I'm proud to say I've met and enjoyed a round of golf here in WI at Lawsonia, with Dan Lucas. He is respected among his peers, and was asked to consult at Whistling Straits on that particular trip we played Lawsonia.
I think one marker of who is a respected superintendent, is many who are elected by their peers to lead State or the national professional associations. I met a Cadenelli years ago, as well. Although, there are a couple of Cadenelli's and you mention Bruce and I believe I am referring to Steve. But, that is another marker of great superintendency, IMO, the family tradition. There are a few family acts out there.
I know one of my favorite supers, who practices his craft with great understanding of the architecture in terms of knowing the design intent, and to some extent having to make do with a local board direction a wee bit contrary to original design intents, but still a practitioner that can maintain his course on a shoe string budget to incredibly high standards, is Josh Mahar at Wild Horse. Josh also enjoys the respect of his peers having been elected to Pres of his State association. All of those supers in NE look to one of their senior deans of grass on the prairie in Corey Crandall. His successor at Sand Hills GC, Kyle Hegland (a nice Wisconsin boy
has also been tapped by turf seminar groups to present professional data. Another local area guy is Scott Schaller of North Shore CC in Menasha WI who worked extensively with Bruce Hepner in a resto-reno project and fully digs the architectural aspects. And, speaking of nice Wisconsin boys, our senior dean of turf is now retired fellow, Monroe Miller, also widely respected and sought out for his knowledge and talent.
There are just so many great supers out there.... but;
The premise is the art of greenkeeping in relation to architecture and recognition of the golf course original intent design. Sometimes the art and talent can get crushed by the demands of boards and owners that suppress the design intent for budget or personal preference, even ego reasons. Many great supers still have to go along to get along, and I think it may be hard to make judgments on their artistic/turf mastery side of the equation when evaluating the maintenance meld, if the directives and who signs the checks are at odds with various issues that make maintenance meld a key aspect we here on GCA.com think about.