With Hurricane Dorian bearing down on The Bahamas late last summer, Matt DiMase didn't give much thought to leaving.
The superintendent at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay, DiMase easily could have ridden out the storm with his wife and kids in the safety of the family home 400 miles away in Ocala, Florida.
But he didn't.
"Someone asked me today if I had it to do over again, would I do it again," DiMase said. "If it happened again, I would stay again, but I hope I don't ever have to make that decision again."
DiMase rode out the storm, brought the devastated golf course from the dead and played a key role in a humanitarian effort to help members of the club, his employees and members of his Bahamian community.
For the selfless way he put the needs of others ahead of his own during a natural disaster in which many lost their lives, DiMase was named the recipient of the 20th annual TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta. The award was presented Jan. 30 at the Syngenta booth during this year's Golf Industry Show.
For us, this is a job, but for our members, this club is their investment. . . . I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay because of the people.
DiMase and his team are responsible for managing the golf course, all beach areas, landscaping, grounds on the estate homes and the right-of-way on more than 7 miles of roads.
"For us, this is a job, but for our members, this club is their investment," DiMase said. "I told my team we can stay and protect their property, or we can abandon ship and who knows what will happen."
The club still was wrapped up in a search for a GM making DiMase the property's senior employee. He could hardly leave the people who had been so good to him and his family with a rudderless ship.
"I didn't want to leave," he said. "I wanted to stay because of the people."
That decision changed the course of life for DiMase and many others who were fortunate he stayed.
Within hours of reaching its peak strength, Hurricane Dorian slammed ashore on Abaco Island in The Bahamas as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds reaching 185 mph. That was way back on Sept. 1, but the effects of the storm live on.
Since September, DiMase has worked harder than anyone on the island to help others there rebound from the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record.
The storm devastated the club and most everything else on Abaco Island. The wake of destruction included buildings that were flattened, blown away or washed away and entire towns devastated. According to some reports, more than 75 percent of the homes in the town of Marsh Harbour had been destroyed. Some of the loss went far beyond loss of property. To date, the official death toll in The Bahamas as a direct result of the storm is 70 people, though many remain unaccounted for.
With no electricity or phone service, the immediate concern after the storm was looting. There were rumors that stores and homes in town were being pillaged and for DiMase a 12-gauge shotgun was never far away.
"We had two choices if people showed up at the club," he said. "We could kill them with kindness, or fire warning shots over their heads and worry about the aftermath later."
Within days, a private security detail hired by the club that included former U.S. Navy Seals and ex-Marines, was on site.
"People might have looted stores in town, but nobody was getting by them," DiMase said.
In the days, weeks and months after the hurricane, DiMase stayed on Abaco Island in The Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian and used his experience as a golf course superintendent to head up relief efforts on the golf course and for his community.
The club was without utilities for several weeks and conditions in town were worse, but eventually most of the team made it back.
"Ten days after the storm they were asking what they could do," he said. "And these were people who'd just lost everything."
DiMase, who worked in Punta Gorda in southwestern Florida when Hurricane Charley tore through the area in 2004, could have put The Bahamas in his rearview mirror and returned to the U.S., and there isn't a soul alive who would have blamed him. But as his friend Gary Cotton wrote in nominating DiMase for the award: "Any adversity Matt faces he takes it head on. It's one of the things that makes him stand out and one of the things I admire the most. If Matt is presented with a challenge or told something can't be done, it's best to sit back and watch, because he thrives on challenges.
"Everyone has a story, and every superintendent in their own way is deserving, however 2019 for Mr. DiMase has shown me and several other superintendents there is more to (the job than) just growing grass."
Everybody on my team who came back to work had a part in this. I'm going to go back and share it with them.
DiMase said he is unsure where he will hang the award, in his home in Ocala or his office in The Bahamas.
"This is amazing. I'm humbled and grateful to win this award," he said. "Any one of these guys is deserving of this award. Everybody on my team who came back to work had a part in this. I'm going to go back and share it with them."
DiMase was chosen by a panel of voters from across the golf turf industry from among a field of five finalists that include Kyle Callahan of Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana; Ryan Gordon of the Club at Snoqualmie Ridge in Snoqualmie, Washington; Paul MacCormack of Fox Meadow Golf Course in Stratford, Prince Edward Island; and Jake Mendoza, Detroit Golf Club.
The award is given annually to a golf course superintendent who excels at one or more of the following criteria: labor management, maximizing budget limitations, educating and advancing the careers of colleagues and assistants, negotiating with government agencies, preparing for tournaments under unusual circumstances, service to golf clientele, upgrading or renovating the course and dealing with extreme or emergency conditions.
The winner receives a trip for two on the annual TurfNet members golf trip that in October heads to Scotland.
Previous winners include: Carlos Arraya, Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis (2018); Jorge Croda, Southern Oaks Golf Club, Burleson, TX & Rick Tegtmeier, Des Moines Golf and Country Club, West Des Moines, IA (2017); Dick Gray, PGA Golf Club, Port St. Lucie, FL (2016); Matt Gourlay, Colbert Hills, Manhattan, KS (2015); Fred Gehrisch, Highlands Falls Country Club, Highlands, NC (2014); Chad Mark, Kirtland Country Club, Willoughby, OH (2013); Dan Meersman, Philadelphia Cricket Club (2012), Flourtown, PA; Paul Carter, The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, Harrison, TN (2011); Thomas Bastis, The California Golf Club of San Francisco, South San Francisco, CA (2010); Anthony Williams, Stone Mountain (GA) Golf Club (2009); Sam MacKenzie, Olympia Fields (IL) Country Club (2008); John Zimmers, Oakmont (PA) Country Club (2007); Scott Ramsay, Golf Course at Yale University, New Haven, CT (2006); Mark Burchfield, Victoria Club, Riverside, CA (2005); Stuart Leventhal, Interlachen Country Club, Winter Park, FL (2004); Paul Voykin, Briarwood Country Club, Deerfield, IL (2003); Jeff Burgess, Seven Lakes Golf Course, Windsor, Ontario (2002); Kip Tyler, Salem Country Club, Peabody, MA (2001); Kent McCutcheon, Las Vegas (NV) Paiute Golf Resort (2000).