Randy Allen, CGCS, a long time champion of professional advancement for golf course superintendents, has won the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association Distinguished Service Award. Allen is director of golf course operations for The Burroughs and Chapin Company, which owns five golf courses and manages three others in the Myrtle Beach, S.C. area.
|
|
“Randy Allen is one of the most influential leaders in the business of golf course maintenance in the Carolinas. And he has been for decades,” Chuck Borman, Carolinas GCSA executive director, says. “He has done as much, if not more, than anyone in this region to change the way the public and the golf industry see the role of golf course superintendents. Superintendents were thought of as grass growers when Randy began his career. Now they are recognized as professionals responsible for the facility’s single-most valuable asset.”
The Carolinas GCSA represents close to 1,800 members in North and South Carolina and commands a $1-million operating budget to provide further education and professional services. The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor bestowed by the association which formed in 1954, and recognizes outstanding achievement and contribution. Allen will receive his award during the Carolinas GCSA annual Conference and Trade Show in Myrtle Beach in November.
Allen led the association as president in 1989 and continues to contribute through the association’s committee of past presidents. He established a national reputation as a successful four-time superintendent host of the PGA Senior Tour’s Tour Championship while at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach. He began his career in Shelby, N..C and later moved to historic Camden Country Club in Camden, S.C. There Allen played a major role in restoring South Carolina’s only 18-hole Donald Ross-designed course to its former glory. In 1986 he moved to The Dunes Club. Since joining The Burroughs and Chapin Company in 1999, Allen has overseen construction, grow-in and maintenance of the highly-acclaimed Resort and Members Club courses at Grande Dunes Resort.
Throughout his career Allen has worked to bring public and industry perception of golf course superintendents in line with changes within the profession. Many of today’s golf course superintendents hold college degrees and command extensive personnel, budgeting, and operations programs in addition to their agronomic skills. Allen instigated a Superintendent Image Campaign in the ‘80s that continues in the Carolinas today. The campaign strives to improve awareness, understanding and appreciation of the role golf course superintendents play in what is an industry that contributes $2.3-billion* to the South Carolina economy each year.
“Throughout his career, Randy has recognized the importance not just of promoting his colleagues but promoting the game,” Borman says. “He never misses an opportunity to get kids involved or to educate people about the positive contribution golf makes to the economy and to communities in general. Above all, he conducts himself with a level of professionalism and integrity we should all aspire to. He is one of the pillars of his profession and of this association.”
*South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism figure.
