The Pellucid Perspective - February 2015 - (Page 12)

Golf AND THE ENVIRoNMENT Golf and public policy find common ground By Craig Kessler (Editor's Note): Craig Kessler is the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Southern California Golf Association, a relatively unique position within state, regional and local golf organizations which others might consider creating, particularly if they can find someone as experienced and effective as Craig. His efforts in Southern California have altered the perception of golf as a water waster among governmental and regulatory bodies, and significantly reduced the threat to golf of devastating water cutbacks in the Southern part of the state. T he golf industry has been talking the environmental talk for some time. It fancies that it has been walking the walk. On February 3 The Southern California golf community decided to put those boasts to the test. The Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and the Southern California Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association (GCSAA) partnered with the Council for Watershed Health, a major player in Southern California environmental circles, to put on a daylong symposium at the Brookside Golf Complex in Pasadena. For those unfamiliar with Brookside, it may be the only USGA National Championship site in America that doubles as a parking lot; it is the course abutting the Rose Bowl that the nation sees bathed in sunshine and loaded with cars every January. The title of the symposium was "golf and water," an unsurprising topic given the severity of California's latest drought. But much more than just water conservation was in play; the full environmental record of the industry was on the line. This would be the first effort to bring the golf industry together with environmental professionals and activists, and a visible effort at that. Sweat glands can be activated when one's audience expands beyond familiar confines. Preaching to the converted is so much more comfortable. But the allied Southern California golf industry has been breaking out of its comfort zones and cloistered patterns for some time - less a paean to prescience than to necessity. In addition to the general malaise that has affected the golf industry everywhere, the Southern California golf industry has been buffeted by a series of increasingly severe droughts, geometrically increasing prices of water and energy, a complicated web of new environmental regulations, and a political environment not always "friendly" to business. Beginning with the last drought (2007-2009), the Southern California industry started approaching water districts and public utilities in major golf markets for the purpose of creating what have come to be known as "Golf Industry Water Conservation Task Forces." They now operate in all of Southern 12 The Pellucid PersPecTive Craig Kessler, Director of Governmental Affairs, Southern California Golf Association California's major urban areas plus the Coachella Valley, which may have scant population (300,000) but with 123 golf courses, comprise a full 27% of Southern California's golf stock. These "task forces" bring the golf industry together with the politicians and regulators that control policy, practice and law. The purpose: To find common ground between the government's mandate to reduce the game's water footprint and the industry's need to do so via means compatible with sound business practices. In short, the Southern California golf industry has been thinking and doing things differently than its counterparts in other parts of the country - working across jurisdictional lines, organizing and collaborating, and above all else, engaging government at all levels. It was but a short step to broadening that mindset to engaging an environmental organization - preaching to the unconverted as it were. By this author's reckoning, the engagement was a successful one. The symposium at the Rose Bowl drew a crowd of 175 souls, and not just the usual "souls" who populate these golf symposia; it drew persons from government, academia, ancillary industries and normative environmental organizations. And the presenters were not just the usual suspects, although some of them like USGA Southwestern Green Section DirecFebruary 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - February 2015

TOC
Oro Valley has ‘golden’ opportunity with El Conquistador purchase
Whither golf equipment in 2015: Up, down or sideways?
Notes from 35,000 feet
USGA annual meeting: Nothing earth-shattering
Rival FootGolf groups state their cases
Golf and public policy find common ground
No time to play? Trilogy at Ocala Preserve offers a unique solution
January golf weather impact: Off to a good start relative to ’14
Like oil prices, Houston market hard to figure
Tough week for sports legends

The Pellucid Perspective - February 2015