2nd Qtr 2026 TeeOff News

President’sMessageByElliotWeber

It's hard to believe how quickly this year has flown by! I hope everyone is staying cool and ready for the busy summer season. As things ramp up, I encourage everyone to make time for yourselves and your families in the middle of the summer hustle.

I also want to take a moment to recognize and thank our Association Director, Kim Milne, for her dedication and countless hours of hard work. Her commitment and attention to detail help ensure our events run smoothly, and she truly is the glue that holds our association together.

One of the biggest highlights of the year was awarding three Legacy Scholarships at the Al Glaze event this past June. We're incredibly proud to support these outstanding students as they take the next step in their educational journeys, and we know they have bright futures ahead. Congratulations again to all three recipients!

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who supported our Scholarship and Research Tournament. Whether you sponsored a hole, made a donation, played in the tournament, volunteered your time, or worked behind the scenes, your support made a real impact. Because of your generosity, we're able to continue growing our scholarship program and creating opportunities for future generations.

We're also looking forward to seeing everyone at the TRI-Chapter meeting in August! We're putting together an excellent educational session before golf and are excited for another opportunity to reconnect, celebrate everything we've accomplished together, and continue building the strong relationships that make our association so special. We hope you'll join us for another great event.

Thank you again to everyone who has supported our association throughout the year. Your generosity, involvement, and dedication are truly appreciated, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

2026 GCSACC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

June

May

April

FromtheField JeffJensen,GCSAAFieldStaff,SouthwestRegion

I hope this message finds everyone doing well and enjoying the summer with family and friends.

I would like to thank all participating superintendents and golf facilities that supported this year’s Rounds 4 Research Auction. It was a record-breaking year nationally, with the auction raising $936,298 — an increase of $182,529 over 2025. Central California played a significant role in that success, contributing fifteen donated foursomes (total dollars still TBD) for the chapter to support research, education, and advocacy efforts.

A special thank you goes to Alisal Ranch Director of Agronomy and Central California GCSA President Elliot Weber for spearheading the effort. It truly takes a village, and we could not do it without the outstanding support of this chapter.

In other news, I wanted to provide an update on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Small Off-Road Engine (SORE) regulations. As you are aware, CARB implemented a ban established through California AB 1346 on the manufacture and sale of gasoline-powered equipment rated at 25 horsepower and under, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

While GCSAA supports the use of zero-emission equipment when practical and available, we also support our members’ ability to access the equipment necessary to maintain golf courses to the standards expected by owners, customers, and members. To that end, we continue to challenge the waiver granted to CARB by the EPA, and the case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court.

Opening briefs were heard on Feb. 3, with the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) leading the effort alongside GCSAA and other stakeholders that rely on this equipment. The argument centers on the EPA’s improper data, including retail pricing instead of manufacturer cost data when estimating regulatory compliance costs, which industry groups believe significantly underestimated the financial impact. Industry estimates suggest compliance costs could exceed $1 billion.

In addition, OPEI continues to raise concerns about the commercial viability of zeroemission equipment, echoing arguments previously made by GCSAA and the California Alliance for Golf (CAG) during both the AB 1346 legislative process and the CARB rulemaking proceedings. At the time this article was written, the EPA and Department of Justice were preparing their response to the opening brief. I will continue to share updates as more information becomes available.

Thank you all for your continued support of GCSAA. If I can be of assistance, please feel free to contact me at jjensen@gcsaa.org. Have a great summer!

-Jeff Jensen

The Heat is On!

We find ourselves in the middle of the “dog days of summer” – those sweltering weeks when the sun beats down, the heat clings to everything, and the air is thick and miserable. For maintenance teams, this stretch is not just uncomfortable – it is a real test for the golf course. Scorching summer days call for more than just grit, they require strategic planning, adaptable cultural practices and constant vigilance to keep turf healthy under extreme conditions. While golfers try to beat the heat with early tee times, maintenance crews are already deep into the workday, pushing through rising temperatures that often hit dangerous levels before noon.

Staying ahead of heat stress – for both the turf and team members – becomes a daily priority during the peak of summer. Crew safety must remain front and center. Proper hydration, regular breaks, using sun protection and knowing the warning signs of heat-related illness are not simply good habits – they are critical for keeping teams safe, healthy and effective during these challenging weeks.

One of the best ways to protect your crew during extreme heat is by building heat safety directly into the daily schedule. Consider establishing additional break times throughout the day to ensure everyone has a chance to cool down, rehydrate and recharge. Physically demanding tasks like bunker maintenance, edging or push mowing can take a serious toll during peak heat, so consider scheduling those jobs earlier in the morning when temperatures are lower. Providing simple comforts like iced towels, coolers stocked with cold water, and fresh fruit in the staff fridge goes a long way in keeping morale up and bodies fueled. Designating a team member to regularly check in on everybody to make sure they have water and are taking breaks shows your staff that their well-being matters. Encourage shade breaks, rotate tasks when possible, and make open conversations about heat illness symptoms a part of your culture.

Small adjustments like these send a powerful message: We are in this together and taking care of each other is part of the job.

