Carolinas Golf Association names first superintendent to board

The Carolinas Golf Association (CGA) recently named Randy Allen to its executive committee. Allen, currently director of golf course operations at Burroughs and Chapin in Myrtle Beach, becomes the first ever golf course superintendent named to the organization's leading board. The appointment was reported in The (Cleveland County, N.C.) Star.

"From that standpoint, it's an honor for me to be the first [superintendent] but it's just an honor to be on the committee really," Allen says. "It's special to be thought worthy to do something like this."

A testament to where hard work and dedication can take you, Allen started his career "picking up rocks" at Woodbridge in Shelby, N.C.

"I played (golf) and never was great at it, but I developed a love for the game pretty early on," Allen said. "I quit a coat-and-tie job I had and during the construction of Woodbridge. I had really no training in agronomics or horticulture, but I liked going home seeing what we had accomplished over the course of a day."

Allen moved on to Cleveland Country Club in 1976, where he spent three years, before taking his first course superintendent job at Camden Country Club in South Carolina.

"I knew nothing about the course, but a friend had told me Gene Sarazen played in a group behind him out there," Allen said. "That was enough for me."

Allen transformed the course into a venue that hosted a Carolinas Amateur Championship in 1985, before taking over at The Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach, a place Allen said was his "dream job."

The Dunes hosted five straight PGA Senior Tour Championships, which were nationally televised, while Allen was there.

He was also a big part in overseeing the building of the Grand Dunes Golf Club in the Myrtle Beach area, a course which was recently named National Golf Course of the Year by Golf Course Owner's Association.

The term Allen is currently serving with the CGA board is one year in length, but he said he hopes the position could be a long-term one.

"You can serve up to 24 years consecutively I believe," Allen said. "Hopefully this will be something I'm involved with for a while."