Driving Sustainability at Cabot Saint Lucia
That’s kind of my obsession is to keeping the place clean. We have approximately a kilometer or so of beaches spread out. Uh we have one main beach and a couple smaller beaches. So we have a crew that goes out every day, 365 days a year that makes sure we the beaches are clean and tidy and people can use them. And that’s both for the public and for our members. All beaches in St. Lucia are public so anybody can access them. So we’re doing it for the community as well as for our members. [Music] Hi everyone, this is John Fiella and welcome to another edition of the golf sustainability podcast. I’m really excited about uh the conversation today with my next guest because I actually had the good fortune of playing at their uh golf course just a few weeks ago. My guest today is Damon Deorgio. He’s the director of uh aronomy at the uh Point Party Golf Club, which is the golf course at the uh very very uh prestigious and hot as a pistol Cabat St. Lucia Resort. We’re going to get right into the conversation because there really is a lot to talk about. Damon’s got over 20 years of experience in the in the industry, so I know this will be a very rich and robust conversation. Damon, welcome very much to the podcast. It it was great to meet you when I was out there and thanks so much for agreeing to to visit with me today. No, I’m I’m humbled that you invited me. Thank you so very much. I’m very appreciative. Well, listen, that course and I’m not just saying this and if you listen to all the shows, you’ll see I don’t say this on all the shows. I mean, Capid St. Lucia is without question one of my, you know, top five in the world courses. Is really a spectacular place. and you and your team just do uh just do an an incredible an incredible job with it. Thank you so much. It’s it’s I’ve been here since oh about four or five months before we started grassing and it’s been a been a labor of love to say the least and it’s a team effort from the course designers Bill Core and Ben Krenshaw to the contractors to our team. It’s truly a team effort here. That’s great. Well, it shows. Why don’t we start by having you tell us a little about uh Cab St. Lucia and the point Hardy Golf Club. Sure. So, Kabat St. Lucia is part of the Cabbat collection uh which started in Canada by our uh co-founder and CEO Ben Calendor. We are a private resort located on the island of St. Lucia. We’re on the very northern northeastern point of St. Lucia, which is only 28 miles long by 10 miles wide roughly. So, it’s a fairly small island. We’re in the Eastern Caribbean. We currently have the Point Hardy Golf Club and we are starting to build residences and the clubhouse at this time and it was designed by Bill Core and Ben Crrenshaw. It’s all past balum. Uh it was seated to Green with Pure Dynasty uh Seashore Passbum. It started construction around 2019 uh during COVID of course and so that slowed things up quite a bit and then in 2022 we really started going and we started grassing in June of 2022 and finished grassing the following summer and we opened for play December 1st 2023 and it’s been uh been really good since with a lot of accolades, a lot of good reviews and It’s been fun and challenging and exhilarating and all the emotions allin one. Yeah. Well, it’s a the property I mean the land that you’re on there is really just spectacular. There’s uh you know there’s nothing like it. That one stretch of holes 15 16 17 are awe inspiring hole after awe inspiring hole after awe inspiring hole. From the second shot on 14 in are some really great finishing holes. maybe possibly some of the best in golf. Yeah. Uh listen, I think you’re right. So, expand a little bit on your role there. Tell us a little more about your, you know, your personal responsibilities and kind of what your priorities are. So, as director of economy, I like to call myself the uh head trash picker upper because I’m always picking up trash. Kind of my obsession is to keeping the place clean. Uh we have three, I don’t know if you call them departments, but three sections in aronomy. One is beach cleaning. We have approximately a kilometer or so of beaches spread out. Uh we have one main beach and a couple smaller beaches. So we have a crew that goes out every day, 365 days a year that makes sure we the beaches are clean and tidy and people can use them. And I spoke for the public and for our members. All beaches in St. Lucia are public so anybody can access them. So we’re doing it for the community as well as for our members. Then we have a second section or department division uh landscaping and that includes all the landscaping of the roadsides of the house that’s being built all the buildings anything that’s not a vertical structure you know landscaping takes care of that and that includes two nurseries which uh I’ll get into a little bit later and then the third section is the golf course maintenance portion which is where we maintain point Hardy Golf Club so really the role expands uh it’s quite broad and I look at it as I am there to support the people