Finding His Calling at Oregon State

Kachmarek was born near Sweet Home, near the town of Lebanon, Oregon. His father was a pastor, and the family moved to Idaho for three years before returning to the Portland area. He attended Portland Lutheran High School in Gresham, a small private school where his graduating class numbered just 13 students.

Golf entered his life through his father, who regularly played with other pastors on Mondays. At the time, many golf courses informally allowed members of the clergy to play for free on Mondays, and a young Kachmarek frequently accompanied his father as a caddie. Eventually, he began playing with his dad and developed a lasting connection with the game.

His interest in turf appeared early as well.

“When my mom asked me to mow the lawn, it wasn’t really a chore,” he recalled. “I enjoyed it. I would scalp the lawn down and try to make it into a putting green so I could play with my Wiffle golf balls.”

Despite those early signs, Kachmarek arrived at Oregon State University in 1989 without knowing golf course management could be a career. He initially studied fisheries science, envisioning the possibility of somehow fishing for a living. Once he discovered Oregon State’s turfgrass management program, however, his direction became clear.

“I found out there was such a thing as a turf program and changed majors,” he said. “It definitely seemed like my calling. I’m more of a hands-on, practical kind of guy.”

During his summers at Oregon State, Kachmarek interned at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, then a major new golf development near his parents’ home. After graduating in 1992, he worked there full time for approximately six months before accepting the assistant superintendent position at Tacoma Country & Golf Club in 1993.

Kachmarek had spent little time outside Oregon and Idaho before moving north, but the South Puget Sound region quickly became home.

A Career Rooted at Tacoma

After four years as Tacoma’s assistant superintendent, Kachmarek left to become superintendent at Kitsap Golf and Country Club. In 1999, he returned to Tacoma Country & Golf Club as superintendent.

Today, it is difficult to separate his professional story from that of the club itself.

Tacoma Country & Golf Club traces its history to 1894 and describes itself as the oldest country club west of the Mississippi River. Its founders included graduates of the University of St. Andrews who recognized something familiar in the native oak prairie of the South Puget Sound region. To them, the open landscape recalled the linksland on which they had learned the game.

That history has increasingly influenced Kachmarek’s philosophy for the property.

Over the decades, the course—like many historic clubs—had accumulated trees, ornamental plantings, manufactured mounds and other features inspired by changing trends. Kachmarek acknowledges that he participated in some of those changes early in his tenure. His thinking began to shift after playing Bandon Dunes and experiencing a golf course that seemed to emerge naturally from the land.

“Golf courses in those days were discovered; they weren’t created,” he said. “Somebody took the time to look at the land, decide on the routing and determine the best use of the property.”

That experience caused him to reconsider what Tacoma Country & Golf Club must have looked and felt like when its founders first laid it out. Since then, much of his work has focused on removing visual clutter, restoring the native character of the property and protecting its threatened Garry oak trees.

“I want people, when they come here, to feel that it is old,” Kachmarek said. “I want it to be an experience of turning back the clock a little bit—not just another walk through a park.”

Making a Lasting Difference

What continues to motivate Kachmarek after so many years is the opportunity to make improvements that will endure.

Because the club must approach major work methodically, progress often comes through carefully planned annual projects—a tree-removal initiative one year, a tee-leveling project the next. Each completed project becomes another visible step toward his long-term vision.

“You plan for it, you execute it, and the next year you get to look at it and see the improvement,” he said. “If I can make lasting improvements to this amazing piece of property that people have been golfing on and adjusting for more than 130 years, I would love to be remembered as somebody who made a difference.”

He also wants the work being done today to remain relevant well into the future, rather than becoming another reflection of a passing design trend.

“I’d like what we’re doing there to last indefinitely,” he said. “I don’t want to see it succumb to another trend.”

Kachmarek credits the club’s membership for increasingly embracing that vision. He also considers himself fortunate to work with the property’s exceptional natural advantages, including its free-draining, gravelly glacial soils.

The course has virtually no conventional drainage system, yet it handles the Pacific Northwest’s wet climate remarkably well. In areas where years of traffic and mowing create a compacted surface layer, Kachmarek and his team can often restore drainage simply by penetrating that layer and reaching the porous soil beneath it.

The conditions allow his team to mow and complete improvement projects throughout the year—an opportunity Kachmarek does not take for granted.

