All about the future

The Clemson University Turf Club celebrated its first solo Carolinas GCSA Student Turf Bowl in seven years last month, an oversized check and a recently modified trophy a fine exclamation mark on a few days in Myrtle Beach.

“Our strategy was, just don't be scared, be confident, because we know all the stuff,” Clemson student Adam Hicks said. “It's just a matter of how quick you are and how good you are under pressure.”

Hicks and his teammates ended a five-bowl, six-year run by Horry Georgetown College – the schools somehow tied to share the 2023 championship – and are now all pointing more or less in the same direction, with careers somewhere in the turf industry fast approaching. But their backgrounds are far from the same. Hicks, for instance, wasn’t even studying turf when he arrived at Clemson. But after landing a job at the university’s Walker Course and watching the reconstruction of the 18th hole, he quickly changed his major.

Keegan Brown picked up his first club when he was 6. His passion for the sport continued throughout school and he eventually played at Spartanburg Methodist College. When his college career wrapped up, though, he wasn’t ready to leave turf. He started studying at Clemson and is set to start in January at Golf Course Services, Inc., a construction and renovation company in Charlotte.

“I wanted to get into the golf course business for good,” Brown said.

Sean Crowe started working at golf courses a little earlier than Brown or Hicks, heading over to a nearby course when he was still in high school. Thanks to guidance from peers, he landed on a degree in turf. “I had some really great role models, and they talked me into doing turf,” Crowe said.

Gavin Trout started even earlier. The son of a longtime superintendent, Trout started working for his dad, David, at Diamondback Golf Club in nearby Loris, South Carolina, when he was 14, asking questions and working every job he could. Thanks to David’s Carolinas GCSA membership, he was able to apply for and landed a Bennett-Maples Scholarship this year to help fund his education. 

Trout now works under superintendent Don Garrett at Clemson’s Walker Course and is vice president of the Clemson Turfgrass Club.

After their championship win – they survived a stumper of a Final about the association’s bimonthly Carolinas Green magazine – Brown and Crowe held the giant $700 check from The Aquatrols Company for the celebratory photo shoot while Trout cradled the Turf Bowl trophy, now capped to keep winners from using it as a drinking vessel, the slyest of grins on his face: He helped the Tigers win their first outright Carolinas GCSA Turf Bowl in seven years and toppled his dad’s alma mater in the process. David is a proud Horry Georgetown Fighting Mole Cricket.

“I gave him some smack talk before and I tried to back it up,” Trout said afterward. “I think we did.”

“It’s just awesome,” David said. “I’m so proud of him. I think he’ll go far.” 

“He’ll be my assistant one day,” Trout joked.

The Turf Bowl win, he said, “means a lot for our university and it means a lot for our turf program.

“It’s all about the future.”

The future will, of course, include another Carolinas GCSA Turf Bowl, when Horry Georgetown will seek some sense of retribution. David Trout was the rare Fighting Mole Cricket flashing a smile after the Tigers grabbed the win this year. Every other Horry Georgetown student, faculty member and alum in the room turned their eyes and agronomic thoughts immediately to November 17, 2026.

Six of seven, after all, would still be pretty good.

Kelsie Horner is Golf Course Industry’s digital editor. Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s senior editor.