who run the beach cleaning the staff members who run the landscaping you know the staff member who runs golf course maintenance uh the two my two main people are Dalton Robotham who runs the golf course maintenance program for us and Tyrron Desarie who runs our landscaping beach cleaning and I’m here to support them, mentor them, help them whatever in whatever way I can to make sure that they’re successful. And because if they’re successful and their teams are successful, then we’re all going to be just fine. That’s cool. You know, from a culture standpoint, I have to tell you, your focus on the success of your team is a tra a character trait of uh very very successful leaders that I’ve observed over the years and, you know, had the pleasure of meeting and talking to. So, uh, good on you for having that that focus about, uh, about your role. Oh, thank you. Very kind of you. Yeah. U, so I know that, you know, sustainability is important to the Cabbat collection, and I know your founder, Ben Cowendur, has a real commitment to uh, sustainability, which which we’ll get into in a little more uh, later. But on an individual property level, what what does golf sustainability mean at Capit St. Lucia? Yeah, sustainability is a a great term and listening to other podcasts, I know people have different definitions and versions of it. And sometimes sustainability is out of necessity, believe it or not. You know, I’ll give you an example. You know, being wise in our water choices. You know, we have reverse osmosis plants. We actually suck the water in from the ocean and then pump it to two um reverse osmosis plants where the salt is removed and then pumped to our irrigation pond. And so out of necessity because it’s a very expensive timeconuming process out of necessity we have to be very sustainable in the way we use our water and irrigate. And that includes, you know, part of the design that Bill Core and Ben Krenshaw and uh their design associates Keith Reb and Trevor Dormer wanted was to, you know, have that natural look on the edges. Um where, you know, we’re not irrigating way into the natives. Um and so that’s part of the necessity of this of this project and part of the sustainability here. It is the right thing to do. You know, as you said, it’s being sustainable is truly the right thing to do. It’s what cabinet wants to do is what we all want to do in our hearts and on our minds. And so that’s the most important thing. And then on top of that, it’s a bit of necessity and it’s a bit of uh you know trying to work it out overall that everything we do needs to be sustainable just for the the business operations and for the community that we’re a part of. Yeah. Interesting. You mentioned two things that I’ve never heard another director of eronomy address before and that is having to maintain the beaches and this whole double osmosis process that you have with water uh acquisition and and use. Um, so may maybe you could expand a little on the unique issues that you face, you know, being on a Caribbean island from uh, you know, management and and maintenance perspective on the uh, golf course. Yeah. One of the main things that we deal with is just supply overall. So, I’m originally from Maryland, the Baltimore, Washington area, and I’ve worked in the United States before. I’ve been in the Caribbean for 14 years. uh 10 years in the Dominican Republic, one year in Puerto Rico, and uh just over three here that compared to working in somewhere, let’s just we’ll just use Maryland example because that’s where I’m from originally. If I want fertilizer or specific chemical or a product, I can generally get it worst case scenario the next day. You know, call up the salesman, hey, we have a pest in infestation, something like that. So, it’s immediate here. The process for us to get anything is it has to arrive to our freight border in Miami by Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. And it all the paperwork needed also has to be there at that time. That can include safety data sheets, it can the invoice, anything that’s required by customs and immigration has to all that paperwork that we don’t think about when in the United States also has to be there. Then on Thursday there’s the ship leaves and it arrives into St. Lucia on the following Tuesday generally. Then it’s what they call d stuffed removed from the container goes into customs here in St. Lucia. They check it and then it’s released to us. That could be another 3 to 5 days. So you’re basically looking at 2 weeks from the time it arrives at our freight border in Miami to actually being on site. And that doesn’t include the time that it takes to get to our freight border in Miami. So you go from needing or wanting something and having it the next day to having to wait at least two weeks. So there’s not a lot of room for error. There’s a lot of planning involved. A lot of planning. And and when it doesn’t when you can’t get something, there’s a lot of impro improvisation. you know, if we have a machine that breaks and you know, we try and stock parts that are that break