“I love being able to do things year-round,” he said. “I can go out during the winter, fix something, level something or improve it so that the next year we have a better product.”

Family, Fishing and the Future

Away from the golf course, family remains central to Kachmarek’s life. He and his wife recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary, and he is the father of four adult children. He also has grandchildren, with another expected in January.

When the children were younger, family life often centered around a cabin in Packwood and weekends skiing at White Pass. The family eventually sold the cabin after the children grew older and their schedules became busier, but Kachmarek remembers those years fondly.

Today, he especially values the occasions when all four children can gather at the family home.

Kachmarek and his wife live on a couple of acres in Tacoma, where caring for the property, chickens and dogs occupies much of his free time. If given the choice, however, he would happily spend considerably more time fly fishing.

Each March, he travels to Eastern Washington for a three-day fly-fishing trip with his brothers—a tradition they have continued for approximately 25 years. The annual trip has become both an important family ritual and a marker on Kachmarek’s calendar.

“It’s really special time together because I’m very close to my brothers,” he said. “It’s also the start of my season. When I come back, it’s nearly April, it’s time to aerify, and then it’s gangbusters for the next six months.”

Kachmarek describes himself as private and not particularly social, though his colleagues may simply see someone they would like the opportunity to know better. His understated manner belies the depth of thought he has devoted to his profession and to the piece of ground he has cared for during most of his adult life.

He’ll retire some day, leaving more time for family, his property and—as he puts it—fly fishing every day. Before that happens, however, there is still work he wants to complete at Tacoma Country & Golf Club.

After more than 27 years as superintendent, Kachmarek’s motivation is not simply to maintain what exists. It is to uncover the course’s history, protect what makes it special and leave behind a property that feels as timeless as the game itself.

“I’m just not done,” Kachmarek said. “There’s still stuff to do.”

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The 2026 WWGCSA Crew Tournament was held at Port Ludlow Golf Course during it’s traditional calendar position in late June. Around here, until we get past the 4th of July we know it ain’t quite summer yet. But the golf gods have been good to us through the years and spared the might crews that gather for their annual championship from stormy rounds. And although it threatened, this year the weather held off for the most part until all had finished their appointed rounds.

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In the end, it was the mates from Avalon Golf Links who came in the with the lowest round, finishing with an impressive score of 58, or 14 under. They even had a bogey on the card, but held off the crew from the Home Course who shot their own impressive 60. A three way tie for third place was broken by Gold Mountain’s “Hazama” team by carding a birdie at the tough, downhill par 17th. The scorecard tiebreaker enabled them to prevail over both Seattle Golf and Sand Point Golf Clubs, each posting their own 62s.

25 teams competed from as far north as Sedro Wooley, south as Dupont and east as Leavenworth. The ferry trip may have discouraged some from the east side from attending, but for those that managed the lines and the open seas, the trip was quite enjoyable. The views from the upper decks of the big boats reminded us all of the natural beauty we are surrounded by every day but sometimes can’t see through the trees. That said, there were plenty of trees and views from the Timber and Tides nines at Port Ludlow, and spoils to be won.

A thousand dollars in prizes and a 75 pound trophy were waiting to be given away before teams ventured home. The Broadmoor crew navigated the par 3s well, winning both KPs with shots that finished their rolls within two feet or so on both holes #6 and #17. Everett CC’s “Team McCusker” captured the winnings for Long Drive, busting one deep on #8. Next up is the Northwest Crew Championship, to be held in Western Washington sometime this fall at a course to be determined.

March brought lots of rain, and it was no different when WWGCSA members gathered at Everett Golf & Country Club for our Annual Spring Meeting. Presentations from Tyler Mooney of Merrill Lynch (planning for retirement), David Phipps of the GCSAA (an update on member benefits) and Brianne Kenny of Troon Golf (water compliance issues) filled the docket. And of course, the newly renovated clubhouse was a big part of the presentation. More than 40 members spent the better part of the day networking and discussing a variety of issues.

EGCC Superintendent Mike Conklin was an excellent host, and made his golf course available to all. As you would expect, the weather scared most players off, but there were still 5 groups of souls that braved the elements.

More than 30 people, including 20 or so volunteers from the WWGCSA and the OGCSA, gathered at American Lake Veterans Golf Course to help get the course ready for the upcoming season. The weather was clear, but cold – but that didn’t prevent perspiration for those hard at work. All of the greens were sanded and aerated, and the edges around the property were cleaned up. In the end, ALVGC Superintendent Randy Moen was pleased. “We got a lot done, it’s so great to work with the Association’s on this project. We’re all volunteers, and been here a long time, but it’s always nice when the “experts” come and give us a hand.”

