Legislative Bulletin Please join us for Legislative Day 2012
by Tom Schwark, Owner of Sycamore Hills Golf Course in Macomb and chair of the MGCOA Government Affairs Committee
On Monday June 13, 2012 the golf industry will team together for Legislative Day to be held on the lawn of the Capitol Building in Lansing. The MGCOA will be joined by the PGA, GAM, Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association, Golf Architects, Turfgrass Foundation, and the Michigan and Detroit Club Managers Association. The purpose of Legislative Day is to make our elected state officials aware of the golf industry, and the positive impact our industry has on the state in terms of jobs, economic
impact, greenbelts, land values, and tourism. Our goal is to have someone in the golf industry from every district in the state. We surely won’t have someone from every district in the U.P., but the more people we have, the better. Please come to Lansing to meet your state senator and representative. We get a great turnout from all the legislators and their staffs. We have a golf outing type of lunch with hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, potato salad, etc. We also
have some hitting cages attended by golf pros to give swing tips to the politicians, some of whom actually admit that they don’t know everything and will actually try to listen and follow the pro’s suggestions. Imagine that! We hold Legislative Day in June, when golf courses are fully staffed. Try to get away from the course for at least a part of the day and come to Lansing. It will be good for you to meet your elected officials on their turf and it will be good for our golf industry. I hope to see you there.
Michigan Golf HOF inducts new members Rick Smith, Larry Mancour and Jack Seltzer, all PGA professionals, and Grand Rapids senior amateur Jack Van Ess, who vowed to his parents that he never would play on Sunday, were inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame on May 20, 2012, at Michigan State’s University Club. The Michigan Golf Foundation also presented a special award to Michigan State University’s Turf Team of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences for its outstanding work in improving the quality of golf course turf statewide and internationally. The multi-talented Smith worked as an assistant professional in Lakeland, Fla., and taught collegian Lee Janzen, who went on to win two U.S. Open titles, and also taught PGA Tour players Rocco Mediate and Billy Andrade. A good player himself, but more interested in teaching, Smith, 54, has worked with Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Jack’s son Gary, Matt Kuchar and John Daly. Smith returned to his native
Michigan in 1986. As the new golf director at Sylvan (now Treetops) Resort in Gaylord and, after overseeing the opening of its Robert Trent Jones course, Smith talked owner Harry Melling into hiring Tom Fazio to do a second course. Then Melling gave Smith the goahead to build a unique par-3 layout. It became Threetops, the site of the Par 3 Shootout on ESPN that featured the greatest players in the game, including Lee Trevino, who made a $1 million ace in 2007. Flint native Mancour, 77, is also multitalented. He taught with Tony Lema at Golden Gate Fields driving range in California, built the second nine holes at Lake Tahoe Country Club, won the Arizona Open and played the PGA Tour. Mancour returned to Michigan to play in the Buick Open. He stayed, and built Grand Blanc Golf Club, then added nine holes at the Flint Elks where he was the professional for 20 years. Mancour was named Michigan Player of the Year twice as well as the Golf Professional of the Year, winner of the Michigan PGA, Se7
nior PGA, Senior Open, Northern Michigan PGA champion, winner of seven team championships, National PGA Quarter Century and Senior championships in the PGA Winter Series in Florida. Jack Seltzer, 60, is another Flint native who started young in golf. He won the Class A high school championship in 1967 while at Flint Southwestern and was Flint Junior champion in 1969, junior college champion in 1971 and ‘72 and has won all three major state championships - the Open, the Match Play and the PGA. The best shot of Seltzer’s career came in the final round on the ninth hole of the Bear in the 1987 Michigan Open. The ninth is all carry over water and Seltzer aced the hole. A television camera caught it and the video went national as Seltzer rolled on to win. He currently is at the Kendall Academy and, over his years of teaching, he’s had 32 high school all-state players, 11 Michigan Dream Team players Continued on page 8 WWW.MGCOA.ORG
MAY/JUNE 2012