As Arnold Palmer teed off from the future driving range of the Lonnie Poole Golf Course, turf grass and professional golf management students looked on in delight — a step back from all the action, as they dream of being involved in something this significant in their future careers.

Well here’s their chance.

With turf grass management and professional golf management classes that Chancellor James Oblinger coined as among the best in the nation, student involvement in construction and preparation of the golf course is a must for this school.

And as of now, the students aren’t sure what they’ll be able to do.

Let’s not forget what got us to this stage: former students such as Lonnie Poole, who gained experience through the University and enjoyed his college time so much that he has become a generous alumnus.

Then there were former students such as Erik Larsen and Brandon Larsen of the Palmer Design Company, both N.C. State graduates who will head up the design and construction of the course.

With this many connections, students are bound to be involved, right? Well, if they are, they don’t know about it.

The turf and golf management programs currently use lab space on campus to conduct research and learn the golf business. But what better place to learn business than on the job building a premier golf course?

It’s great that the new course will include teaching space for these programs in the future, but the University has to help its current students as well. Work and experience around the Lonnie Pool course would look great on each of the resumes of our current students.

We understand that a golf course of this stature must be done by professionals. But the top professionals working on the course are NCSU alumni — they of all people should want to work with their industry’s future and fellow Wolfpackers.

The College of Design’s landscape architecture students go out into the field and design solutions to landscape problems in the area. The Palmer Design Company and the rest of the University should take an example from this.

Even if the company is doing the brunt of the work, students should be with the designers step by step to see how the professionals go about laying out the course.

If we have such a great program, then let’s stop talking the talk and do something with it.