Mitch Leininger, agronomist, East Region

SaveTheDates

2026

August 31

Tri-Chapter Tournament Hosted by GCSACC San Luis Obispo CC

October 26-28 CGCOA

West Coast Education Event Ontario, CA.

November 16

Charity Tournament Stockdale CC

December 5, 2026

Holiday Event Windows on the Water

2027

January 20, 2027 GIS

California Room New Orleans, LA

February

Annual Meeting and Awards

Location– TBD

March Mechanics Seminar

Copper River CC

PORTRAIT OF THE ADVOCATE AS AN OLD MAN

When Kim contacted me about writing something more in the way of a personal column that might offer a glimpse of the “man behind all the hard work” that I put in on behalf of the golf industry, my first thought was that I much prefer to write about the “work” than the “man” behind it. The man is not nearly as interesting or important as is the work.

My second thought, one I am going to bet many of you reading this have had when Kim has contacted you to write about yourselves, is that it is much easier to write about one’s “work” than oneself.

My third thought was stop thinking and just start writing.

I would start at the beginning, but that would require too many words. In case you hadn’t noticed, I lost my youth further back in the 20 th Century than I am comfortable sharing in a forum quite so public. So, I’ll offer a short professional biography, interspersed with a few personal facts, some of which will strike you as consistent with the person you think you know and others that may strike you as inconsistent with the wonky, over-educated fellow who you think you know, and conclude with some observations about where I think the golf industry is headed in the near and far terms, which I hope can stand more as thoughts from a wizened veteran than ramblings from someone whose best days are behind him.

I am a “reformed lawyer” whose undergraduate degree in history is from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where I assure you, I went for academic reasons, and whose first stabs in the work world were about as far removed from golf as one could be. I played golf to be sure, but when I was a young punk the notion of working in golf was a non-starter.

This was the first of many non-starters that proved not only to be wrong, but to be 180 degrees wrong. Indeed, now that I am what I like to call very late middle-aged, I have taken to reviewing those non-starters that turned out to be starters, so I will know what I’ll be doing next and where I will be doing it. I vowed I would never work in golf and ended up with a pretty distinguished career in golf. I vowed I would never live in the desert, and I bought a place in Palm Desert late last year. I vowed I would stop playing golf if I had to suffer the indignity of a double-digit handicap. Well, you guessed it. I now carry a 13.6 Handicap Index and am playing more golf than I have in years. It almost makes me wonder if that political party I registered for when I was 18 and have voted for consistently since might not get my vote in the next election. Nah – I think that vow might follow me to the grave. Because my job (yes, I still have a job and will get to that in a moment) requires me to be 100% nonpartisan, I’ll let you guess which political party I’m referring to.

Okay, back to the biography stuff. After serving many years as Executive Director of the Public Links Golf Association and many years thereafter as the Director of Governmental/Public Affairs for the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA), I stepped down from full-time employment in June 2024 to take what they told me would be a “part-time” executive directorship of the California Alliance for Golf (CAG). The only thing “part-time” about it thus far is the pay. But don’t take that as a complaint. I am not the retiring type, and the work CAG does is a labor of love. And did I mention that my Handicap Index has climbed all the way to 13.6? I don’t think I could stand playing too much golf at that level of competence, and I don’t think I could stand a life of meaningless leisure that fails to contribute in some meaningful way to improving this world before I depart it.

Okay, back to the biography stuff take two. I serve now or have served on more committees, boards, and task forces than patience permits, among them five (5) municipal golf commissions, three (3) USGA committees, six (6) “golf & water task forces,” one (1) PGA of America committee, two state working groups, an IAGA network, an AGIC work group, and more ad hoc committees/working groups/task forces than this space permits me to list. Indeed, I lobbied into existence most of the municipal golf commissions and golf & water task forces I ended up serving on, as well as some I never served on.

Craig Kessler Continued

If there is one theme that has characterized the “advocacy” work I have done at many different levels of the game, it is the creation of institutions, many of them governmental, that give the game a seat at the table where its fate is determined. And I need to add being determined with increasing frequency.

If there is a second theme that has characterized my professional work it is that all work in the “advocacy” realm involves long-distance runs interrupted only occasionally by sprints. Whether the sprint is in reaction to a threat or in response to an opportunity makes no difference. Both responses succeed or fail not because of the tactics of the moment, but because of strategies that have been in place for anywhere from 5 to as many as 35 years. Successes and failures that appear to many as outcomes of the moment are really outcomes whose ranges of success or failure were determined long before. That is why long-term consistent investments in advocacy are crucial. An industry or sector that waits until the harmful bill is filed, or the onerous regulation is posted, to act is an industry or sector that is about to suffer a big loss.

There are many more themes, but I will share just one more. Respect your adversary. Understand his/her arguments. Try to understand both the letter and the mind of those arguments better than your adversary understands them. Do those things, and you will never be caught by surprise. You will come to appreciate the fact that nothing is black or white; all things are shades of gray; and there is much to the other side’s case that makes good sense, even if it is inimical to golf’s interests.

