Stan Zontek

[Joe Bausch]

I was saddened to read in the Philly Inquirer today of the passing of Stan on Tuesday of a heart attack.  He was well known in the Philly area, and served as director of the Mid-Atlantic Region of our USGA Green Section.

I enjoyed the handful of conversations with Stan over the last few years, in particular at the gatherings hosted by Kris Shreiner before the ATT tourneys at Aronimink.

More here:

http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/gci-082812-stan-zontek-passes.aspx

[Dan Herrmann]

That's really sad.  Mr. Zontek spent time at French Creek helping our original super through some challenging times early in our course's history.

Mr Zontek really knew his craft, and he'll be sorely missed.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

From the USGA where he was their longest tenured employee:

http://www.usga.org/news/2012/August/USGA-Agronomist-Dies-At-63/

[Willie_Dow]

Joe -

Mel Lucas and I hd a great breakfast this morning to chat about our relationship, and friendship with Stan.  Mel having travelled worldwide, especially, (is it middle east , Mel) with Stan, having a beer or ?.

There was no body at Merion who knew more of itself, today, than Stanley.  How many years he has worked our fairways and greens, and through how many tournaments has he carried the ball?


Willie

  

[Joe Bausch]

A follow-up article on Stan:

http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20120905_Stanley_J__Zontek__regional_director_of_U_S__Golf_Association.html

He will be missed.   

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Joe Logan writes in Global Golf Post:

http://digital.globalgolfpost.com/philly/20120904#pg10

[Kris Shreiner]

It is with a very heavy heart that I comment on the gem of a guy than Stan was. Few in the game had a deeper devotion to their craft and sharing it with others. He could break down the most technical agronomy into very simple terms that anyone could understand. Though he was an ardent supporter of all that the USGA did, he wasn't afraid to point out when things needed improvement within the organization.

My first interaction with Stan had a rugged start. I reached out to him in late July, 2008, to try an get more discussion going between the turf gang and the arborist side of maintaining golf properties. He had been out helping the Philly superintendents sustain their grass that awful Summer for 21 straight days. He was tired and a bit gruff with me saying, "Kris I don't have time for idle chit-chat." I said that I'd get back with him later that year when things slowed down.

That Winter, at a PSU sponsored turf function, he came over to me and apologized for being short with me during that prior phone conversation, saying he had been worn down. We then talked about the need for the arborist and turf folks to interact more and share what we were seeing and experiencing in the field. Over the last several years, our relationship had gotten closer, and he revealed more and more of his affable, generous nature, always willing to help a situation if he could.  As Joe Bausch mentioned, he was gracious enough to speak about the 2010 Pebble Beach Open set-up to our lunch group, that Summer of the At&T National, at our Aronimink event.

He will be sorely missed. I'm still numb at the thought that he won't be ambling along the fairways at Merion in 2013. It is my intent to set up a J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship in his memory. Our planned, week-long, 2013 U. S. Open shindig will have the donation funds from that event dedicated to that endeavor. Stan will most certainly be with us in spirit that week.

All who knew Stan experienced a man of rare quality and dedication. We'll miss him, but let us try and give to the game... and others... a bit more when possible. In that manner we will surely honor his memory in a fitting way. RIP Stan.

Respectfully,
Kris

[Scott Furlong]

This is a tough one.  Stan was here the Wednesday before his death.  He looked extremely tired but he always does because he is one of the hardest working men I’ve ever known.  I knew of his condition but it never slowed him down nor did he ever look for pity….he would just blow it off and say let’s go to work.  That Wednesday was different, we talked turf over a bowl of corn and crab chowder but it was brief.  Once we got on the course it was just 2 friends chatting it up about sports, politics, Ireland, US Open, Scotland, Merion, women, etc.  This has been our routine for years but this time those topics were the headline and turf took a back seat.  He did get off the cart to have a laugh at our 1 inch roots on greens after a 3rd straight brutal summer.  We drove by the halfway house where he did his annual flirting with the halfway house girl and then grabbed a diet coke and a cigar.  We drove around the course 2 times, ran into the interns, Assistants, GM, and the Pro.  Every one of them seemed to hang on every word he said and it had nothing to do with turf.  The handshake goodbye was more sincere but I could be reading into that but in my mind it was different.
I find myself flashing back to the many moments; i.e.  Driving around with him stimping greens during the US Open or having dinner with him and Dr. Watschke trying to solve all the world problems or driving into DC to consult on a putting green.  On Turfnet a Superintendent posted, “When an (old) man dies, a library burns to the ground”.  This is so true..........we lost a professional, a friend and a library.                 

[Pete Blaisdell]

In a game that labels too many as great, I am pleased that Stan has been given notice as a person who actually made a difference and his contributions are not measured in trophies . Just a sad loss for the game.

My condolances to his family.

