California Alliance For Golf Touts Golf’s Growing Voice

October 28, 2015

By Julia Pine

During the California Alliance for Golf’s (CAG) Annual General Assembly Meeting last week, 30 of the state’s most influential people in the golf industry applauded its outreach efforts while acknowledging there is still much work to be done.

Held at the Southern California PGA Section offices in Ontario, the meeting kicked off with President Chris Thomas. “Golf has really good stories to tell,” said Thomas, the president of the NCPGA. “We’ve done a great job this year telling them, but there is still so much more we can do.”

The group also heard from guest speaker candidate for State Senate and former Assemblyman Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) as well as groups with a vested interest in the state of golf industry business.

CAG exists to protect and promote the golf industry in California. With a strong advocacy arm, CAG this year held its first Legislative Day, converging on Sacramento to help tell golf’s story to people with power. The 7-person team reminded those in the state’s capital what place golf has in the economy, including its undeniable impact on tourism, air travel and lodging. In addition, the group touted golf’s philanthropic and community-based programming, which helps raise millions of dollars per year.

But the undeniable focus of the golf industry and many of CAG’s efforts this year had to do with California’s record-breaking drought, which is now in its fourth year.

“Golf had much more presence at the state wide level during this drought crisis than it ever had before,” said SCGA Director of Governmental Affairs Craig Kessler, who updated the group on the topic. “At the end of the day, the golf industry was able to effectively respond, and getting that story out, that golf courses are handling the environmental stewardship of their courses, is important. I think we did a good job there.”

This was the first time California had mandatory water restrictions on all sources of water except recycled water. Currently, one-third of the state’s golf courses are on recycled water, a number CAG is pleased with but hopes continues to raise significantly. In addition, CAG this year launched a state-wide water tracking survey to find out what really is happening in the field.

“We developed a survey for golf course superintendents to find out how much water is being used and how much water use has been reduced,” said Bruce Williams, a CAG board member and executive director of the California Turfgrass and Landscape Foundation. “We’ve recently received those results and will be developing a plan of how to share those.”

These initiatives all position golf to have its voice represented at more tables, a definite focus of the Annual Meeting. With that goal in mind, Board Member Steve Plummer also presented on a future CAG initiative which involved setting up a California Golf Commission.

“We’ve put together a task force to research and lay the ground work for a California Golf Commission,” said Plummer, the general manager at Tustin Ranch GC. “This would be a way for us to better publicize the good the golf industry does, much like other industries do. This initiative would combat the lack of combined financial resources our industry currently faces.”

Assemblyman Bradford ended the meeting with an impassioned speech about his love for golf and the role the legislator has played in the development of golf. Winning over the SoCal-based golf crowd immediately with a joke comparing sitting on the 405 freeway with playing behind an inexperienced fivesome at a public course, Bradford spoke about the benefits he personally has had with the game of golf and how it has impacted his career.



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