GCSAA considers relocating business

The search for greener grasses continues.

Officials with the Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America are continuing a process they started in November to explore the possibility of moving the association’s headquarters from Lawrence to one of three cities in Florida or Arizona.

At stake are 120 jobs that pay an average salary of $43,000 a year.

In late 2002, association leaders said they had hired a consultant to begin looking at a possible move to either Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., or Jacksonville, Fla. One of the reasons cited for a possible move was a desire for the group to be located in a more “golf-centric” area of the country.

The PGA Tour is located in Jacksonville, the PGA of America is in Palm Beach, Fla., the LPGA Tour is in Daytona Beach, Fla., the National Golf Foundation is in Jupiter, Fla., and the Golf Channel and Golf Week magazines are both located in Orlando.

“When you think of golf organizations, they are usually located in big golf destinations like Florida, California, Arizona,” said Steve Mona, chief executive of the association. “We have to ask ourselves whether we could accomplish some of our goals more easily if we were located in one of those golf-centric areas.

“I can’t tell you the number of people I meet who, when they find out we’re based in Lawrence, they immediately ask me why.”

Since 1972, the 22,000 member association has been based in Lawrence, first housed in a building along the Alvamar golf course and since 1991 in an 80,000-square-foot office building at 1421 Research Park Drive in west Lawrence.

The association provides training and networking opportunities for the people, called superintendents, who care for and maintain golf courses across the country.

Steve Mona, chief executive officer for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, has considered moving his Lawrence-based operations to a more golf-centric area. Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., or Jacksonville, Fla., are possible relocation sites.

Another goal of the association is to help educate ordinary golfers about the role superintendents play in the game. Mona said some members of the association have wondered whether that would be more easily accomplished if the group’s headquarters were located along a major golf course development.

Grand vision

Mona has said the association would like to be part of a larger complex that includes a golf course, hotel and convention center.

“Our vision is much more grand than just moving to a new building,” Mona said. “If we are to move, we want to make a statement and really increase our visibility.”

Not everyone in the association is so sure such a move would produce positive results. Dick Stuntz, an association member and vice president of golf facilities at Alvamar Golf & Country Club, says more study needs to be done before the association seriously considers a move.

Stuntz attended the association’s annual meeting in Atlanta in February and said members there questioned whether the association, even if it were located in a golf resort, would attract the attention of the average golfer. Stuntz said the work superintendents did was similar to a baseball umpire. It’s important to the game, but it’s not what people come to see.

“Our association is not a tourist attraction,” Stuntz said. “Let’s face it. Taking time out of a golf vacation to look at what we do and what we have is not going to be very high on anybody’s list.”

Financial issues

Other Kansas City metro-area members of the association also have been urging the group to slow down the search for a new home. The Heart of America Golf Course Superintendents Assn., a 300-member chapter of the national association, sent out a letter to all 22,000 members urging them to vote against a proposal at the annual meeting that would have given the association’s board of directors the authority to decide on moving the headquarters.

After the letters went out, the board decided to pull the issue off its agenda. That action means any decision to move the headquarters will have to be approved by a majority of the 102 chapters that make up the association. At the annual meeting, members also decided such a vote could only be taken at an annual meeting, which would be February 2004. Previously, Mona had said a decision could be made by this summer.

Olivia Holcombe, executive director for the Heart of America chapter, said the organization sent out the letters because its members were concerned about possible financial issues related to its $8.4 million building and staffing problems.

“We have a very large building there in Lawrence,” Holcombe said. “If that building is just left sitting, that can’t be good for the association. So, there’s that concern about financial issues, and there’s a concern about the staff.

“We think a large number of the staff won’t move with the association, and we think membership services could be hurt because of that.”

The Lawrence economy also likely would receive a blow from a move. With revenues of about $18 million a year, the association has been considered one of Lawrence’s thriving employers. It has grown from 70 employees in 1994, when Mona took over as CEO, to 120 employees today.

Mona has declined to speculate on what the chances were of Lawrence keeping the organization, but he said members probably would see advantages and disadvantages in making a move.

“Lawrence has one big disadvantage and one big advantage,” Mona said. “The disadvantage is Lawrence is not a golf mecca. You can’t argue that it is.

“The one huge advantage is that we’re already here. We’re going to have to be wowed by a deal to leave here. If an offer is only marginally better, we’re not going to do it.”