We've asked for examples of how USGA Members have impacted the game. We call it "For the Good of the Game Gallery", and we were overwhelmed by the response. Many Members wrote of their involvement in course maintenance, volunteer teaching, starting local leagues and hosting tournaments. Some stories had a different spin. They told of what “good” the game has brought to their lives. The Association recognizes that each aspect is equally important to the game but it is the combination of both that defines the passion within each golfer.
We will feature these stories here each month.
For future e-news editions, please submit your experience to membership@usga.org. Thank you for your interest and for contributing to the For the Good of the Game Gallery.
April 2008
Seven years ago, I became one of the first members at Holland Heights Golf Course in Herkimer, N.Y., a new nine-hole facility in my hometown. As I was retired, I had the chance to play frequently and made a lot of new friends. But the course didn’t have a handicap system in place.
So to attract new players to the course, as well as provide a chance for us to compete more evenly, I came up with the idea of a “120 Tournament,” where the combined age of each two-person team must add up to at least 120 years (although some teams are closer to a total of 150 years!). Men and women are welcome to play in the scramble-format events, and there is a small fee for skins and winners’ prizes. We play monthly and have a lunch after each outing.
We usually have about 12 teams for each outing, and the gatherings have proven to be so popular that another course in our area has adopted the format, which gives us another place to play. We hope to add another course this year.
B. Fifield of Herkimer, N.Y.
USGA Member since 1999
March 2008
I'm 67 now but I was hooked at age 10 in the summer of 1950 at about 5:30 a.m. It was our first year in a new brick home, and my dad, a certified public accountant and a ‘workaholic,’ had chosen to take up golf as a diversion. He did so at the recently opened golf club and course on the red sandy clay hills of Neshoba County, outside the limits of Philadelphia, Miss.
The first tee was below the pecan trees near the gravel parking lot and the long narrow clubhouse on the hill. Lawn chairs with metal frames were scattered about on the terraces in the shade of those trees, a favorite place to gather on a hot summer day where there always seemed to be a nice breeze. The water fountain was at the top of a cement block structure containing the coils, usually around a block of ice, and strategically located near the first tee, fifth and seventh greens. The ‘pro’ was a one-armed man who could strike a golf ball amazingly well, and he was also the man in charge of maintaining the course and clubhouse.
My dad would rise before dawn, get dressed and then wake me. He was headed to the course for a few holes before going to work around 7. It was barely light, and I remember thinking, ‘This is sort of like going fishing.’ By the time we got to the course the sun was shining on the heavy dew.
He had bought a set of very old clubs, Robert T. Jones autographed. The face of each wood was flat and grooved but had no synthetic or metal insert. The shaft of an iron seemed to be metal with a coating resembling a cane. I used the 5-iron, the wooden-shafted putter and sometimes the 3-wood. I made decent contact, enough to keep up and have fun, but it may have been other things that hooked me on the experience.
Was it that special time when my dad and I were alone and having fun? Was this something I could do better than my older brother? Was it the cool refreshing air on a calm summer morning in the Deep South? Was it the smell of freshly mown grass? Was it the tranquility? Was it watching the ball roll across the green making a visible path and throwing up a rooster tail of dew? Was it the smooth Bermuda grass surface that was like nothing I'd seen before? Was it being a little kid running along the fairway pushing the old 3-wood to make tracks in the heavy dew?
At first, I think it was all those things, and it was a bit of a letdown to walk off the fifth green knowing we were finished.
J. F. Gipson, Hoover, Ala.
Member Since 1999
February 2008
In 2003, our group of Philadelphia women golfers decided that since the game had given us so much, we needed to give something back. We each contributed $100, which gave us a $3000 fund to help the local Girl Scouts learn the sport. Through the leadership of A K Frazier, our base has grown each year and we have added a golf tournament at Gulph Mills Golf Club with a wonderful auction that has raised enough to support four charities. Last year we provided nearly $40,000 to help girls learn the game. One person giving isn't much but if you pool the donations it can make a big difference.
J. S. Owens, Paoli, Pa.
Member since 1999
January 2008
My impact on the game of golf really began in Venezuela in 1969. That's where I was first involved with initiating an annual invitational tournament plus club tournaments for men and ladies. It was amazing to me to see the interest shown by a bunch of "oilfield hands" working in a foreign country and the number of Venezuelans that took the game seriously. After two and one-half years playing the game in Venezuela I transferred to Ecuador. I was pleased to learn upon my arrival that a few of the "oilfield hands" had held their first invitational tournament the previous year. Naturally I offered my services to the golf committee and was gratefully welcomed. Since 1987 I have been a member of the EPGA (Ecuadorian Petroleum Golf Association). We have had some really great competitions in all categories, for ladies, kids and seniors. The number of golfers has increased to the maximum our 18-hole courses will handle (144). The EPGA has had a Spring and Fall Invitational Tournament for the last six years.
