Argentina Superintendents

For the last 2 days, I had the opportunity to entertain 14 superintendents from Argentina.  What an awesome experience.  On Monday, we were in Liberty, SC at the Carolina GCSA headquarters.  On Tuesday, they visited Wade Hampton and Highlands CC.  These guys are the cream of the crop in Argentina.  In fact, several have hosted their National Open.  However, things are much different there compared to the US.  For example, there is no formal education for Supers.  All learned by doing!  Second, good equipment is hard to come by.  The mechanic turns into one of the most valuable employees because it is up to him or her to keep the operation running, literally.

This was arranged through a professor and good friend at Clemson University.  As you may recall, every spring I host Dr. Bruce Martin's entomology class here at HCC.  One of Dr. Martin's Ph.D. graduate students is from Argentina.  Every 2-3 years, he brings a dozen superintendents to the US to visit top clubs.  Travelling with them is the Executive Director of the Argentina Golf Association (AAG) as well as 2 general managers from Clubs in Argentina.  This graduate student is the one responsible for providing scientific research and trends to the Superintendents over there.

This was a tremendous honor for me at HCC.  As I continually say, I am so proud of the work we've done to improve your golf course over the years!