Written by Shane Conroy, GCSAA Great Lakes Field Staff

Members continue to be the focus of GCSAA. In fact the first portion of the GCSAA mission statement reads: ‘GCSAA is dedicated to serving our members’. With that in mind, GCSAA has teamed with Meridian One, out of Alexandria, VA, which specializes in providing associations, chambers and other member organizations with best in class savings programs for their members. Meridian One has a family of affinity programs, which provide services and attractive discounts to GCSAA members and their families. By leveraging the buying power of GCSAA members, Meridian One is able to offer programs which allow members to reduce their business expenses.

Through Meridian One, GCSAA members can receive instant savings on products and services from UPS, the UPS Store, Lenovo, Office Depot, Avis, Budget and Member Freight.

GCSAA has also partnered with Hays Companies to bring options in health, vision, dental and other insurance offerings to GCSAA members. Hays is a leading national insurance and financial services organization, which is providing a variety of supplemental product and service offerings exclusively to GCSAA members. Additionally, GCSAA members receive discounts at TireBuyer, UniFirst and select Columbia Sportswear products. To see all of the GCSAA member discount offerings, please click here.

Another exciting recent announcement included the debut of the GCSAA Podcast. The podcast will be produced monthly and will feature pertinent association and industry content. Some of the information you can expect to hear will include information on educational offerings, updates on new and upcoming GCSAA programs, human interest stories, including interviews with some of the biggest names in golf course management, and content from golf events across the globe. Scott Hollister, editor-in-chief of GCSAA’s Golf Course Management magazine is the host of the podcast. 

This first episode debuted in early October, with Scott Hollister opening the episode with an interview with GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans. Additional content on the episode included information on the Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards, and interviews with GCSAA members who were selected to volunteer at the 2019 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris.

“We are very excited to have another way to communicate with our 18,000 members,” Evans said. “However, the GCSAA Podcast also gives us the opportunity to share all the good things happening in the golf course management industry with a wider audience.” 

Recent episodes included industry leader Matt Shaffer, an update on GCSAA’s new First Green program, an interview with Ohio’s own Lawrence Powell of the Powell family who received GCSAA’s 2019 top honor: the Old Tom Morris Award.

Ohio’s five affiliated chapters of the GCSAA have combined to partner with FOX Sports Ohio’s popular golf show, The Golf Zone with Jimmy Hanlin, to highlight the role of the golf course superintendent.

The collaborative effort was made possible by the GCSAA’s outreach grant, where matching funds are available for programs focused on increasing awareness of the superintendent profession. The Golf Zone airs live from 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm on FOX Sports Ohio and is accessible to 5.4 million subscribers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New York.

This Sunday, May 22, the new segment titled, The Superintendent Report, will make its debut and will continue every Sunday through October. In the first episode, GCSAA director and superintendent at Westfield Country Club, Mark Jordan will appear in studio to discuss his recent visit to Washington D.C. for National Golf Day as well as Ohio Turfgrass Week which is May 22-29.

Over the next 20 weeks, the segment will be utilized to promote the golf course superintendent, the environmental benefits of golf courses, unique locations and much more. Guests will appear live in studio, by phone or in some cases, segments will be pre-recorded to give viewers an inside look at the role of the golf course superintendent.

Written by Dr. Jay Hobgood, The Ohio State University

After a warmer than normal March the weather pattern will shift back to a cooler pattern at the beginning of April.  An upper level trough over eastern North America will produce northwesterly flow for much of the first two weeks of April.  The northwesterly flow will bring cooler air from Canada.  As weather systems move from west to east across the U.S., we will get some warm days, but on average the temperature will be slightly cooler than normal for April.  Northwesterly flow tends to bring drier air.  Several storms systems will bring significant rain during the month, but the precipitation is likely to be slightly below normal for April.