Guy Cipriano, Matt LaWell (3)
Rare is the turf pro who works their whole career at just one golf course. Rarer still is the turf pro who does so within the borders of their hometown.
Craig Sondergaard is a part of that small group. A native of Racine, Wisconsin, a city of about 80,000 located 20 miles south of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Chicago that was once rated the most affordable place to live in the world; he caddied as a teenager at Racine Country Club. After shifting over to course maintenance, he quickly climbed the ladder at the 114-year-old institution from intern, to assistant superintendent, to superintendent, landing the top job before he turned 26. “I was just in the right place at the right time,” he says with more than a modicum of Midwest modesty.
To be fair, Sondergaard has worked outside of the club, just not on another golf course. After his caddie loops, he baked pizzas for a while at a local Papa Murphy’s alongside his girlfriend, Meagan. But they were planning their wedding at the time — they’ll celebrate a decade of marriage later this year — and needed a little extra money. Sondergaard returned to the golf course for a dollar more per hour. Even factoring in the seasonal nature of his early work, it turned out to be a pretty good move.
His days in the pizza kitchen also provided Sondergaard with enough culinary capability to survive in America’s Dairyland. Food is everywhere in Wisconsin: ButterBurgers and cheese curds at Culver’s, Danish Kringle at Racine’s O&H Bakery, beer and brats at just about every tailgate and party. Racine Country Club is no different. Sondergaard normally budgets three or four cookouts every year for the 18-person team — with all funds collected from the maintenance building soda machine — deferring grillmaster duties to foreman Ruben Almaraz and his steak tacos. “If we’re grilling,” he says, “it’s usually steak tacos.”
Sondergaard does tend regularly to his home grills — he has both a Weber propane and a Blackstone. He recently developed a recipe for grilled shrimp tacos, accented with jicama slaw and fresh Mexican crema that was published in the 2022 Turfheads Guide to Grilling, part of our December Turfheads Take Over issue. That recipe landed Sondergaard and the Racine Country Club maintenance team a #TurfheadsGrilling cookout earlier this month — with longtime #TurfheadsGrilling sponsor AQUA-AID Solutions and Golf Course Industry behind the Char-Broil propane grill.
Editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano applied his grilling skills to dozens of cheeseburgers and brats — he admits he was a little nervous about grilling brats for a bunch of Wisconsin natives — and the team filled up before heading home a little early thanks to a state event on the course.
Will Sondergaard land a spot in our third annual Turfheads Guide to Grilling? He has less than five months to create and submit another recipe — and so do you! The recipe guide will be printed in our December issue, and the deadline for submissions is Friday, November 3. Everybody in the industry — superintendents, assistants, equipment technicians, foremen like Almaraz, crew members, researchers, sales folks, and more — is encouraged to submit a recipe. Everybody who sends in a recipe and photo will receive #TurfheadsGrilling swag, and those selected for the guide will receive a #TurfheadsGrilling gift box — and a chance to have us come and grill for you and your team next year.
Oh, and some good news for whoever lands that 2024 cookout: After the pressure of grilling brats for a team of Cheeseheads, Cipriano says he’s now more confident with a spatula in his hand.
Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.
