David Phipps, GCSAA Class A golf course superintendent at Stone Creek Golf Club in Oregon City, Ore., has been selected by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Board of Directors to receive the 2012 GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship.
Phipps will receive the award during the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference at the Feb. 28 opening session, Celebrate GCSAA! Celebrate GCSAA! is presented by Syngenta and hosted by GCSAA President Robert M. Randquist, CGCS. The conference (Feb. 27-March 2) will be held in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show (Feb. 29-March 1) at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.
“This is a well deserved honor for Dave,” Randquist said. “He is the consummate environmental steward and continues to be an innovative leader in sustainable land management for the golf industry.”
The GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship was established in 1991 to recognize “an exceptional environmental contribution to the game of golf: a contribution that further exemplifies the golf course superintendent’s image as a steward of the land.”
Phipps is an 11-year GCSAA Class A member and has been at Stone Creek since construction in 2000. He graduated from Oregon State University and began his professional career with a grass seed company and a professional landscape firm. Phipps worked at the Oregon Golf Club in the 1990s, spending five years as the horticulturist and five more as assistant golf course superintendent.
Phipps is a multiple GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards winner. He is a two-time winner of the Oregon GCSA’s Richard Malpass Distinguished Service Award. Phipps also was honored as the 2004-2005 Cooperator of the Year by the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District. In addition to several regional public course awards, Stone Creek was named to Links Magazine‘s Top 10 eco-friendly golf courses in 2009.
Phipps served on the Oregon GCSA Board of Directors from 2003-2009, including one term as President. He also has served on the Oregon GCSA Foundation Board of Directors since 2005 and is the Environmental Committee chairman for the chapter as well. Phipps has served on a half-dozen GCSAA committees and task groups, and was the first Green Links host for The Environmental Institute for Golf’s online collection of environmental case studies.
Phipps has Stone Creek certified as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary and was instrumental in organizing the second edition of the Oregon Stewardship Guidelines which included an online integrated pest management template program for golf courses. Using his own photography, Phipps developed a calendar featuring Stone Creek Golf Club and he has contributed $2,500 to The Environmental Institute for Golf from calendar sales.
Phipps serves on Oregon State University’s turfgrass industry advisory panel and worked to secure a faculty position dedicated to turfgrass science. He teaches a turfgrass management class at a local community college and also developed a community outreach class utilizing local superintendents to provide lawn and garden advice to homeowners.