National Golf Day 2019

By Brad Marcy, TN GCSA Grassroots Ambassador, Indian Hills Golf Club, Murfreesboro

I had the privilege of participating in National Golf Day which includes golf awareness events. This event is hosted by We Are Golf, a coalition of the game’s leading associations, including GCSAA. This was a great event and experience. I know many people visited Washington D.C. on an 8th grade field trip. Well, I must have been suspended that day, because I had never been to the Capitol before and had no idea what to expect. That place is amazing! There is so much history in such a small area. I only had about 1.5 hours of free time, so I really didn’t get to experience a whole lot, but I feel like I experienced a lot.

There were 16 or 17 service projects going on at the same time. There was sod going down, flowers being planted, flood areas being cleaned up, mowing taking place, aerification, hedge trimming, dead tree material being removed and tree inventory being taken. The group I was with was leveling an area in the lawns next to the carousel outside the Smithsonian. We had to move two Pronovost trailers of soil about 20 feet with flat shovels, pack it, seed it and add pelletized mulch or “Seed Aid.” What the group leader thought would be a 45-minute job actually took about 2.5 hours for the 4 of us to accomplish. Well 3.5 of us, one of the guys was conveniently in the restroom on the bus when they dropped us off at our location and it took about an hour for the bus to get back around to drop him off.

It is crazy trying to get around that town. I understand why people walk and bike to their jobs there. It’s not I-24 to Nashville at 7:00AM, but its tough. Honking horns are a familiar means of communication to the people there.

On the 3rd day we went to Senate and Congress for meetings. By we I am referring to Paul Carter (Bear Trace HB), Michael Seabrook (Belle Meade GM), and myself. We had meetings scheduled with Senator Blackburn and Senator Alexander’s office and House members Chuck Fleischmann, Jim Cooper and Scott DesJarlais’s offices. It just so happened that this was the day that William Barr was being grilled in front of the senate. So, anyone who was anyone was in the hearing or was hanging around waiting to get a sound bite out. This possibly worked to our benefit. Meeting with the staff members from the respective offices was probably a better way to communicate our message than speaking directly to a senator or congressman anyway. We were asking for help with specific issues:

• $3,000,000 in turfgrass research in the Farm Bill for 2020

• Repeal or modification of WOTUS

• Passage of HR 890 Reducing EPA duplication

• Getting Golf added to the PHIT Act

• Removing Golf from the “Sin List” in the tax code

• Increasing the number of H-2B visas

• And increasing nondiscretionary bonuses from 10% to 25%

After that it was straight to the airport to get home at 11:00 PM and then up again at 3:00 AM to go volunteer at the National Golf Open at Nashville Golf & Athletic Club. That’s a different story though.

I thought I was going to have a really hard time at this, but was willing to give it a shot and I am glad that I did. The first meeting was a little shaky, but we found our flaws as a group and the following meetings went much smoother. I highly recommend and encourage any Grassroots Ambassadors or anyone who has any interest in this event.