We hear it all the time: Golf course equipment managers are under-appreciated.
If that's the norm, Kevin Bauer at Prairie Bluff Golf Course near Chicago is the exception.
There was a time when the Lockport Township Park District, where Bauer is the equipment manager, spent tens of thousands of dollars on outside repair work. Today, that budget line item has been reduced to almost nothing, not because of cutbacks, but because of Bauer who oversees equipment maintenance for the park district and all its disparate parts, including Prairie Bluff Golf Course, 40 square miles of parkland and athletic fields, and a park police department.
Although golf course equipment managers might have a reputation for being underappreciated, that is not the case for Bauer, last year's recipient of the TurfNet Technician of the Year Award, presented by Toro.
Upon learning that Bauer had been named the winner of the Golden Wrench Award, parks director Sue Micklevitz threw an awards luncheon that was attended by the entire park district staff, many of who took to the microphone to express their gratitude to their head mechanic.
If your equipment manager is as valuable to your operation as Bauer is to his, then give your mechanic his due and nominate him (or her) for this year's Golden Wrench Award.
The winner receives not only the Golden Wrench, but also a weeklong training session at Toro University at the company's headquarters in Bloomington, Minn., making your highly skilled equipment manager an even more valuable employee.
Criteria on which nominees are judged include: crisis management, effective budgeting, environmental awareness, helping to further and promote the careers of colleagues and employees, interpersonal communications, inventory management and cost control, overall condition and dependability of rolling stock, shop safety and work ethic.
Three finalists and a winner will be chosen from a panel of judges that include the sitting Tech of the Year winner; Peter McCormick, Jon Kiger, John Reitman and Randy Wilson of TurfNet; Richard McGuinness of Horry-Georgetown University; John Piersol of Florida Gateway College; and former TurfNet contributor and inaugural Golden Wrench winner Eric Kulaas.
Click here to nominate your technician (or someone else's) in 500 words or less. Please provide specific examples of his or her achievements. The nomination deadline is May 1.
Previous winners include Herb Berg, Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club (2010); Doug Johnson, TPC at Las Colinas, Irving, Texas (2009); Jim Stuart, Stone Mountain (Ga.) Golf Club (2007); Fred Peck, Fox Hollow and The Homestead, Lakewood, Colo. (2006); Jesus Olivas, Heritage Highlands at Dove Mountain, Marana, Ariz. (2005); Henry Heinz, Kalamazoo (Mich.) Country Club (2004); Eric Kulaas, Marriott Vinoy Renaissance Resort, St. Petersburg, Fla. (2003). No award was given in 2008.