Brian Bonlender is the 2023 Turf Tweet of the Year winner

The results of Golfdom’s Turf Tweet of the Year poll are in! Congratulations to the winner, Brian Bonlender, superintendent at West Bend (Wis.) CC.

Throughout 2023, Golfdom — in partnership with Syngenta — recognized tweets in each month’s issue. Bonlender’s tweet was featured in the May issue of Golfdom and took home the win after earning nearly 63 percent of the vote and thus claiming the title of Turf Tweet of the Year for 2023.

May 2023: Spring is here! Or… not?

This #TurfTweetOfTheMonth comes from Brian Bonlender (@bbonlender79), superintendent at West Bend (Wis.) CC.

Brian shared this tweet:

May 1st??…Why not…after all this is Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/UyDCgWdgjf

— Brian Bonlender (@bbonlender79) May 1, 2023

Reflecting on that day, Bonlender could only laugh at the absurd weather patterns of Wisconsin.

“In Wisconsin, we always say, ‘Wait five minutes and the weather changes,’” Bonlender says. “We came in that morning to it snowing. It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen snow in May, but it’s one of those things where you walk in and realize you have to shift gears.”

What’s worse than snow in May as a golf course superintendent? Having it snow in May three days before a tournament.

“Our men’s opener was the fourth, so we had our ‘Maintenance Monday’ snowed out,” he says. “By the afternoon, the snow had melted, but it was definitely not what you want to deal with three days before an event.”

Bonlender says West Bend CC’s proximity to Lake Michigan also doesn’t help their odds of dodging heavy snow.

“We’re about 25 minutes from Lake Michigan, so we can literally get an east wind and go from 75 to 50 degrees in a 15 minute swing if the wind picks up strong enough.”

The weather going into the new year is already seeming a bit odd, but Bonlender says he’s looking forward to 2024 and, as a Wisconsin native, he’s prepared for what Mother Nature might throw at him.

Check out the full list of Turf Tweet of the Month tweets from 2023.

Editor’s note: With a new year comes some new changes! This month, Golfdom will be switching all references from Twitter to X due to the social media platform’s rebranding last summer. Because of this, our Turf Tweet of the Month segment will now be called Turf Post of the Month. This change will begin with the 2024 round of turf posts.