[Joe Bausch]

From a former GCA member:

        I suppose I’m primarily a visual guy and so at a time like this it really bothers me to think I will never see Stanley again. I’d known him for over thirty years and at a time like this it’s so apparent what a wonderful go-to and standby guy he had become.
 
            I got to know Stan around 1980 through his annual visits to my golf club. Back then we sort of used him and his annual report as a “cover” or “USGA imprimatur” to what our super and maintenance Dept was doing anyway. Stan understood that completely and it was so interesting to see how he worked it without actually giving up his personal opinions and specific advice.
 
            Over time with new influences such as restorations, firmer and faster, tree removal popularity Stan got bolder and went with that flow more vocally. But what became apparent to me through those years was Stanley’s real love of not just golf agronomy but also his love of golf course architecture. It was funny in the beginning because golf architecture was definitely not part of Stan’s or the USGA Green Section’s job description or service----essentially he was not supposed to talk about golf architecture on his agronomy visits. But there were those times when he just could not help himself or he forgot to reign in his architectural opinions or passion. I don’t know how many times out on the course and with a lot of people around I said to him----“Stanley you just crossed the line again between architecture and agronomy.” It was always the same---he would give me that big wide sheepish grin of his and then start to laugh.
 
            But then the time came when I began wondering about the nexus of agronomy and agronomic maintenance practices over time and the various accumulated types and styles of golf course architecture over time, particularly as the restoration wave began to build and a number of the old classic courses came back into focus via their original or previous architectural features. I don’t think anyone helped me more with my idea of trying to define the various ways agronomy and maintenance practices could ideally “meld” into the various types and styles golf course architecture to produce the best and most fun and challenging playabilities for all on any one of them. This eventually became this thing I termed the “maintenance meld” or the “ideal maintenance meld.” Stan got into this fully understanding that it should not necessarily be some one unified or standardized application from course to course. At one point he even began working on a paper analyzing pitch marks as something of a “maintenance meld” barometer. Since I got into speaking to Stan not via my club but on my own, he even used me to help him do some research on the history of the architecture of some old courses. I think he felt if he went in with that knowledge it would only help in a general sense, and I couldn’t agree more. Stanley Zontek was incredibly proud of his profession and the better you got to know him the more that showed and the more I suppose he felt he could vocalize it.
 
            It seems to be one of those examples of the unfairness of time and tide that Stan did not make it to the US Open at Merion in 2013. I know he felt that would have been the ideal time and event to basically bookend his long career in agronomy and with the USGA. I think it was probably poetic justice that a few years ago the USGA gave up their “championship agronomist” and replaced him by going with the USGA regional agronomists of the US Open sites. That put Stan in the driver’s seat with the USGA championships in the eastern mid-Atlantic region. I saw him and spoke to him at the Open at Congressional in 2011----he was just loving it even though it was one really rough week agronomy-wise. It would’ve been double or triple him loving it at Merion next year!
 
            Lastly, physiognomy has been a life-long interest of mine and in that vein one would be hard pressed to find a person whose physiognomy showed more clearly the kind of person he was than Stan’s did. Just look at that photo of him in the recent articles about him. Just look how much everything about his face goes UP and turns UP! On the other hand, Stan could sometimes play the part of the grumpy curmudgeon and it seems like he did it more as he became something of an elder-statesman in agronomy. But that was basically just an act. I know it was an act because a number of times when he got that way I just told him I knew it was an act. What kind of reaction did that get from him? Not some dour look but that same big wide sheepish Zontek grin. I loved that Stan Zontek grin; it made people happy and it also inspired them---it was kind of like a big round human light-bulb turning up full gleam and glow.
 
 

[Stephen Britton]

This is a tough one.  Stan was here the Wednesday before his death.  He looked extremely tired but he always does because he is one of the hardest working men I’ve ever known.  I knew of his condition but it never slowed him down nor did he ever look for pity….he would just blow it off and say let’s go to work.  That Wednesday was different, we talked turf over a bowl of corn and crab chowder but it was brief.  Once we got on the course it was just 2 friends chatting it up about sports, politics, Ireland, US Open, Scotland, Merion, women, etc.  This has been our routine for years but this time those topics were the headline and turf took a back seat.  He did get off the cart to have a laugh at our 1 inch roots on greens after a 3rd straight brutal summer.  We drove by the halfway house where he did his annual flirting with the halfway house girl and then grabbed a diet coke and a cigar.  We drove around the course 2 times, ran into the interns, Assistants, GM, and the Pro.  Every one of them seemed to hang on every word he said and it had nothing to do with turf.  The handshake goodbye was more sincere but I could be reading into that but in my mind it was different.
I find myself flashing back to the many moments; i.e.  Driving around with him stimping greens during the US Open or having dinner with him and Dr. Watschke trying to solve all the world problems or driving into DC to consult on a putting green.  On Turfnet a Superintendent posted, “When an (old) man dies, a library burns to the ground”.  This is so true..........we lost a professional, a friend and a library.                 

Well said Scott, Stanley was the best...