More than an equipment manager

It snows hard in Verona, Wisconsin, a fast-growing suburb of Madison, the capital city where the Badgers play on Saturdays and the Packers halt Sunday afternoon activity. Matt Radatz has spent most of his life in the pleasant area, thanks to his father’s job as superintendent at Hawks Landing Golf Club.

The population of Verona has nearly doubled since 2000, the year Neil Radatz moved his family from southern Michigan to southern Wisconsin. The opportunity Neil received to build and maintain Hawks Landing while raising a family in an appealing and safe community proved too good to bypass. Matt is 25 years old, so nearly every one of his life memories stems from events in Wisconsin, including one involving the snow and Hawks Landing’s par-3 eighth hole.

A craving for winter adventure and Neil’s diligence for inspecting and protecting the course led to a father-son truck ride through Hawks Landing’s thickly covered turf. Neither Radatz recalls the exact day, but Matt remembers the tires on his father’s red truck flinging polar-bear-white snow, then muck.

“You don’t remember being in the dozer?” Neil asks as Matt tells the red truck story. “You don’t remember watering every day for eight hours a day when we had a drought?”

Matt officially started working for his father as a high school junior. Of course, he remembers executing essential golf maintenance tasks. But father, son, snow and red truck make for a fun story.

“We were just cruising around, seeing if we could do it,” Neil says. “We buried the truck. It was down to the axle. We had to shovel it out. I think I crawled out the window. It was pretty bad. That was my fault.”

If something gets stuck on the course this winter, Matt will be responsible for determining the cause and solution. The father-son relationship entered a new phase when Matt reached adulthood, and most of the bonding occurs at the same place where the red truck got stuck.

Matt and Neil are telling stories and showing a visitor the Hawks Landing maintenance facility on a dreary Sunday morning in late August. In front of Matt sits a broken mower used to maintain the bluegrass at Pioneer Pointe, a nearby 13-hole, par-3 course that opened in 2021. Neil helped build Pioneer Pointe and he also leads the course’s maintenance efforts for his bosses. Neil is confident he’s employing the right person to fix the mower.

“We have a lot of equipment that’s aging,” Neil says. Matt quickly interrupts, calling the club’s aging older equipment “gremlins.” In today’s golf maintenance environment, gremlins must be resuscitated.

“Before we had Pioneer Pointe to maintain, we could shut down a mower and wait,” Neil adds. “We only have two fairway mowers here and only one at Pioneer Pointe. We have nothing left in case something happens. We’re in a tough spot. Ordering equipment is now ridiculous. I’m waiting on a mower we ordered last year and I’m not even expecting it to be here. So, what do you do? You need somebody who can …”

Neil, who admits he can “go all over the place,” shifts his thought. But the answer is obvious. His operation needs somebody like his son.

Matt is in his fifth year as Hawks Landing’s equipment manager. He recently became one of the first professionals to complete the GCSAA’s Certified Turf Equipment Manager program. Neil, a native Ohioan who started his career at famed Inverness Club working for Tom Walker, is a longtime Certified Golf Course Superintendent. They are the first father-son pair to complete both certification programs. Working on Sundays doesn’t fluster Matt. His father, after all, has worked nearly every warm-weather Sunday for decades.

“He was always working and busting his butt out there,” Matt says. “I saw that he loved it. He has a passion for this. That’s where some of my work ethic has come from, wanting to push and succeed.”

Matt relishes hands-on learning and demonstrated mechanical aptitude from a young age. Initially, he wanted to be become a heavy diesel mechanic, and he participated in a local youth apprenticeship program for automotive mechanics. Through the program, he landed a job as a mechanic at a local auto dealer. He found automotive work monotonous and his co-workers to be territorial. He returned to Hawks Landing and figured he’d try to follow his father’s path and become a superintendent. When the club’s equipment manager suddenly and unexpectedly left, Matt filled the position.

“I figured, ‘I guess I know how to turn a wrench,’” he says. “I filled the role and ever since then I have fallen in love with it.”

The variety of the work, the relationship with his father, and observing members enjoy sparkling playing surfaces all make it easy to forget Matt once wanted to maintain machines with large engines. “To be able to walk out that door and see what we have accomplished, … I couldn’t ask for anything more,” he says.

Passion and knowledge place Matt in a terrific career position. With the industry struggling to attract young talent and supply-chain challenges producing lengthy shipping delays, equipment managers capable of keeping pricey mowers operating at high levels for longer periods are being offered six-figure salaries. Matt has cultivated strong relationships with his Wisconsin peers, so he understands the demand for somebody with his skillset and experience. He also realizes the quality of his current gig.

“I’m probably going to stay here for a while,” he says. “I still have a lot to learn. I’m fortunate to have a dad who’s been in the industry for … how long?” Matt leans on a mower and looks over at Neil.

“A long time,” Neil responds.

“I’m constantly learning,” Matt adds. “I think this is a great duo we have.”

Neil regularly ponders Matt’s future.

“He’s my son, we get along great, and I get to see him every day,” he says. “How much more can you ask for? I try to take good care of him and pay him well. I know the owners know that he’s a valuable asset. It’s difficult with two golf courses. I think a lot of guys would say they can do this job without an assistant, but they certainly can’t do the job without an equipment manager. I’d hate to lose him, and I’ll do everything possible to keep him.”

Wisconsin’s outdoorsy surroundings fit Matt’s lifestyle. He enjoys skeet shooting, just started fishing and plays golf when time permits. Matt and Neil used to race remote control cars, but Matt has outgrown that hobby. They spend most of their father-son time at Hawks Landing or Pioneer Pointe.

“I don’t do too much of anything besides work,” Neil says. “I enjoy it too much. The one thing I love to do, and I wish I had more time to do, is sheep herding with my dogs. It takes too long to get where I need to go. It’s something I like to do in the winter. Both dogs are trained on sheep and do really well.”

Winters remain the slowest stretch at Hawks Landing and the best turf innovations and ideas are often concocted during the coldest months. Matt and Neil spent the gap between the 2021 and 2022 golf seasons creating a system to herd equipment updates using QR codes. Operators must scan the code on a tablet or phone and input data such as oil and coolant levels and usage hours into a Google Drive file. Matt studies files and stores printed records in a thick white binder he keeps next to the shop computer.

The computer files and printouts tell the technical story of what occurs inside the Hawks Landing maintenance facility. The enduring stories are saved elsewhere.

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s editor-in-chief.