Man About Town: William Larson wins 2015 Herb Graffis award

William Larson, CGCS, has spent the last 26 years improving Town & Country Club one project at a time… and saving the club untold thousands along the way.

The inspiration for the maintenance facility came from numerous site visits over the years — literally hundreds. The above-head hoses in each bay area is like what they saw at Augusta National. The maximization of space comes from studying the shop at St. Andrews. Cypress Point was a sentimental inspiration, another course that gets it done with not a lot of space.

The office furniture? Probably inspired by Pine Valley, maybe, or Pebble Beach?

…Sorry. That’s straight off Craigslist.

“We had a budget to buy furniture, but I’d lay in bed at night and find three chairs on Craigslist for $100,” says William Larson, CGCS. “I’m programmed to save money. It’s my upbringing — we never had money. Our first shop was a semi-truck trailer. I don’t forget those days.”

Looking at the state-of-the-art facility from which Town & Country Club in St. Paul, Minn., currently operates, it’s hard to imagine Larson’s crew working from a semi-truck trailer. This facility is so pristine, visitors have parked there, then started changing their shoes in the parking lot, thinking they were at the clubhouse. Members rent the high-tech break room for events — yes, the maintenance team’s break room — to show off to their friends.

It isn’t a multi-million dollar maintenance budget that Larson has. It just looks that way.

Best in state

For readers outside Minnesota, and maybe the Midwest, allow us to introduce Mr. Bill Larson, CGCS, superintendent at Town & Country Club, and the 2015 Herb Graffis Businessperson of the Year award winner.

Now in its fourth year, the Graffis Award is given in honor of Golfdom’s founder, World Golf Hall of Fame member Herb Graffis. When Graffis founded the magazine in 1927, he did it with the mindset that golf is more than a game, it’s also a business.

The Graffis award isn’t a good guy award. It’s a good businessman award. But it turns out Larson is both.

Excruciatingly humble (he asked not to be featured on the cover without his crew; his club president talked him out of it), sharply funny (ask him about his last trip to the Masters) and endearingly sentimental (he became misty-eyed when he learned he was the 2015 winner of the Graffis Award), Larson is equally admired, feared and respected by hundreds in the turf maintenance business.

“When we took on the bunker project, I talked to several greens chairs and presidents of other private clubs,” says Devin Rice, president of Town & Country. “They all had one thing in common: they all knew Bill Larson, and they all said he was one of the best in the state.”

Larson and Piper,
his Golden Retriever.

Larson didn’t win the Graffis award because of the cutting-edge maintenance facility he helped design. He didn’t win for his ability to save Town & Country major dollars every season since he joined the club in 1989. And he didn’t win for hiring workers with special needs, for being a liaison with the neighborhood dog walkers, or even for giving the neighborhood lawyer a ride to the bus stop twice a week.

He won the Graffis award because over the last 26 years, he has been the man leading the way at Town & Country Club, Minnesota’s oldest golf course.

“He’s done a wonderful job of improving Town & Country while being very sensitive to cost containment,” says Scott Kinkead, executive vice president of Turfco, who nominated Larson and also worked for him when he was still in high school. “He has a multi-faceted skill set. From using the knowledge of other superintendents for his maintenance facility, to mentoring a quality staff over the years… and he does it in a humble, straightforward way.”

Mr. Fix-It

Forget about Town & Country’s maintenance facility, which, frankly, is the envy of most courses out there. Instead, think of the way the course paid for such a facility: by pinching pennies over the last 30 years by keeping projects in-house.

There was a sea change at Town & Country that took place around the same time Larson took the helm of maintenance at the course.

“It used to be, if we had to put in steps, we’d farm it out to a local handyman,” says George Carroll, former general manager of Town & Country, and the man who hired Larson all those years ago.

Working smarter
with a smart board

Borrowing an idea from his boys’ school, T&CC’s job board goes high-tech.

Bill Larson and his wife, Gayle, have two adopted sons: Kyle, a 6th grader, and Jake, a 5th grader.It was when Larson walked into Kyle’s kindergarten classroom for the first time that he saw another tool he knew could be invaluable to his maintenance facility: a smart board. “I asked the teacher what it was, and she showed me how it worked… I was stunned,” Larson says. Every morning, assistant superintendent Erik Tolz-mann and second assistant Tyler Rose prepare the day’s duties on the computer. They print it off and hand that sheet to Larson for approval. Then, after the coffee is made, they turn the smart board on so they can show the guys the workload for the day. The interactive computer screen displayed on the wall keeps the young crew’s attention, Rose says. Also useful, each day’s work log is saved, allowing them to calculate exactly how much they spent on, say, mowing fairways. Another benefit: Google Earth. “Say someone on the crew isn’t sure about the bunker I’m talking about,” Tolzmann (pictured above) says. “I can bring this (course map) up and show him the exact bunker I’m referring to.” Another benefit: no chalk dust or chicken scratches. “My handwriting is lousy,” Tolzmann laughs. “With this, the guys don’t have to try to decipher my writing.”

— S.J.

The former GM at Interlachen CC in Edina, Minn., now retired, Carroll, a past president of the Club Managers Association of America, says Larson and his team started taking on more projects out of sheer boredom. “The golf course got so easy for him. It was always immaculate, not just tee to green, but the whole property was perfect. So he always wanted to do something else.”

Keeping projects in-house has become a way of life for Larson, a hard-working Penn State grad who is proud to say he has night-watered four different golf courses in his career. Though he might shy away from the spotlight and has a disdain for having his picture taken, he doesn’t shy away from work.

“I’m a superintendent at a private club, and I wear jeans to work. In the summer I wear cargo shorts,” Larson says. “I’m not afraid to work, grab a shovel or jump on a tractor.”

