The Oregon Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (OGCSA) recognized several award winners at the Oregon Superintendents Annual Meeting on May 2 at Salishan Spa & Golf Resort.
OGCSA recognized Dan Bierscheid as the recipient of the 2009 Superintendent of the Year Award. This award is presented by the OGCSA to a superintendent deemed to have done exemplary work in his field. Nominations are submitted by Club Managers and/or Golf Professionals from member clubs and reviewed by the OGCSA awards committee.
Bierscheid is the superintendent at Tri-Mountain Golf Course in Ridgefield, Wash. He’s a 1984 graduate of University of Minnesota-Mankato. From 1985-1991 he worked at Columbia Edgewater Country Club and from there went to The Oregon Golf Club from 1991-1994. He has been at Tri-Mountain Golf Course since that time.
Bierscheid was nominated by Tri-Mountain’s golf professional for his work etich and passion, which is evidence in the course’s Golf Digest ratings – “4 Starts for Greens” and “Best Course under $25” in 2006 and 2008. He also oversaw a successful 18-hole irrigation project recently.
OGCSA recognized Alexis Wenker as the recipient of the 2009 Assistant Superintendent of the Year Award. Wenker is the assistant superintendent at Oswego Lake Country Club in Lake Oswego, Ore. Her background includes working for her father’s landscaping business, Simantel Landscaping, earning an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in horticulture, majoring in turfgrass and landscape management.
During her time as assistant superintendent, Wenker has spearheaded the Audubon Certification program at OLCC, initiated the club’s participation in the Portland Audubon Society’s annual New Year’s Day bird count and developed the club recycling program. In 2007 Alexis was selected to attend the Green Start Academy as one of only 50 assistants selected from across the country. From contacts made there, she was selected to sit on the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s national Assistant Committee in 2008. As a result of this involvement, she delivered to the OGCSA Board of Directors a proposal to appoint an assistant superintendent liaison to its board. She’s assembled an assistant’s committee and will chair that committee for 2009-2010.
OGCSA also awarded the 2009 Hall of Fame Award posthumously to Frank Zook, a former president and long-time member of the association. The award was presented to Frank’s wife, Phyllis.
This award identifies those individuals who have done outstanding work in their field, serving the golf and turf industry. Factors include minimum industry involvement of 20 years, and service to the Oregon Chapter of the GCSAA and its members. Zook spent his whole life in service to the golf industry. His earliest years were spent watching his father, Sam Zook, a previous Hall of Fame inductee, manage the greens at Pendleton Country Club and Eugene Country Club. In 1953, at age 12, Zook joined the staff working for his dad at Waverley Country Club, experiencing firsthand all aspects of the profession. He was hooked, and after serving four years in the Navy, Zook took on his first job as superintendent at Michelbook Country Club in McMinnville, Ore., in 1964. Over the next eight years, he continued his career at Green Meadows Golf Course, Willamette Valley Country Club and High Cedars, serving as superintendent at each.
In 1972 he entered the turf equipment sales field, joining Baltz & Son in Portland, selling Jacobsen equipment. Out of this experience came the founding and ownership of Northwest Outdoor Equipment in 1979, starting a relationship with John Deere that the company continues to this day.
Finally, OCGCSA recognized Alan Nielsen, CGCS, as the winner of the Michael S. Hindahl Environmental Award of Excellence. Nielsen works for Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Wash. Royal Oaks Country Club has been a member of Audubon International since 1991 and became certified in 1997 becoming the state of Washington's second Audubon-certified golf course.
Nielsen's environmental work reaches beyond the Audubon program. He has maintained an active Environmental Committee at his club and has been known to take them on field trips to visit other golf courses not just to golf but to look at other environmental projects as well. Nielsen was the pioneer of the Bird Cam which transmits streaming video to the clubhouse from a bird box enabling the membership to view a pair of nesting swallows from building a nest to fledging their young. The Bird Cam was highlighted on GreenLinks, GCSAA's case study program located on the Environmental Institute for Golf's website.
One of Nielsen's most significant accomplishments was the work he did with Dr. Hindahl in establishing a protocol for water quality testing by allowing his surface water to be tested for pesticides and nutrients on a monthly basis. This study was integral in the early development of the Oregon Golf Course Superintendents Association's Environmental Stewardship Guidelines, which won the GCSAA's Presidents Award for Environmental Stewardship.
Nielsen continues to do the right thing environmentally by the way he manages his facility. He utilizes an integrated pest management program and applies up-to-date best management practices in his day to day activities. Also, out of play areas are maximized to provide wildlife habitat through the strategic placement of brush piles and the placement of many bird boxes throughout the property.
In 2004, Nielsen was also named a Merit recipient for the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award for best national private golf course.