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Duich, Lopez honored at Opening Session
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| Joe Duich, Ph.D., (right) accepts the 2006 Old Tom Morris Award from 2005 GCSAA President Timothy T. O'Neill, CGCS. Photo by Bruce Mathews. |
Legends from the worlds of turfgrass and professional golf converged at the Opening Session of the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show.
A capacity crowd heard Old Tom Morris Award winner Joe Duich, Ph.D., and legendary LPGA player Nancy Lopez describe the highlights of their careers and laud superintendents for their role in the game.
The Opening Session, presented in partnership with Bayer Environmental Science and moderated by GCSAA President Timothy T. O’Neill, CGCS, and GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE, also provided an opportunity for Georgia’s host chapters to welcome attendees and to show support for Gulf Coast superintendents affected by last year’s hurricanes.
Lopez presented Joseph Anderson, superintendent at Center (Texas) Country Club, with the GCSAA National Championship trophy following his playoff victory in the annual event, contested earlier in the week at Houston’s Redstone Golf Club.
In addition, GCSAA Distinguished Service Awards were presented to Thomas W. Cook, associate professor of horticulture at Oregon State Univeristy, and Stanley J. Zontek, director of the USGA Green Section’s Mid-Atlantic Region.
Old Tom Morris Award winner Duich noted that he is the first academic to be honored with that award and reviewed the beginnings of turf education in the United States. He talked about his mentors, specifically Penn State’s Burton Musser, Ph.D., and Merion superintendent Joseph Valentine.
Of his long tenure at Penn State, Duich said, “I’ve been pretty lucky — nobody’s fired me.”
Lopez, in a question-and-answer session with The Golf Channel’s Steve Sands, called her victorious stint last year as Solheim Cup team captain “the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced in women’s golf.”
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