FIXING DIVOTS

FOUR RECEIVE MSWGA STIPENDS

The Montana State Women's Golf Association has selected four high school seniors as recipients of $500 scholarships.

Megan McDonald of Bozeman, Toni Bickford of Butte, Sara Paulson of Missoula and Sarah Ritland of Fort Benton were selected for the honors.

The scholarships will be presented during the Montana State Women's Amateur golf tournament, scheduled for July 24-26 at Whitefish Lakes Golf Club.

"These girls have not only actively participated in golf, but have contributed service to their community while maintaining academic excellence," said Carla Berg, executive secretary and director of the MSWGA.

GIRLS GET NEW CUP CAPTAIN

Mary Ann Rodman, long a hard working volunteer in junior golf in Montana, has been named the new captain of the Girls Junior Americas Cup Team.

Rodman replaces Sonja Dehn of Great Falls who has held the captaincy for a number of years. Dehn will not forgo her involvement in golf but is planning a well deserved slow down.

WOMEN'S GOLF OFFICERS

The Montana State Women's Golf Association has named new officers for 2001.

Susan Toder of Missoula is the new president of the statewide association. Lynn Benson of Billings was named as vice-president and Debbie Patch of Helena as treasurer. Patch and Fay Ferraro of Bozeman are new to the Board of Directors.

In other items involving MSWGA members Helen Ryan of Billings has been named to act as Ratings Captain for eastern Montana.

Carla Berg of Sidney the executive director of the group will be serving on the Women's Regional Affairs Committee for the United States Golf Association.

NEWTON, PENALUNA, CHRISTENSEN INDUCTED INTO HALL

Chris Newton of Whitefish and Sheila Penaluna of Butte are the newest members of the Montana Women's Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Newton won the 1985 State Amateur, and was a junior and high school champion. She went on to play golf at the collegiate level and on mini-professional golf tours.

Penaluna won the State Amateur's senior division in 1997 and 1998. She has become one of the leading players in the Butte area in past years, and is active on a variety of golf committees.

The Montana State Women's Golf Association will hold an induction ceremony during the 84 th State Women's Amateur, at the Whitefish Lakes Golf Club on July 24-26.

Nels Christensen of Billings is the newest member of the MSGA Hall of Fame. Christensen has been an ardent supporter of golf in Montana for many years. In particular, he has been a tireless volunteer for the Junior program in Montana. He will be inducted this summer at the Mid Am in Laurel.

SHAG MILLER HONORED BY USGA

Shag Miller of Butte, who served for several years as the executive secretary of the Montana State Golf Association, has been selected to receive the prestigious Ike Granger Award. The Granger Award, given annually by the United States Golf Association, is designed to recognize the contributions of the many volunteers who work behind the scenes for the good of the game. The award is given to persons who have contributed at least twenty-five years of volunteer service to golf.

In a letter from USGA president Trey Holland to Miller, Holland said: "The staff and the more than 1,300 volunteers who make up the USGA join me in taking this opportunity to convey our sincere appreciation for all of your efforts on behalf of both our Association and, more importantly, the game of golf."

MID AM ROTATION CHANGED

Butte Country Club has agreed to step into the breach in hosting the State Mid-Amateur Golf Tournament. BCC, one of the oldest courses in the state, graciously agreed to host the Mid Am in 2004 in place of Riverside in Bozeman which had a conflict. Riverside will host in 2005. The tricky Butte course has hosted a multitude of statewide golf tournaments and promises to be a real challenge to the Mid Am field.

JOHN WAGNER NEW MSGA BOARD MEMBER

John Wagner of Missoula has been named to the board of directors of the Montana State Golf Association replacing Bruce Blahnik of Hamilton. Blahnik resigned this year after serving as a Western District board member for several years. Wagner, who was born in Missoula, saw a lot of the state as a youngster. His family lived in Helena, Joliet, Billings and Livingston before returning to Missoula in 1953 when Wagner's father founded Wagner's Home Furnishings. He graduated from Loyola High School in Missoula in 1959 and Carroll College in Helena in 1964. He has been president of Wagner's Home Furnishings since 1986.

The new board member married Joan Jonason of St. Ignatius in 1966 and the couple have two sons, Brad and Mike, who both reside in Seattle.

Wagner is a typical MSGA board member in that his primary interest in life is the game of golf but he also enjoys downhill skiing (he started the sport at age 46) and "visiting my 5 year old granddaughter in Seattle."

Wagner says he was first introduced to the game by his college roommate at Seattle University. "He was on a golf scholarship from California and he was constantly swinging a golf club in our room," Wagner recalls. "He insisted on teaching me the proper grip and takeaway. He put thousands of tiny divot marks on our tile floor and I had to give up my half of the room deposit for breakage." Despite this early influence Wagner did not actually hit a golf ball until 2 years later (1963) while attending Carroll College. He says, "I then knew I was hooked on the game forever," he says.

Wagner served two years in the Army after finishing college and on his return to Missoula joined the Missoula Country Club. He served two years on the board of MCC and began attending MSGA meetings 8 years ago as a club representative. He says of his selection to the board "perhaps the board members saw my face so often they felt I might as well join them."

He says his "slight" claim to fame is three holes in one. Oddly enough all three were witnessed by Fred Olson who is the unofficial "king" of Montana acers with an even dozen.

Wagner resides at 5240 Dorothy Court in Missoula. His fax is 406-721-0950 and his email address is Wagners@montana.com.

STATE TOURNEY SCHEDULE SET

For those of you who like to compete on a statewide level, see old friends and make new ones, or just play on a fine course for three or four days, it is not to early to plan.

