Carolinas GCSA honors Steve Sheets

Steve Sheets

The Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association (Carolinas GCSA) has honored Steve Sheets with its 2015 Distinguished Service Award. Sheets is the director of golf course maintenance, development and operations at Linville Ridge Golf Club in Linville, N.C.

The award is the highest honor the 1,800-member association bestows, and it will be presented to Sheets during the Carolinas GCSA’s annual Conference and Trade Show, which will be held Nov. 16–18 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Sheets has been at Linville Ridge since 1984 and has played an integral role in the success of the property. The course, at nearly 5,000 feet above sea level, is home to the highest golf course east of the Mississippi River, according to a news release. Sheets also oversees POA, landscape maintenance and all new projects undertaken by the development.

“There are many people responsible for building what we enjoy as members of the Carolinas GCSA today and Steve Sheets is certainly one deserving of our thanks,” says Carolinas GCSA president, Bill Kennedy, CGCS, from Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie, S.C. “His contribution is one of the pillars on which our association, indeed our profession is built. He has given a tremendous amount in board rooms, in countless conversations with colleagues and with a parade of young people who have gone on to successful careers.”

During his time at Linville Ridge, Sheets served two terms as the Carolinas GCSA president and was also president of the Western North Carolina Turfgrass Association. While he was superintendent at Belvedere Plantation in coastal Hampstead, N.C., he served as president of the Eastern North Carolina Turfgrass Association. He is believed to be the only person to have led all three organizations.

While it has been more than 20 years since Sheets served on the Carolinas GCSA board, his influence continues to play out in the standing superintendents enjoy within the golf industry today says the Carolinas GCSA. He was an instigator of efforts to increase awareness and understanding of the role of superintendents among golfers and the general public. He helped establish the Carolinas GCSA’s Superintendent Image Campaign, which raises money to disseminate “proper information, not hearsay” about the work superintendents do.