Rounds 4 Research, the brainchild of the Carolinas GCSA that held its first auction in 2009, has raised more than $2 million in nearly a decade since it went national with GCSAA. “It was a stroke of genius,” says North Carolina State’s Fred Yelverton, Ph.D. (standing), shown here with Travis Gannon, Ph.D., working on a project at Lonnie Poole GC in Raleigh, N.C. Photo courtesy of Brian Green
It was not an uplifting meeting, and Tim Kreger wasn’t smiling when he left it.
On a spring day in 2008, Kreger, the executive director of the Carolinas GCSA, attended a meeting in Raleigh, N.C., where he learned there would be state budget cuts for turfgrass research. At the time, that’s the way things were going for turfgrass
research across the nation — budgets were being whacked, and funds for important projects were wasting away.
When he left the meeting, Kreger didn’t bow his head in dejection, though. On the contrary: He began to spin his brain for ideas on how to overcome the difficult situation.
He thought of a recent fundraiser for the Clemson University men’s golf team, in which a foursome slot at the South Carolina school’s golf course was donated and sold for $250, with proceeds benefitting the golf team.
“We could do the same thing with all of our member clubs, and give the money to turfgrass research,” Kreger remembers thinking.
Kreger phoned Paul Jett, CGCS Retired, the Carolinas GCSA’s president at the time, and told him about the predicament and his idea to overcome it. “I said to him, ‘What if we sell rounds for research?’” Kreger recalls. “‘What
if we gather up a bunch of golf rounds and sell them to golfers for research dollars?’”
Jett, who spent 15 years as superintendent of Pinehurst (N.C.) No. 2, thought it was a splendid idea. So did others, including Trent Bouts, who is charge of communications for the Carolinas GCSA.
Asked recently about Kreger’s idea, which came to be known as Rounds 4 Research, Bouts recalls a GCSAA-Carolinas GCSA joint meeting in 2008 at Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. After a round of golf, Kreger told Bouts he wanted to “catch
up with him about something” later that night. The two met at a comedy club across the street from the resort.
“We sat down, and he started telling me about his plan. We started fleshing out the nuts and bolts of it,” Bouts says. “After that, we had a really good laugh at the comedy club for the rest of the night.”
Kreger pitched the program to Carolinas GCSA board members and told them it would require a one-time initial $20,000 investment, which would be reimbursed by sales of early rounds. The board provided its blessing.
“There was no reason this didn’t make sense,” Bouts says.
So Kreger went to work, seeking out a friend who ran an auction company and another who did online design work to help. Bouts helped out on the media side. In 2009, its first year, Rounds 4 Research raised more than $55,000 for turfgrass research from
donated tee times from hundreds of courses across North Carolina and South Carolina, including many prestigious private facilities.
“I think Rounds 4 Research demonstrated what the industry is capable of when it works together,” Jett said at the time. “We expect it will be even bigger in 2010.”
It was. In fact, the Carolinas chapter invited two other chapters, the Georgia GCSA and Virginia GCSA, to get involved. The following year, it expanded into Texas, with the Lone Star GCSA joining up, and the combined associations raised more than $150,000.
But while the program spurred much-needed turfgrass research, it was getting to be a lot of work for the small Carolinas GCSA staff. That’s when Kreger asked GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans if the association was interested in taking the program national,
which the GCSAA did in 2012 under the Environmental Institute for Golf (now the GCSAA Foundation), its philanthropic organization.
Today, more than 70 GCSAA-affiliated chapters have joined the initiative to address the critical shortage of funding for ongoing, university-based agronomic research, education, advocacy programs and course operations. Now in its 10th year under GCSAA,
Rounds 4 Research has raised nearly $2 million in total.
Bert McCarty, Ph.D., from Clemson is among the researchers who have benefitted from Rounds 4 Research funds, including this study of “off-types” in ultradwarf bermudagrass. Photo by Bert McCarty
Creative funding
Fred Yelverton, Ph.D., is just one of many turfgrass researchers who is thankful for Rounds 4 Research. Yelverton, a turfgrass professor and Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, remembers well when the program got going under the Carolinas
GCSA.
“It was a stroke of genius,” says Yelverton, who credits Kreger and others for recognizing the “importance of research.”
