Wisconsin's Monroe S. Miller Wins USGA Green Section Award
January 12, 2004 Far Hills, N.J. -- Fifty-seven-year-old Monroe S. Miller, golf course superintendent at Blackhawk Country Club in Madison, Wis., for the past 30 years, has been selected to receive the Green Section Award from the United States Golf Association.



Miller
 
 
The award is given annually by a panel of experts in the turfgrass field and recognizes distinguished contributions to golf through work with turfgrass. It will be presented to Miller at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Conference and Show in San Diego on Feb. 13, 2004.

"It's indescribable to win this award," said Miller. "I feel like I could die now since there's nothing in my profession better than this."

Miller, known as a prolific writer and the editor/publisher of The Grass Roots, the official publication of the Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents Association (WGCSA), has won the GCSAA award for best content in a chapter publication with an unpaid editor for the past 19 consecutive years.

He has served on the board and as president of both the WGCSA and the Wisconsin Turfgrass Association. In 1989, he was awarded the WGCSA's Distinguished Service Award. Since 1986, he has been a member of the Green Section Committee.

His most important contribution to the turf industry is fundraising. He spearheaded a campaign to raise the $250,000 required to obtain $100,000 in matching funds for a University of Wisconsin field turfgrass research facility.

After overseeing the construction of the O.J. Noer Research Facility, completed in 1991, he led the Wisconsin Turfgrass Association in an effort to raise $1 million that, when matched and invested by the Wisconsin Research Foundation, will generate enough interest to annually support four graduate research fellowships.

"Of the more than 200 students who have graduated from the Turf and Grounds Management Program thus far, nearly 100 of them have benefited immeasurably from having worked for Monroe," said Dr. Wayne Kussow, professor of soil science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"His willingness to take on students part-time during the school year as well as full-time during the summer creates the unique opportunity for students to experience what goes into shutting down a golf course for the winter and getting it ready for play the following spring. These valuable learning experiences don't happen through summer internships."

Miller worked summers at Nakoma Golf Club from 1967 to 1969 while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After earning his B.S. degree in Soil Science in 1968, he served two years in the U.S. Army. He returned to Madison in 1970 and began work on his graduate degee. In 1972, he was a teaching assistant in the UW-College of Agriculture and also worked at Maple Bluff Country Club. From 1973 to the 2003, he has been the golf course superintendent at Blackhawk Country Club.

Miller and his wife, Cheryl, reside in Middleton, Wis., and have three adult daughters.

For more information, please contact the USGA Green Section at (908) 234-2300.