One of the longest-serving golf course superintendents in the Carolinas will receive the Distinguished Service Award from the 1,800-member Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association. Bill Anderson, director of greens and grounds at 36-hole Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C., will be honored at the association’s annual conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C., later this month.
The award is the highest that the organization bestows and recognizes outstanding achievement and contribution in the service of golf course superintendents and the golf industry in the Carolinas.
Anderson, CGCS, is now in his 35th successive year at Carmel Country Club, an extraordinarily long tenure in a profession where the average stay at one facility is seven years. He was Carolinas GCSA president in 1982 and has served two separate periods on the association’s board of directors. Through Carmel Country Club, one of the leading private clubs in Charlotte, he has also hosted numerous association events over the years.
He also has trained and mentored many young superintendents towards successful careers. But it is his contribution at a strategic and association management level that is perhaps his greatest legacy. Anderson’s input at critical times has been a major factor in the Carolinas GCSA growing to what is now the largest regional superintendents association in the country with an annual budget well in excess of $1-million.
“The one thing that has always impressed me about Bill is his ability to ask the right question,” says Dave Downing, current president of the 21,000-member Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Downing, with Signature Golf Group in Myrtle Beach served with Anderson as a Carolinas GCSA director. “He can sit there with all sorts of information and arguments going back and forth, then he’ll ask the one question that makes sense of it all. That’s an extremely valuable quality and the Carolinas GCSA has been extremely fortunate to have access to it over many years.”
Another Carolinas GCSA past-president, Mike Fabrizio, from Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C., says Anderson “is one of the giants of the industry in the Carolinas.” “He’s the true professional. He’s always a pleasure to be with, to work with. There’s not a more dedicated guy out there.”
John Williams, CGCS, now with Oakland Turf Plantation, is another past-president who praises Anderson’s steady influence. “More than anything over the years, I think Bill has been one of the great stabilizing forces,” he says. “All of us on the board have our crazy ideas from time to time but Bill is always pretty grounded. That is not to say he always falls on the conservative side. He’s very much a forward thinker.”
Anderson will receive the award in front of his peers at a special presentation during the Carolinas GCSA’s annual Conference and Trade Show in Myrtle Beach. The event, the largest regional gathering for golf course superintendents in the nation, runs November 17-20 with the Distinguished Service Award presentation on the evening of November 19.
