Feb 15, 2022

After many unknowns and speculations, the CTS was a success. My interactions with everyone were positive and all felt the event was well worth their time. My week started with a huge First Green success, largely in part with the help of Brendon Reaksecker, the superintendent of Bonita Golf Club. Without his persistence, the school would have canceled the field trip due to the difficulty they felt in getting the kids to the event. Brendon arranged to have his crew and our volunteers walk to the school and escort all of the 74 children to the golf course so the event could take place. A big thank you goes out to Steve Kealy, CGCS, Jeff Gullikson, CGCS, Ryan Kraushofer, and especially Brendon for all their work in putting on the field trip. I also can’t thank fellow field staffers Randy Robinson, Ron Wright, Katrin Wolfe, and John Walker enough for their help teaching the labs, as well. It was a total field staff group effort. Kevin Doyle got a hall pass this year because one of his flights were canceled and he was delayed arriving to San Diego. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention all of Amanda Miller and Leann Cooper’s work that went into organizing the event. There are a lot of logistics that go into putting on a conference event, and no one does it better than our GCSAA staff.

The highlight of the day was seeing Congressman Juan Vargas from the 51^st District and Angela Molina, Staff Assistant for Congresswoman Sara Jacobs from the 53^rd District, attending the event. Congresswoman Jacobs is Brendon Reaksecker's Congressperson whom he is assigned to as a Grassroots Ambassador. Congressman Vargas is the brother of a golfer with whom Brendon plays golf regularly. Again, big kudos to Brendon for taking the initiative of inviting these people to the event. I was able to capture a short video snippet from Congressman Vargas which can be seen here on the GCSAA Twitter feed. While there, Angela presented a certificate to Brendon for outstanding invaluable service to the community. So great to see our own Grassroots Ambassadors getting recognized by their congressperson. You can see her presentation here on the GCSAA Twitter Feed as well.

This was the third field trip that we have had a Bonita Golf Club, going back to before First Green became an official GCSAA program. This year’s event was sold out completely, it took two busses to bring out all of the attendees. It’s so great to see this program grow and become a focal point of our association. It was even a subject on a Golf Channel interview of Rhett Evans during the Waste Management Phoenix Open.