TurfNet Superintendent of the Year 2008
Finalist Profile:
Scott Guidry, Ellendale Country Club, Houma, La.
 When Scott Guidry was hired at Ellendale Country Club in Houma, La., he inherited a golf course that by the accounts of many of its members had fallen into a state of severe disrepair.
Agronomic conditions had slipped, crew morale was low and member morale was even lower.
Within a year he had instituted a management style many improvement projects throughout the course that had members singing his praise.
"Scott joined Ellendale during a time when our course conditions had slipped to a low level of acceptability," wrote past president Tony Bianca in his letter nominating Guidry for TurfNet's 2008 Superintendent of the Year Award.
"Scott came in and unselfishly and tirelessly worked with his new crew to restore our course to what we had been so proud of in the recent past."
But no sooner had Ellendale taken a positive turn then Hurricane Gustav struck last summer, threatening to unravel everything Guidry and his team had accomplished.
With the same aplomb he showed during his first year on the job, Guidry and his crew whipped the course back into shape, opening nine holes within a week of landfall, again winning praise and support from the club's members.
Gustav took down as many as 200 of Ellendale's trademark oaks - many of which influenced how the course was played - and 400 trees total, most of which were no less than 40 feet tall, Guidry said. It also blew away the maintenance shed, exposing all of the club's equipment to the elements, and left the course, including the greens, covered in branches, leaves and moss.
"Losing the trees has been good for growing grass," Guidry, 32, said. "But a bunch were strategic. About 40 to 50 were critical to play."
Guidry and his wife, Andre, are no strangers to hurricanes. He was the assistant superintendent at Oak Harbor Golf Club in Slidell, a water-enclosed suburb of New Orleans, and the couple lost virtually everything during Hurricane Katrina. They evacuated to Shreveport prior to Gustav, but Guidry remained in contact with a member of his staff who stayed behind. That employee immediately began clearing debris from the greens and the road leading into the club. Both feats, members say, are examples of the relationship Guidry has with his crew.
"He leads by example, and the condition of our golf course and attitude of the employees reflect his leadership," wrote member Michael Tingle.
Guidry and most of his crew promptly returned to work and set about the task of cleaning up the rest of the course.
"You couldn't get down any of the fairways there were so many trees and debris," Guidry said.
From the beginning, Guidry had four members of his crew conducting tree work with chainsaws and two equipment technicians working to keep all the chains sharpened. He also had two tractors, one equipped with a grappler and a skid steer also with a grappler, on the course pushing debris from the fairways into the rough and out-of-play areas. An outside contractor was brought in to clear the largest trees and haul away some of the mess, but they were in and out in two days, leaving the remainder of the work to Guidry and his crew. One of his techs also was able to secure a generator that not only supplied power to the maintenance facility, but the clubhouse as well. and the clubhouse
Within a week, the front nine was open to the amazement of the club's members. The back nine was opened two weeks later.
Before the arrival of Gustav, one of Guidry's techs was able to secure a generator that in the wake of the storm not only supplied power to the maintenance facility, but the clubhouse restaurant as well. Not that there was a rush of diners, but it prevented additional losses due to food spoilage.
Although the staff continues to grind stumps to date, conditions on the course remain like night and day compared with the days before Guidry's arrival.
Not only did he implement practices that resulted in better playing conditions throughout the golf course, he instituted several improvement and beautification projects around the rest of the property.
Those included cleaning up a pond at the front entrance to the club and renovations to the practice range.
The pond had become stagnant and overgrown with weeds and algae and presented an overall negative first impression of the facility. Guidry's crew cleaned up the water and the area around the water's edge and added a fountain.
"You could hardly tell there was water in it because there were so many weeds," Guidry said. "After we cleaned it up, some members told me they didn't even realize there was a pond there."
Like the front entrance, the practice range had, over time, become overgrown and unkempt, or as Guidry put it: "It looked like a goat ranch. The landing area was a weed field with yardage signs leaning over to one side. It looked very bad."
He and his crew leveled the landing area, cleaned it up, removed the weeds, fixed the signs and doubled the size of the teeing area.
"The first impression you have of the golf course now is a pond with crystal clear water and a really nice driving range," Guidry said. "They really set the tone for the golf course. There's no excuse for not having a first-class practice facility."
Although these cosmetic changes don't affect the playing conditions of the golf course, they did not go unnoticed by the members either.
Wrote Ellendale member James Funderburk in his nomination letter: "There really is no comparison to the before and after effects of this practice area."
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.
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