It is not often, if ever, that a golf course superintendent is recognized by a government agency for their work
South Carolina’s House of Representatives recently honored the career of golf course superintendent Chuck Green when it presented the longtime superintendent with a resolution at the State House in Columbia.
(Pictured at right: South Carolina Rep. Roger Kirby (left) presents Chuck Green with a resolution recognizing his contributions during a career as a golf course superintendent that has spanned more than 40 years.)
Green, who is director of operations at Quixote Club in Sumter, is a past president of the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association. The Carolinas GCSA sustained unprecedented growth during his tenure as president, prompting the association to honor Green with its Distinguished Service Award last November.
In a 40-year career, Green was superintendent at Florence Country Club and Columbia Country Club. In 2000, he grew-in Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, South Carolina, where he remained for 19 years. He was named operations manager at Sunset Country Club in 2019 where he headed up the transition to the reinvented Quixote Club. Part of that transition was a $13 million renovation in 2020.
"I am deeply honored that the House of Representatives would choose to do this," Green said in a news release. "And at the same time, I am proud that the golf course profession has come so far that our state’s leaders would recognize the work we do. So many people have helped me in my career and so many have helped advance the profession. I hope they all take some pride in this because they should."
Green also played a lead role in helping advance turfgrass research in the Carolinas. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of Clemson University's Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, South Carolina, which became synonymous with the work of retired Clemson plant pathologist Bruce Martin, Ph.D.
The Clemson research center was established in 1911 in Darlington, South Carolina, but was reinvented in 1985 in its current location in Florence. Until 1985, Martin's research focused primarily on corn, cotton, sorghum and tobacco.
"(W)ithout 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 last year in nominating Green for the award.
The House resolution read in part: "…with much admiration, the House takes great pleasure in applauding Chuck Green on receiving such a highly coveted accolade as the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association Distinguished Service Award." The resolution was introduced by Rep. Roger Kirby, D-Florence, and carried 111 sponsors.
The resolution cited highlights of Green’s 40-plus year career in golf course maintenance including his role in growing the Carolinas GCSA and helping transform the association’s annual conference and trade show into the country's largest regional golf course superintendent event.
The resolution also noted that Green received support for his nomination for the prestigious GCSA Distinguished Service Award through an unprecedented 36 letters from fellow past presidents, turfgrass researchers, industry partners, and fellow superintendents, some of whom he mentored.