Montana will have, as usual, five major tourneys this year throughout the state from Kalispell in the West to Laurel in the East.

The "major" season begins June 18 and 19 when Great Falls plays host to the Juniors Tournament. This will be followed by the Men's State Amateur on July 18 to 21 at Buffalo Hill ina Kalispell.

The very next week the Flathead Valley will host its second major of the year when the State Women's Amateur is conducted at Whitefish Lake Golf Course, July 24-26.

There are two more of the big tourneys set for August. The State Seniors will be contested in Butte on August 7-9 and the major tournament season will conclude with the State Men's Mid-Amateur on August 23-25 at Laurel Golf Club.

Entries for the Men's Amateur, Mid-Am and Juniors are available now in your local pro shop.

MONTANA GOLF BENEFITS FROM USGA

There are a few golfers who don't know that the United States Golf Association is the ruling body of golf in this country. Most, however, feel this group, based in Far Hills, N.J. has very little interest or impact on Montana.

Such is not the case.

Montana has received a Boatright Grant for this year which has allowed the Montana State Golf Association to hire an administrative assistant for executive secretary Jim Opitz. Laurie Hawbaker will be devoting a good deal of time this year in various tasks for the MSGA.

Additionally, the USGA also gave Montana a substantial grant to be used for equipment for the MSGA course rating teams. This equipment will make the job of the course raters easier as they attempt to get all Montana courses current with their ratings.

LONG WAIT ON FIRST TEE

Quite often we in Montana don't realize how lucky we are to be able to call our local club and get a tee time for a day or a week in advance. Or, in most cases, simply walk into the pro shop and out to the tee.

This little gem should enlighten you.

Longberger Golf Course, in Nashboro, Ohio, a new daily fee course which charges a $115 green fee for 18, opened its phone lines March 1 to take reservations for the coming season and it sold out a full year of starting times (23,000 reservations in one day!) That's 23,000 and that's one day.

MSGA ON-LINE

http://www.montana.net/msga

The Montana State Golf Association hosts a website that is dedicated to the improvement of golf in Montana. You can find out your latest handicap, the handicap of all other players in Montana, the "scoop" on all the courses in Montana and a listing of dozens of tournaments held around the state to name just a few of the pages. You can even find a listing of previous champions dating back to 1917. Did you know that there was only one year since 1917 that we didn't have a championship? Following are two items of importance for those of you who play in leagues or tournaments.

You can get your current index and some history at home off the net. Go to http://www.montana.net/msga and click on Handicap Indexes. They are updated on the first of each month during the season.

You can also track your "trend" handicap on the MSGA Handicap Software that your course may be using on your club's computer. Your "trend" handicap is the unofficial handicap that changes day-by-day as you add scores. It can only be used at your home course. The yellow numbers at the top of the screen are the official numbers that change monthly and appear on your official MSGA Handicap Card. The white numbers just below them are the trend numbers that change daily.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve our services to you, the golfing community of Montana. If you have questions or suggestions, just email us - - our address is on the website.

THE REASON FOR FROST DELAYS

One of the bugaboos of Montana golf (often into early June) is the problem of "frost delays." You know the scene, you go to the course early on Saturday for a round with your buddies; you plan an early tee time so you can get done and still handle the wife's "honey do" list; and you're told there is a frost delay and you can't get on the course for an hour or so.

Course superintendents, those fellows who work so hard to make our golf outings enjoyable, know what they are doing when they impose a frost delay. That decision preserves the quality of greens, prevents often costly repair, and could even save you a couple of strokes.

The putting surface of a green is a very fragile environment. Every green is a collection of millions of individual grass plants which obviously were not meant to be maintained at 3/16 of an inch. This "stress" height, when frosted, makes the normally resilient plant cell brittle and easily crushed. As one superintendent said "walking on a frosted green is sort of like breaking an egg shell. Once you do it you can't put it back together." If you walk on a frosted green you won't see any immediate damage but within 72 hours those places you walked will turn brown, the grass will die and you have not only an unsightly green but one that may require extensive repair and one where the putting surface will be uneven for some time.

Just tell the wife "I can't clean the garage today, honey, that idiot greens superintendent wouldn't let us on the course for an hour after our tee time."

WANT YOUR COURSE RATED?

The MSGA is involved in an ongoing attempt to rate all golf courses in the state as soon as possible. This effort will continue this summer but it seems new courses are being built faster than they can be rated and many courses in eastern Montana haven't been rated for some time creating a backlog.

Courses should be rated every 10 years and new courses, because of the maturity process, are rated every three years for the first 9 years. As a member of the MSGA the only cost to a club is providing two or three carts for the raters' use and a meal for the raters since it is generally an all day process. Some time after the formal rating is completed the teams usually return to play the course to double check figures and decisions regarding various rating points.

The MSGA is asking member clubs to apply as soon as possible since there are only three rating teams in the state and sometimes they must travel long distances and coordinate ratings to take care of two or three courses in one trip. To formalize a rating a club must send either a letter or email to MSGA executive director Jim Opitz at Box 4306, Helena, MT 59604 or email at msgadir@uswest.net.

BOBCATS RECEIVE CONTRIBUTION

The members of the girls golf team at Montana State are shown with MSGA board member Gary Sisson of Bozeman who presented the team with a contribution from the MSGA.

Shown are: (l to r) Assistant Coach Brittany Basye; Hillary Prugh of Spokane; Erica Loder of Ronan; Katie Oliphat of Pocatello; Lyndsie Jensen of Whitefish, Sisson; Lisa Winslow of Whitefish; Shannon McDonald of Bozeman; and Coach Dan Davies.

Previous Newsletters: Summer 2000, Fall 2000