Honored by the association he helped expand

Chuck Green, from Quixote Club in Sumter, South Carolina will receive the Carolinas GCSA’s Distinguished Service Award at the 2024 Conference and Trade Show Nov. 18-20 in Myrtle Beach.

An association past president, his nomination was supported by an unprecedented total of 36 letters, from fellow past presidents, turfgrass researchers, industry partners and fellow superintendents, some of whom Green, 67, mentored. The Distinguished Service Award is the association’s highest honor.  

One of the latter group, Jeffrey Connell, now general manager at Fort Jackson Golf Club in Columbia, South Carolina, led the association in 2010 and was president of the South Carolina Golf Association in 2022-23. “Chuck was part of a special generation of men who wanted to professionalize the association,” Connell wrote.

Connell was referring to efforts Green and other association leaders made taking the association from part- to full-time management and growing the Conference and Trade Show by moving to a bigger venue. Many metrics show that Green and his colleagues succeeded.

When he served as president in 1996, the Carolinas had less than 1,000 members, was run by an after-hours executive secretary and the Conference and Trade Show attracted less than 1,000 attendees. Now the association has close to 1,900 members, a full-time staff of four and more than 2,000 people are expected at next week’s conference.

Green was also pivotal in the establishment of Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, South Carolina, where Dr. Bruce Martin became one of the foremost turfgrass experts in the country.

“…without Chuck's intervention and willingness to intercede and plead my case, it would have been unlikely that we would ever have built our program at Florence,” Martin wrote in support of Green’s nomination. Until then, Martin’s research priorities were tobacco, cotton, corn and sorghum.

John Greene, CGCS who was president in 2003, wrote how Green was “able to reap the benefits of the groundwork Chuck had laid out. He was instrumental in getting us away from poolside conferences and hotel basement trade shows. Chuck also was instrumental in getting Chuck Borman on board (as executive director). After that the Carolinas GCSA took off like a rocket. Since retirement, I’ve done consulting work as far away as Nevada and California and quality superintendents, even that far away, know about and respect the Carolinas. Chuck is a big reason for that.”

In a 40-year career, Green served as superintendent at Florence Country Club, Columbia Country Club, and helped establish Sage Valley Golf Club before becoming operations manager for the transformation of the former Sunset Country Club into Quixote Club.

The 2024 Carolinas GCSA Conference and Trade Show features the association’s annual golf championship with more than 360 golfers, a two-day trade show with more than 410 booths sold and education seminars with more than 1,200 seats sold.