First Green keeps growing while preserving the future of golf maintenance

When PGA Tour player Akshay Bhatia won the Valero Texas Open in April, it made for a fun story. This was the first time a competitor in the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals — contested at Augusta National, home of the Masters — qualified to play in the Masters.

Leann Cooper

To see a player go from a contest for youths to one of the pinnacles of the game was a win for Bhatia and for golf. Not only was it a win for the game, but it got us here at Golfdom thinking.

The First Green has been teaching school kids about the field of golf course maintenance since the late 1990s. So, how long until a First Green student becomes a head superintendent? Or hosts a professional tournament? Or a major?

“That’ll be a really big goosebumps moment for me when it happens,” says Leann Cooper, director of First Green and workforce development for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).

Cooper recalls first pondering that question after her first or second First Green event, in 2019. A superintendent was asked by a sixth-grade girl if he was the course’s superintendent. After he said yes, she asked him, ‘How much money do you make?’

“You know kids, they get right to the heart of things,” Cooper says. “He said, ‘I do alright for me and my family … why?’ She replied, ‘Because I might want to do this for a living someday.’ And I kind of got goosebumps right then, because this is what it’s all about — that interaction right there.”

Ryan Kraushofer

15 and counting

First Green is a program administered by the GCSAA that strives to teach schoolchildren about career opportunities in golf maintenance. The program allows students to get out of the classroom and out on the golf course where they rotate from station to station, learning about the effort that goes into maintaining a golf course. The curriculum is ready-made by GCSAA and includes stations about mowing and equipment, water conservation, irrigation, green speed and more.

The first step in hosting a First Green event is to visit GCSAA.org and register to host. GCSAA staff then connect with the superintendent to see if they have a local school already in mind — perhaps where their own kids attend school. If they don’t have a school already selected, GCSAA goes to work to find one nearby.

Ryan Kraushofer, CGCS, is the general manager and superintendent at Westminster (Md.) National GC, and has plenty of experience in hosting First Green events. He’s hosted 14, maybe 15 already, and when Golfdom spoke with him in mid-May, he was ready to add another event to that total — 100 kids were scheduled to arrive at Westminster later that week.

The First Green held 89 on-course sessions in 2023. The goal for 2024 is 100. “We’ve had 13,000 students go through the program in 32 states,” says Leann Cooper, GCSAA. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Why is he so dedicated to teaching youths about golf maintenance? Maybe it’s because he was only 12 when he started working at Westminster himself. A family-owned club, he’s had about every job there is at Westminster.

Brett Oxley, CGCS, Red Tail Run GC, Decatur, Ill., says it’s fun when the students are stunned by things he takes for granted. “They’re amazed at the technology that’s within the irrigation system … being able to throw an irrigation head up across the course with a radio that’s in my hand just by punching numbers up? They were blown away.” (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Kraushofer first learned about the program years ago when GCSAA hosted a First Green class at the association’s annual conference in San Diego. Kraushofer immediately knew he wanted to bring this program out east, and that he’d have the support of his chapter.

“We were all looking for workers then and I was on the Mid-Atlantic GCSA Board of Directors at the time … I thought it’d be a good program to bring back to the Mid-Atlantic,” Kraushofer says. “We make it a chapter event here in the Mid-Atlantic. A superintendent is not on his own when he hosts one. We advertise it in our weekly e-newsletters; we get sponsors.”

You get out of it what you put into it, Kraushofer adds.

“It’s rewarding; it’s good PR for the golf course,” he says. “My first one I was a little nervous, but we had a good plan and good stations, which get the kids thinking along the way. It’s great to see the kids out of the classroom, enjoying the golf course.”

Big Paape

Count Mike Paape as another superintendent who found employment in the game of golf young — he started working at Southview CC in Burnsville, Minn., as a caddie at age 13, then joined the grounds crew when he was 16. He went to school for agronomy and held various positions in the industry, but when the superintendent position opened at his childhood home course six seasons ago, it was a job he “had to have.”

But he won’t take credit for the idea of hosting the youth of today at Southview. That was the idea of Brad Smith, his friend and sales rep for Heritage Professional Products Group. Smith was familiar with the First Green and, with a son who is a student at a nearby school, he broached the idea with Paape.

David Phipps, GCSAA field staff representative for the Northwest, notes that GCSAA offers $500 grants to help offset First Green expenses. “That will offset the costs for the busing or lunches or whatever you want to use the money for,” he says. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Brian Gietka, CGCS, USGA Green Section agronomist for the east region, shows students how a Stimpmeter measurement is taken at Westminster (Md.) National. (Photo: Ryan Kraushofer)

“I emphatically said I 100-percent would want to be a part of that, and I would love to host one,” Paape says. “That was the first time I had heard about a First Green event, and I just loved the concept.”