quite often that something’s always going to break that you don’t have a part and then it could take even a small part via FedEx might take 5 to seven days. So, and you might need that piece of equipment because you have members who want to play and you have to keep the core standards up. So, you might have to improvise, you might have to make something. It might not be permanent, might not be pretty, but you got to do it. That’s quite a quite a challenge um that most uh superintendents and directors of Ramy uh in the United States are not going to have to deal with. Uh the beach cleaning is a big deal. You know, like most Caribbean islands, there is uh sargasm certain times of year that pile up and we’re working really hard to be sustainable in what happens to the sargasm. We’re looking at many, many, many different programs to either turn it into fertilizer or to compost. It’s quite a it’s quite a dilemma and it’s quite interesting to see what everybody’s doing with this sargasm that really only hits at certain times of the year. And it’s a great a great project that we uh that we’re endeavoring in to be sustainable and not just dump it, but to actually make use of it somehow some way. Yeah. Well, it sounds like that’ll keep you on your toes, man. Yeah. Yeah. Try and uh keep it clean and and composted and then, you know, planning ahead for everything that’s going on. It’s uh it does does keep you on your toes. Uh every day is a challenge. Interesting. You know, referencing the sargasm that that you that you uh brought up, that kind of leads into the next thing I wanted to talk about. And maybe we could talk about some specific sustainability projects or initiatives that that you’ve engaged in and maybe start with that project related to you know what you’re doing with that sargasm that you know washes ashore. Yeah, we’ll start we have quite a few projects. We’ll start with sargasm. Um we’re working with all types of different companies. Uh we even had a group from Japan in maybe a month or two ago. Uh working with a company out of Canada. Uh some of us I I didn’t get a chance to go but our landscape manager was in Martinique yesterday looking at different ideas for sargasm. Uh we met with fertilizer companies. There’s a lot of different things we’re trying to do to make use of this this sargasm. Again, it’s not all the time that when it does come, you want to do something with it. You can’t you don’t want to just dump it, right? And it’s very very big part of being sustainable. Uh I’ll start from the beginning. Something that we did uh that the our contractor who built the course did in the very beginning was if you remember the native areas outside the Pasum when you played here how beautiful they are. Absolutely. So, a a lot of those areas were where the golf holes were are, excuse me. And so during construction, they would take mini excavators and actually dig out those native plants and plant them on the sides of the holes just outside the uh pastile area. So, I mean, how sustainable is that when you’re taking the same plant material that’s on site before construction and as you’re clearing, you’re taking that material and you’re planting it on the hole, on the sides of the hole, and it looks fabulous. I mean, it takes a little while to grow in, but once it does, oh my goodness, does it really uh really came out good in my opinion. Uh the other thing that we do that Tyron does on the landscaping side, we have two nurseries. So we’re a small island and we don’t have big plant nurseries on island. Uh and the quality is not what we expect at a private resort of our level. So what we do is when we clear lots or housing or buildings, you know, Tyrron will take those plants that are good and he’ll take them to a plant production nursery that we have on site. So where in America or in Florida, I’m sure you go down the street, you want a plant, you want a nursery, I’m sure there’s dozens you can choose from. I’m I’m assuming. I know in Maryland there is. You just call up and say, “Hey, I want this. Bring it over.” So what he’s doing is he’s actually taking these these plants and he’s rep-propagating them and making more of them. And so when that person’s house is built or the clubhouse is built, you know, we’re actually taking the same plants from the site and just replanting them that there’s more of them because, you know, Tyron has has uh propagated them. If that’s not sustainable, I don’t know what is. And so that means, you know, that the plants that we’re using are going to work in our environmental conditions, in our soils, on our site, and it’s just a great a great thing that that Tyron’s doing to uh to make sure we’re we’re successful at that. So, it’s not only to save money, but it’s to make sure that we have the best plants that are going to work on site and to to make sure we’re we’re being sustainable. Uh Tyron also has a second nursery uh farm. Uh it’s all organic where he actually grows food for our beverage operation which is you know amazing as well. So when our guests are eating or they have drinks you know