The turfgrass industry realized several years ago that it had to get creative to fund research programs. Yelverton calls Rounds 4 Research “a very creative funding mechanism.”
“In turf, we’re always looking for ways to fund research because it isn’t a traditional commodity like other agricultural groups,” Yelverton says. “Other agriculture commodities like corn and wheat typically have some kind
of checkoff or funding mechanism so a certain amount of money goes to research when a certain amount of the commodity is sold. But in turf, we don’t sell a commodity like that … and everybody who works in turf is struggling to find that
funding mechanism.”
Bert McCarty, Ph.D., professor of turfgrass science and management at Clemson, was an early recipient of Rounds 4 Research funds ($44,000) from the CGCSA that were used to investigate doveweed biology. Clemson and McCarty also recently received $35,000
to evaluate selective control of “off-types” in ultradwarf bermudagrass greens.
McCarty says the funds have provided important seed money that allows him to hire the right people and to purchase the right equipment, among other overhead expenses, to conduct the research.
“People don’t realize how expensive research is,” McCarty says. “They think you just grab a student out of a classroom and tell them to go do this research. That’s not the way it is.”
Yelverton says it can typically cost upward of $40,000 annually for a graduate student to conduct a research program. “It’s not getting any cheaper,” he adds.
Since its first auction in 2009, the Carolinas GCSA has raised more than $560,000 to fund 13 research projects. Others include affecting fungicide performance on golf course turf (North Carolina State), evaluating biological thatch control on golf greens
(Clemson) and edaphic factors that affect off-target movement and injury from herbicide applications in turfgrass applications (N.C. State).
Bouts says he felt from the outset the golf industry would support Rounds 4 Research. In places where the program has gained traction, such as the Carolinas, funding can be earmarked to projects specific to regions, Bouts points out. “That wasn’t
necessarily the case when you’re relying on other sources for that research funding,” he adds. “Superintendents have a say now in what projects the researchers are working on with Rounds 4 Research money. That’s a wonderful
thing.”
Bouts also credits superintendents for being the main force behind the program. “It’s staggering to me that golf course superintendents will go out of their way in their own time to raise money for turfgrass research, which never puts money
in their pockets,” he says.
In 13 years, the Carolinas GCSA has raised more than half a million dollars to fund research projects through Rounds 4 Research. Photo courtesy of Don Garrett, CGCS
Wanted: More rounds
Insiders believe Rounds 4 Research has room to grow. They include Kreger, who would like to see the media pick up on the program and promote it to make the general public more aware of it. “There could be a ticker on Golf Channel to show when new
rounds are donated,” Kreger suggests.
Kreger would also like to see more participation from golf courses around the country. If just 20% of the 15,000 golf courses in the U.S. participated, Rounds 4 Research could skyrocket, he says.
Bouts also says Rounds 4 Research has much potential to grow, noting there’s more participation in some areas of the country than others. “There’s an awful lot of money still on the table,” he says. “We’ve seen great
results, but it could still be better.”
Researchers like Yelverton and McCarty would welcome that growth because they know the golf course maintenance industry could use all the research money it can get. Yelverton agrees that Rounds 4 Research has plenty of potential to tap.
“The big thing is you just have to promote it in the individual states,” he adds. “It’s all about marketing. It’s a good product, but you have to sell the product.”
That said, Yelverton is thankful for what Rounds 4 Research has achieved in his part of the country, noting the program has made a difference in North and South Carolina.
“A lot of research has been done, and those projects have directly benefitted the golf course industry,” he says. “The effort has been worthwhile, and the money has been well spent. Rounds 4 Research has proven to be very valuable, not
just in the Carolinas but nationwide.”
Looking back at his conversation with Kreger at the comedy club, Bouts says Kreger’s idea for Rounds 4 Research was “silver-bullet-type” thinking.
“Tim deserves all the credit, as well as the Carolinas GCSA for giving him the go-ahead and providing the resources to do it,” Bouts says.
Says Kreger: “I’m proud that the CGCSA recognized it could be a need-fulfiller. So, let’s just all get behind it, try to get our rounds donated and tell club members to go buy them.”
Lawrence Aylward, a freelance writer from Medina, Ohio, has covered the golf course maintenance industry for more than 20 years.