CGRA Newsletter - Spring, 2011

Awards from 2010 and Future Plans for 2011

OK, spring has sprung, birds are tweeting, grass is greening and, for most of us in this esteemed group, bogeys are swarming.

Ain’t golf wonderful? Can you think of anything you’d rather be doing on a warm day in April than clobbering a golf ball and sucking in a lungful of pollen dust?

Hack! Hack! Yeah, that’s my game in more ways than one.

Sure have missed you guys since the last newsletter. I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but we’re forming a new committee. This one is the Weather Committee, and we’re being assured that they are going to arrange for something other than snow or rain for our next outing.

As our treasurer for life Steve Williams says, “If you know a place that’s suffering from a drought, have them invite the Carolinas Golf Reporters. We can take a site from parching to drowning in less than 12 hours.”

For anyone who doesn’t believe that, ask one of our members who attended the annual awards dinner at the Surf Club a few weeks ago. It was raining for two days and colder than a witch’s, er-ah … brew.

We had 22 entries in this year’s reporting competition, so obviously our group is still doing some golf-related work. A salute to Alan Blondin of the Myrtle Beach Sun for his excellence which netted him two of those classy little glass plaques, one for an article on Mickelson Mastery, and another on Dustin Johnson, Star Shows No Sign of Dimming.

Congrats also to Elsa Bonstein for her photo taken at Lockwood Folly and appearing in the Brunswick Beacon. Elsa earns a lot of admiration and respect for her work in the Brunswick County area.

Tom McAuliffe won an award for his article about former PGA Tour pro Sam Adams, Red Tail Finds Firm Footing on Slippery Slope that appeared in Carolina Mountain Life Magazine.

Our beloved and hard-working president Betsey Mitchell proved her prowess with a computer — I really wanted to say with a pen but that’s so 1960 and also dates yours truly — about municipal golf courses that appeared in the Carolinas Golf Association Magazine.

And, oh yeah, the yours truly mentioned above managed to scrape out an award for a column titled High Drama in FedEx, But Who Won?

Due to all our snow and rainouts, news in our little group is scarcer than birdies in Steve Williams’ game. Did I mention that in this year’s competition I now own a 14 to 11 lead in birdies made? Oh, well I won’t bring it up then.

On a personal note, two of those birdies came during my three rounds in the GWAA outing held at Pine Needles, Mid Pines and the Country Club of North Carolina, where I shot rounds of 88-104-91. And they had me playing in the Championship Flight. Our old friend Michael Dann was in my group for the first two rounds. He politely declined a third round opportunity.

You have until April 21st to get your Hall of Fame nominations in. Send your suggestion to DickMitchell@nc.rr.com.

Hopefully, we’re going to have a great turnout for the Hall of Fame dinner and golf outing in Pinehurst in August. As soon as our hard-working nomination panel gets things in order, we’ll be asked to vote on the new inductees. But we really need to show up for this affair, guys and gals. It’s one of the main reasons that we’re able to maintain credibility.

As for future plans, we have a tentative dates of July 24-25 for the individual championship. The site is not confirmed but trying to put something together in the Upstate. Be on the lookout for the announcement.

We’re hoping to hold our November outing and two-person competition at the newly restored Gates Four Golf and Country Club in Fayetteville. This old Willard Byrd design is one you’ll love. I guarantee it. We’ll soon learn just how much credibility I’ve built up in more than 40 years as a member there when I go begging.

Anyway, stay tuned and we’ll play your song next time.

Yours in the game we all love,

Howard Ward