and they say well this you know basil for example or thyme you know this came from our own garden. Eventually I would even like to I’d like to add bees honey bees and chickens for eggs. Uh that’s some upcoming projects that we’d like to do. So those are some of the uh sustainable projects that we have going on. And and again, a little bit is out of necessity, a little bit isn’t. Some of the things specifically on the golf course that we use is uh organic fertilizers as a base uh of our fertilization program. You know, we’re constantly doing irrigation audits to make sure our our irrigation sprinklers are running on time for the right correct amount, nozzles are clean, heads are turning, you know, because we want to save as much water as we can just because it’s the right thing to do and economically and for the business. It’s the right thing to do is to save on the water as well. And the other thing, one of our assistant, superintendents, Brian Muza, he actually uses salt to control weeds in our turf prep. So, as you may or may not know, seashore paspalum is salt tolerant. It’s not salt resistant, but it can sustain a certain amount of salt. So, what Brian does is he actually figures out the correlation of how much salt versus how much water. and he actually sprays weeds with this salt, not herbicides, not chemicals, but salt uh to actually control some of the weeds that we have in our turf grass area, which is fabulous. Not again, not just economically, but you know, in terms of the environment. Another project that uh Brian is working on is in the United States uh and I know you’ve had some at least one professor on in one of your podcasts. There’s a lot of research going on on insect damage, weeds, fertility, etc. Well, we don’t have that here in the Caribbean. So, where you might have in, again, we’ll use Maryland as an example, you know, there might be one life cycle of an insect that you have to control in Maryland. Here, we might have two or three life cycles, you know, because it’s our climate is, you know, basically mid to late mid to upper 80s and sunny all year. Although we do have a a wet and dry seed. So Brian’s working on trying to determine doing our own research to try and determine when is the best time to control these insects and weeds because we don’t have that research that you do in the United States from land grant universities. So he’s work we’re working with uh professor from North Carolina State University and from Pennsylvania State University Drs Rick Brandenburgg and Dr. for Mike Bananza, they try and figure out what environmental conditions here at Point Hardy in the Caribbean will precipitate us needing to apply an insecticide or when a weed is going to emerge. So, we actually are doing our own research uh to do that instead of just blanketing everything at once, right? We’re really trying to determine the most efficient and effective way to control these pests in the most sustainable manner. Yeah. Well, that’s really smart to partner with those AP or universities to to uh try to find and I think the work that’ll come out of that contributes to the overall industry. So, yeah, absolutely. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, Damon, that was quite a list. And what I like what I like about I think essentially all of them they all do what I try to reinforce about sustainability and that is you can be focused on the environment and reduce cost and improve profitability at the same time. There are so many uh golf course owners and operators that I talk to that when I say hey tell me about your point of view on sustainability and they immediately say well you know environmental sustainability is secondary the first thing we need to focus on is financial sustainability and I’m like hey they they are one and the same and when you reach that point of enlightenment if you will that being green can make more green you really lean in to to the concept and and it’s clear that uh many of the things that you’re doing are they’re good for the environment and they’re good for your bottom line. So you’re you’re a uh you get it and uh it it’s it’s a it’s a great example for uh for others to follow. Thank you very much. So, you’ve given props to your team, which I I think is fantastic. And, you know, particularly because I like to say sustainability is a team sport, and you’ve got your team members there uh at the club, but then you’ve also got industry uh partners and industry suppliers. Tell us about some of the supplier and association partnerships that you have at uh Cab St. Lucia to help advance uh sustainability. So something very uh exciting happened last year, last June. I’m going to look at my paper if you don’t mind so I get get it right. Yeah, go right ahead. Tabit uh collection overall uh which includes golf courses in Canada, Florida, uh Scotland, France, and in uh Norway. Uh we all partnered with a with Autobon International so that we’re all signed up for the platinum signature sanctuary certification program and that doesn’t just include the golf courses that includes the buildings, the