It's not at all uncommon for a golf course superintendent to appear in advertising, after all, they are the perfect spokesperson for any turf product. But it's far less common to see someone from the turf industry in a national ad.

So when Terry Buchen, CGCS, MG, president and consulting agronomist, Golf Agronomy International, showed up in a print ad for Southwest Airlines, people noticed.

According to Buchen, since the ad appeared in Southwest's Spirit in-flight magazine and several business publications in California and on the East Coast, he's had several friends and business acquaintances comment on it. "It's been fun," Buchen said. "The whole process was enjoyable."

Buchen is a third-generation golf course superintendent who managed golf courses for 26 years, then started his consulting business in 1996. Since then he's been doing a lot of flying, in fact, he's been doing so much flying on Southwest that he got to know some of the marketing people in Baltimore. (Terry lives in Virginia).

Last fall some of them approached him about doing a print advertisement for the airline. "They proposed the ad because they have a lot of customers who are golfers, and they wanted to do something that would appeal directly to them," Buchen said. The copy for the ad would focus on how Southwest's service has helped Buchen run his company.

He agreed to do the ad, and the company flew him and his wife to Austin, Texas for a shoot. Once there, Buchen said, they outfitted him in some new clothes, including a golf shirt from Nieman Marcus.

The photo shoot took four hours, during which Terry posed with a golf club and a variety of maintenance tools. "The photo shoot was fun," he said. "There were a surprising number of people in the studio, and they all worked to get the shots they wanted. In fact, there was one person whose only job was to straighten out my shirt and pants between each photo."

"I also got some free airplane tickets on SWA and I got to keep all of the nice clothes," Buchen added.