Superintendents often buy or lease equipment with the notion that they will get at least five years of heavy use out of it. At Corral de Tierra Country Club, superintendent Doug Ayres plans on getting three times the normal use out of anything with an engine on it, thanks to equipment manager Brian Sjögren.When Ayres recently spent more than $300,000 on new equipment, he was quick to point out that some of the machinery that was being replaced had been bought as far back as 1989. To put that in perspective, some of the equipment recently retired at Corral de Tierra was in use at the club in Monterey, Calif., in the same year Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for his performance in Rain Man, and an earthquake interrupted the San Francisco Giants-Oakland A's World Series. That is a long time ago.
Sjögren has kept a 1970s-era Ford tractor in such good condition that it didn't make the cut for replacement and is still used regularly at Corral.
Those are just two examples of why Sjögren was named the recipient last year's TurfNet Technician of the Year Award, presented by The Toro Co.
If you have an equipment manager worthy of such appreciation, then nominate him or her for this year's Golden Wrench Award - the original award honoring golf course equipment managers and technicians.
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 and all will be profiled on TurfNet. The winner receives the Golden Wrench Award and an all-expense paid trip to Toro's headquarters in Bloomington, Minn. for a weeklong session at the Toro University Service Training Center.
Click here to nominate your technician (or someone else's). Please provide specific examples of his or her achievements. The nomination deadline is April 30.
