Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / March 4, 1993, edition 1 / Page 13
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under the sun -=*=? B From Tee To Green! INSIDE THIS SECTION: ?Ca/enc/ar, Page 6 ?Sports, Pages 8-12 PGA Administrator Jim Hart Is High On Brunswick Golf BY DOUG RUTTER It would make perfect sense for one of the top profes sional golf administrators in the Carolinas to live in Myrtle Beach?the golf capital of the Southeast. Instead, Jim Hart chooses to live in Brunswick County. He likes the slower lifestyle, uncrowded beaches and schools. The director of the Carolinas PGA Section also is pretty high on the county's burgeoning golf industry. While his territory spreads from the South Carolina Lowcountry to the North Carolina mountains. Hart isn't shy about speaking well of the layouts lis home county has to offer. With the exception of Tidewater in Little River, Hart rates most of the newer courses in Brunswick Coun ty higher than the new clubs being built along the Grand Strand. "I think the newer golf courses arc better than what's gone in the Myrtle Beach area," Hart said. "Generally the courses in Brunswick County have been better?the ones that have opened in the past five years?because of the land." Many of the local courses have been built along water or marshland. Most new clubs along the Grand Strand are inland courses and can't match the scenery or de manding conditions of the local ones. Because of the quality of its courses, Hart says Brunswick County is in a position to attract a lot of the visitors who have traditionally visited the Myrtle Beach clubs. "Brunswick County offers a less crowded alternative and has a lot of new, well-conditioned, challenging courses close to MyrtJe Beach," he said. "I think they have a unique opportunity to draw more tourists and res idents." Hart is such a believer in what Brunswick County has to offer that he moved his family from North Myrtle Beach lo the Calabash area 6'A years ago to get away from the city congestion. "The golf that's offered here is very inexpensive com pared to most areas, and the caliber of the courses is very good. The variety of the courses is very good also." Hart says he doesn't think Brunswick County has too many golf clubs. Both Palm Beach County, Fla., and Palm Springs, Calif., have a higher concentration of courses. "I don't personally think there's too many," he said. "It's like any other business. The ones that are capital ized and run well are going to do well and the ones that aren't will fail." An avid golfer since age 12, Hart says his administra tive duties and family don't leave much time for play. But he still tries to gets in about two rounds per month. "Between work and four kids there's not a lot of time," he said. "1 don't miss it until I play. When I play 1 enjoy it a lot, but when I'm working I don't think about it at all." Hart says golf is a great asset to coastal areas that depend on tourism to drive their economies. Tourists spent $123 million here in 1991, putting Brunswick County 10th in the state in travel-related expenditures. Hart says golf is a great asset to coastal areas that de pend on tourism to drive their economies. Tourists spent S123 million here in 1991, putting Brunswick County 10th in the state in travel-related expenditures. "The people who come here for golf generally have disposable income and they spend money while they're here," Hart said. Golfers often return to the same vacation spot every year, tell friends about where they have played and often choosc to retire in a golfing area. "We like living in Brunswick County," Han says. "We're real pleased with the lifestyle and the schools. The schools get a bad rap, but we think they're pretty good." Hart and his wife, Mary, have two children in Union Primary School, Katie and Jimmy, and two pre-schoolers, Charlie and Anna. A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Hart was raised in the Endicott, N.Y., area and graduated from the University of Florida in 1978. After two years as a professional in the Orlando area, he moved to the Carolinas to take over as tournament di rector at the Carolinas PGA Section, which has head quarters in North Myrtle Beach. He served in that capacity until Jan. 1, 1986, when he took over as the section's executive director. Hart oversees the day-to-day operations of the sec tion, which organizes golf tournaments and seminars for professionals and runs an employment referral service that matches up pros with courses. "We're also a golf clearinghouse of information," he said. "We get over 10,000 telephone calls per year. It's a busy operation." The Carolinas Section operates on a budget of about S3 million per year. The office has seven full-time em ployees and plans to add an eighth this month to help with the tournament program. The section conducts about 230 tournaments per year with purses totaling $2 million. In addition to PGA pros, approximately 18,000 amateurs play in PGA events per year. Hart recently was elected to a two-year term as chair man of the PGA of America's Section Executive Director Group. He will serve as a liaison with PGA of ficers and staff. "I'll get to interface with senior manage ment and staff at the PGA," Hart said. "It's been kind of busy already just the first few weeks. I'm looking for ward to it." The Carolinas PGA Section is a non-profit association established in 1923 and is the largest of the nation's 41 sections with 1,625 members and apprentices. Members are club pros at approximately 800 facilities in North and South Carolina. The facilities include 18 hole, nine-hole and par three courses and driving ranges. The section also boasts about a dozen members who are PGA Tour professionals, including Jay Haas who m a ... ? ?