Golfdom, August 2012

AT THE TIME in Idaho you could drive at 14 says Mark Grigg president of Grigg Bros It was at that young age that Mark and Gary Grigg started working in the agriculture business in Oregon Their father owned Grigg Brothers Fruit and Vegetables which became Ore Ida Foods Gary earned his undergraduate degree in agriculture at Utah State University and Mark whos eight years younger than Gary attended Utah State too I had no intention of working outside the family business says Gary the vice president and agronomist of the company adding he intended to return to Oregon after finishing his masters degree at Michigan State University Three months before he earned his degree his father sold the family business to H J Heinz I wasnt sure where to go Gary says I hung out with the turf students at MSU which is how I got to know Jim Beard Ph D and Bruce Matthews Bruce asked me to grow in a golf course and I told him I didnt know anything about turf He said It cant be any harder than growing potatoes Gary was a golf course superintendent for 32 years He spent 16 years with Houston based Kindred Watts Associates during the early days of golf course management companies Kindred which owned and managed golf courses went under in 1988 They used to call me Gary Grow In he says referring to the numerous courses he grew in during the 1980s Gary moved on and spent time at Naples National Golf Club in Florida Ventana Canyon Golf Racquet Club in Tucson Ariz and Shadow Glen in Olathe Kan He wound up his superintendent career at Royal Poinciana in Florida where he oversaw a complete renovation of the golf course While Gary was making his mark as a superintendent younger brother Mark came out of school selling fertilizers in Idaho It was there he met a biochemist named Gene Miller Ph D Miller an 86 year old ex professor developed fertilizer technology and was talking to Mark about marketing it to the agriculture segment I was at Naples at the time Gary says Mark sent me the samples We liked them so much Mark approached Gene and told him we were interested in licensing his technology in the turf industry Early days of Grigg Bros The Grigg Bros company started in 1995 and for the first five years Mark was the whole company Then he brought in Garys son and others they knew well The company started selling foliar products only To date the company doesnt use Millers technology in anything other than its foliar products They say it takes five years for a business to take off Sales started to climb I told Gary I think its time for you to come on board Mark says of when he convinced his brother to leave behind the superintendent profession Sales started exploding We needed to add a guy for every million Continued on page 26 w w w g o l f d o m c o m Golfdom 25 Opposite Gary Grigg with professional golfer Bruce Devlin and golf course architect Robert Von Hagge at one of Garys early grow ins Tom Wieskopf Gary Grigg and Tom Watson take a break from working on Shadow Glen GC in this shot from 1989 PHOTOS COURTESY GARY GRIGG ISTOCK INTERNATIONAL INC