Anyone who has spent any length of time in the golf business has heard it said over and over: "I didn't know you could grow grass for a living."
Since 2020, a group of superintendents have been busy trying to close that gap by introducing the profession to kids and raising money to help those interested in a turf career offset the cost of their college education through the Super Scratch Foundation.
"We're in an industry where nobody knows what we do unless we tell them," said Scott Bordner, Director of Agronomy of the Union League of Philadelphia. "It's about going to high schools and telling them what we do. Then, with the cost of education, we have to try to help these kids and make it as easy as possible for them. When you see that Augusta National has to post an ad for internships, that's a sign that something has to be done."
The Super Scratch Invitational pairs golfing superintendents with top level amateur players in a tournament format played at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, the club in suburban Philadelphia where Tim Kelly is superintendent. Huntingdon Valley was the home of The Lynnewood Hall Cup, an amateur event played at the Philly-area club from 1901 to 2010. The tournament was the second-oldest amateur event in the country behind only the U.S. Amateur when it was retired 13 years ago.
With how his life impacted me and so many others, we thought it was a great way to try to help people who had a tougher road to get into this industry. We thought this was a natural fit. We can help his legacy carry on and help others get their education at the same time.
"A bunch of better players had a desire to bring an amateur tour to Huntingdon Valley," said Tim Zurybida, a longtime member at Huntingdon Valley who is a former Philadelphia superintendent and currently director of agronomy for the National Links Trust in Washington, D.C. "There are scores of pro-ams across the country, but to our knowledge no one had a superintendent paired with a top-rated amateur."
The Super Scratch Invitational raised $1,500 for turfgrass scholarships in its first year in 2020. Today, the event has raised more than $50,000 in scholarship funds for turfgrass students attending Penn State, Rutgers and Delaware Valley University. This year's event in November raised $30,000 for scholarships for turf students.
"As the tournament took off after that first year, we were able to raise a lot more money," Zurybida said.
The foundation will start a new scholarship this year that honors the memory of Grady Breuer, the son of Michael and Jenna Breuer who died in April at age 2 from the effects of a rare birth defect.
The invitational includes a tournament for amateurs only and a best-ball event for amateur-superintendent teams. The top teams get to pick which schools receive the funds. Entry fees cover all tournament expenses, so all funds donated by the more than two dozen vendor sponsors go toward scholarship funds.
"The funds go to the administration at the schools, and they decide which students they think need it," Bordner said. "We give it to the schools to use at their discretion, because they know the students and know their needs better than we do."
Soon, the invitational expanded beyond the Philly area and attracted teams from Chicago, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Florida, Bordner said. Future plans include possible regional qualifiers with the final events played at Huntingdon Valley.
"As more funds come in, we can have more dedicated scholarships," Bordner said.
That includes the scholarship that will be named for Grady Breuer, who suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a birth defect that affects blood flow through the heart and resulted in impaired brain function due to oxygen deprivation. Grady died on April 30, five months short of his third birthday.
We're in an industry where nobody knows what we do unless we tell them. It's about going to high schools and telling them what we do. Then, with the cost of education, we have to try to help these kids and make it as easy as possible for them.
Through social media posts by Grady's father Michael, the assistant superintendent at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon, the turf world was able to follow along through the many struggles in Grady's short life, including numerous surgical procedures. Throughout the ordeal, Breuer's family received an outpouring of support from followers across the country, most of whom he has never met, including those involved with the Super Scratch Foundation on the other side of the country.
"With how his life impacted me and so many others, we thought it was a great way to try to help people who had a tougher road to get into this industry," Bordner said. "We thought this was a natural fit. We can help his legacy carry on and help others get their education at the same time."
The Breuer family was surprised at how the foundation chose to honor and remember their son.
"This came from out of the blue," Michael Breuer said.
"I don't have a lot of words for it. It's difficult; he's gone, but his legacy will live on and impact others. That's incredible. We're humbled by the outpouring of support and blessed by this industry for the gestures of so many."
