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Ultimately, we are looking to provide
more clubs with the opportunity to
make golf more accessible to people of
all ages, gender and ability.
What other projects and initiatives
are currently in progress?
We are currently working with the
United States Golf Association (USGA)
on the Site Evaluation program which
launched in 2015. The program involves
grants to golf courses for a golf course
architect and an agronomist from
the USGA Green Section to visit their
facility. We’re bringing our combined
expertise to qualified facilities, outlining
opportunities for improvement in areas
such as course design, agronomics,
environmental stewardship and
operations. The aim is to help courses
bring their own ideas to life and find
new ways of enhancing the overall
golfer experience, provide a more
welcoming setting for newcomers, while
achieving measurable goals such as
lowering costs and making better use of
existing resources. We’re really proud
of what we’ve achieved through the
program so far. It’s so rewarding having
such a positive impact on the facilities
we support.
We also partner with organizations
like local chapters of The First Tee
to provide college scholarships to
high school students. Successful
candidates receive grants to help them
with their studies and are invited to
attend the ASGCA Annual Meeting to
meet our members and spend time
in our education sessions. It’s a great
opportunity for them to meet with
the leaders of today and learn more
about our industry. We are also in
the planning stages of an internship
program too, aimed at supporting up-
and-coming design students.
What does the future hold for the
ASGCA Foundation?
We’re very focused on the future of
golf and are constantly looking for
ways we can positively impact the
game of golf and the profession of
golf course architecture. We have
recently increased our fund raising
goals to enable us to perform more
research and provide more and better
educational publications to the golf
industry. Our supporting partners
are a big part of our success in
getting people to see the true values
golf and golf courses bring to our
quality of life.
•
ASGCA Foundation initiatives include
scholarships (2016 recipients J.T Moore
and Lauren Mead, above), the Longleaf
Tee Initiative (top right) and site evaluation
program (one beneficiary of which has
been Canal Shores Golf Course in
Evanston, Illinois, right)