The 19th Hole: Mike Bremmer

By |  January 18, 2017 0 Comments

edit-type-with-quoteMike Bremmer

Superintendent // Wisconsin Club, Milwaukee

Mike, what can I get you? Either a local IPA or a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet. Wait, have you ever had one? OK, you’ve got to try one — I’m buying.

Hey, that’s good… So tell me about your family? I have a 5-year-old-son, James, a 2-year-old daughter, Sarah, and the third is on the way in March.

Wow, congrats! How did you and (wife) Emily meet? We met in line at a coffee shop seven years ago. It was 90-some-odd degrees out, it was right after work and I ordered a lemonade. From behind me I heard, “Who orders a lemonade at a coffee shop?” We started talking and the rest is history.

wiedenmann-terra-xfYou rave about your Wiedenmann Terra Spike XF 6? Why? It’s a German tank painted orange! It’s fast, efficient, reliable and we put it through its paces.

If your office caught on fire and you could grab only one thing, what would it be? Depending on the day, it’d either be my computer or an unopened bottle of Balvenie 12-year DoubleWood a couple members gave me.

What’s your favorite car you’ve ever owned? My first car was a ’94 Ford Escort hatchback. For sentimental value, that’s it.

What’s the best book you’ve read or movie you’ve seen lately? It’s been a while since either. I mainly read turfgrass-related books… probably “Practical Greenkeeping” by Jim Arthur.

Do you have a favorite golf memory? Yes, the time I got a call from a buddy to fill in as a fourth to play Cypress Point. And that trip also included Spyglass and Monterey Peninsula CC.

Fill in the blank: I knew I was going to be a superintendent the day I ______? First drove out on to the golf course to mow tees, because there’s nothing better than hopping on a mower or a tractor and doing work on the golf course.

How did you get your start in the business? My dad threw horseshoes with the mechanic at Blackhawk CC in Madison, Wis. He said, ‘Hey, I got this boy that likes to mow grass; you guys got anything?’ So, they asked me to come in and fill out an application. Monroe Miller was the superintendent there at the time.

I know a lot of guys who like to mow, but you seem to love to mow… When my mom was pregnant with me, they didn’t have a riding lawnmower for their acre-and-a-quarter lot. So my mom push-mowed the lot every week, pregnant with me. Part of me thinks that the sound of the mower got in my head and it’s now ingrained in me.

Photo: Golfdom

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About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 25-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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