Superintendent is Named Colorado's Golf Person of the Year

The Colorado Golf Hall of Fame has named Steve Sarro, a 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. The group aided four hurricane-stricken golf courses in their efforts to return to operation. In addition to giving a week of their time and labor to help repair the devastation caused by Katrina, the 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 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 and divided into four groups, each staying five days and working dawn till dark at the public Brechtel Park Golf Course and Audubon Golf Course, as well as private English Turn Golf and Country Club and TPC Louisiana. Each course was extensively damaged 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," he added.