IAGA Quick Hits – 2.6.25
SCGA Response to LA Wildfires
A press release from the Southern California Golf Association
The Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) today announced its response plans to the devastating wildfires in Southern California. The Association will commit to matching up to $250,000 in donations for broad-based relief efforts across the impacted region. The SCGA has selected the California Community Foundation as its beneficiary.
An intentional aim of the campaign will be to provide a focused donation hub for the greater golf community that will unify and amplify its collective response. The SCGA is encouraging the entire industry and its players to join in the allied response.
“Unprecedented events call for unprecedented action and we view this campaign as an exercise of our responsibility as community and industry leaders,” said SCGA Executive Director Jeff Ninnemann. “The vast relationships we’ve all cultivated throughout the region make the widespread devastation so personal to so many people. We are compelled to act and to give our membership and industry partners a platform to unite so that our collective response can speak for the golf community and not just the SCGA.”
Golf Is in his DNA
A story from the Colorado Golf Association
Set to celebrate his 25th anniversary as the CGA’s executive director, Ed Mate has gone where no one at the association has gone before.
Ed Mate’s first official day as executive director of the CGA coincidentally fell on April 1 of 2000.
“It’s an easy day to remember,” he noted recently. “I’ve always jokingly said it’s the longest April Fool’s joke in history. I’m going to be called in by the board and (told) “Just kidding. You didn’t get the job.”
Yet he was indeed hired. And a quarter-century later, it’s no joke. This spring, he’ll celebrate 25 years as the staff leader of the CGA. In fact, regarding the two most prominent administrative golf organizations in Colorado that employ full-time executive directors — the CGA and the Colorado PGA — no one has served as executive director longer. He’s surpassed the 22-year runs by Myran Craig of the Colorado PGA (1973-95) and Robin Jervey of the CWGA (1992-2014) — and is still going strong.
Onufro, Morrissey make history in West Penn Golf Leadership
A story from the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association
Bergin’s master plan does not alter the course’s routing, but the architect says, “everything else will be changed”. The project includes upgrades to irrigation and drainage, rebunkering, regrassing and adding new or relocating tees to allow the course to play from 4,300 to nearly 7,000 yards.
“Crown Colony is under the radar especially as a place to play golf in a beautiful environment,” said Bergin. “I want to expose all that while creating a course where you’ll have to use your head. We realise people don’t always execute perfectly, but we’ll give them the room to play less than perfect golf and still have fun.”
The most visible changes will be to the grass-faced bunkers. “Typical Florida bunkers are flashed sand and that’s all you see,” said Bergin. “I feel there are three forms of art to a bunker – the crest line; the sand line; and the bunker face itself – and how those lines complement one another, their shapes and movement, where there’s grass. These bunkers will stand out.”