Brian Cloud, GCSAA's field staff representative in the South Central region, tipped us off yesterday to a great story from behind the scenes at this week's PGA Tour stop at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, regarding the club's head equipment technician, Jan Dixon (pictured left).
This year's playing of the Crowne Plaza Invitational is Dixon's 30th consecutive as the club's top mechanic. He started at Colonial in 1981 on his 20th birthday, working as an equipment operator. “I wasn’t expecting to get the job since I didn’t have any experience,” Dixon recalled. “But I was hired and I learned as I went.”
Dixon says the advancement in golf course management technology is night and day from when he started.
“There are so many pieces of equipment designed specifically for one job now,” Dixon said. “It used to be more general use that had two or three different applications. It used to just be reels and gears. Now it’s so computerized that the machine tells you what’s wrong instead of troubleshooting to find a problem.”
Dixon doesn’t play as much golf as he used to when he first started and played nearly every day after work. He enjoys being around the game though, and getting a chance to talk to Vijay Singh each year, as well as Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino in the past. He has worked with several golf course superintendents over the years and always tries to provide as much information as possible to them about different kinds of equipment to help them make the best decision for what to use.
“Jan learned this trade the hard way with on-the-job training,” said Scott Ebers, CGCS, who heads maintenance operations at Colonial. “He gained the expertise that he has along the way, quickly becoming an invaluable part of the operation here. He is a persistent guy who will stay after it until he gets it right. He’s seen everything here and is so battle tested that he can let most things roll off his back and just keep a great attitude.
"A superintendent lives and dies with the performance of their equipment, so you don’t have to tell a superintendent how important a good mechanic is. It can’t be done without one. They are as fundamental to the operation as anyone. You might be able to go a few days without a superintendent or an assistant, but you wouldn’t want to see what would happen if you tried going without a mechanic for a couple days.”
Dixon has seen many assistant mechanics that he has mentored at Colonial go on to become head mechanics at other golf facilities, increasing and strengthening his vast network of contacts to bounce ideas off of, as well as provide assistance and consultation for.
“I am always looking to improve,” Dixon says. “I know that my way isn’t the only way. I’m just looking for the best results.”
— Story by Bill Newton, GCSAA's manager of media/public relations. Photo by Brian Cloud, GCSAA's field staff representative, South Central region
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