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Elliott, Berg, Kilgallon vie for Golden Wrench

Details: Category: Industry; Published: Friday, 26 March 2010 18:31; Hits: 9893

From Turfnet.com...

Darryl Elliott has one of those keen, perceptive minds with which so many great golf course technicians are blessed.

That became abundantly clear to Jerred Golden, CGCS, some 30 years ago when Elliott still was a member of the crew on the golf course at Hershey’s Mill in West Chester, Pa. The governor on an old, three-wheeled transport vehicle had malfunctioned. When the attempts of others to fix it failed, Elliott picked up a stick, broke it in two and jammed one piece into rig’s governor. Voila, it was fixed.

“And that was before he had any formal training as a mechanic,” said Golden, director of grounds at Hershey’s Mill. “I mean a stick. How do you do that with a stick?

“Now, that kind of stuff happens every day around here. He’ll be working on a Weed Wacker and then a bulldozer in the same day. He always finds a way to do things cheaper and better.”

Elliott, 49, is one of three finalists for TurfNet’s Technician of the Year Award sponsored by The Toro Co. Herb Berg of Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club and Jim Kilgallon of The Connecticut Golf Club in Easton, are the other finalists. They were selected by a panel of judges from a list of 26 candidates who were nominated by their superintendents, general managers, co-workers or distributors.

One of the three finalists will be named next month as winner of the Golden Wrench Award and an all-expense-paid, weeklong training event at Toro’s headquarters in Bloomington, Minn. Click here for a list of all nominees.

The judging panel includes Carl Osterhaus of presenting sponsor Toro, Peter McCormick and John Reitman of TurfNet, contributing editor Randy Wilson, former columnist Eric Kulaas, John Piersol of Lake City (Fla.) Community College, Rick McGuinnes of Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway, S.C., and last year’s Golden Wrench winner, Doug Johnson of the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Irving, Texas.

The award has been presented annually since 2003 to a technician who excels at one or more of the following criteria: crisis management, budgeting, environmental awareness, promoting the careers of colleagues and employees, interpersonal communications, inventory management and cost control, condition of rolling stock and equipment, shop safety and work ethic.

Elliott was singled out by Golden for his mechanical aptitude and other skills. His mechanical ability has earned him the nickname Dr. Darryl.

“I’m not sure who started that. It’s one of those things that has been around forever,” Golden said. “If you can’t get something started, he walks in, touches it and ‘boom’ off it goes, but you could have been working on it for two hours. That’s the way all great mechanics are.”

Golden oversees the landscape operation at Hershey’s Mill, a large, upscale residential community, as well as maintenance of the golf course. Likewise, Elliott maintains an immense fleet of machinery for both departments – and he does it alone.

The landscape fleet includes a dozen trucks, 10 Skag mowers, 8 Toro Workman vehicles, two skid steers, two backhoes, five box trailers, a mulch blower, 14 leaf vacs, two tractors, a chipper and an assortment of blowers and edgers.

Because of the massive amount of inventory he manages, Elliott’s critical thinking and proactive approach to preventive maintenance have helped Golden save untold amounts of money.

For example, convincing the club to spend $6,000 on a tire-changing machine has paid for itself in one year of operation. Elliott saves money by purchasing tires online, and eliminating the need to have two employees shuttling vehicles back and forth to the tire store saves about four manhours per vehicle.

When the conveyor broke on a 25-year-old core harvester, Golden feared the worst – that he would have to buy a new one. Instead, Elliott found a local company that was able to make one to fit the aging machine and he was able to install it and have the machine operational within a matter of hours of it going down.

“They replicated the belt in three hours, and he had us back in business the same day on this same old piece of crap,” Golden said. “You know, you just hate to spend money replacing something that you use about for about 10 hours a year.”

The offseason brings more than equipment repair and preparation for Elliott. Snow removal throughout the Hershey’s Mill complex becomes a top priority throughout the winter. And never was that more important than this past winter, when more than 70 inches of snow fell in the area – more than three times the annual average of 20.5 inches.

Elliott is responsible for ensuring that truck-mounted plows and three mounted salt spreaders are functioning perfectly as well as the skid steer loaders and backhoes. The extra snow backed up schedules throughout the operation by a full two weeks heading into spring – everywhere except in the maintenance shop.

“We lost two weeks of production,” Golden said. “Somehow, he made it up. Everything is running on time.”

Herb Berg, Oakmont Country Club

Preparing for three national championships in seven years at the same course might be enough to keep most golf course equipment technicians busy around the clock. But for Herb Berg, fitting in preparations for the U.S. Open (2007), U.S. Amateur (2003) and U.S. Women’s Open (2010) are just part of the job at Oakmont Country Club. After all, the historic, Pittsburgh-area club is home to what arguably are the most demanding and difficult member-imposed conditions of any course in the country.

