The late great Tennis player Arthur Ashe said, ”Success is a journey, not a destination... The doing is often more important than the outcome.” As the Turf and Golf Industry in Ohio goes, this was the case with Ohio Senate Bill 51, signed by Governor Ted Strickland on December 23.
S.B. 51 (which is now ORC 5.2239), highlights the positive impact of turfgrass and declares the last week in May as Turfgrass Week.
The journey began with the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation creating a self proclaimed “Turfgass Week” in May of 2005. The objective was to create the awareness of the economic, environmental and recreational benefits of turfgrass, as well as generate additional sources of revenue for turfgrass research. The long term “hope” was to someday get the governor to sign a proclamation to officially declare the last week in May Turfgrass Week in Ohio.
The biggest challenge for OTF was to find a political champion for the turfgrass industry. Although OTF already had ties with Capital Consulting, a lobbying firm in Columbus, Ohio, we needed a legislator to carry our banner. In April of 2007, OTF found it’s legislative champion in Senator Sue Morano (13th District). Because of her sincere interest in agriculture and because the turfgrass industry provided such an economic, environmental and recreational benefits, Senator Morano readily accepted invitation to carry our banner.
Next phase of the journey was educating and creating an awareness of the industry to those who thought “grass” was something you took care of at your home on the weekend and not a multi billion dollar state industry.
The initial bill, S.B. 190, was introduced in September 2007 and in October, Dr. Mike Boehm (Ohio State University), Mr. Bill Hoops (Ohio Lawn Care Association ) and myself testified on behalf of the turfgrass industry in front of the Senate Agriculture committee. Dr. Boehm spoke on the importance of education, research and environmental benefits of turfgrass. Bill Hoops spoke on the environmental and economic benefits turf with focus on the lawn care industry and I spoke on the economic, recreational and historical significance of golf in Ohio.
Specifically detailed in the testimony was information provided in the 2007 Ohio Golf Economic impact study, commissioned by Golf 20/20 for Play Golf Ohio. The most important facts communicated during the testimony were that Golf had a total economic impact of $4.8 billion and created over 68,000 jobs in the state. Needless to say this raised a few eyebrow sand created some interest among those we were looking for some positive economic news.
Also during the testimony, it was stated that Ohio is considered a golf Mecca’s because it is home of several distinguished PGA and LPGA professionals, PGA and LPGA Tour events, world renowned golf course architects and was the home to the first GCSAA local Chapter (Northern Ohio 1923) as well as the birthplace of the National GCSAA at Sylvania Country Club in 1926.
The testimony truly put the turfgrass (and golf) industry on the map of legislators.
In the summer of 2008, OTF released an Ohio Turfgrass Industry Economic Impact Study, which provide more positive economic information….$4.6 billion in total economic output, 41,000 jobs and over 4 million acres in maintained turf (which is equal to the total acres of soybeans planted in Ohio.).
Although Senate Bill 190 did not move from the Ohio House, it was reintroduced in April, 2009 by Senator Morano as S.B. 51. It sat idle in the Senate several months before it was passed onto the House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee in October 2009.
Throughout the period of both bills, the Golf Industry was able to communicate the economic good news through meetings with the Ohio Department of Economic Development, the Division of Tourism and at the Ohio Golf Summit in December 2008.
Although the signing of S.B. 51 could have marked the end of the destination, those in the industry feel that it is still part of a much bigger journey as we continue to spread the word about the economic, environmental and recreational benefits of both the Turfgrass and Golf Industries in the state and throughout the country.
Click HERE to read the economic impact study of 2007 Turfgrass Industry
Click HERE to read the economic Impact study 2006 Golf Industry in Ohio
About the author:
Mark Jordan, CGCS, is Natural Resource Leader at Westfield Group Country Club, a 36-hole club owned by Westfield Group Insurance. Jordan also serves on the GCSAA Governmental Relations Committee.