Guy Cipriano
Don Bloom eats grilled food in the middle of ultramarathons.
“Cheeseburgers are the best at about mile 50,” he says.
We’ll take Bloom’s word on this one. We’ll also take grilling and life balance guidance from the western New York turf manager.
Bloom is the supervisor of park and golf course at Durand Eastman Park in Rochester, New York. His team maintains 10 miles of marked trails, an arboretum, picnic shelters and an 18-hole golf course where Donald Ross and later Robert Trent Jones Sr. worked.
Away from the park and course, Bloom trots through the woods — and he’s running a 100-kilometer race later this summer. Bloom also enjoys cooking and grilling for family, friends and co-workers. His passion for food brought Golf Course Industry and AQUA-AID Solutions to Durand Eastman on May 18 for a #TurfheadsGrilling cookout.
National sales manager Russ Warner served as the grill master, with a veggie assist from managing editor Matt LaWell. Entrées included pulled pork, hot dogs and, yes, cheeseburgers. Bloom submitted a wings recipe (he lives in western New York, after all) for the inaugural Turfheads Guide to Grilling published in our December 2021 issue and Durand Eastman was selected as the site for a #TurfheadsGrilling cookout.
The #TurfheadsGrilling campaign returns in 2022. All are encouraged to submit a recipe for the published guide. Everybody who submits a recipe receives #TurfheadsGrilling swag. Industry professionals whose recipes make it to print receive a spices and sauces kit and a chance to have us visit and feed your team in 2023.
Heck, you might even get to sign an autograph. Bloom’s brother, Brian Bloom, is a trained chef, yet the trained agronomist became the family’s first published cook. “When the grilling guide came out, I autographed it and gave it to him,” Bloom says. “He was pissed.”
“Growing up, we cooked,” Bloom adds. “We always had a lot of food in the house and friends would always come over before football or soccer games. I then cooked in college for roommates. I now cook almost every night at home. My brother went to culinary school and it’s always a competition to see who can cook better.”
Camaraderie isn’t the only side benefit of cooking. Bloom started trail running with his father, Doug Bloom, in 2010. The pursuit has blossomed into Bloom running thousands of miles and burning millions of calories.
“I wish I would have started it earlier,” he says. “I try to live a healthy lifestyle. I still eat like crap. But if I go for a run, I don’t feel so bad about it. Make time for yourself. It’s been a challenge to figure out how to work to live instead of live to work. Everything from family to your health improves if you figure out how to work to live and do something else away from the golf course. You’ll figure out you’ll enjoy the golf course a little bit more.”
Bloom has one more item to determine over the next few months: the recipe he wants to submit for the 2022 Turfheads Guide to Grilling.
“I really want to figure out poor man’s burnt ends,” he says. “I have tried it a couple of times. It’s not great … yet.”
JOIN IN THE GRILLING FUN!
Whenever you tweet out your grilling handiwork, be sure to include the #TurfheadsGrilling hashtag and mention @GCImagazine or @Solutions4Turf and your food shots will almost definitely be shared on our Twitter page and certainly included for consideration for our second annual year-end grilling guide and a 2023 team cookout. We’ll also ship out tasty spice and sauce boxes to select grillers whose recipes and images are selected for the guide. You can formally submit recipes and images for consideration by CLICKING HERE or via email to editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano at gcipriano@gie.net. The program is open to ANYBODY and EVERYBODY in the industry.
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