We are proud of our EPGA non-profit organization for a number of reasons. The most important one is the amount of charitable donations we are able to provide to various "Help the Children" foundations. Each year after the prize presentations at the Fall Tournament, we present the checks to the representatives of each of the foundations. This is made possible through the fees paid by the golfers, the many sponsors of the tournaments plus some individual donations we receive. The EPGA also sells "mulligans" for both days of the tournament and that money is included in the donation packages. Beyond that, we also have golf shirts, jackets and caps made that we sell to the golfers and their families. The proceeds are also included in the donations.
The EPGA is currently planning our Fall Tournament, which will be held on Oct. 19-21. This is my year to come up with the shirts, jackets and caps so I had better close and get busy.
E. L. Price Jr., Ecuador
Member since 1993
December 2007
I am a senior golfer and I play three times a week. I'm a member of the USGA, maintain a USGA Handicap Index® through the Metropolitan Golf Association in New York, watch golf on TV, and I attend PGA tournaments and as many U.S. Opens as I can.
Of course, I have a group of golfing buddies. We're all 60 years old or older. It occurs to me that golf and the USGA are as important and meaningful to me and my golf buddies today as baseball was important and meaningful to all of us when we were young. We grow older, but we are still "little boys" when it comes to our sports passion. We watch golf on TV or attend a tournament, then we rush to the course and pretend that we are Tiger Woods, or Davis Love III, or Vijay Singh, or Phil Mickelson, or Ernie Els. We fantasize that we are coming up No. 18 at "The Black" with a three-stroke lead in the U.S. Open. In our imaginations, the cameras are on us, our friends and families are in the gallery.
"Steady now, stay cool, don't let this get away from you," we tell ourselves. We line up our shot, take one more look, and launch the ball 30 yards over the green and into the duck pond behind the maintenance shed! Then with a jolt, we awaken from our wonderful daydream, giggle to ourselves, drop a ball, and get back to the real world, confident that Tiger, Phil, Vijay, Davis and Ernie hit some bad ones once in a while too.
When I was 12 years old, I was Mickey Mantle. Now at 65, I am Tiger Woods. I'm in the same church, different pew. Golf makes me smile. Golf makes me happy. Golf makes me still feel like an athlete. Golf keeps me young. The USGA is OUR organization, conducts OUR championships and must be supported by OUR golfers.
J. Yujuico of Long Island, N.Y.
USGA Member Since 2005
November 2007
I had many sets of clubs plus those "open stock" items one might pick up here and there, hoping it might help their game. It doesn’t usually. When that happens, we relegate these old sets and the odd clubs to the basement or the back of the closet.
I gathered all these clubs and balls, and I must admit that I did not realize how many I had. I took them all to a local golf club (Fenway Golf Club). The club in turn will give them to The First Tee program to use at Mosholu Golf Club, a course in the Bronx, N.Y. I hope some inner-city children can use them and get involved in the great game of golf.
This action not only made me feel good but it also cleared my basement and closet of a lot of "stuff," that made my wife very happy. Come on guys and girls, get with the program and get rid of your "stuff."
M. Benjamin of Mamaroneck, N.Y.
USGA Member Since 1998
October 2007
A friend at a local country club was telling me about the newly organized First Tee® program there and how much they needed volunteers. I made the commitment for once a week, dedicating time to the after-school program for girls. Some are from the local girls’ clubs, and without golf clubs, while others come fully prepared with equipment.
It has been a joy and privilege to share my love of the game with these young girls. We have an 8 year old who is a natural and will likely earn a scholarship to college in years to come. Others are less serious about the game. But we have fun, and hopefully we instill in these young girls the love of the game and the standards that we teach through The First Tee program.
K. Goslee of North Carolina
USGA Member Since 2005
To get more information on this wonderful organization, click on: The First Tee
September 2007
Since 2001 I have volunteered to assist with the coaching of the McKell Middle School golf team in South Shore, Ky. The team consists of 15-20 boys and girls, beginners and seasoned players alike. While I am not trained to be a golf coach, I try to relay information from the USGA, everything from golf etiquette to the Rules of the game.
After heart by-pass surgery in 1998, I wondered what I could do to repay the kindness bestowed upon me by so many caring friends during my stay in the hospital. My doctors allowed me to return to work on a limited basis in February 2000. Shortly after my return, one of my co-workers informed me that she had volunteered me to be a golf coach at the school her daughter attends. She explained that the school would not have a team if no one would help to coach. So I agreed, even though I was apprehensive about my ability to coach. It was the best decision I had made in a long time.
Practice began in mid-July, with the season running from August to the end of October. Each player receives a trophy for participation and good sportsmanship and we end the season with a team pizza party.
E. Matthews, of Ohio
Please note: The USGA reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and space.
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