11TH National Golf Day Most Successful To Date

By Craig Kessler – Southern California Golf Association

Under the umbrella of “We are Golf” more than 60 of the nation’s golf organizations descended on Washington D.C. April 24-25 for the 11th rendition of “National Golf Day.”

The “Day” was April 25, but the annual event has grown so large an additional day of events has been added in recent years, the highlight of which is the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) “Community Service Initiative,” a demonstration on the Capitol Mall of the agronomic tools the golf industry routinely uses that are also applicable to the duties performed by the National Park Service at the nation’s parks and monuments.

The overarching theme of this year’s “Day,” as with the previous 10 National Golf Days, was the game’s economic, environmental and community impact – $84.1 billion overall economic impact, $4 billion in charitable donations, 2 million plus direct jobs, and billions in national, state and local taxes.

To that end “We are Golf” scheduled close to 200 separate Congressional meetings for the diverse array of golf industry leaders who traveled to the Capitol from virtually every state and region. Included among this year’s array for the first time were municipal golf managers – an effort to remind the American national legislature that a substantial portion of the country’s golf courses are owned and managed by governments.

The meetings have evolved from the meet, greet and introduce sessions that characterized the first couple of National Golf Days to an effort to leave Congress with a coordinated message from the national golf community about some of the industry’s core legislative priorities.

With respect to labor issues, the delegations conveyed the game’s concerns about the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Visa program’s provision of too few workers for golf and other seasonal industries and asked the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to move with dispatch to issue the maximum number of additional visas authorized by Congress this year. Where golf is not seasonal, e.g., Florida and the Southwest, this issue is of scant concern, and the delegations conveyed only the industry’s support for bipartisan immigration reform.

The delegations also conveyed support for H.R. 3956, a bill to create one definition of seasonal employment under the Affordable Healthcare Act, and for the development of an Overtime Pay Rule that sets the exempt employee income thresholds higher than the $23,000 figure it has been stuck on for far too long but lower than the $47,000 figure that was proposed by the Obama Administration. The latter is a moot point in many of the nation’s large urban states such as California, where separate state law pretty much establishes a standard in sync with the higher figure.

With respect to environmental issues, the delegations emphasized the fact that turf is the 4th largest crop in the United States and as such is recognized by the US Department of Agriculture as an eligible recipient of government grants and other forms of public largesse. The 2018 Farm Bill contains explicit language to that effect. The delegations, at least those delegations where such a message would not run afoul of their state’s political center, reiterated a passion of the GCSAA that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) play a subordinate role to the Federal, Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in permitting chemical spraying activities – a negation of what GCSAA calls a duplicative NPDES permit per the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The delegations also lobbied for the bipartisan “Personal Health Investment Today Act” (PHIT), a piece of tax legislation that would give Americans the option of using pre-tax medical funds to help pay for physical activities that directly benefit health. It would accomplish this by expanding the IRS definition of a medical expense to include physical activity as a form of prevention. There are currently 125 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, 69 Democrats and 56 Republicans.

GCSAA and their Superintendent members continue to dominate the delegations, not surprising given that organization’s commitment to advocacy at the national, state and local levels. In the persons of Chava McKeel, Bob Helland and Mike Lee, GCSAA has three national staffers dedicated exclusively to government affairs. In the form of a national Governmental Affairs Committee, a form duplicated by most of the GCSAA Chapters in the nation, the Superintendents have created a culture that places a high priority on advocacy, which explains why in so many corners of the nation it is the Superintendents who lead the game in state capitols, city halls, and special districts. It also explains why so much of golf’s energy re legislation, regulation and public policy emanates from the sector that maintains the nation’s golf courses.

Other sectors are ramping up. The first Tee is a regular participant and always manages to send leaders from its local chapters. The USGA Green Section has been cited in recent years and has even begun to dip its toes in the previously uncharted waters of Congressional meetings. The Club Managers of America (CMAA) lends its staffers and encourages its members to participate, as does the PGA of America, albeit in both cases participation is nowhere near the level of the Superintendents. As mentioned earlier, some of the nation’s municipal managers have begun to participate. IAGA Executive Director Bill Walker is a attendee, as are a couple of representatives of the nation’s state/regional golf associations, although as a member of that class I am embarrassed at how paltry our ranks are in this national demonstration of golf’s virtues. The state/regional golf associations represent more actual rank and file golfers than the rest; their presence would add considerably to National Golf Day’s impact.

Presence matters in politics. Organized presence matters more. Strategic presence matters most. Here’s hoping the nation’s state and regional golf associations begin lending some of their substantial presence in 2019. And here’s hoping that this year’s National Golf Day attendees return to their locales and demonstrate the same presence and focus for the next 364 days they just exhibited in Washington D.C. Persistence matters just as much if not more.