The Colorado Golf Hall of Fame named Steve Sarro, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Class A superintendent at Vail (Colo.) Golf Club as the 2007 Colorado Golf Person of the Year.
Sarro organized and led a group of 28 Colorado and Wyoming superintendents, assistants, turf students, irrigation technicians and vendors to New Orleans in March 2006, aiding four hurricane-stricken golf courses in their efforts to return to operation. In addition to giving one week of their time and labor, the group of volunteers raised nearly $30,000 for the struggling Gulf Coast courses.
“I am proud and honored to have been given this award,” said Sarro, who becomes the first golf course superintendent to receive the honor. “But I hesitate to put our efforts in the past-tense, as the guys down in New Orleans are still there and still giving it their all, after losing almost everything.”
The group drove to New Orleans, divided into four groups, each staying five days working dawn to dark at public facilities Brechtel Park Golf Course and Audubon Golf Course, as well as private facilities English Turn Golf and Country Club and TPC Louisiana. Each course had been devastated by the hurricane. Sarro’s crew cut trees, removed stumps and debris, repaired bunkers, greens and drainage, aerified and did general maintenance.
“You’ll never appreciate how good it made us all feel to have the actual golfers come up to us and thank us for our efforts,” said Sarro, who was also named the 2006 Superintendent of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association and the 2006 Turf Professional of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association. “For us it was a wonderful opportunity to help them forget the horrible events of Katrina.”
For more information contact:
Steve Sarro, GCSAA Class A golf course superintendent at Vail (Colo.) Golf Club, at 970-479-2262 or ssarro@vailrec.com
Aaron Kellough, Colorado Golf Association director of communications, at 303-366-4653 ext., 101 or aaron@COgolf.org
Contact: Jeff Bollig, GCSAA director of communications
800-472-7878, ext. 4430 or jbollig@gcsaa.org
