I’m in Myrtle Beach to teach a seminar at the Carolinas GCSA conference and show. As those of you who’ve attended the event know, it’s basically a quarter-scale model of the old pre-GIS national show – just superintendents and staff, no managers or owners. Attendance will be roughly 3,000 with about 1,200 seminar registrations, 420 exhibit booths and a couple hundred golfers playing in the championship. It is, quite simply, the largest golf-only show besides the GIS. It rivals the big regional combined shows such as OTF in Columbus, Ohio. and NERTF in Providence, R.I.
|
|
Getting the Carolinas show to the point where its biggest problem is that it doesn’t have any more trade show space to sell in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center has required more than a decade of hard work, focus and creativity. Now, the Carolinas GCSA board is applying that same creativity to another challenge.
Turfgrass is a huge business in the Carolinas – with as much as $9 billion in economic impact by last estimate – yet, the state provides little traditional funding for turf research. It’s a common story throughout the nation: States cut budgets, universities scale back funds, grants become more difficult to find and turfgrass never seems to make the grade compared to sexier agronomic commodities and food crops.
So, the Carolinas GCSA board is taking things into its own hands with a creative approach: Rounds 4 Research. The concept is simple: Get facilities around both states to donate a golf package that can be auctioned off to the general public.
It’s not a new concept. Other chapters have similar programs. It’s the scope of the thing that’s remarkable. Already, more than 160 facilities, including some of the best private clubs in the nation, have donated packages. I couldn’t get Paul Jett, CGCS, the association’s president, to commit to a targeted dollar amount they think the program will generate, but it will be substantial. Maybe $75,000 or so the first year.
And that will just be the first year. This isn’t a one-shot deal. It will be an ongoing program that has the potential to grow and generate tremendous support for N.C. State and Clemson in years to come. All it requires is hard work, focus and creativity … and the association already has proven it’s fully capable of that. GCI
