Florida Superintendents Honor Longtime Leader Matt Taylor

Matt Taylor, CGCS has been honored with the Florida GCSA’s President’s Award for Lifetime Service. Taylor is director of golf course operations and facilities at 36-hole Royal Poinciana Golf Club in Naples where he has been since 2000.

In a break from tradition, Taylor was nominated for the award by the Florida GCSA executive committee. Historically, candidates are nominated by local chapters. “I think it speaks to Matt’s impact that the leadership of the state association felt it was time for him to be honored, rather than wait for his name to be put forward,” Florida GCSA executive director, Jennifer Bryan, says.

Indeed, Taylor has been a major figure in golf course maintenance circles for decades, and not just in Southwest Florida but across the state. He is a past president of the Everglades GCSA and served as Florida GCSA president in 2007-2008. He received the state association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010. Before that, he was president of the Florida Turfgrass Association (2005-2006) and was honored with that association’s highest recognition, the Wreath of Grass, in 2010.

A 1993 graduate of the famed Lake City school of golf course operation and grounds management, he cut his teeth spending three years under another Florida legend, Tim Hiers, CGCS at Collier’s Reserve Country Club. He then spent four years as director golf course operations over the east courses at Bonita Bay Club before moving to Royal Poinciana.

Taylor was presented with the Lifetime Service Award during the Everglades GCSA annual Poa Annua Golf Classic. “Matt has devoted as much heart and soul to the well-being of our profession and the industry as anyone,” Florida GCSA president, Jason Zimmerman, CGCS from The Nest Golf Club in Bonita Springs, says. “He is so deserving of this honor.”