When you manage a full-service resort that includes a championship golf course, you need equipment that can adapt to performing several tasks.
Lee Zaczkowski fell into owning compact equipment similar to how he stumbled on purchasing Timberlane Resort in Park Rapids, Minn., and building its golf course.
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It was about 20 years ago that Zaczkowski decided to leave the corporate world and try his hand at something new. At first, he and his wife, Cathy, thought they might buy a fast-food franchise, but they soon realized that even as owners they still wouldn’t be calling all the shots. Zaczkowski knew that if he was going to take this step into entrepreneurship, he wanted a company where he and his wife were the only decision-makers.
The Zaczkowskis began exploring the possibility of owning a vacation resort similar to many where they had stayed before.
“My wife and I were in Toronto at the time, and we wanted a change in our careers,” Zaczkowski says. “We always visited resorts in the Minnesota area, and we really liked the management of them and that type of environment.”
After looking at about 60 vacation resort properties, Timberlane Resort was the last one they chose to consider. Zaczkowski says he liked that it was a full-service resort that offered an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts and several other amenities. Unfortunately, when Zaczkowski and his wife first looked at the resort, it wasn’t for sale.
But luck happened to be on the Zaczkowskis’ side because shortly thereafter, the resort went through a failed sale with the owner, who had to put the property back on the market. The list of prospective buyers was narrowed down to the Zaczkowskis and a banker from New York. In the end, the Zaczkowskis beat out the banker and took possession of the resort in 1988.
Since then, the Zaczkowskis have made dramatic changes to the resort, which includes a championship golf course. Bear’s Den Golf Course features a practice putting green, driving range and 225-yard practice hole. Ironically, the story behind how the course originated is similar to how the Zaczkowskis came to own the resort – luck was involved.
Not long after buying the resort, Lee says he and his wife were cleaning out a closet when they came across a golf course design plan for the resort that dated to 1969.
“We kind of got a chuckle out of it, but through the years, we never paid any attention to it,” he says.
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Then in 1999, a forester approached Zaczkowski about purchasing some of the towering Norway pines that surround the resort, which is located on 1,500 feet of Long Lake’s shoreline. Before clearing the trees, the forester asked if there were any that Zaczkowski wanted to keep. Zaczkowski decided to follow the old design plan for the golf course, leaving the trees he would need if he ever decided to build it.
It didn’t take long for Zaczkowski to reach that decision. Not long after the trees were cleared, Zaczkowski says a man stopped by one day and said, “Hey, I build golf courses, and it looks like you’re clearing for a course. Do you have somebody building it?” The man made an offer to build the course, and about four years later, it opened.
To help build the golf course, Zaczkowski says he used a Bobcat 763 skid-steer loader, which he originally purchased to complete various maintenance tasks around the resort. He says he used the skid-steer loader with a grapple attachment to remove debris, wood and branches from the golf course. He also rented a soil conditioner attachment, which he used throughout the entire construction process to smooth the fairways and roughs.
“I used the 763 for the odds and ends, such as picking up debris with the grapple where the contractors were grooming and digging up stumps,” he says. “And when I didn’t need it, the contractor used it for planing the fairways with the soil conditioner. We just worked together that way.”
The 763 isn’t the first piece of compact equipment Zaczkowski purchased. Prior to it, he owned a Bobcat 843 skid-steer loader. He bought the 843 in the mid-1990s after a contractor suggested it would be useful around the resort. During the first few years of owning the resort, Zaczkowski always subcontracted general maintenance tasks. But with the 843, Zaczkowski found that he could accomplish more with the machine than he imagined.
“I’d knock down old buildings and use it around the resort for clearing driveways and roadways and other general cleanup in the area,” he says. “It was a machine that you couldn’t work hard enough.”
After owning the 843 for about four years, Zaczkowski decided to sell it and purchase a newer loader model — the Bobcat 763. To maximize the machines’ versatility, Zaczkowski began investing in several attachments.
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“I kept buying attachments,” he says. “You know, the guy who has the most toys wins.”
At one time, Zaczkowski had nearly a dozen attachments, including a bucket, snowblower, stump grinder, rotary cutter, grader, soil conditioner, landplane, angle blade, spreader, tree spade, sprayer and mower.
Right-hand machines
Once the golf course was complete and opened for business in 2004, Zaczkowski made another compact equipment switch. Because of the course’s sensitive turf, he wanted a piece of equipment that had all-wheel steering capabilities. So he traded in his 763 skid-steer loader for the Toolcat 5600 utility work machine, also manufactured by Bobcat. The machine combines the features of a utility loader, pickup truck and attachment carrier while minimizing ground disturbance.
“The reason I purchased the Toolcat 5600 was because I could do the same work with all of the attachments I owned and it had the same lift capacity as my loader,” he says.
The superintendents at Bear’s Den Golf Course use the 5600 every day. If they’re not using the 90-inch mower attachment to cut grass on the roughs, then they’re using the spreader and sprayer attachments to apply fertilizer and pesticides. Zaczkowski says his workers also like that they can attach and power rear-mounted implements such as aerators because of the utility work machine’s power take-off kit.
“The Toolcat 5600 and all the other equipment and attachments that I have are good quality,” he says. “That’s what impresses most people,” he says. “I’m not a very good mechanic, so I don’t need breakdowns. I can’t afford breakdowns.”
The equipment’s reliability is the main reason Zaczkowski chose the Bobcat brand again when he was looking for a utility vehicle. In 2003, he bought a Bobcat 2100 utility vehicle, which he now refers to as his right-hand man.
“It’s a real gopher, and it’s really great for traveling around the resort and picking up garbage and debris,” he says.
To get around the golf course better and further prevent turf damage, Zaczkowski equipped the 5600 and 2100 with turf tires. This type of tire is a familiar sight on golf courses because it treads gently across grass and other sensitive surfaces, minimizing – if not eliminating – any surface repairs when working on golf courses.
“I’m able to go anyplace out there now … on the greens or wherever it might be,” he says. “The turf tires on the 2100 especially come in handy when I’m using a topdresser on the greens. They’re just all-around good vehicles. They take the place of manual labor for sure.”
