Think being a leader at a golf course can be stressful? How about this
scenario:
You arrive at work … and an irate parent greets you. The parent yells at you
while narcotics are found in a locker as smoke drifts from a bathroom.
At least the turf and the trees don’t shout or break laws.
Perhaps that partially explains why Abel Zertuche, a married father of three
with a demanding fulltime job, has been working at TPC Deere Run even before
golfers played the sprawling and sparkling course.
Zertuche is the dean of students at United Township High School in East
Moline, Illinois. Deans make big decisions in response to the action — or
inaction — of young people. Good ones improve lives; bad ones create long-term
problems. There are nights when Zertuche can’t sleep because of something he
saw or heard at school. “It’s definitely not for the weak of heart,” he says.
When he needs an escape, Zertuche visits a pair of longtime friends. The
school is just five minutes from TPC Deere Run, where he calls trees by names
and knows he can always chat with a supportive boss. Director of golf course
maintenance operations Alex Stuedemann considers Zertuche a summer stalwart on a
crew filled with stalwarts. They are close friends who are continually learning
from each other.
Zertuche’s association with TPC Deere Run started in 1997 when he heard the
PGA Tour planned to construct a course in his hometown. He toured the rolling
land along the Rock River and met architects D.A. Weibring and Chris Gray. “I
was sold from the start,” he says, “and I have never looked back.”
During the last 23 years, Zertuche has attended and graduated from college,
met and married his wife, Denise, raised children who are now 8, 9 and 14,
earned an administrative position, and helped coach East Union’s varsity
basketball team and his oldest son’s travel baseball team. He’s also worked
every John Deere Classic since the event moved to TPC Deere Run in 2000. The
2020 event was canceled because of PGA Tour scheduling shifts stemming from
COVID-19.
Zertuche helps Stuedemann by mowing greens and executing other tasks during
tournament and public play weeks each summer. They first met when Stuedemann, a Minnesota native, accepted a job at TPC Deere
Run in 2002. Rising through the golf industry required Stuedemann to pursue
positions at TPC San Antonio and TPC Twin Cities. He returned to the Quad
Cities in 2014 to lead the TPC Deere Run team. “When I first got back to
town, the first call I made was to Abel and I asked him, ‘Are you coming back
to work?’” Stuedemann says.
The answer was implied.
“Here’s what I tell people,” Zertuche says. “If I was going to tell you that
I was part of a conception and when something was created and I watched its
birth and watched it grow up and watched it become what it is, you’d think I’d
be talking about my kid. That’s exactly how I feel about this property.”
Zertuche revealed his feelings during a mid-summer conversation. The remote
interview was conducted the old-fashioned way — phone instead of computer — and
Zertuche made a point of describing his wardrobe. He dressed appropriately for
the interview, wearing the golf shirt the crew received for the 2005 John Deere
Classic. Zertuche has given away more TPC Deere Run and John Deere Classic
shirts than he owns. He has also provided summer employment leads to multiple
East Union seniors or graduates over the years. “He’s an automatic recruiter
and marketing tool for us,” Stuedemann says, “and he stands behind who he
brings in.”
A recent employee Zertuche lured to TPC Deere Run balanced golf course work
with his classwork as a nursing student at a nearby community college. That
employee assisted in the COVID-19 unit of a local hospital this past spring.
Another Zertuche-referred employee, Julio Riojas, has ascended within the
golf industry. A family friend informed Zertuche years ago that Riojas was
searching for a job. Zertuche explained to the teenager what working at TPC
Deere Run entailed and Stuedemann added him to the crew. Riojas loved the job
and eventually moved to Arizona to become an assistant superintendent at TPC
Scottsdale, site of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
As much as Zertuche enjoys working at TPC Deere Run, his schedule
continuously condenses, especially as his children age. Fortunately, Stuedemann
understands that flexibility is a key to retaining a quality employee. John
Deere Classic advance and tournament weeks represent the only two-week stretch
Zertuche fully devotes to golf course maintenance.
“There’s a great lesson here in both directions,” says Stuedemann, whose
wife is a teacher. “Abel has clearly shown his love and commitment and pride in
this golf course. When you have people like that, the best thing you can do is
let them shine and give them the freedom and flexibilities they need. And we
have benefited because we not only have Abel’s expertise, positive attitude and
family mentality on the crew, but he’s helped us get people to come here in
what’s a very challenging job market in a generally small populace.”
There are many ways to measure employee devotion and most maintenance tasks
are conducted in solitude. But anybody who crosses Zertuche in the morning
might hear him mumble to trees — he calls the catalpa tree on the 10th hole
“popcorn” because its buds resemble the snack — or salute the Native American
burial grounds on the drive from the 15th to the 16th holes. He’s a part-time
employee in payment status only. “I feel really weird telling you about the
trees out there,” he says, “but full disclosure … I’m being honest with you.”
Zertuche is also honest about his fulltime job. Handling students, parents,
societal problems, school boards and political decisions — especially with the
uncertainties surrounding the fall semester because of COVID-19 — can leave
somebody filled with immeasurable zest uncharacteristically downtrodden. On the
toughest winter days, Zertuche pulls into the TPC Deere Run parking lot and
stares at the 15th, 17th and 18th holes. The view foreshadows what awaits when
the school year ends.
“It’s my way to reset, it’s my way to feel normal” he says. “Deere Run has
always been that outlet for me for 20-plus years. For that, I feel a commitment
to keep coming back.”
Guy Cipriano is Golf
Course Industry’s editor-in-chief.