lodgings, the entire resort facility. So we’re all signed up for that. We’re all, you know, marching towards a single being certified in that program. And I believe, you know, we’re the first um multicourse organization to really partner in specifically in this platinum uh sanctuary certification program. So that’s very exciting. our suppliers. You know, I was just uh with our um partners with Toro, you know, they’re coming up uh with a a they’re working with Turf Rad, which is something that you put on I can’t I don’t know the the exact details, but I’ve seen it and we were talking about and something that really really interests me because it really helps with water conservation is these sensors that will go on the back of mowers and read the uh moisture levels in on your fairway. And then what tour is doing is they’re trying to collaborate that with their central irrigation system so that it automatically adjusts each sprinkler head to the soil conditions that these meters are are reading as you’re mowing fairway. I mean, how cool is that? You know, talk about a way to to save water and to, you know, be more pinpoint accurate. I mean, when I uh heard that in the past week or two and I met with our Toro partners from Hector Turf last week, I was like, “Wow, this is something uh you know, I think in the future we really want to want to look at.” You know, besides that, you know, we do have some inground sensors that measure moisture and salt. Um we’re constantly using our uh probes, handheld probes to check moisture and greens, you know, just to make sure we get the right amount of water as we need it. And we also do soil testing to make sure that we’re putting out the right fertility. We’re not putting out too much fertility to be honest with you. You know, you we don’t want to put out too much. You want to put out just enough. So, I think soil testing is sometimes uh not valued as it should because it’s very important to know what you have in the soil. So, yeah, quite a quite a few partnerships. Yeah, the the autobond program. I’m really impressed that corporately across all properties you’re committed to the highest level program that Audabon offers. Um yeah, I I I’ve had Frank Levadera from Audabon on the show and you know that that program you’ve committed to which is a relatively new program. It once again it’s not only the golf course but it’s the entire property. Mhm. including the clubhouse and residences and food and bev and it’s um that says a lot that you know you would make that commitment and the fact that you’re the first major multicourse operator to uh make that commitment really is is tangible evidence of the commitment that Ben and the entire company has to sustainability. Although I am going to tell Frank he needs he needs a shorter title for the program. Yes, he does. Yeah. One easier to say it that’s for sure. And then on on the Toro partnership, you know, the they’re doing a lot of interesting things. I’m familiar with the turf red technology. I didn’t know they were working with Toro, but you know this whole emerging area of innovating around when and how you irrigate the property is I think a big opportunity. I had um David Robinson, former yeah uh head of aronomy for Marriott Golf uh on the show and he you know he had this vision for the future of golf course irrigation and you know we we talked about a lot of a lot of different things and you know the idea of going from just kind of spray and prey irrigation to doing things that are that are much more targeted uh much more focused Um, it’s like just in time irrigation, yeah, is definitely the future. So, I’ll be interested in uh learning kind of, you know, if you wind up doing something with that turf rad technology, I I’ll be interested in hearing down the road how that works for you. Yeah, there’s actually a water manager program put out by the Green Keeper app that tells you when it’s, you know, it actually uses AI to tell you when you’re going to wilt. It’s really, really interesting. I know I have some friends in the Washington DC area that use it and they say it’s spot on. The AI after 10 days to two weeks of of uh data that it’ll actually accurately tell you when it’s going to wilt. It’s really cool. And I know you you know Matt Muenberg because when we talked at at the course I I uh you know the the episode he and I did together that was kind of focused on technology was uh you know was really interesting. So, I I’m encouraged to see all of the work that’s going on there and you’re certainly leveraging uh partnerships effectively. What one thing I do want to add though, all the technology in the world, you know, does not substitute for walking the golf course with your own eyes and your own feet and getting on the ground and touching the turf, you know, playing your own golf course. Um, you still need to do that. It’s not I still don’t as much as I love technology and think it’s great being out there and seeing the course yourself on with feet on the ground is uh is always going to be there always going to be the most important