2026 Excellence in Mentorship Awards: Dr. Bruce Martin

My parents and central Virginia kept me just straight enough to get into Virginia Tech. While attending graduate school, at 23 years old, I moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, not knowing a soul. I just turned 55 and started my 32nd year wandering the roads visiting turf managers. I will always ask far more questions than give answers. The best solutions come from better questions and testing. Obstacles faced in turf management and the solutions for them change as quickly as the weather, which is the primary driver of turf playability and management. 

My job is to make others look good and get their results, not mine. This journey has provided my family far more than I could have envisioned when choosing the turf industry in college. I left college in 1995, in the middle of grad school, for an unplanned opportunity, and it got better every year. Without question one of the greatest influences and mentors in my life was the late Dr. Bruce Martin, one of six honorees in the inaugural Excellence in Mentorship Awards class. His unexpected passing last year, weeks after his acceptance into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame, was the most unpredictable event of the year and my career. Bruce made so many people better by the day, listening and learning about them. It was never about him teaching his way. 

A small group stood at a celebration of his life last November, and someone asked, “How many of you think of Bruce Martin and here at the research center as your Sept. 11?” That morning many of us were attending a Clemson University Field Day. I will never forget telling Bruce I got a call from New York canceling my meeting due to planes hitting the World Trade Center.

On Sept. 11, 2004, Dr. Houston Couch's daughter called, saying he had passed. I was traveling with Bruce and Dr. Jim Camberato to the Carolina Panthers’ Monday Night Football game. She mentioned the service would be held on Wednesday and to please let Bruce know she didn’t have his contact. Bruce said, “I am riding with Mike now. Your father was a great man and we will see you Wednesday.” After the game, we drove back to get our suits, and Jim drove us to Blacksburg, Virginia, for the service. 

Jack Harrell would often introduce me as the man without a wingman because he didn’t think I needed one. We will learn this year if he was right following the loss last year of my dad and Bruce Martin. I will be doing more mission trips like Willie Pennington. I get far more pleasure seeing the boys do things for others than seeing great grass. Successful people in this business grow far more quality people than plants! The No. 1 thing I learned at Virginia Tech was Ut Prosim, the educational motto “That I May Serve” — you learn to earn while helping others. Golf Course Industry publisher + editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano informed me of the Excellence in Mentorship Awards after he spoke with Willie about his mission, Mike Echols about the events in his life at Clemson and so many others at the November 2025 function celebrating Bruce at Prestwick Country Club in Myrtle Beach.

For many years, I wanted to be Bruce, the turf 911 go-to guy for agronomics. It was better entertainment than the field days when folks would ask him why a plot looked a certain way. He’d say, “Ask the guy who wrote the label. I didn’t!” The greatest times of my turf career were the last visits with him. I realized far too late that being like Bruce was far more than turf 911. He displayed and demanded integrity, commitment and persistence from those around him. If he called you back, you were in the family. Bruce didn’t speak; he listened. He was there to be present for you. He was the therapist, the counselor and the ears of wisdom.

Bruce was a family man and turf giant while keeping both lives separate, preventing interaction. His widow Cindy’s words were unbelievable, with everyone listening as if we were Bruce’s ears working wonders. I hope we all do as she said and honor Bruce by learning from what he did instead of what he said. It’s about always listening to others to know who they are and what they are going through.

When asked how I judge my career, I say by requests for help and people who leave when I come. This was completely wrong, so I hope I learned from Bruce and merge some of him into Ut Prosim: be better and be ready. I will wake up every day I have left trying to be present for and listening to others without the analysis for response. Listening skills don’t come from what is said after it.

I made a poster for Bruce’s retirement, saying the journey is far greater than the destination. Many people signed it, and he told me multiple times about how much he read and enjoyed it. Failures happen when we repeat without learning from them, so hopefully his longest lasting lesson to me is what I realized after his passing: Listening is not hearing to learn. It’s being there to hear them.

Mike Johnson is the father of twins and the owner of Agrono-Lytics Turf Consulting in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is his second Golf Course Industry contribution.