TurfNet Superintendent of the Year 2008
Finalist Profile:
Todd Daniel, Riverchase Country Club, Birmingham, Ala.
 In the six-plus years Todd Daniel has been superintendent at Riverchase Country Club in suburban Birmingham, Ala., he has endured enough challenges to last a career - maybe two.
In Daniel's first 16 months on the job, the course was ravaged by three major floods, one of which was of historic proportions. That was followed by two years of drought. In the midst of dealing with the worst Mother Nature could throw at him, he later faced serious budget constraints while the private club went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
It didn't take long after he started at Riverchase for Daniel to question whether he had made the right career move.
"When I stepped in back in 2002, I asked myself what have I gotten myself into with this much flooding," Daniel, 40, said.
There has been much introspection since, as well.
"It has been a mental strain. You want to do the best you can for the members and give them a good product," he said. "But then there's the family side of it. If this falls through, then I'm out of a job. What are my family and I going to do? It's the same thing for the crew."
Throughout this onslaught of challenges, Daniel consistently has provided conditions that several members say are unparalleled not only in the Birmingham area, but also at Riverchase, a 1976 Joe Lee design that has Crenshaw creeping bentgrass on 14 greens and the original Penncross on five others. And he has managed to do so under budget and with a positive and helpful attitude that members say trickles down to his staff.
Here are a few of the comments from the nearly 80 nominations submitted on his behalf for TurfNet's 2008 Superintendent of the Year Award: Larry McIntosh - "When Todd was hired, he took over a golf course that was in terrible shape. He has taken this course and turned it into the top conditioned course in the Southeast." . . . Michael Weber - "Since Todd joined us, our course not only maintained its condition, but improved each and every year." . . . Al Shores - "Todd took a long-suffering course and despite many troubling outside distractions created a unique gem of a golf course."
One could argue there was nowhere for Daniel and the club to go but up.
About a year after Daniel came to Riverchase, the area was hit by a 100-year flood. With four holes - Nos. 2-5 - directly on the Cahaba River, Riverchase felt the full brunt of the flood. The flood left parts of the course under more than 10 feet of water.
When water finally receded, dealing with the trash that covered the course could've been considered a party compared with other problems, such as the bunkers and drainage systems that were destroyed. Then there was the No. 2 green. Water had gotten under the turf and lifted some 3,000 square feet off the pad, rolled it up and washed it into a bunker.
"It was so big that from a distance we thought it was a tree," Daniel said.
Two more floods struck Riverchase the next year. It has rained hardly a drop since.
The drought, and the water-use restrictions that came with it have helped Daniel sell the idea of drier conditions to his members.
"We cut back even more on the guidelines the state set forth," he said. "We're still able to keep the grass alive.
"I like to see it on the drier side. It's difficult, but you can manage water during a drought better than you can on the other side of things when it's raining all the time and you don't have any control over it."
When Daniel thought things probably could not get any worse, they did.
In December 2006 the club filed for bankruptcy protection. That led to cutting Daniel's budget by about 10 percent and a few part-time positions.
He decided to focus his attention to in-play areas and let everything out of play go native.
"Cutbacks limit the things you can do in the morning, like rolling. We now do that in the afternoon in between golfers," he said. "We've cut out all the fluff in our budget. We wanted to keep the golf course as good as possible every day so that for those who did come in it didn't look like it was in Chapter 11."
The Superintendent of the Year award, sponsored by PrimoMAXX® from Syngenta, is presented annually by TurfNet to one outstanding superintendent selected from among those nominated by club officials, course owners, members, casual golfers, or staff members.
The winner will be announced at GIS in New Orleans, and will travel with a guest to Ireland for a week-long golf course tour, courtesy of Syngenta.
|
 |