part. Amen. I’m glad you raised that because one of the arguments against technology is fear of it uh kind of costing uh jobs. No, I don’t believe that. I think it’s to support and help you make decisions and to quantify decisions. I mean, when you’re making decisions worth, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, you know, you want to quantify it. So, I believe that the technology is there to help you quantify and help you aid in those decisions. It’s not to take away jobs. You still need somebody with experience and education in agonomics and turf grass management, but now we can quantify what we’re doing, which is really important. Yeah, I I I agree with your view on that 100%. So, what’s next at Cabat St. Lucia from a uh either either technologies you’re looking at or projects that you’re looking at from uh from a sustainability uh uh standpoint? What kinds of things are you looking at? Yeah. So, um the thing I’m most excited about right now is just studying how our different environments affect our pests and how we can better control them more efficiently. Yeah. and more cheaper because it just it doesn’t feel right to go all out on something just because you feel like you need to spray an insecticide. You know, we’re actually what Brian is doing, our assistant, one of our assistant golf course superintendent, is actually setting up different environmental monitoring stations on four or five microclimates throughout the golf course. So something that I really want to delve into in the future is not spraying or applying or doing the same thing to all 18 holes. You know, we have, as you know, we have holes on the ocean, we have inland holes, we have holes in valleys, we have holes on top of hills. In my opinion, there’s no way we should be treating them all the same. And so we’re doing that now fertility wise, you know, where we’re using soil test and just our own observations on which holes need more fertility than others. So instead of saying, okay, let’s just go out and apply fertilizer everywhere, you know, we’re trying to to be more accurate in that and and by measuring environmental factors using our own observations and using soil tech. So, I really want to start delving into being more accurate in our applications, both irrigation, fertility, herbicides, insecticides, all that. And also looking forward to dialing in our uh herbicide program with the uh salt as well. Uh eventually, I really like to use what’s called brine. So, when the ocean water goes through the reverse osmosis plant and salt is removed, that salt is called brine. And so, I’d like to really reuse that to control herbicide. Now, it can’t be as strong as it is coming out of our O plant. We have to dilute it. But Brian is working on that. Wow. That’s fascinating stuff. And it’s the perfect example of the higher level work you can do when you’re using technology to, you know, take care of some of the more rudimentary things. I haven’t heard anyone talk yet about microclimates across their golf course. Um h how how are you going about determining what those four or five microclimates are? That that is not very data driven. That’s just uh observations, you know, just from being out here all the time and and knowing, okay, these holes are less windy. They’re they don’t get as much salt spray. Uh these holes have um you know, when we’re building a golf course, maybe slightly different soil. Uh so bas mainly environment mainly environment wind and closeness to the wind location valley you’re on the foothill and closest to the ocean. So not a very uh you know technological way to do it but it works well I don’t know that seems very thoughtful to me. I mean is this something you came up with on your own or is this a is this a standard practice in other courses and I’m simply not aware of it? No, it, you know, I don’t want to say I speak for other courses. I don’t want to say we’re we’re completely doing it right now. We’re we’re getting into it right now. That again, it’s it’s a team. It’s a team effort. You know, we look at the whole aronomy team, you know, from Tyrron and landscaping to our assistant superintendent, Brian and uh Eduardo, our you know, Dalton who leads the golf course maintenance team, you know, working with the professors Dr. Brandenburgg and Dr. Fedanza. It’s it’s a it’s a true team effort um out here and even our own staff. I tell you the best people to get advice from is the staff uh the local staff who do it every day, who mow the greens every day and are doing the work the other other day. I mean, you know, ask them, “Hey, which which holes have more grass grow faster or windier, etc.” And they’ll, you know, they’re the best people to ask. Yeah. Well, I mean, that makes a world of sense. And and it you’ve got proximity to the water, you’ve got wind, you’ve got angle that the sun’s hitting their property. Yeah, I I I mean there’s a formula there that identifies microclimates and as you’re speaking I’m thinking about the holes. It’s so nice to have played the course prior to the conversation and uh you know I’m thinking about