Atlanta – Mark Burchfield, who battled Mother Nature during a $2.6 million golf course renovation and construction project at the Victoria Club in Riverside, Calif., was named the 2005 Superintendent of the Year.
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Burchfield, 47, was about three months into the project to make a series of renovations and improvements at the Victoria Club when 35 inches of rain was dumped on the area in early 2005. Runoff from the rains polluted the course’s primary lake with bacteria, eroded the banks of the flood channel and wiped out the foundation of several bridges. On top of all that, the floodwaters exposed a sewer line running the length of the course. When the pipe began leaking, raw effluent started flowing into a federally protected creek and onto the golf course.
“It was just one thing after another,” says Burchfield. “You have to be quick on your feet and hope you have good people around you.”
Mike Packer, Club Car vice president for utility and international sales, who presented the winner with keys to a Club Car Turf 2 utility vehicle, says, “Mark displayed amazing dedication to his club along with strong management skills to accomplish what he did under some very difficult circumstances. His work epitomizes the qualities that make superintendents such a vital part of our industry.”
Despite the hardships, the Victoria Club was able to stay open throughout the project and even hosted a U.S. Senior Open qualifying event and the Southern California Golf Association Ladies Invitational in 2005.
“I just decided I would try to protect the course the best I could,” Burchfield said of the Victoria Club, which was established in 1903 and is one of the oldest golf courses west of the Mississippi. “I decided I was going to stick my neck out and make the best decisions I could, even if that meant being second-guessed.”