Montague’s Crothers
Gets Achievement Award
By Martha Slater

Garry Crothers of the Montague Golf Club really knows his turf-and he has an award to prove it. (Herald / Bob Eddy) Martha 1

The Metropolitan Golf Course Superintendent’s Assoc. has bestowed the prestigious Sherwood A. Moore Award on Garry Crothers, superintendent at the Montague Golf Club in Randolph, for his contributions to and achievement in the turfgrass profession.

Crothers, who has been at Montague for the past three years, received his award at the annual Dr. Joseph Troll Turf Education Fundraiser held October 23 at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y. He is only the 12^th superintendent to receive this honor since 1987, when Moore, the award’s namesake, was recognized for his "dutiful and tireless contributions to the MetGCSA and the turfgrass profession."

Moore, was, in Crothers’ opinion, "the greatest superintendent ever. I worked for him and he was my mentor, so this award means a lot to me. He just died about two months ago at the age of 91. We were very close. He was a great man with a great sense of humor. He won many awards during his lifetime, including the first-ever honorary doctorate degree in turf management from UMass."

"I’m a flatlander, but I’ve been in Vermont since 1978," Crothers said. "Vermont is home to me and Randolph is a great town."

When he was interviewed for his present job at Montague, Crothers said he had applied because I didn’t want to retire with nothing to do. I didn’t know what kind of condition the course was in."

"Every golf course is different, too. Here, we have a real mix, with the new nine holes built in the 90s, and the original nine from before that. Once I got here, I realized there was a lot to be done. On thing was that the green hadn’t been verticutt (thinning out the grass) enough, and a spongy thatched layer had built up, which caused problems. There’s a specific machine to verticutt, and I got a powerful new machine from Australia, which we started to use right away."

Crothers supervises a staff of nine workers during the season. Montague is open the second or third week of April and closes Nov. 1, although the "real" golf season in Vermont is just four months—June through September.

"When you’re a course superintendent, you’re close to being your own boss, because you’re the expert, so it’s a unique job in that respect," he explains.

Crothers grew up idolizing an uncle who was a grain farmer in Pennsylvania, and earned a B.S. in Agronomy from Penn State University, as well as an additional degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. He planned a career in farm management, but got drafted into the Army, and spent 18 months in Europe, which instilled a love of travel in him.

During his long career in superintending golf courses, he had a great deal of success abroad and spends every winter visiting old friends at clubs where he worked in Indonesia and Asia. This year, he plans to add a visit to Australia and perhaps New Zealand to his itinerary.

He actually got into his chosen profession when his first plan to be a farm manager didn’t work out. Through his aunt, he met her neighbor, Tony Mascaro, who would later become one of the icons of the turfgrass industry. Speaking with Mascaro, who along with his brother, Tom, developed a number of turfgrass equipment inventions, convinced Crothers that this was the career for him.

A referral from Mascaro led him to Moore, who, in 1959, became his mentor. Crothers got more training in turf management and was hired for his first superintendent’s job in 1960 at the Deal Golf Course in New Jersey.

In 1978, he changed course, moving to Vermont to pursue a dream of owning a Vermont ski hill (Pinnacle) and opened the Randolph Sports Store. Poor weather the first two winters led to a need to supplement his income and to his first tenure at Montague. He also worked at several other courses and eventually decided to take his golf course expertise abroad. Over the years, he has worked in Japan, Indonesia, and Micronesia. Now 73, he enjoys being back in Vermont, where he can be closer to his daughter, Sherrie, who lives in Portsmouth, R.I. with her husband, Paul.

A proud Rotary Club member (he says he hasn’t missed a meeting in 35 years) Crothers concludes, "I always say that you’re either a giver or a taker, and if you’re a giver, it comes back to your every time."

____________