Michigan Golf Alliance

Yesterday the Michigan Golf Alliance met at the Michigan PGA Section headquarters in Lansing. The MGA is comprised of representatives from the MiGCSA, PGA, GAM (Golf Association of Michigan), MGCOA (Michigan Golf Course Owners Association), CMAA (Club Managers Association of America), MTF (Michigan Turfgrass Foundation) and the ASGCA (American Society of Golf Course Architects).

The Alliance was formed in 2011 with Kate Moore Executive Director of the MGCOA spearheading the effort. The original concept was to bring the associations that represent golf together to plan the Michigan Golf Legislative Day on the Capitol lawn in June. Since this initial meeting there have been two great years taking golf's message to Lansing legislators with a focus on the economic and environmental impact to the state. The meeting yesterday was intended to plan the event in 2013, but turned into something that will be even bigger.

The current proposal is to replace the Legislative Golf Day with a Michigan Golf Alliance Summit in late May of 2013. This proposal would bring the boards of the MGA partners together for a day of golf and education on one another. The easiest way for me to look at it is a macro version of any golf facility. Everyone at a golf facility is working toward one common goal, to be a profitable successful business. And each person at that property has a role to play in doing that. But if there is not a good clean communication on what each person is doing you can not be as successful as you could if you were aware of everyone's issues and goals. The Superintendent needs to communicate with the Owner, the Pro, the Manager and the players and vice versa.

The goal of the summit is to have a clear definition of what each group is doing to grow the game of golf in Michigan. We all have our roles to play in this, but we all benefit from growing the game. How are we each doing this? Where are there opportunities to help one another with our current objectives? Where are we different and where are we the same? This event will be on a two year rotation with the Legislative golf day to keep a contact with Lansing we will still be inviting key legislators to lunch during the summit. During lunch each group will communicate to all of the attendees what their goals are for golf in Michigan.

This has potential to be a very powerful day for the future of our industry, not just the turf industry but the golf industry that drives all sectors.

The MGA L to R: Eric Rule, MGCOA Lobbyist, Joe Basso, CMAA Representative and GM AT Birmingham C.C., Kevin Helm Michigan PGA Executive Director, David Graham Executive Director of the GAM, Kate Moore MGCOA Executive Director, Tom Schwark MGCOA Government Relations Chairman and Owner of Sycamore Hills Golf Club, and Jada Paisley MGCOA Certified Meeting Planner (not pictured Jay Eccleton, CGCS, MiGCSA President, Becky Schooch, MTF Executive Secretary and Gary Koenes, PGA President)

The 47th Annual Big Event

The Big Event was held on Monday at Birmingham Country Club with host Superintendent Dan Dingman and Assistant Victor Morales-Rios. This is the 47th Big Event and this fundraiser brought in over $7,500 to fund research at MSU with the MTF, and Scholarships for MSU Students and for dependents of MiGCSA member with the Heritage scholarships, and the annul matching of member donations to the Wee One Foundation. This was a first class event that will be very hard to top. Some photos below, and if you would like to see all of the groups and more photos please click here.

Lee Collins, Steve Reban with new MSU Turf Physiologist Emily Merewitz and current MTF President/MiGCSA Past President John Fulling, CGCS

The GAM Team of Doug Hendershot, Director of Course Rating, David Baughman Green Committee Chairman, David Cameron, Green Committee Vice-Chair, and Course Rating chair Jim Evanoff

MTF Executive Director Gordie LaFontaine, Dr. Joe Vargas, John Kirtland and Dr. Thom Nikolai

Fundraising Season

This Monday the MiGCSA will host the 47th Annual Big Event at Birmingham Country Club. This event started with the Border Cities groups and the the Greater Detroit Golf Course Superintendents Association after that. Now this will be the 5th Big Event the MiGCSA has hosted. This event is the last of the three golf fundraisers we host every year. The first is at Arcadia Bluffs in June for the Northern Fundraiser and is the only site we do not rotate because it is such a great venue and we always have great participation. This year the second fundraiser was hosted by MiGCSA Member Ryan Osborn at Wuskowhan Players Club in West Olive, for the traditional Western Golf Day. This year has seen record attendance for our fundraising events with the largest Western Golf Day we have ever had at 116 players.

Now as we round the corner on the final event we get to sit down and decide how to properly disperse the funds. These funds are not used to run the Association at all, and are 100% allocated for the MiGCSA Foundation. This is a separate entity from the Association. The Board uses these funds to pay out Student Scholarships at MSU. To award MiGCSA Member Dependents with the Heritage Scholarships. Last year we used some funds for the MSU Turf Club to get to the Golf Industry Show. But the vast majority goes directly to fund research at MSU through the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation. Last year we were able to donate $25,000 to the MTF. Thank you to all of you that have or are going to participated in the 2012 Fundraisers. There are still spots for 3 foursomes at Birmingham on Monday, so come on out if you can!

Ryan Osborn and MiGCSA President Jay Eccleton, CGCS