Since I promised to share some personal stuff here, first let me share a maxim that dovetails nicely with my tongue-in-cheek comment earlier about reviewing all the things I vowed to never do so I can know what I’ll do next. Some of the best things I have discovered in my life were things I was not looking for, which I attribute to a curious and wandering mind that never allowed me to focus on some straight and narrow path toward some preordained goal, but compelled me to spend a lot of time looking to my left and right to take in what some call matters extraneous to one’s goals, but I would call the key to finding those things that ended up being much more precious than what I thought I was looking for. More simply put, I am always prepared to be distracted. The corollary to that: Don’t fall for the trap of setting specific goals, particularly when you are too young to really know what you want. Had I done so, I never would have found a career in golf, and my life would have been greatly diminished. I might have ended up part of those unfortunate many who cannot wait to retire to a life of meaningless leisure, because they spent the better part of their lives doing something that didn’t fire their passion to wake up every morning and go to what they called work and I still have the joy of calling fun.

I also promised to share some personal things that you might find counterintuitive. So, I’ll grit my teeth and share that I am a lifelong Redskin/Commander fan (don’t ask), I collect 1:24 model cars of a certain 1950’s/1960’s vintage, I love music (classical, jazz, blues, gospel), I love books but I love writing more (okay; that might not be “counterintuitive”), I travel less than almost anyone I know, I am a news/political junkie (again, maybe not “counterintuitive”), I want to come back in the next life as an interior decorator, and I have a childlike fascination for all forms of Christmas decorations. In fact, I have a childlike fascination with a lot of things that most persons who fancy themselves as adults seem to have left behind in childhood, but I’ll leave those details for later. That’s another maxim: Always leave them wanting more.

As for the wizened veteran observations about where our industry is heading, that strikes me as the kind of subject I write about most of the time, whether in columns like this or the CAG newsletters. So, let’s leave that for another day too. Corollary to “another maxim:” Always tease an invitation.

AlGlazeEvent

MonarchDunesGC

Under the warm June sun and the gentle coastal breeze, the 2026 Al Glaze Scholarship Tournament brought together golfers, supporters, scholarship recipients, and community members for a day of spirited competition and heartfelt purpose at Monarch Dunes Golf Club on June 8, 2026

This annual event, named in honor of the late Al Glaze a passionate advocate for education and youth development once again proved to be more than just a golf tournament. It was a celebration of generosity, sportsmanship, and the shared belief in investing in the next generation.

Players teed off on Monarch Dunes’ beautifully maintained Challenge Course, to try there hands at winning up to $25,000 per hole on the “Hole in One Competition”. While no one brought home the grand prizes, we did have some very close calls, one of which was only 5” from the hole. Everyone enjoyed the club’s signature blend of challenging play and breathtaking scenery. The day featured friendly rivalries, impressive shots, and plenty of laughter, all culminating in a scholarship ceremony honoring 3 very worthy recipients.

Thanks to the dedication of participants, sponsors, and volunteers, the tournament raised record-breaking funds for the Al Glaze Scholarship Fund. These proceeds will directly support both local turf students as well as member Legacy students, in pursuing higher education, continuing Al’s legacy of opening doors for young scholars. The true success of this event comes in the way of our Silent Auction. Without the generosity of our Vendors, and the bids from our Superintendents, we would not be able to continue supporting these students each year. Thank you to each and every one of you who made this day a success.

Celebrating the 2026 Al Glaze Scholarship Recipients

The 2026 Al Glaze Scholarship Golf Tournament, held on the scenic Challenge Course at Monarch Dunes Golf Club, brought together industry professionals, community members, and supporters for a day of spirited competition and charitable giving.

This year’s event proudly recognized three outstanding Legacy scholarship recipients: Kevin Eppich Jr., son of Turf Stars’ Kevin Eppich Sr., Celine Schroeter– Heptig, daughter of Superintendent Josh Heptig, and Lizbeth Avila, wife of Harrells’ David Avila. All of these recipients embody the dedication, work ethic, and passion for excellence that the Al Glaze Scholarship seeks to honor.

Kevin will be attending CSU Fresno in the Fall, majoring in Business Administration. He graduates from Ripon High School and participated in football, track, and golf. Kevin prides himself on self improvement in all areas of life and always looking for potential to do better, whether that be in sports, school, or in personal

Celine will be attending Cal Poly in the Fall and her major is in sports marketing. She looks forward to working behind the scenes to grow the reach and impact of different sports organizations, particularly in the area of womens sports. In highschool she led her golf team as 4 year varsity athlete, finishing her stellar performance as the team captain her Senior year. She also excelled academically, completing 8 AP courses and becoming bilingual in Spanish.

Lizbeth is attending CSU Channel Islands, pursuing a degree in Psychology. Lizbeth credits her parents for allowing her the opportunity to reach for these goals. As a first generation Mexican American, she knows that it takes sacrifice and perseverance to achieve great things. She is the first in her family to attend college, and her long-term goal is to build a career where she can support individuals facing emotional, social, or mental health challenges. Her goal is to work with underserved communities and provide access to resources and support systems to those who are often overlooked.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Kevin, Celine, and Lizbeth, and our sincere gratitude to all who made this year’s tournament a success.