Matt Shaffer is not a Washington man, but he and nearly two-dozen other superintendents assumed the role for a day on behalf of colleagues everywhere.
Shaffer, director of golf course operations at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., was one of many superintendents and other representatives from throughout the golf industry to travel to Capitol Hill on April 16 for National Golf Day. The sixth annual event that includes representatives from the GCSAA, PGA of America, USGA, National Golf Course Owners Association, Club Managers Association and the World Golf Foundation, gives golf stakeholders a forum in which they can discuss with legislators and their staffs issues concerning the game and its future.
That laundry list of topics included educating legislators and others on Capitol Hill about the economic benefits of golf as well as promoting the environmental stewardship efforts and sustainable management practices of golf course superintendents.
"At first, I didn't want to go, but then I thought 'how selfish of me,' " Shaffer said.
"My job is to communicate the premise that the golf course superintendent is responsible for the success of golf."
Shaffer recalled firing back to one lawmaker who asked him to define sustainability.
"I told him to pick up the phone and call a guy who has $400,000 to run a golf course," Shaffer said. "He'll tell you all about it, because he has nothing and still makes it all happen."
Many people, including some in Washington, have shaped their opinions about the relationship between golf course management and environmental sustainability by what they read and hear in the mainstream media. But those perceptions are slowly changing, at least inside the halls and offices of the Capitol, said Darren Davis, CGCS at Olde Florida Golf Club in Naples, who was in Washington for his second National Golf Day.
"From last year to this year, it's improving," Davis said. "Many of them are beginning to get it that we are a business, and they're not lumping us as an elitist activity.
"We don't want special treatment. We just want to be treated like any other industry."
Changing the way some view the golf industry has required a constant drum beat of the game's economic data, including 2 million golf-related jobs and a total economic impact of $176 billion annually, according to We Are Golf.
GCSAA president Pat Finlen, CGCS at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, was in Washington for his fourth visit on National Golf Day. During this year's visit he met with, among others, staffers' from the office of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), who in the past has spoken unfavorably of golf courses and use of pesticides and water.
"I can't say all (on Capitol Hill) are getting it, but some are," Finlen said.
"We're making a lot of headway in helping them understand golf is a business."
As a business, the golf industry has needs, and National Golf Day also gives the We Are Golf contingent an opportunity to lobby for other needs.
Shaffer said he and other superintendents in Washington lobbied for relief funding on behalf of East Coast golf courses affected by Hurricane Sandy. Davis noted how certain tax-relief measures now in place for golf courses likely are a direct result of regular attendance by GCSAA members and others on National Golf Day.
GCSAA members also lobbied for a special use exemption for methyl bromide and for changes to pending legislation that would require a state-by-state interpretation of the need to file paperwork when applying pesticides in proximity to water bodies. Like everything in Washington, decisions on legislation and exemptions come slowly, but you can't get what you don't ask for, Davis said.
"The world is run by people who show up," Davis said. Representatives and senators and their staffs are bombarded by people all day who are asking for something. When they go home, they have to defend their position on things relating to golf. They need answers, and we are there for that. We want to be a resource for them in answering questions, and before National Golf Day, they didn't have that. Before, we were talking about it to each other, but that's preaching to the choir.
"Now, I preach that if we want to keep our jobs in an industry that I love we have to talk about its benefits. We have to go forward with a unified voice and mission, because undoubtedly there is strength in numbers."