In the first five weeks of 2019, the CGA will have added three new full-time staffers.

And in two of the cases, the association is going back to the future.

There’s Joe McCleary, who will become the CGA’s chief business officer — a newly created position — on Feb. 4. He’s been doing volunteer work for the CGA since 2002, has served on the board of directors for more than a dozen years, and just completed a three-year term as CGA president/co-president. (He’s pictured at a training session for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy.)

And there’s Jacob Erisman, who on Jan. 10 started as the CGA’s director of junior competitions, a position that was previously held by Ashley Barnhart, who was promoted in the fall to managing director of golf operations. Erisman did a summer internship with the CGA in 2013, and for the past 2 1/2 years has worked as a tourament director for the American Junior Golf Association, where one of his responsibilities was overseeing the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior, working closely with the CGA and the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado.

The third newcomer, who started with the CGA on Jan. 7, is Kim Bussey, the association’s manager of administrative services, who executive director Ed Mate describes as an administrative “utility infielder” who will spend considerable time on Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado matters. Bussey joins the association after spending 32 years in the insurance industry.

And there’s one other staff-related change, though this one isn’t an addition personnel-wise, but to a title. That’s for Mate, who’s been the CGA’s executive director since 2000. As of the start of the year, he’s added chief exective officer to his exective director title.

“Part of the need is somebody who is looking at the organization from 30,000 feet, and looking at it from the inside but with an outside view, saying how does our golf association interface with the community as a whole — golf community, the city of Denver, the Front Range, the state of Colorado?” Mate said recently.

“(The new title) is a reminder to me when I look at my business card or see my signature block at the end of an email to act like a CEO — to remember that my job is to advocate for this organization to those outside these four walls (of the CGA offices). I actually embrace that as not anything more than a reminder and a challenge to make sure that I follow through on what the organization is asking me to do.”

These latest changes regarding the CGA staff conclude a very active period in that regard that started with the integration of the CGA and the CWGA — which officially took place on Jan. 1, 2018. Over that period, the CWGA staff joined the CGA staff. Then in the final several months of last year, three staffers retired — Ann Bley (director of finance), Laura Robinson (managing director of membership and integration and formerly the CWGA’s executive director) and Gerry Brown (director of course rating and handicapping). And now we have the three aforementioned additions to the staff.

“For an organization that generally does not turn over people, it’s a little different, but it’s fun,” Mate said.
 

The impending addition of McCleary — and of a chief business officer position in general — is particularly newsworthy.

McCleary — who has worked for the city of Aurora for almost 29 years, most recently as stormwater operations superintendent — has played an integral role on many fronts for the CGA in the new millennium. He was a driving force — at the time as the head golf course superintendent at Saddle Rock Golf Course — in the 2002 economic and environmental impact study of golf in the state of Colorado during a period of drought in the state. He was one of many people who played behind-the-scenes roles regarding the building of CGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course and he helped in the recovery process following the major damage caused by the 2013 flooding. And, he and then-CWGA president Juliet Miner, along with Mate and Robinson, spearheaded the work to integrate the CGA and the CWGA. McCleary and Miner, who had served as presidents of their respective organizations for two years (2016 and ’17), both agreed to be co-presidents of the CGA in 2018, the first year following integration.

“The thing that really separated Joe (for the job of chief business officer) is his intitutional knowledge of the CGA and not losing momentum,” Mate said. “It’s almost like we’ve had the benefit of Joe as an employee for the last three years and now we’ll officially start paying him. Obviously, there’s a big difference between being on the board and working here every day, but to say his learning curve is shorter than most is a gross understatement.”

McCleary (left) was seeking a new challenge, occupationally, and thought the CGA was an ideal fit given his long background with the association and how much he’s enjoyed helping achieve its mission — to represent, promote, and serve the best interests of golf in the state. And the job opening came at the right time, as McCleary first wanted to complete his commitment as the volunteer co-president of the association, which ran through the end of 2018.

“It’s an incredible opportunity and I don’t think I can tell you how much I’m looking forward to it,” McCleary said last week. “It’s good to get back directly in the golf business. I think it’s a perfect way to use lots of my knowledge from being a CGA volunteer and from those years of being a golf course superintendent too.

“The stars aligned in a perfect way for me. I’m excited to get going on the next chapter of my career. Several people had said, ‘Joe you need to get back in the golf business.’

“I just reflected on how much passion I had for all the different activities related to the CGA. I don’t think I can explain how much I’ve enjoyed all my involvement with the CGA.”

McCleary’s diverse background makes him a good fit for his new position. Besides his volunteer work for the CGA over the years, he was the first superintendent at Saddle Rock, holding that position even as the course started being built in the mid-1990s, and when the facility hosted the Colorado Open three times (1998-2000). He served as president of the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association in 2005 and helped create the RMGCSA foundation. He also has been part of the city of Aurora’s retirement board for the last four years. In his current position in stormwater operations, he manages a staff of 30 people and an annual budget that exceeds $3 million.