the fifth hole which is that beautiful downhill hole through that valley and when you’re on a T- box of five that’s a very different environment than you are in that stretch of holes that we talked about on the on the back nine. Absolutely it is. absolutely is. You got that valley down there. All right. Well, listen, th this has been a great uh great overview on the on the course and your view on sustainability and the uh the things you’re doing now and the things you plan on doing in the future. Um, what I’d like to do next is is really kind of get to know you uh better and um I like to focus the kind of last questions in the conversation in a way that you know will give people a better sense for who my guest is. And frankly, I think we’ve learned a lot about you already based on the amount of credit that you know you give to others. But what uh what drives you, Damon? My drives me is service to others, is helping others. I think that’s uh something that uh I used to be a golf course superintendent in the Philadelphia area in northern Delaware. Uh at the time uh for about 5 years during that I did pet therapy uh with my dog Pinky who uh unfortunately recently passed away at 17 and a half years old. And I really enjoyed it. We got to volunteer at assisted living centers uh at children’s hospital and in hospice. And let me tell you, you know, the the gratitude you get from sitting with people um you know, on their deathbeds or with children in the hospital and having their parents stressed or people in assisted living, you know, I really, you know, what drives me is helping others because that’s where I get the most uh happiness and gratitude from. So that’s what really drives me. And you know, if you bring it back into the golf course is helping staff grow to help them get payraises, to have the assistant superintendent move on to other courses and become golf course superintendent. I mean, that’s what I really get a kick out of. Whether it’s it’s the staff member who came here not knowing what golf is who’s now moved their way out to uh you know three or four positions and is making more money and is able to do more things for their family or or or a young uh assistant superintendent coming up in the business who gets their first superintendent job um hopefully with some of the mentoring that I was able to give them. That’s what really drives me as service to other. That’s awesome. I mean that’s such an important core value. Uh you know what I’ve learned over the years is that the more you focus on the success of others, this miraculous thing happens where you become more successful. Yeah. Uh it’s kind of you pay it in. You pay it into the universe and it does come back. Yeah. I will tell you in a prior life I was very very fortunate and this goes back over 30 years ago. I was a publisher on a trade magazine and and I had the opportunity to get to know Sam Walton, the the founder of Walmart stores and one of his big core values was servant leadership and he was all about being focused on the success of others and uh and we know what that did for him. So yeah. Yes. Yeah. Pretty successful person right there. Really great to hear that. So, thanks for thanks for sharing that and sorry to hear about the loss of of of of your dog. I after 17 years that’s that’s about as personal a loss as as one can have. So, uh very tough. Very tough. Yeah. So, we talk about drive. Let’s talk about inspiration. Who uh who’s inspired you over the years? Uh Damon, definitely say my my father. Um who um unfortunately passed away just about two weeks after my dog did. Oh, no. uh this winter, but he he really inspired me just in the way being humble uh you know, servant leadership. You know, I just uh at at at his funeral in in late January, you know, his uh he worked for the Social Security Administration and you know, so many of his staff members came to the funeral and I remember one of them saying, “Your dad was my only boss that I would come back to the funeral for.” So, you know, really inspires me to see, you know, my observing my dad growing up and how he dealt with others, not just at work, but in his personal life and, you know, not necessarily uh being the most outspoken person, but generally being the most respected person. I’ve also had some really, really wonderful mentors in the industry. George Thompson uh at the Country Club of North Carolina and Pinehurst and Davis Stone at the Honors Course in Udawa, Tennessee are are some great mentors. But really almost everybody I’ve worked for, whether it’s Thomas Bast at the Cow Club, Kevin Piseski in California at Stone Tree, uh there’s really just too many people to um to mention that everybody I’ve worked for has really uh uh led me and and inspired me in some way to to get to where I am at right now. That’s great. Well, you’ve been uh you’ve been very fortunate to have some great role models. Absolutely. Absolutely. What’s the greatest challenge that you’ve had to face? Believe it or not, as beautiful as this site is, and you’ve seen it, doing construction and growing was the biggest