Draffen Honored for Outreach Efforts

Todd Draffen may be more comfortable in his work than he is in the limelight, but he is so good at the former that the latter caught up with him recently. Draffen, director of agronomy at The Old Collier Golf Club in Naples, was called to center stage during the Florida GCSA annual meeting in August to receive the association’s Distinguished Service Award.

For more than a decade, Draffen has championed outreach efforts to educate regulators and lawmakers on golf course maintenance and the role of golf course superintendents as stewards of the environment. Hosting the EPA’s annual Spring Regulatory Tour at The Old Collier, he has opened the eyes of dozens of critical players who influence regulations that affect how superintendents do their jobs.

Draffen’s work at The Old Collier and at facilities such TPC Treviso Bay, also in Naples, where he secured Audubon certification, has also been recognized by GCSAA with two Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards and by Sustainable Florida. He came to Florida in 1998 after graduating from The Ohio State University and was involved at The Old Collier during construction.

Because of pioneering work there with paspalum to combat salinity issues, Golf Digest magazine named The Old Collier one of the “most important courses” of the 2000s. Audubon International gave the course its imprimatur as the world’s first Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary, the most stringent measure of a course’s compatibility with nature.

One of the first things Draffen did after accepting this service award was to give “all the credit” to his mentor Tim Hiers, CGCS - the Florida GCSA’s founding president – now at White Oak Conservation in Yulee. “Tim drug me down from Ohio all those years ago,” Draffen said. “He had confidence in me, and he built me up.” 

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Dye Preserve’s Swilley is President No. 43

Ryan Swilley, CGCS director of agronomy at The Dye Preserve in Jupiter, is the Florida GCSA’s 43rd president. Swilley, 43, was elected at the association’s annual business meeting at The Resort at Longboat Key Club in August.

Serving with Swilley on the executive committee are new vice president Dustin Plemons from Cleveland Heights Golf Club in Lakeland, new secretary-treasurer Alan Brown from Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, and immediate past president Jason Zimmerman, CGCS from The Nest Golf Club in Bonita Springs.

After his election, Swilley paid tribute to the late Steve Wright, CGCS whose family was at the annual meeting in conjunction with the Florida GCSA Golf Championship, which is named in Wright’s honor. Wright, a past president of the Palm Beach GCSA and of the Carolinas GCSA, was Florida GCSA vice president when he died from a sudden illness in 2018.

“It is because of his influence in my early days in the Palm Beach GCSA that I stayed involved,” Swilly said. “He just had a special way of making you feel like you knew him forever and that you were in the right place.

“When I think of Steve Wright some words come to mind – work-life balance, integrity, generosity and, certainly, mentor. I looked up to him and what he stood for and how well he seemed to do it. I look to carry on some of those standards.”

Born and raised in Florida, Swilley graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in golf and sports turf management in 2008. He spent five years as an assistant superintendent at Old Marsh Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens. He took his first superintendent role at Gulf Stream Golf Club in Gulf Stream in early 2014. He left for The Dye Preserve in the summer of 2023.

Strickland Wins Three-Way Play-Off

Seth Strickland has been winning GCSAA’s National Golf Championship since the early 2000s – six in all. But it took until this summer for him to win his second Florida GCSA Championship. To do so, Strickland had to survive a three-way play-off on the Links Course at The Resort at Longboat Key Club.

Strickland, from Miami Shores Country Club, beat two-time Florida GCSA champion Max Rudder, from Lakewood National Golf Club, and 2023 national champion Dylan Foster, from Heron Creek Golf and Country Club, after all three tied with one-under par rounds of 70.

Defending champion Mike Kelly, from Gulf Harbor Yacht and Country Club, finished in a tie for 10th in the 39-man field. Another 130 golfers competed in a scramble competition at Longboat Key’s Harborside Course making this year’s Florida GCSA Steven Wright Memorial Golf Tournament one of the biggest yet.

Strickland has now won the first two of five qualifying events in the Brandt Cup Race to the National. He won the Everglades GCSA’s Poa Classic in May. The race heats up in the fall with the final three qualifying tournaments in less than seven weeks. The next qualifier is the North Florida GCSA Fall Ron Hill Classic on October 17, followed by Florida GCSA Benevolent Fundraiser at The Dye Preserve in Jupiter on October 28. The final qualifier is the Central Florida GCSA Crowfoot Open on December 1.

For the first time, the partnership with Brandt Consolidated will send 15 players to the GCSAA National Championship, in Orlando at the end of January and early February. In addition to the traditional two teams of five who qualify as the top 10 points earners based on gross performances, the Florida GCSA will also send the leading five net players who have not already qualified by gross performance. Those players will compete in the 36-hole Classic Division of the national tournament. 

State to Host Chill Space at National Show

Florida GCSA members are invited to cool their heels and trade tales at their very own space on the trade show floor at next year’s GCSAA Conference and Show in Orlando from February 2 to 6. For the first time, the Florida GCSA will have its own 200-sq.ft. booth space that members can use as a hub amid the hubbub on the show floor.

“The trade show experience can be a little overwhelming so we’re glad to be able to offer members somewhere they can step out of the traffic and catch their breath or catch up with fellow members,” Florida GCSA executive director Jennifer Bryan says. “It will be a great space to chill and take a break.”

Bryan says the association plans a focus on assistant superintendents at the booth on the final afternoon of the show, Thursday, February 6. “We’re not 100 percent sure on what will look like yet, but we hope superintendents encourage their assistants to attend the show that afternoon because admission becomes free after 12 o’clock. We will do something to encourage assistants to come by the booth and network with other assistants.”

The night before, hundreds of members and friends of the Florida GCSA will party at Ole Red at the annual Florida GCSA Reception. Ole Red is the restaurant and entertainment venue inspired by country music superstar and Opry member Blake Shelton’s hit, “Ol’ Red.” Ole Red Orlando offer two floors of entertainment space and is smack dab in the heart of the action on International Drive, within easy walking distance of the Convention Center.

Industry Mourns Recent Losses

In recent months, the Florida GCSA has lost three longtime members of the golf course maintenance world, among them former state board member Stuart Taylor. Taylor spent decades on golf courses in the Sunshine State after emigrating from England in 1989. He died August 31 aged 61.

Facilities he worked at included Riverwood Golf Club, TPC Prestancia, Wilderness Country Club, Bonita Bay Club and The Plantation Golf and Country Club. In recent years, he worked at Feather Sound Country Club in Clearwater as assistant superintendent to Mike Strube, one of a host of people Taylor helped find their feet in the business during his career.

After hiring his former boss at Feather Sound, Strube described how he was grateful to have that extra experience on board. “Once a superintendent, always a superintendent,” Strube said of Taylor. “That’s how I look at it. And it’s never “I” when we work together, it’s always “we.” Stuart is one of those guys in the business that you build a relationship with, and you stay in touch with. We golfed a little bit together and just shared life. He’s easy going and has a good eye for detail. So, he’s taught me quite a bit.”

On July 24, Martin L. Griffin, formerly of Wellington and Tampa, died at Good Shepherd Hospice in Sebring. He was 81. Griffin specialized in providing products for the golf course and polo field industries and was a former member of the Treasure Coast GCSA, Palm Beach GCSA and South Florida GCSA, as well as the Florida Turfgrass Association. Griffin received the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for his service in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

On May 30, John C. Kaczor, longtime assistant superintendent died at age 65. His career began at IFAS Agricultural Research Center in Davie before moving to Inverrary Country Club in the late 1990s. He also worked at Boca West, Plantation Preserve Golf Club, Jacaranda Country Club, Fort Lauderdale Country Club and Weston Hills Country Club.