Larson says his work ethic came from when he was a child. His father passed away when he was only six. His mom remarried five years later to a man who owned a golf course and eventually built two more.

“I didn’t have any choice… I had to work every day,” Larson says. “I didn’t get the luxury of days off.”

Research nut

A complete list of projects completed by Larson and his team of handymen over the last 26 years would take too much space. A new wine cellar, a renovated poker room, cart path removal, five different buildings, relocating the tennis courts three times…

But the daddy of all the projects taken on by Larson and his team was recent, and started out as a bunker renovation — turning 60 bunkers into 45. That project grew as it unfolded.

The budget started at $300,000, but Larson convinced his bosses mid-project that it was the right time to invest another $100,000 and also rebuild 12 tee boxes, install new irrigation, build a retaining wall, reclaim some land and remove/relocate some unsightly cart paths.

“He managed the project exclusively on his own, with his own staff. He undoubtedly saved us a few hundred thousand,” Rice says. “The original $300,000 probably wouldn’t have even gotten the bunkers done. He has such a tremendous business savvy about him… he’s always thinking.”

Erik Tolzmann, Larson’s assistant superintendent, chose working at Town & Country Club over another course because he knew he wanted to learn from Larson.

“I think (saving money) is at the forefront of his mind everyday, which is helpful for us from a learning standpoint as assistant superintendents,” Tolzmann says. “We can see how he manages things here, not only to provide top-notch playing conditions but do it as fiscally responsible as possible. Saving $100 here and $100 there all adds up throughout the year.”

“It was a 2-year project, but we got it done in 18 months,” Larson says. “We did all the irrigation work, we did everything. We had a great team, from my assistants, to the high school kids who worked two days a week. We were a lean, mean, fighting machine by the time we got done — everyone had a role, and they all did it the best they could.”

Dale Caldwell, superintendent at Minneapolis GC and Larson’s mentor, says Bill is an interesting guy to watch work.

“He’s a very convincing guy and all his ideas have merit,” Caldwell says. “It’s not all Bill on his own… he utilizes contractors, he utilizes architects, he just goes about it in a different way.”

For example, Larson hired a shaper, Dan Bieganek, who worked for Rees Jones for years, but wanted to move back to Minneapolis. He bought a used bulldozer for Bieganek, let him get to work, then sold the bulldozer for a profit once the bunker project was complete.

“I’m a research nut, I research everything,” Larson says. “I’d lay in bed at night with insomnia, researching bulldozers. It was a risky purchase, but I’ve learned that risk-takers can be rewarded.”

Jeff Markow, CGCS at Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, Calif., met Larson when they became roommates at Penn State in 1983. Markow says he knew back then that Larson had what it would take to make it in the industry.

“Bill is an outstanding superintendent with attention to detail and a hands-on approach. He rolls up his sleeves and saves the course a tremendous amount of money,” Markow says. “That’s where he excels. He’ll teach himself contracts, negotiations, whatever it takes to get the biggest bang for his buck.”

Larson is a handy guy and he says he’s hired handy guys. They recently built new on-course bathrooms. The bid from an outside contractor was $280,000. Larson and his team built them for $120,000.

“I like to stay busy, I like to work and I like to improve,” Larson says.

Value of the shop

The walls are 3-inch concrete on the inside and outside, with 6 inches of insulation in the middle. That’s useful on a cold Minnesota day like today, when it’s minus-16 degrees outside.

An employee can walk from one end of the shop to the other without having to set foot outside. That’s important in the winter. Just as important is the amount of natural light that comes in during the summer months. Or the energy efficient lights. The city applauded their environmental wash station, which keeps all clippings on-site and gets consumed by microbes.

And Larson insists the entire place remain spotless.

“Bill definitely makes sure we know how valuable this shop is,” Tolzmann says. “I’ve heard Bill say it a thousand times: See the condition of someone’s shop, and 90-percent of the time that’s reflective of their golf course. We’ve taken that to heart.”

Town & Country’s soft-spoken mechanic, Mike Romundstad, came with Larson from Hudson CC 26 years ago. He remembers all the different shops with a fond nostalgia. His two favorite amenities of the new shop are the above-head, air-operated hydraulic fluid and oil hoses, and the two lifts. The heated floor is nice, too.

“We could work out of a garage if we needed to… the people who do the work, that’s what’s needed,” Romundstad says. “But a lot of courses don’t have this. This is state of the art here.”

Friendly neighbors

As Larson rolls his truck down the hill from his maintenance shop toward the clubhouse, he stops and rolls down his window. A dog walker approaches and greets Larson by name. She’s not a member, just a friendly neighbor.

There’s another neighbor, a lawyer, who seems to always be running late to work. So Larson will pick him up and give him a ride to the bus stop. And then there’s the young man with special needs who works maintaining the clubhouse grounds. Larson is excited that he’s now living on his own, which was his goal.

Larson strolls through the clubhouse kitchen, and shouts names as he walks by. He takes a moment to chat with one waitress who has been an employee of the club for 35 years.

Larson is more than the superintendent. He’s also the goodwill ambassador.

In 26 years, Larson has seen a lot of people come and go, including five different general managers and four golf pros. What does he attribute his success to? Simple. Hard work.

“Work hard and good things will happen. You have to have a passion,” Larson says. “Some of these new guys say they have a passion. There’s a difference between having passion and saying you have passion.”

His passion is reflected by the success of the club.

“We have a general manager, a superintendent, a golf pro… but really, Bill is the true leader of the club,” T&CC president Rice says. “Obviously, he works for the general manager, but he’s the senior manager here. He’s part and parcel to the success of the club as a whole — not just the turf side.”

It seems clear. Bill Larson isn’t just the man about Town & Country Club. He’s simply… the man.

Photos: Judy Griesedieck, T&CC