Following the founding of the National Association of Greenkeepers of America, (NAGA), on September 13, 1926, at Sylvania Golf Course in Toledo, Ohio, The National Greenkeeper was launched as the new association's official organ, beginning in January of 1927. The first 33 page issue of this privately-published, "Trade Paper on Turf Culture and Golf Course Maintenance," notably featured an opening 'welcome' editorial by G. A. Farley, inside front and back cover advertisements from The Toro Manufacturing Co, a full-page ad announcing the availability of Milorganite 'Green and Fairway Fertilizer', a history of the NAGA, an article by O.J. Noer, a description of the fledgling National School of Greenkeeping, announcement of the new Pennsylvania Super Roller Greens Mower, an invitation to the new Short Course in Greenkeeping to be offered at The Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, and a wide range of other articles and ads.

Both the new organization and the new magazine were based in Cleveland -- and much of the history of the early, and ongoing, intertwined operational relationships and personalities between the two entities are clouded by time.

Publication of The National Greenkeeper continued through the beginnings of the Great Depression, and then in the March 1933 issue, the editor and publisher Robert E. Power noted, "Reluctantly, and with some pangs of personal regret, we leave our official connection with the National Association of Greenkeepers of America." In addition, the title was changed to The National Greenkeeper and Turf Culture, and the new moniker became "The only trade paper in the world devoted to the growing of fine grasses." The NAGA's own, and competing, Greenkeepers' Bulletin was launched in July of 1933. The two periodicals then overlapped for a brief period between July and October of 1933, after which The National Greenkeeper apparently folded. Both, of course, were battling for almost nonexistent (and still dwindling) advertising and reader/member dollars as the Depression intensified. Today we know the Greenkeepers' Bulletin as the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's (GCSAA) Golf Course Management. The National Greenkeeper, on the other hand, faded into history.

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