Toro Donates $1,500 to Scholarship Fund

The Toro Company presented the Trans Mississippi Golf Association Scholarship Fund with a Trans Mississippi Scholarship for $1,500 in the name of The Minikahda Club, Minneapolis, Minn. The gift was in appreciation of the 83-year history Toro has had as a turf maintenance and irrigation supplier to the club.

"We are pleased to accept this check from The Toro Company in Minikahda's honor," commented Ralph Turtinen, executive director at Trans Mississippi Golf Association."Toro and Minikahda have been involved with our association since its inception in the early 1900s and have continually shown their commitment to the golf industry."

Toro first began its relationship with The Minikahda Club in the '20s when fairway mowing units were pulled behind a horse.  The club's head greenskeeper at the time, Charles Erickson, and its greens committee chairman, Senator William F. Brooks, worked with Toro to invent a prototype for the very first gas-powered golf course mowing unit.  This innovation was the beginning of Toro's success in the golf course maintenance industry.

"Although much has changed over the course of our 83-year partnership, the value we place on long term relationships has not," noted Ken Melrose, chairman and chief executive officer of The Toro Company. "We look forward to partnering with Minikahda for the next 83 years, and that's why we are pleased to present a Trans-Mississippi Turf Scholarship in their name to honor our rich history and promising future."

The Minikahda Club recently completed a restoration of its golf course, returning it to the original Donald Ross design created in 1916 and installing a state-of-the-art Toro irrigation system.

The Trans-Mississippi Turf Scholarship is an annual award given to talented students who have an interest in golf course management as a career and who demonstrate superior performance as an employee of a golf course. The scholarship fund was established in 1953 by the Trans Mississippi Golf Association and is one of the oldest and most prestigious golf organizations in the United Stated with approximately 200 member clubs. Since its inception, the Scholarship Fund has granted more than 1,000 scholarships at top-rated agronomy schools that have turf management programs.