challenge. And I’ll tell you why. Because when we were building this course, there’s a dry season and a wet season in St. Lucia or basically the Caribbean. You know, there’s not you don’t get summer, fall, spring, none of that. It’s either wet or dry. And of course, we were grafting during the uh during the wet season. So I I remember we started grass in the beginning of June. Everybody’s happy. What a great you know after co this you know we got water so great and then we had a 5 in rain just everything was gone. You go back build it again and regraft it again. Three weeks later a 4 inch rain all goes you know and it was just you know the the first six months of grassing was a record-breaking amount of rainfall for St. solution because you know of course it’s going to happen when you’re grassing a golf course. The biggest challenge was just, you know, every time it would rain, just going back out there and doing this, you know, literally grasping golf holes three, four, five times. And, you know, mentally it’s tough, but you got to show up and you got to be strong for the staff who were doing the work. And, you know, I think, believe it or not, as Bill Cor will tell you, it would force better because we did things three, four, five times because of the rain. So, we got to make adjustments. But, you know, it was a really a challenge mentally just redoing the same thing over and over again, but we did it and uh as a team and I think uh the product is pretty good. That’s not the kind of practice you’d like to have, but that’ll be because of it. Yeah. Um with all that’s been written about the course, I hadn’t heard that story before. And uh that that’s that’s certainly uh testimony to your to your perseverance. Yeah. everybody’s perseverance, not just me, everybody, the staff, everybody. Yeah. So, at the end end of the the the day, what would you like to kind of leave behind for future generations? When you think about your your legacy, what would you what would you like that to be, Damon? Yeah. I’m going to read you a quote that I really love. Um, it’s by uh Maya Angelo. I think most of us have heard of her. Sure. And it’s a well-known quote. I’m just going to read it to you. And it says, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. That people will never forget how you made them feel.” So my legacy is that people remember how they felt when they were with me. You know, that they were my center of attention, that I cared for them, and that I wanted them to be better uh and their families better. So if I can do that, that’s what I would like to uh to leave. That’s beautiful. Well, thank you for thank you for sharing that. I I frankly find that inspiring and um I’m a I’m a big believer of the principles in the book of you know the seven habits of highly effective people and kind of one of you know the first one is begin with the end in mind and um that’s that’s a great a great thought people remember will remember most how you made them feel. Yeah. Um, well, I’m feeling good on this conversation. I want you to know. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. This has really been great, Damon. Can’t thank you enough for your time, your openness in kind of sharing your experience and kind of some of your personal views on on life and and on the uh industry. So, thank you uh thanks very much for for being with me here today. I’m humbled and appreciative you asked me. Thank you. And to our listeners, thanks very much for enjoying us on this exceptional episode of the Golf Sustainability Podcast. I’ve really enjoyed the time here with Damon. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, too. And if you want to listen to other conversations with industry leaders and innovators, uh please subscribe to the podcast, tell your colleagues and industry friends about it, and uh keep on listening. So, thanks very much for your uh your attention today and being with us and uh have a great day. [Music]
Many golf courses pride themselves on their lush landscapes, but few have to contend with the unique challenges of maintaining them in a sustainable manner on remote islands. In this episode, we dive into the unexpected realities of sustainability management at one of the world’s most stunning new golf resorts, Cabot St. Lucia. Without easy access to freshwater, maintaining fairways and greens becomes a surprisingly complex and costly endeavor is just one example.
0:00) Damon’s intro and Cabot St. Lucia
(04:20) Damon’s agronomy leadership
(06:54) Defining sustainability locally
(08:53) Island operations challenges
(12:22) Big sustainability projects
(20:44) Key partnerships advancing sustainability
(27:10) Future vision and tech innovation
Resources & People Mentioned
Cabot St. Lucia — https://cabotstlucia.com
Audubon International’s Platinum Signature Sanctuary Program — https://www.auduboninternational.org/signature-sanctuary-certification
Toro and TurfRad Technologies — https://www.turfnet.com/news.html/toro-and-turfrad-develop-new-moisture-sensor-technology-r1840/
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