Paape has “a whole pile” of kids (five total) and is married to a third-grade teacher, so he went into the event feeling confident. He says Smith dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s while also lining up many of the volunteers.

Many of the First Green’s lessons are interactive, which keeps the students highly engaged. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Jake Straub discusses soil testing with students at a First Green event at LedgeRock GC in Mohnton, Pa. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

“It was super easy, super smooth. The planning process was simple,” Paape says. “We had all winter long (to prepare). Winters get long here in Minnesota, so we had lots of time to do the planning. We were able to line up all of our volunteers, get all the different stations we wanted and figure out who would be best for each one of those stations. We had a number of people that had experience with First Green events coming to our location, and that made it even easier.”

Ryan Kraushofer, CGCS, Westminster (Md.) National, shows students how a TDR Soil Moisture Meter works. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Southview hosted 74 kids — sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Paape and JT Hauser, superintendent at Rochester (Minn.) G&CC, manned the station where they discussed how greens are mowed, and the difference between a rotary mower and a reel mower.

Paape says of the 74 kids, maybe only two had any understanding at all of how a golf course is maintained.

“And one of those kids was Brad’s,” Paape laughs. “It was great to see some eyes light up and some astonishing reactions as far as when we talked about how short we cut the grass on greens compared to how long they mow their lawn at home.”

Looking back, Paape says after he agreed to host the First Green, his excitement eventually turned into trepidation as the day drew nearer. His biggest concern before hosting was that he wanted the areas where the kids would be standing well prepared in advance of their arrival.

“It almost became a little bit of a distraction in a way, but when it was all said and done, I was like, ‘Oh, man, that was totally worth it for the three or four kids in each group that really got something out of it and may end up pursuing a career like this someday,’” Paape says. “I felt like, little by little, if this becomes more and more of a thing, this might be what turns around our industry at the end of it all.”

Help from headquarters

One common message from those familiar with hosting First Green classes is that GCSAA, its field staff and a group of 30-plus supers designated ‘First Green Liaisons’ around the country are happy to help courses host these events. Don’t hesitate to reach out for that assistance, says Brett Oxley, CGCS, Red Tail Run GC, Decatur, Ill., and a First Green Liaison.

“Get a hold of your GCSAA Field Staff for the different regions — they’re a great resource,” he says. “And any other superintendents who have hosted the First Green or your First Green Liaison, get a hold of any of them. We’re always willing to help set up, help give you some advice, kind of help you align things out along the way.”

Jeff Gullikson, CGCS, has students learn hydraulics by measuring distance from the nozzle. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

Carl Thompson, CGCS hosts seventh-grade students from Liberty Christian in Richland, Wash., to learn of the importance of oxygen in the root zone with a demo of the Air2G2 machine. (Photo: GCSAA)

David Phipps, GCSAA’s Field Staff representative for the Northwest, says he’s seen First Green events hosted by just the superintendent and the assistant of a course — but there’s no need to keep it so small when others are happy to help.

“Outside environmental groups, like water conservation districts, love doing labs … it’s an easy sell to get their help doing that,” he says. “But what I like is to engage local superintendents in the area, which then empowers them to host their own event. That’s how we’re going to grow this thing — it’s a grassroots effort to get people involved.”

CourseCo’s Gary Ingram helps Carl Thompson, CGCS at his First Green event, teaching the properties of water. (Photo: Golfdom staff)

That is Cooper’s No. 1 piece of advice when it comes to hosting an event — there’s no need to go it alone.

“Pull in your chapter colleagues, all the chapters are aware of this program, and are very supportive of it and want to volunteer,” she says. “Many of the superintendents I’m working with are using First Green as a great way to help develop their assistant superintendent … they’re giving this over to their assistants to organize and lead.”

The First Green program has become a primary part of Cooper’s role with GCSAA. She’s worked for the association for 24 years. Previously she was the senior manager of chapter services, but as the First Green program grew, her supervisor, Shelia Finney, senior director of member programs, told her a decision needed to be made: continue her role as normal or switch to the director of the First Green and Workforce Development.

“I put on a different hat because we needed someone to drive these initiatives because workforce development is huge,” she says. “Labor continues to be a challenge, either retaining the folks you have or recruiting new people. I couldn’t give up First Green. That’s how much I love this program. I was very happy working with chapters, but (First Green) is a passion of mine, so I’m really happy that it’s doing well.”