I have to admit that I usually don’t get too excited about the annual string of announcements from GCSAA about which folks are selected for which awards. After all these years, the list of honorees has kind of become of blur of retired turf professors. So when the news release announcing this year’s crop of Distinguished Service Award winners recently “dinged” in my inbox, I wasn’t rushing to open and read it. But I did eventually get around to it, and boy was I pleasantly surprised.
Oscar Miles, Don Hearn and Jim Loke. Wow! Three of my favorite people – all great guys who each had an important influence on me along the way – will all be toting home fancy plaques after the Opening Session in Orlando next month.
Oscar was the first golf course superintendent I ever met in the flesh. I was a cub reporter for GCSAA in 1987 – literally a few days into a job that I was totally unprepared for – when the editor called me into his office and told me that Butler National GC, the then-site of the Western Open, was flooding badly and I was to fly to Chicago and do a story on how the superintendent and crew were handling it. A dizzying 24 hours later, I walked into the Butler maintenance facility expecting chaos. Instead, I found a totally calm, completely hospitable Oscar Miles waiting patiently for the rookie writer from Lawrence. In the days to come (and for years after), Oscar proved to be the perfect example of preparation, communication and team leadership under both the worst and best of circumstances. I know for a fact that versions of the extensive tournament preparation notebooks he assembled and fine-tuned over the years are still in use at other courses today. Oscar led through both word and deed and his impact in Chicago and nationally can never really be measured.
Don Hearn was one of the first GCSAA presidents I ever worked with back in ’88. Here’s Don in public: completely professional, totally focused on the needs of his club and willing to do everything in his power to advance his profession. Here’s Don in private: the driest sense of humor I’ve ever encountered, with one-liners delivered expertly in a thick Boston accent that sometimes left a Midwestern boy wondering what on earth he’d just said. Among other things, Don taught me that one of the most important skills a superintendent could have was dishing out crap to other superintendents. I’m not kidding. Under his tutelage, I learned to talk easily and comfortably with nearly everyone I met in the profession. He also was my guide to the “real” politics of GCSAA, generally telling me who the power players were, how the chapter delegates system worked and the various in’s and out’s of the election process. And he taught me how to properly eat a lobster, for which I’ll be forever grateful. To this day, he’s about the only person in the world who’s allowed to call me “PJ,” a nickname I’ve always hated. But, as with so many other things, Don is an exception to the rule.
Jim Loke served on the government relations committee for years when I was at GCSAA. He was way ahead of his time when it came to getting involved in the issues and actively working in the lobbying world in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Unlike most guys who sit back and moan and bitch about unfair regulations or dumb laws, Jim acted. He wasn’t a big talker in those meetings, but when he opened his mouth, people listened. Jim also informally taught me a lot about club politics through the years. By his own experiences and his observations of others, he was an invaluable source of information about how superintendents can either succeed or fail based on their understanding of the dynamics within their workplaces. Jim comes off as being a quiet, reserved guy, but watch out when he gets that twinkle in his eye, because you’re about hear something funnier than hell.
So, I may actually have to break down and go to the opening session this year to bear witness as three great guys get their just rewards. If the ultimate measure of a man is the he’s touched, Oscar, Don and Jim all measure well with me. Thanks guys…and see you in Orlando.
Pat Jones is president of Flagstick LLC.