MEMBER SPOTLIGHT on VTC BOARD MEMBER,
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C RA I G ZE I GL ER
raig Zeigler, President of ALM and VTC Board Member, has a story that begins like many other turfgrass professionals. He always knew he enjoyed working outside, and after a three-year stint as an assistant manager at a country club, where he primarily handled restaurant management duties, he knew it was time to find a way to get out of the clubhouse. Having worked on a golf course during his senior year at Penn State, Craig had many friends who were turfgrass management majors. “I wished I would’ve majored in that, but I was getting ready to graduate with a degree in Recreation and Parks,” he said. Craig enjoyed his golf course work so much that after three years in the clubhouse, he went to North Carolina State University and got his degree in turfgrass management. He began working on golf courses in 1995 and worked his way up to assistant golf course superintendent in 1996. That turned out to be a fateful year for Craig, as two
major hurricanes made landfall in Topsail Beach, North Carolina, exactly where his course was located. Those two hurricanes caused major devastation in the area, and the golf course was no exception. The storm surge brought saltwater onto some greens, and the course lost over 1000 trees as well. Clean-up and recovery was seven months of grueling work, only to have the course reopen around Christmas with no one left in the area to play. Topsail Beach remained a depressed area for about a year after the hurricanes. This meant revenue for the course was low, and when Craig was presented 100 dollars as his Christmas bonus, he decided it was time to make a change. He moved to Raleigh and tried his hand in the lawncare segment, working as a route manager for a company there. In one year, Craig grew his route by 30 percent. He realized he could be doing that exact kind of work for himself, so he made the leap. He moved to Virginia Beach
Craig’s staff doing a community service project planting Dune grass at Back Bay Wildlife refuge
24 | VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL March/April 2020 www.vaturf.org
