From left: Wayne Lagasse, CGCS, superintendent at Stonington Country Club, Jake Ecke, aide to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and GCSAA board member Marc Weston, CGCS, discussed policy issues facing the turf maintenance industry during Ecke's visit to Stonington CC in July. Photos by Scott Ramsay
Wayne Lagasse, CGCS, was unable to attend the 2024 National Golf Day in May.
In a way, National Golf Day came to him a couple of months later.
Jake Ecke, an aide to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), paid a visit July 2 to Stonington Country Club in Stonginton, Conn., where Lagasse is superintendent.
“It was a great visit,” says Lagasse, an 11-year GCSAA member. “Basically, I went to National Golf Day last year and really enjoyed it. When we’d go into meetings, we’d try to leave expressing, whether we were talking to
an elected official or an aide, ‘Please come out to a golf course so we can show you what we do on a daily basis,’ instead of simply talking after entering their political arena.”
Ecke, a former collegiate golfer for Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa., took advantage of that invitation when he was visiting family near Stonington over the Fourth of July holiday.
“Jake’s a scratch golfer, and he expressed interest in coming down,” Lagasse says. “(Certified Golf Course Superintendents) Marc Weston and Scott Ramsay asked if I’d be interested in hosting him at Stonington. It was great.
He spent two hours on the golf course talking about a variety of things. I think it was good for him to get a behind-the-scenes look at what we do.”
Though Ecke is a lifelong golfer, Lagasse says, he hadn’t previously been exposed to the course maintenance side of the business.
“He said, ‘These are the things I hadn’t really thought about,’” Lagasse says. “I think it was cool for him to be there firsthand, standing on a green, talking about some of the things we incorporate into our daily
jobs.”
Just like at National Golf Day — the golf industry’s Super Bowl for advocacy, a nearly weeklong endeavor during which hundreds of participants meet with legislators and their staffs on Capitol Hill to champion golf — Lagasse had some
talking points in mind. Reflecting on his NGD trip in 2023 and the agenda items that year, he stressed to Ecke the importance of the H-2B visa program to the golf industry.
He talked about the Personal Health Investment Today Act, legislation that would allow Americans to use money saved in health savings and flexible spending accounts for qualified sports and fitness purposes, including golf green fees, tournaments, clinics
and lessons.
And they visited about the 2024 Farm Bill, a part of which is the National Turfgrass Research Initiative to fund turfgrass research.
Weston, Lagasse and Ecke discussed a number of pressing issues related to golf course industry advocacy, including the H-2B visa program and the Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act.
That NTRI ask is particularly personal for Lagasse. Stonington is in the process of doing some greens expansion, and Lagasse leaned heavily on the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program to select cultivars appropriate for his location. The development
and evaluation of those turfgrasses wouldn’t have been possible without funding, Lagasse noted.
“I spoke with him (Ecke) about some areas that were formerly rough areas,” Lagasse said. “We’re overseeding to get better germination. Thanks to things in the Farm Bill, we know the newer bentgrass varieties are so much better
than the old style. We’re not just throwing seed down.”
Whether the meeting will generate any tangible benefit to golf remains to be seen, but Lagasse’s glad he was able to host an in-person meeting on familiar turf.
“I’m on the local board for Connecticut (Association of Golf Course Superintendents), and our goal is to have as good of representation as we can,” he says. “You need to have your voice heard, just to have that conversation. Now
we have a good rapport with Jake, and he says he’s planning to come back. I’m assigned to Chris Murphy. The value of that is very cool. We had a super friendly exchange, and I told Jake, ‘If there’s anything I can do, let me
know. Please call me and we’ll talk things over.’ It’s nice to have that relationship.”
All of which is music to the ears of Michael Lee, GCSAA’s senior manager for government affairs.
“The best way to cut through the noise in advocacy is by building relationships with staff and decision-makers in government. And the best way for superintendents to build relationships is the through hosting site visits at their golf courses,”
Lee said. “Getting lawmakers and their staff members on your turf is the most effective way to educate them on what golf course management is all about and how their policy decisions impact your work.”
Andrew Hartsock is GCM’s editor-in-chief