This is part of the Maxwell Cup (Top Collegiate teams play across the street including National Champs University of Oklahoma in 2017 and Oklahoma State University 2018 National Champs)….but before they play the University of Oklahoma helped us promote golf for kids by giving individual lessons, hand out free clubs and talk about golf in general. I talked to several kids about golf management and working on the golf course in the summer. This was at Lake View Golf Club in Ardmore, where I went for two years to help get the club back into a positive program for the City. We had over 200 children show up each year for the event in the small town of 28,000.
Joseph Hubbard, CGCS/CEMP, Certified Golf Course Superintendent at the Boca Delray Golf & Country Club, is a huge supporter of First Green, the innovative education outreach program using golf courses as hands-on environmental learning labs. First Green has worked with golf course superintendents extensively for more than 20 years. The First Green Foundation (First Green) and Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) recently brought First Green under the umbrella of the GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, the Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG).
Joe wrote recently: “I just came off the golf course in doing my drive around a few minutes ago, and who should be out there, but my 32-year-old son playing golf. He has the golf bug now and competes on a local level which makes my heart beat a little prouder to see he has come around to the game he now loves. Best of all, he is a music teacher (he came within a whisker of getting his turf management degree from Coastal Carolina in SC, but all the partying he did with Dustin Johnson….LOL, made him go with his heart, into music).
“My oldest son works at Trump International West Palm as an assistant golf course superintendent for Donald Trump (Da Prez) and Andy Kjos, CGCS. My daughter (and another son) got scholarships from the local Superintendent’s Association. She is a US History high school teacher in West Virginia. The fingers of our industry have more avenues into life than the fingers on our hands.
Related: Joe Hubbard, Golf Superintendent, Shares his Adventures in Life
“If we do this right, we can get American youth interested again in summer work, or the sons and daughters of legal immigrants who are hungry for good ol’ fashioned hard work, to become part of a quality team making a difference in their community.
“Side note: As my background is not just in the golf industry but also as a journalist for several years for newspapers in the Northwest, I commented to a couple of my peers, that the Trades magazine has stepped it up in its quality and knowledge of your articles for our industry….so much now, I like reading your magazine from front to back. It’s ‘good stuff! Keep up the good work.”
