End your week in San Diego with friends and colleagues at the Closing Send-Off Celebration, presented in partnership with John Deere at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. Doors open for the event at 2:45 p.m. in Ballroom 20ABC.
Golf media personality Lauren Thompson will host the Closing Send-Off Celebration, which will feature GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans, 2025 Old Tom Morris Award Winner and baseball legend Ozzie Smith, the announcement of the winners of the 2025 Collegiate Turf Bowl and the introduction of the 2025 GCSAA Board of Directors.
Evans will be the keynote speaker at the Closing Send-Off Celebration, where he will recount his experiences of successfully summiting Mount Everest in his talk “Time’s Up! Lead Out!” Evans will share how he overcame numerous unexpected challenges during his climb by harnessing the principles of purpose, passion, positivity and perseverance and how you can use these same principles to overcome difficulties you may encounter, which can lead to greater personal and professional growth.
After summiting Everest on May 23 last year, Evans later wrote to GCSAA members in a GCM column, saying that while climbing Everest was an individual goal, it was not an individual accomplishment.
“It takes a supportive team and individuals who are willing to lead out to make it to the top. Those who lead out are the ones who blaze the trail, who go through the toughest terrain or deepest snow first and make an easier path for others to follow,” Evans said. “A successful climb simply isn’t possible without those who lead out.”
Evans says GCSAA members don’t necessarily even have to leave their course to lead out. “Members who host First Green field trips that introduce youth to the game and the profession are leading out. Members who complete their facility BMP’s and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability are leading out. And members who donate to the GCSAA Foundation to support advocacy, education and research are leading out,” Evans said.
“I encourage you, in whatever way you can, to lead out and set an example for others, which makes a stronger association and industry for all.”
Ozzie Smith is the recipient of the 2025 GCSAA Old Tom Morris Award. Photo by Taka Yanagimoto/St. Louis cardinals
Also featured at the Closing Send-Off Celebration will be Hall-of-Fame baseball legend Ozzie Smith, who is receiving GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award for 2025.
“After a stellar major league career, Ozzie embodies the same passion and dedication to the game of golf,” said Evans. “His ongoing efforts to grow the game, including for underserved youths, have buoyed communities and exemplify what the Old Tom Morris Award represents. In the process, he has formed friendships and developed a deep respect and appreciation for the numerous golf course superintendents he continues to interact with along the way. He’s a true ambassador for the game.”
Smith is one of the all-time greats in baseball at shortstop and won 13 consecutive Gold Gloves and played in 15 All-Star games with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals from 1978 to 1996. Today, Smith now strives to improve the lives of youth and veterans through the game of golf. For the past 15 years, Smith has served as president of Gateway PGA REACH Foundation, which seeks to improve lives through the community of golf focusing on education, diversity and veterans.
“I’m just a baseball player that has gotten the opportunity to do all these things. I just give back where I can, to these kids, kids that may not get to experience anything like this in golf.”
The Old Tom Morris Award is presented annually to individuals who, through a continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf, have helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris. Morris was a four-time British Open winner and legendary greenkeeper at St Andrews in Scotland.