Sam MacKenzie: Olympia Fields superintendent caps 20-year legacy as 2026 Businessperson of the Year

“Is this all really happening?” gasped Dan Hicks on NBC’s Sunday broadcast of the 2020 BMW Championship. 

What was happening were two of the most epic back-to-back putts from two heavyweight PGA Tour pros during peak COVID days. Olympia Fields, located 40 minutes south of downtown Chicago, was closed to fans, but the TV crews were there to document the drama. 

First, Dustin Johnson drained a downhill 44-foot triple-breaker to force a playoff with Jon Rahm.

In sudden death, after Rahm hit a poor second shot, Paul Azinger groaned, “That’s going to be one of the hardest putts you could ever imagine.” 

Rahm stared down a 66-footer with a righthand turn that would make Elwood Blues nervous … and then dropped it for birdie, for the win.    

Career highlight

“Is this really happening?” was also what the maintenance team kept asking leading into the tournament. From May 2019 to July  2020, the course got socked with 73 inches of rain and flooded 16 times in 14 months. Add in the strangeness of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was like the tournament was destined to fail.

But then, the rain stopped. 

Sam MacKenzie, CGCS, longtime superintendent at the course, takes a deep breath when he thinks back. Just like how the rain suddenly stopped, so have his words. It was six years ago, but the memory is as fresh as yesterday. 

“The golf course played like it should,” MacKenzie says. “Sunday of the 2020 BMW was the best day of my career.”

Before MacKenzie can retire to Florida and enjoy the fruits of his years as a superintendent — 38 years total, hosting the 2015 U.S. Amateur, the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship and the 2020 and 2023 BMW Championship — he’s being honored as Golfdom’s 2026 Herb Graffis Businessperson of the Year. 

Longtime Chicagoland superintendent Mike Bavier, CGCS, who served as president of GCSAA in 1981, nominated MacKenzie for the honor. Before MacKenzie could pick up a cup cutter, Bavier was working at Olympia Fields as an intern and then assistant in 1963 and 1964, under legendary superintendent Warren Bidwell. In Bavier’s nomination, he noted MacKenzie’s strong work ethic and ability to work well with his peers as well as his superiors. Those skills made him the longest tenured superintendent in Olympia Fields’ history.

“Warren Bidwell worked there, left, then went back. Oscar Miles once worked there,” Bavier says. “There was quite a succession of superintendents who’d work there three, four, five years at most and then leave. (MacKenzie) was there for 20 years, which is just amazing.”

You can be like Don…

MacKenzie’s father was a soccer coach at Western Illinois University for 30 years. Because he was a teacher and got his summers off, he ran the swimming pool at Macomb CC in his off time. After Sam graduated from high school, his father introduced him to the course superintendent, Don Shryack, CGCS. That was 1979, and it marked his first job in golf maintenance. 

Years later, MacKenzie called his father to ask for Shryack’s phone number. It had been a while since he’d spoken to him, and he wanted to thank him for guiding him to Michigan State and a career in golf. Sam’s dad had sad news — Shryack had passed on about three months previously.

“Don was the guy who introduced me to the idea that this could be a career … and I’m forever thankful for him,” MacKenzie says. “As you get older, you realize that you need to thank the people who help you. I missed that opportunity with Don.”

From the humble beginnings of Macomb CC, MacKenzie went to a much more prestigious property and prodigious superintendent — Butler National, working for future Illinois Golf Hall of Fame member and 2008 Col. John Morley Award winner Oscar Miles, CGCS. 

The pressure at Butler National and the intensity of Miles were a different animal from what he experienced at Macomb.

“I tell people, Oscar and Don were on two different ends of the spectrum,” MacKenzie says. “Don was about as nice as the day is long. But Oscar was a taskmaster because of where he was and what he did — he hosted the Western Open every year. I figured out from those first two guys, basically, how to do this. And on most days, you can be like Don, but sometimes, you’ve got to be like Oscar.”

Butler was the only place MacKenzie ever went where he was laid off, in December 1983. From there, he became an assistant at a long-forgotten club, Woodmar CC, on Interstate 80 (it’s a Cabela’s now). He got his first superintendent job in Muncie, Ind., at Delaware CC. In 1995, he was named superintendent at Broadmoor CC in Indianapolis, a Donald Ross course that made him fall in love with golf course architecture. 

He was at Broadmoor for over a decade when he got a phone call from Olympia Fields Club President Tony DiTommaso, asking if he would interview with the club. The course had recently hosted the 2003 U.S. Open, won by Jim Furyk — the course’s fourth major (along with the 1928 U.S. Open and the 1925 and 1961 PGA Championships). They were looking for a new super, their third in three years.

It was the most professional interview MacKenzie had ever been through. He was the only superintendent to interview that day. He met with the staff. The club put him up for the night. 

Though MacKenzie felt he nailed the interview, the job was offered to someone else. A week later, DiTommaso got in touch with him again. Their first choice didn’t accept the job. After a 15-minute negotiation over the phone, he had the job, and as he says, ‘the rest is history.’