The WWGCSA/OGCSA Service Project has been going every Spring since 2019, interrupted only by the pandemic in 2021. The two associations gather every other year at the Veterans’ Course, and at the Children’s course in Gladstone, OR in the in-between years. A return to the Children’s course in 2027 is in the works.

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Held annually at Gamble Sands resort, the fourth edition is coming this March (Wednesday the 25th thru Friday the 27th). Intended as a professional networking and education event for Golf Course Assistant Superintendents who aspire to grow in the field, the event is sponsored by Toro, BASF, Simplot, Syngenta and Troon Golf LLC. Consisting of two nights and four hours of education, social events and a round of golf at Gamble’s original course, one of only three Washington courses ranked in America’s top 100 by Golf Digest. The event and meals are provided at no charge to Assistant Superintendents. Entry is limited to 32 Assistants. If you have any questions or simply want to apply, email Gamble’s Director of Agronomy, Josh Truan, at jtruan@gamblesands.com.

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Despite frozen conditions closing most area golf courses, superintendents and industry partners gathered last week at Seattle Golf Club for the annual Winter Chapter Meeting. The chilly weather outside contrasted with a warm atmosphere inside, as attendees connected with peers and heard from three outstanding speakers representing seed science, agronomy, and university research.

The program opened with Crystal Fricker, President of Pure Seed. Pure Seed is a wholesale supplier of warm- and cool-season turfgrass and forages developed by Pure-Seed Testing. The company was founded by Crystal’s parents, Betty and Bill Rose, and today remains proudly family owned and operated. Crystal now works alongside her brother and sister—and each of their spouses—they’re fond of saying that this arrangement helps ensure Pure Seed stays firmly rooted in family values.

Crystal recently received national recognition with the 2025 Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award from the Crop Science Society of America, honoring individuals who have made significant contributions to turfgrass science. The award was presented by Dr. Cale Bigelow of Purdue University, who many members will remember as a WTLS speaker this past year. Crystal shared updates on ongoing seed development focused on improving turf durability while reducing required inputs—an important theme as superintendents continue balancing playability, sustainability, and budgets.

Next up was Ross Niewola, the USGA Green Section’s West Region Agronomist, a role he assumed in late 2024. Ross brings 15 years of golf course maintenance experience, having worked in Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Washington, and both Northern and Southern California. His background spans warm- and cool-season grasses and public and private facilities, most recently serving as superintendent at Walla Walla Country Club. A Penn State graduate with a degree in turfgrass management, Ross emphasized that his primary mission is to support regional golf courses and crews by sharing best practices and keeping them informed on current trends in course management.

The final presentation came from Dr. Michael Neff, Professor of Crop Biotechnology in Washington State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the Washington Turfgrass Seed Commission Endowed Professor. Dr. Neff reviewed the history and current state of turf management education at WSU while highlighting ongoing research in turfgrass management and breeding programs focused on seed production, resiliency, and climate adaptation in Washington State.

Dr. Neff also provided an update on existing endowments supporting the turf program and outlined opportunities for the golf industry to help strengthen and expand WSU’s curriculum so it can compete with peer institutions such as Oregon State University. He closed with a significant call to action: seeking industry support toward an $8 million endowment to ensure his position—and the momentum of the program—continues well beyond his retirement.

Next on the this year’s timeline is GCSAA’s Conference and Trade Show, happening this week in Orlando. March is busy with an Equipment Managers’ Meeting, a Chapter Meeting at Everett Golf & Country Club, and our annual service project returning to the American Lake Veterans Golf Course. Please refer to our Association’s calendar which is found on this page of our website.

. . . as we get ready for a big rematch with the 49ers this weekend, let’s look back to Hawks game on December 28 in Charlotte, NC. Late in the game, CBS cameras caught the image of a fan, in a Seahawks jersey, sitting in the front row, who had an uncanny resemblance to Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold. The Seattle Times followed up on the story and we found out that “Stan Darnold” was actually Ben Conklin. Ben is the son of our own Mike Conklin, the Superintendent at Everett Golf and Country Club. Here is the rest of the story as reported by the Times. Enjoy.