To produce fast, firm conditions on a year-round basis requires especially aggressive management practices, including what superintendent John Zimmers called “very, very extreme” mowing frequency. Such mowing standards leaves absolutely zero margin for error, requiring that reels be sharpened to exacting standards. And that is not always easy considering that such extreme conditions thus require a significant amount of topdressing and other inputs that make the jobs of equipment technicians challenging. To that end, Zimmers said, Berg is able to “modify, grind or face any knife or reel.”

The work of equipment managers and technicians often goes unnoticed by members and administrators, but Berg’s work has reached near legendary status at Oakmont. According to grounds chairman Chris Donohue, when members visit the maintenance facility few leave without marveling at Berg’s shop. Guests playing Oakmont often ask members how Zimmers and his staff are able to achieve such extreme conditions.

Donohue typically tells visitors that it is a combination of leadership, staff and the equipment and how it is maintained.

“Herb is at the center of what keeps Oakmont as a benchmark for exceptional turf conditioning,” Donohue wrote.

Although Oakmont’s members demand championship playing conditions every day the course is open, Zimmers does not have an open checkbook to produce such conditions. Budgets are defended and every dollar is scrutinized. That includes Berg’s budget for maintaining and repairing equipment.

“When the norm would be to purchase a part to fix a piece of equipment and the funds are not available to do so, it is not uncommon for Herb to reroute an electrical system, bypass a valve or fabricate his own solution of a fraction of the cost,” Zimmers wrote.

“Herb not only satisfies, but exceeds any and all expectations. Herb’s body of work is truly unmatched.”

When he is not maintaining equipment used to prepare Oakmont for USGA championships, Berg might be found fabricating a new tool to fix a problem, conducting automobile repairs for co-workers, sharpening knives or fashioning a new system of racks for the club’s kitchen, fixing the club’s leaky pool, repairing equipment for contractors or repairing something for some of Oakmont’s well-heeled members.

Berg’s expertise extends beyond equipment maintenance, fabricating tools and effectively managing his budget. He also plays a key role in shop safety, training members of the crew on safe use of all equipment and serves as a go-to expert for many of his colleagues in western Pennsylvania.

Jim Kilgallon, The Connecticut Golf Club

Jim Kilgallon was uncomfortable if not slightly embarrassed last year when Mark Fuller, CGCS at The Connecticut Golf Club, nominated him for TurfNet’s Technician of the Year Award.

“He doesn’t want the notoriety. He said to me the other day, ‘You’re not going to do that again, are you?’ ” Fuller said. “We were in a staff meeting when I said to him, “Guess what?’ Steam was coming out of his ears.

“You can’t teach work ethic, and he has a great one.”

It is not often when conversations about equipment managers branch out to topics such as customer service and value. But customers, or in this case members, definitely come first at Connecticut, which lacks country club amenities. Here, it is all about golf and taking care of the members and their investment.

“I can’t tell you how many times we have put a gallon of gas in the tank of a luxury car so it could get down the road to a gas station, or how many batteries we’ve charged,” Fuller said. “We don’t care; if they drop off their chainsaw and need it sharpened, we’ll do it for them.”

No job is too big or too small for Kilgallon.

When Fuller rewards assistants Bob Welch and Corey Schultz by treating them to a golf outing, he does not hesitate to leave Kilgallon in charge of the rest of the staff.

“I know he can manage the crew and he can handle any problems that might come up with the members and their concerns,” Fuller said. “We don’t miss a beat when he’s in charge.”

When a member’s son was having trouble with a hinge on a prosthetic leg, Kilgallon was there to fix it.

“He’ll help anyone with anything,” said Fuller. “It’s contagious, and that attitude has spread throughout the whole team.”

When a member who owns a local manufacturing firm thought the club’s maintenance department could benefit from lean manufacturing, Kilgallon took the lead in implementing the concept at Connecticut. The member, whose operation manufactures joysticks used on golf course mowing equipment, had just implemented the system – made famous by Toyota – at his own business.

“We thought we could streamline the club,” Fuller said. “Budgets were tight and were only going to get tighter.”

The result has been a tighter control on parts and inventory, how and where tools are organized and developing other systems of how equipment was used and cared for, including helping Fuller develop an equipment-replacement plan that tracks the condition of each piece of stock over its lifespan.

“It helps me track the cost when we bought it, life expectancy and track year to year what has happened to the equipment. The committee gets a copy so they can track their capital,” Fuller said.

“It covers everything, from mowing equipment, to radios to electronics, computers and irrigation equipment.”

When technicians from neighboring clubs need an answer to a problem, they often go to Kilgallon. He is skilled at fabricating parts and tools to solve unique challenges, and can rig and rebuild just about anything to coax a few extra years of life from an aging piece of equipment.

Such attention to detail at maintaining equipment helps the club get top dollar when equipment is sold or traded.

“We have earned a reputation when we sell used equipment here,” Fuller said. “People will say, ‘Oh, it came from Connecticut?’ We usually get a pretty good price on a trade or outright sales.”