2010 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Storylines:
Barbara Berkmeyer of Fort Myers, Fla., a teacher, is a member of Fiddlesticks C.C., the championship site. She was runner-up in 2002.
Taffy Brower of Boynton Beach, Fla., at 65, has 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her favorite golf memory is of playing in a four-ball match with Marlene Stewart Streit, JoAnne Gunderson Carner and Louise Suggs.
Lea Anne Brown of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., is a member of the advisory board of The First Tee of Greater Charleston.
Cindy Bryniarski of Sun City West, Ariz., was 64 in 2008 when she became the oldest champion in the history of the Arizona Senior Women’s Amateur.
Ginny Burkey of Fircrest, Wash., a flight attendant in 2006, won the Canadian Senior Women’s Amateur Championship. She had entered just because she was vacationing in the Ottawa area.
Barbara Byrnes of Mesa, Ariz., is a past president of the Arizona Women’s Golf Association that, with 25,000 members, is the second largest women’s golf association in the nation.
Janie Carpenter of Garland, Texas, is a veterinarian in Richardson, Texas. She is president of the Texas Veterinary Medical Foundation.
Anne Carr of Renton, Wash., is a veteran outdoors-woman. She has raced cars, skied competitively in cross-country events, backpacked through the Rocky Mountains and backpacked through Europe. She also helped to build a house for Habitat for Humanity.
Laura Carson of Lake Bluff, Ill., can legitimately claim that she once led the U.S. Women’s Open. Playing in the 1987 Women’s Open in Plainfield, N.J., she birdied the first hole as a member of the first group to tee off.
Kim Clarke of Newton, N.C., an attorney, was president of the North Carolina Women’s Golf Association from 2005-07. She’s also past president of the Hickory Museum of Art and the North Carolina Bar Association.
For Judy Collins of Ottawa, Canada, this is her third international championship in six weeks. In August she played in the Canadian Senior Women’s Amateur, then flew to Dublin to play in the Irish Senior Women’s Amateur, and is now at Fiddlesticks C.C. to compete in the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur.
Carolyn Creekmore of Dallas, Texas, the 2004 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Champion, is the granddaughter of Steve Creekmore Sr., the first undefeated quarterback in the history of the University of Arkansas.
Denise Desilet of Wichita, Kan., won the Kansas Women’s Amateur four times in a row.
Linda Morris Dillon of Orlando, Fla., won the Florida State High School Girls’ Championship in 1965 and her son Steve won the boy’s event in 1994, 29 years later.
Kim Eaton of Greeley, Colo., is executive director of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into that hall of fame in 2006 as a member.
Nadine Elliott, 54, of Bermuda Dunes, Calif., attended the College of the Desert in 2004-05 in order to play on the golf team. She beat out a number of much younger players to qualify for the number one spot on the women’s golf team both years. In her second year at the school, she was 50.
Cindy Gilkeson of Sugarland, Texas, a CPA, was in Cairo on a work assignment when a terrorist threat caused her to be confined to her hotel. The hotel had a golf course and Gilkeson whiled away the hours playing golf.
Cheryl Grigg of Sea Island, Ga., now happily married to S. Tucker Grigg Jr., experienced great tragedy in 1988 when her husband John Popa, head professional at Sea Island G.C., was killed in the plane crash that also took the lives of Davis Love Jr., and professional Jimmy Hodges.
Mina Hardin of Fort Worth, Texas, was the forerunner of Lorena Ochoa when Hardin became the first native of Mexico to play the LPGA Tour in 1983-89. Hardin is now a reinstated amateur.
Lou Hart of Meridian, Miss., was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame with her father, G. Weddington.
Sheila Haynes of Madison, Miss., has won the Jackson (Miss.) City Championship 12 times since 1998.
Mary Ann Hayward of Ontario, Canada, has won the Canadian Women’s Amateur four times and won the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in 2005.
Rae Higdon of Boonville, Ind., is playing on the 2011 Senior Olympics women’s basketball team.
Lynn Keefe of Coppell, Texas, says her friends call her the patron saint of dogs as she has an uncanny ability to communicate with any dog she encounters.
Melanie McCaffery of Huntington Beach, Calif., played in a pro-am in Morocco for the King Hassan II Trophy. The tournament was hosted by the king.
Mary Helen McElreath of Augusta, Ga., grew up in Augusta and this past spring attended her 50th Masters Tournament.
Char McLear of McHenry, Ill., is a 39-year veteran of the National Ski Patrol.
Lili McMillan of Wayzata, Minn., is currently running for the office of mayor in Orono, Minn., where she has served on the city council for the past seven years.
Lindsey Noble of Fort Myers, Fla., volunteers with a no-kill animal refuge in her hometown. She walks and works with dogs to socialize the animals so they can be adopted.
Brenda Pictor of Marietta, Ga., shot a 59 last year in a couples tournament at Sunset Hills G.C. in Carrollton, Ga.
Robyn Puckett of Irvine, Calif., was selected to play on the California team for the 2007 Women’s State Team Championship at the age of 61.
Alison Reifers of Jupiter, Fla., is the mother of Kyle Reifers, who was a member of the 2005 USA Walker Cup Team.
Jennie Robinson of LaQuinta, Calif., is often accompanied in her motorized golf cart by her dog, Riley Rose, a golden retriever. Riley Rose, by scavenging and even diving into 3 or 4 feet of water, has found more than 6,000 golf balls, which Robinson has donated to junior golf and local high schools.
Carol Sarkissian of Chino Hills, Calif., is a special education teacher and athletic director and says her biggest thrill is seeing her students experience golf for the first time and seeing the joy in their eyes.
Lisa Schlesinger of Laytonville, Md., is in the Greater Washington DC Fastpitch Softball Hall of Fame.
Connie Shorb of York, Pa., has won the CC of York women’s club championship 44 times since 1965.
Ivy Steinberg of Ontario, Canada, has competed nationally in Canada in golf, tennis, softball, ice hockey, squash and duplicate bridge.
Kathie Stevens of Milton, Mass., is a board member of the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund, which has provided more than $20.5 million in scholarships to students who have completed at least two years of service to golf.
Marlene Summers of Montgomery, Texas, after meeting a soldier about to be deployed to Iraq, started a non-profit that has since shipped more than 100,000 chocolate chip cookies, cards and letters to USA troops overseas.
Ann Swanson of Redmond, Wash., cooks and serves meals to 65 homeless and needy seniors twice a month at her church.
Nannette Wheelis of Waco, Texas, recorded her first hole-in-one while playing in a 100-hole marathon for charity.
Sandy Woodruff of Santa Cruz, Calif., owns and operates a nine-hole executive course in California.
Lindsay Wortham of Richmond, Va., and her daughter, Ginny, won the 2010 Mother-Daughter Grass Court Championship conducted by the United States Tennis Association and the USTA Senior Mother-Daughter Grass Court Championship.
Compiled by Rhonda Glenn, Manager of USGA Communications. E-mail her with questions or comments at rglenn@usga.org.