Never too green

MacKenzie believes the quality of work he and his team accomplished in Indianapolis at Broadmoor may have been what got him that phone call from DiTommaso 20 years ago. But even more important, what was it that kept him there?

“Never take your eye off the ball. It’s as simple as that,” MacKenzie says. “I’ve been around this business a long time, and I have yet to see a superintendent lose his job because the grass was too green. But I’ve seen plenty of them lose it when it wasn’t.”

Adam Nickerson, CCM and general manager of Olympia Fields CC, says MacKenzie has been so successful at Olympia Fields because he understood that it wasn’t just about maintaining two golf courses.

“It was his ability to combine an incredible depth of agronomic knowledge with a genuine understanding of what makes Olympia Fields special: two historic courses that mean a great deal to our members and the game of golf,” Nickerson says. “Sam also has an exceptional ability to build and lead a team. He set extraordinarily high standards, but he earned the respect of the people around him because he was willing to be right there alongside them doing the work.”

MacKenzie says his way of motivating his team was to show them how important the course is to him, especially in peak season.  

“I’d tell my wife, ‘I may as well go in, it’s all I can think about,’ and she’d say, ‘Bye!’” MacKenzie laughs. “But we’ve been married 41 years, and she never told me to go jump in the lake. There are other jobs where you get Saturday and Sunday off. In this part of the world, our season is May through September. Buddy, in those five months, it better be just so.” 

MacKenzie believes that being great at managing turf was the key to his success. But there are other aspects that were almost equally important.

“I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve managed not only the turf very well and personnel along the way, but I’ve also managed the money well,” he says. “And I’ve always been good at communicating with members, even as a young man. 

“No matter where I was working, I was always able to produce great results while staying within the fiscal constraints of the club.”

An all-star

The 2020 BMW was such a smashing success for MacKenzie and his team, and the course was slated to host the event again in 2023. But this time, in the interim, they also were to pull off a renovation.

MacKenzie had an “absolute all-star” on his crew who first joined him as an intern from Michigan State — Francisco Velasquez. By 2022, he had advanced into the role of superintendent of the North Course and showed his mettle to the club just like Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson. 

Following the conclusion of the 2023 BMW, the club sat down with MacKenzie to see how he viewed the future for himself and the courses.

“I said to the club president, ‘In December 2025, I’ll be 65 and my contract ends. There’s a lot of symmetry in that,’” MacKenzie says. “We tacked on 10 months to my contract. I’m only working part-time. Francisco has taken over, and I’m here to help as needed for the final pass-off.” 

The club has signed on Andrew Green to restore the North Course to the original vision of architect Willie Park Jr. Work will begin in late September of this year with plans for the project to be completed by September of 2027 and the course opening around Memorial Day of 2028.

“We just had a construction meeting with the architect and the contractors, and I have to say, Francisco did a marvelous job, handling himself very well,” MacKenzie says. “I sent a text to Andrew and said, ‘You guys are going to do something great here. I’m looking forward to seeing it, but I’m going fishing.’

“Francisco has earned this spot,” MacKenzie says.

A perfect choice

Velasquez got his start in the industry similar to how MacKenzie did — but for him, it was his mom who introduced him to the career.

“My mom was the flower lady at Point O’ Woods (G&CC, Benton Harbor, Mich.)” Velasquez says. “I was 15, and they wouldn’t let me drive a cart because I didn’t have my driver’s license. So that first year, I walked the entire course with a weed whacker.”

He calls the experience a “character builder.” He quickly moved up the ranks at the club. “I think everyone understands, once you’re walk-mowing greens, you’ve graduated from bunker-level,” he laughs.

When he graduated high school, he was working three jobs: mornings on the golf maintenance crew; days at a local bar as a dishwasher; nights back at the club as a dishwasher. His superintendent, Ron Fox, CGCS, pushed Velasquez to go to college and focus on golf course maintenance as a career.

Turns out, that was great advice. Nickerson says that Velasquez earned the opportunity to take over for MacKenzie and adds that his combination of technical knowledge and strong work ethic has earned the respect of his team and the club in general.

“Francisco was the perfect choice because this transition represents both continuity and an opportunity for the next generation of leadership at Olympia Fields,” he says. “He understands our property, our standards, our membership and, importantly, the culture Sam spent years building.”

A lasting legacy

MacKenzie is set to retire in October. Though he never was able to thank Shryack, his colleagues have been able to thank him.

“Here’s the biggest thing Sam has taught me: If you do well by the club, the club will do well by you,” Velasquez says. “Our membership is that kind of membership. They understand the grounds aspect. Sam does all the core things right, and that created his success here. He’s had a great run. And I hope to one day be in the same spot he’s in.”

Nickerson adds that MacKenzie was exceptional at building and leading a team. Despite the pressures of hosting tournaments, managing renovations and challenging weather, he remained remarkably consistent and never lost sight of the member experience.

“I think Sam’s greatest legacy is he leaves Olympia Fields better than he found it — not only in the conditions of the golf course, but in the people and culture he developed along the way,” Nickerson says.