Technician of the Year finalist: Robert Smith

 

"The 22-inch floating head wasn't cutting low enough for us," Shaffer said.

 

Then Shaffer had an idea. He looked at a riding unit with 18-inch heads and then turned toward equipment manager Robert Smith and said: "This isn't good enough. I want you to take these 18-inch cutting units and put them on these 22-inch mowers."

 

"He told me he thought he could do," Shaffer said. "I said to him 'good, because I want you to do it anyway.' It worked way beyond our imagination. We built a whole fleet of mowers like that, because, at the time, they weren't available like that from the manufacturer."

 

Shaffer tried to keep the invention under wraps, but colleagues eventually noticed them, and soon, Shaffer says, so did the manufacturer, who eventually began sending off the assembly line pretty much the same thing Smith had been building at Merion.

 

It's just one reason why Smith, who Shaffer calls 'maestro of the mowers,' has been named a finalist for the 2015 TurfNet Technician of the Year Award, presented by Toro.

 

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.

 

The winner will receive the Golden Wrench Award (a real gold-plated wrench) from TurfNet and a slot in Toro's Service Training University at the company's headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota.

 

A graduate of Penn State's now defunct turfgrass equipment maintenance program, Smith started as an equipment operator at Merion for four years before taking over as equipment manager. 

 

He has gained a reputation for teaching and training upcoming mechanics and as an expert fabricator.

 

When an equipment operator drove ruts into a fairway last winter during a tree-management project, Shaffer told his mechanic to weld 1-inch tines onto a backhoe bucket, which then was dropped into each rut, turned and lifted, removing each truck tire rut just like it was a giant divot-repair tool.

 

 

Smith has started his own training program to help fill a void of qualified mechanics in the golf business. At any given time, Smith has one entry level mechanic just entering his program, and one nearing completion of training. Trainees begin by mowing greens and raking bunkers for part of the day and stay in the program for two to three years before graduating. One of his trainees will "graduate" this fall and already has three job offers.

 

Current or past trainees include former golf course superintendents and even college students majoring in engineering. Graduates have gone on to work as equipment managers at such places as Saucon Valley Country Club.