*? f i ^?. 1 _ STAFF PHOTO BY DOUG (UTTH JIM HART of Calabash has been executive director of the Carolinas PGA Section since 1986. lied for fourth in the recent Buick Invitational of older courses realizing the benefits of hiring club pros. California. "Some other sections have not had a course built in Hart said the Carolinas Section has doubled its mem- ihc last 10 years," Hart said. "We've been fortunate bership in the last nine years. He attributes the growth to here, partly because the land is available and afford the proliferation of golf courses in the Carolinas and able." %VSS;SS/VSM6v/A School Weather Network Team Takes Hands-On Approach To Meteorology BY SUSAN USHER "Wow! It looks like 21 de grees!" A chill wind is blowing and the forecast calls for snow mixed with rain as four bareheaded stu dents eagerly cluster around an odd-looking box perched on a wooden post behind Shallotte Middle School. Ignoring the ventilation holes along the sides, with its peaked roof and lift away door the wooden rectangle closely resembles a very large bird house. It shelters not birds, but a criti cal piece of equipment for the school's first weather station?a maximum /minimum thermome ter. Each school day at 2:30 p.m., Neil Ansley, Sean Pruitt, Glacia Simmons and Erin Lee step out of Darrell Cheers' eighth grade physical science class on a very important mission: collecting da ta from the station to share with classmates, ar\<\ with the National Weather Service office in Raleigh. Once each day's data is recorded, said Ansley, the team resets the thermometer us ing a magnet. The quartet and their class mates are volunteers with the School Weather Network, a statewide project of the National Weather Service now in its third year. During its first two years the program involved 3,700 primary and middle grade students who made 1,580 weather observations. Shallotte Middle is the only school participating in Brunswick County. Two schools from New Hanover County belong to the net work, none from Columbus, STAff mo TO BY SUSAN USHH SEAN PRUITT takes a mid-morning peak at the thermometer inside the shelter as Glacia Simmons (right) prepares to jot down data. Ijwking on are Erin l*e and Neil Ansley. Bladen or Pender counties. deni volunteers at 85 schools Cheers, project sponsor, thinks it across North Carolina head to a is worth the extra effort to give stu- touch-tone telephone to call 1-800 denLs another type of hands-on sci- 662-TEMP. encc experience, one that excites After logging their outgoing call their interest in and curiosity about at the front desk, Shallotte Middle weather and the science of weather, School team members take turns meteorology. using the telephone keypad to Between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. stu- transmit the maximum and mini muni temperatures and total precip- strument shelter," said Cheers, itation for the previous 24-hour pe- From now through April 2, stu nod in a digital code to a computer dents will collect data daily, with database. Cheers doing the honors on week Shallotte Middle's station went ends and school holidays. into operation Feb. 16, thanks to a When the four return to class bit of help from Gary Poulos' car- with their data classmates arc wait pentry students at West Brunswick ing, said Simmons. "They're ready High School. "They made the in- for the information." Studies The class plots each day's data ? on graphs, which will be assem- I bled later to share with the school i and to become the foundation of I the school's own weather data- 1 base. The class receives weekly | data summaries by mail from the \ National Weather Service office f in Raleigh, relaying data from f other network sites. While the students haven't taken up weather forecasting, : more weather-related analysis is | in the works. "They'll pick a \ school in the western part of the state and do comparisons," said | Cheers. He said other classes at the school will also have a chance to gel involved with the project. All four team members have some interest in the weather, \ though none is contemplating a related career. They're glad to be part of the project, though they \ didn't know exactly what was involved when they signed on. A hands-on approach to mete orology makes it "a LOT more | fun," said team member Erin : Lee. "I think it's neat." Handling weather observa tions yourself also makes the process easier to understand, \ added team mate Sean PruiiL He and fellow weather watch ers also like that they're part of something bigger than them selves and something important. "We're part of this big chain. 1 like being part of something that makes a difference," said Pruitt as team mates nodded in agreement. "We're counting for something." Added Ansley, "It helps the Weather Service figure out what the temperature is." ISBiBiBH
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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March 4, 1993, edition 1
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