By Design – Issue 49, Summer 2020

23 in 2019, the Powell family was the recipient of the Old Tom Morris Award [from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America]. By looking at this connection, it makes me very humble to be the recipient of this very prestigious award. When I looked at the previous recipients, I literally got goosebumps. To be in added to that same list (see box, page 25) makes me proud that my dad introduced me to the game that continues to humble each of us every time we tee it up. What does it mean to you to work at a club, alongside your brother Larry, that your father designed and built? It is the dream job. To know the history of why my father built Clearview golf course shows a determination of an individual to turn a negative into a positive—to be determined to make a difference even if it is against all odds. To understand how he built the course also showed his perseverance. To build the course, he actually walked back and forth on every fairway with a hand seeder around his neck just to seed each hole. For me, to know I have the genes of a person who has made a significant contribution to the world of golf gives me a huge sense of pride. He taught our entire family the game. I learned how to mow greens and fairways, and how to water a golf course, but as the only daughter in the family, I was able to devote my time to practicing and playing the game of golf. My brother Larry, on the other hand, learned about agronomy and how to maintain a golf course. To work alongside him is a real privilege. We both learned from our father and we both do special jobs—he as the superintendent and a member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and me as the golf professional, and a member of the LPGA and PGA. We are both carrying on the legacy of what our parents built at Clearview and to me there is no other place I would rather be. My dad could never have done this without his team and my mother who was his support system and who also ran the inside business part while my dad did the outside maintenance portion. When I looked at the previous recipients, I literally got goosebumps Photo: courtesy of USGA Museum