservation and golf figures out how to create a sustain- technology plays in boxing golf into a golf-course maintenance are being de- able future. Ⅲ corner of 7,500-yard courses that take veloped,” he wrote. “But technological too long to play. All-time great and innovation alone can’t solve all of golf’s Shackelford, Golfdom’s contributing edi-

architect Gary Player said: “We have environmental and economic chal- tor, can be reached at [email protected]. PHOTOS BY: LARRY AYLWARD (TOP); GEOFF SHACKELFORD

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