Turf Star Western (TSW) is the west coast Toro distributor serving customers in California, Washington, Oregon, Northern Idaho, Northern Nevada, Alaska and Baja California. In addition to the great line up of Toro products, we carry many other product lines as well. We are proud to support golf courses, municipalities, cities, educational institutions, cemeteries, professional contractors, groundskeepers, as well as leading sports venues and historical sites throughout our territory.
The year 2022 marks 100 years of distributorship on the west coast!
1922 CA : One of the first of five distributors is founded in Los Angeles by John Thomas Clapper. “Pacific Toro Company”. John was one of Toro’s first president’s cousins. CA has perpetually delivered more golf business to the Toro Company than any other state.
1925 OR : The G.F. Bishop Company was founded by George Fletcher Bishop with offices in Portland and San Francisco. Bishop joined Toro in 1915 and was one of the first corporate sales executives. From this, he became a distributor. This became the first distributor in OR and the second in CA.
1936 WA : North-West Toro Company established an office in Seattle.
1947 CA : Duke Equipment & Irrigation formed in Sacramento.
1962 CA : Valley Toro of Fresno sold to Brady Holmes. Brady Homes becomes a Toro Distributor.
1963 CA : Western Toro and Garden Sales Co becomes Westoro/West Star Distributing.
1970 CA : The Swanson Company became a Toro Distributor.
1976 CA : San Diego Toro (Paul Hunter) sold to Toro Pacific.
1983 CA : Toro Pacific sold the San Diego portion to Jim Adams and this became San Diego Turf.
1985 CA : Toro Pacific is renamed Pacific Equipment.
1987 CA : San Diego Turf sold to Len Gregory
1990 CA : Swanson Company is sold to Duke Equipment.
1993 CA : Duke Newton retires and sells Duke Equipment to West Star (Gene Warne).
1994 CA : Toro took over Pacific Equipment and sold to San Diego Turf (Len Gregory).
1997 CA : San Diego Turf partners with Toro to form California Turf.
2000 CA : Cal Turf & West Star form Turf Star (Gene Warne and Len Gregory).
2010 PNW : Toro buys Western Equipment from Peter Pehoski.
2015 CA & PNW : JLG buys 50% of Turf Star and Turf Star buys 100% of Western Equipment from Toro. Gene Warne retires.
2019 CA & PNW : JLG buys 100% of Turf Star and Western when Len Gregory retires.
2019 CA & PNW : TSI/WED becomes Turf Star Western Equipment.
2020 : TSW is established as the largest Toro Commercial Distribution Company.
