Bold and peaceful dreams

49 Winchester, a band that hails from the Appalachian foothills in Russell County, Virginia, named their fourth album “Fortune Favors the Bold.” The lyrics from the title track foretell that “Some are born beautiful, some are born fools / some play fair and some break the rules / but fortune favors the bold.” Bold choices are hard to miss.

Adjacent and northwest of Russell is Dickenson County, where Jarrod Taylor was born in June of 1977. He was raised in Haysi and graduated from the local high school. He then traveled extensively as a helicopter gunner with the Marines, stared down medical issues, started a basketball team, hustled as a woodworker and is now the superintendent at Willowbrook Golf Course, in Breaks, Virginia.

While he served in the military, Taylor was based in California for five years, working primarily as a mechanic. Taylor visited many places but never made it to Europe (he will go some day!). After being discharged, he studied mechanical engineering at Mountain Empire Community College. Taylor was designing coal mining equipment for West River Conveyers when he fell ill with a blood clot disorder. “I got real bad health problems and I was disabled for a long time,” Taylor says.

He has had several ablations and multiple back surgeries, one resulting in a severe infection that required a follow-up emergency surgery. After being on oxygen for four and a half years, he decided it was time to try working again.

Taylor had some friends at Willowbrook, a semi-private 9-hole course owned by Buchanan County (on the shared border with Dickenson). When Taylor first saw it, the course was struggling. It was full of weeds and had poor drainage. There are three par 3s, the par 5 is 579 yards and there are water hazards in play. The fairways are Bermudagrass; the bentgrass greens are demanding. It’s a tough track. Local lore has it that it was built in the mid-1960s and the original designers were coal miners.

“I started there just to help out,” Taylor says. “International Golf Maintenance, a consulting group, was giving us advice and they sponsored me to take a course.” Specifically, he worked with Tyler Minamyer, a former regional manager for IGM who was overseeing maintenance and management operations.

Minamyer arranged for Taylor to take the certified turfgrass professional program offered through Virginia Tech. Taylor has attended many football games at Lane Stadium and yes, he loves it when “Enter Sandman” plays and the whole place starts jumping. Taylor himself jumped at the chance to enroll in the program, noting “I am all over any kind of education!”

“I have always believed strongly in growing talent and investing in people,” says Minamyer, who accepted a superintendent position at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, earlier this year. “In getting to know Jarrod, he was smart, worked hard and really cared about the course. Helping him acquire some technical skill and knowledge was a logical thing to do.”

While the learning was ramping up, communication was never an issue. “I always enjoyed kidding Jarrod and some of the other folks at Willowbrook about their particular use of the English language,” Minamyer jokes. “I’m pretty sure Jarrod adds a syllable to every word he speaks.”

Taylor’s experience has helped him in many ways. “I knew that with Jarrod’s military service, he wasn't likely to give up easily. Given an opportunity, he would make the most of it,” Minamyer says. “The golf industry should be more of a haven for veterans for a number of reasons. Golf courses can offer vets jobs and work closely with veteran organizations.”

Taylor loves golf and being outside. He loves mowing and he loves mechanical work. This role encompasses all these things and is a natural fit. “Jarrod began to establish programs and practices that did not previously exist,” Minamyer says. “Some of the most important have been proper handling and storage procedures for chemicals and fertilizers.”

The Willowbrook staff consists of five people, four work outside and one inside. Taylor’s leadership and learning has helped in many ways. Some of the grass was too short and they were scalping. The weed and pest identification skills from class helped because while there weren’t many pests (mole crickets posed the biggest challenges), there were plenty of weeds. Profits have more than doubled since Taylor has been there and he will be the first to tell you that it has been a group effort.

“Jarrod’s personality is warm and sincere which helps him establish trust with people very quickly,” Minamyer says. “Willowbrook gave Jarrod the inspiration to pursue turf management. He found something he enjoys and is good at. Working with him is great. He absorbs information, provides thoughtful feedback and asks questions as needed.”

Taylor is happy. “It’s great when you are out there and you are mowing, or whatever, and people come in and stop or honk their horns at you,” he says. “I have met a lot of nice people, people I would not have otherwise met or come across.”

Willowbrook’s authentic presentation is a good fit for Taylor. “We are at 30 members and that’s just right because the public play, too,” he says. “Sometimes people bring me breakfast or plants for the course,” With few nearby courses, many people are contributing to this scenic piece of property. Willowbrook is thriving.

“We started with a game plan, set a schedule for each week and stuck with it. That’s when everything started coming around,” Taylor says. “We have players from 9 through 89. Working on the greens is my favorite part. I love that. They are beautiful now but there have been some challenges.”

The team uses Kubotas, a rotary mower and two zero-turn mowers. They refer to the reel sharpener, even though it works great, as “the dinosaur” because it is very old. Several drainage issues were improved last winter. “We did so much that even if it rains heavily, there is not even a mudhole out on the course,” Taylor says. The other big challenge for Willowbrook, in addition to keeping up with the tee sheet, is irrigation.

“It seems like every week I was having a blow-out somewhere and having to fix it,” Taylor says. “In a span of two weeks, I bet I fixed eight leaks. It’s very time-consuming. We would get one fixed and the pressure would build and blow out somewhere else. You expect to go to work having a good day and the next thing you know you are covered up in mud. It’s not a very glamorous job. A lot of these golfers really don’t see what happens behind the scenes with all of the maintenance that goes on. It’s very aggravating when you see someone abuse the course. It’s like, man, you don’t know what we put into this to make it look like this.” Taylor has only been a superintendent for a few years but he sure is experienced.

Taylor tries to give back. For a while, he and his wife, Kayla, coached a basketball team for kids with challenges and disabilities that ranged from physical differences to ADHD to autism. “When they put their uniforms on, to me, they look like superstars,” Taylor says. “They forget about their disabilities. They are awesome kids. We started the program to help them, but I learned these kids aren’t different from any other kids except for how the world treats them.”

He also is an ardent woodworker, taking requests and carving, whittling and engraving special pieces for birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions or just because. Taylor’s favorite beverage is Pepsi, but it has to be out of a can. Why? “I’ll tell you,” Taylor laughs (he laughs so easily!). “It’s got a completely different taste. When it’s in a bottle it’s got a plastic taste to it. I always liked it out of a can. A really cold can of Pepsi just tastes a whole lot better.”

Willowbrook allows teens to play and practice for free. A group of three ladies walks the course almost every morning. “They always say, ‘Oh, you’ve got it looking good!’” Taylor says. “They give me thumbs up and stuff if I am out mowing greens or anything. I told them they are walking one of the hardest courses. There are a lot of hills on this one!”

Even when the course is crowded, the vibe is friendly, peaceful and quiet.

“When I do a job, I do it with all my heart,” Taylor adds. “I guess it’s one of my faults: I want everything to be perfect. I know it won’t be, but I strive to get it that way. I put everything into it and I pay attention to details. That’s what makes it good. You have to pay attention to the details.”

In another 49 Winchester song, “Russell County Line,” the band shares “And in the dirt was planted seeds of hope / And from them grew the flowers of our lives.” Taylor’s life is filled with seeds, turf, hope, friends and loved ones.

“We live back in the mountains,” he says. “There are a lot of talented people in this area, but some really never pursue their dreams.”

He’s boldly trying.

Lee Carr is a northeast Ohio-based writer and senior Golf Course Industry contributor.