The responsibilities of the CGA’s chief business officer include overseeing human resources, information technology, office infrastructure, finance, contracts, CommonGround Golf Course business oversight, course rating and handicap oversight, GHIN software/customer support, and club and facility training and education.

“I think I understand the golf course from a variety of different levels,” McCleary said. “I really think the diverse experiences I’ve had — not only as a volunteer but working for the city of Aurora — are well-suited to all those responsibilities. The biggest challenge — something I’ve had a little insight into but no really experience at — is the course rating aspect. I know (the job responsibilites) are a pretty expansive list. But there’s a huge amount of talented support at the CGA to get these things done too. It’s important to use your resources.

“Ed and I and the staff have always had a really strong working relationship. We worked as partners to accomplish a lot of the tasks over the last three years and had to work together as it related to CommonGround, the reconstruction of the golf course and all the programs that happen out there.

“There’s no doubt with any new job there’s going to be challenges, but it’s an excellent opportunity because there’s lots of familiar turf.”

Besides all of McCleary’s experience — with the CGA and elsewhere — Mate thinks his background as a course superintendent will play out as a big positive for the CGA staff.

“Joe is kind of a Renaissance man of golf,” Mate said. “He’s a certified golf course superintendent. He’s got an MBA from the University of Colorado-Denver, (and) he’s been a leader in every organization he’s been a part of, whether it’s the city of Aurora, the CGA, or the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association. We’re so very fortunate.

“Being a golf course superintendent, I think that’s going to pay dividends in ways even beyond what I think (as we speak). He can meet with a superintendent and talk the same language. Now all of a sudden the CGA is that much better a resource to member facilities than we were before. We’ve never had a staff member who is a superintendent. I could see years from now looking back on Joe’s hiring and thinking, ‘Whoever we hire, it’s got to be a superintendent.'”

As for Erisman, he attended Cornell as an undergrad — including a semester at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland — and Stanford for his graduate work, and has lived in Atlanta the last 2 1/2 years. But make not mistake: He calls Colorado home. (Erisman and Bussey are pictured at left.)

In fact, Erisman grew up near Golden and graduated from Mullen High School. While playing golf for the Mustangs as a sophomore, Erisman finished second in the 2004 4A state high school championships — one shot behind Tom Glissmeyer, who had qualified for the U.S. Open the previous year.

Speaking of U.S. Open qualifying, that’s where Mate first encountered Erisman — a meeting both remember to this day. It was about 13 years ago at Buffalo Run Golf Course, and it was far from Erisman’s best day of competitive golf. He recalls shooting 89, while Mate remembers something in the 90s. In any case, while some competitors who have such a round might be tempted to no-card so they won’t receive a letter from the USGA prohibiting them from attempting to qualify again the next year, Erisman dutifully turned in his card. In fact, Mate remembers him meticulously checking his hole-by-hole scores while in the scoring area. And then Erisman shook Mate’s hand and thanked him before departing.

The situation made such an impression on Mate that he later followed up by sending a signed letter to Erisman’s parents “commending them on what an outstanding young man they had raised and how impressed I was,” Mate recalled recently.

Erisman, who now owns a 5.1 USGA handicap, kept and cherised that letter for a long while, and still may have it today in a storage locker somewhere.

“I always saw it as a fundamental part of the game that you finish your round as long as you’re physically able to do so and return your scorecard and verify every score was correct,” Erisman said last week. “That’s what I did that day without really thinking of it as anything special. But I do remember interacting with Ed after that round. He’s always been very gracious. As I remember it, he sent me a letter after that event, telling me that he was impressed that I still turned in my scorecard with such a high number on it. I did save that letter for many years because I kind of look at that as one of the better memories of my golfing career, even though it was such a bad day.”

And now, that high school kid that made such an impression will be working for the CGA — and Mate. And he’ll be doing so in a capacity in which he’s very familar — interacting with kids.

That’s something Erisman, 29, has been doing his entire adult life. After receiving a Masters degree in secondary education at Stanford, he returned to Colorado and taugh social studies at Legend High School in Parker for a couple of years.

After that, in 2016 he joined the staff at the AJGA, where he traveled to 15-20 tournaments a year, including six annually where he was the tournament director. The latter includes the last two years at the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior, held at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve.

“Teaching is always something I’ve really enjoyed,” Erisman said. “I feel like I can relate to junior golfers and feel a connection to junior golf because I grew up playing junior golf competitively and played a couple of years in college. I also like to see the progression of juniors. You get to know them for a couple of years and get to see how their games improve. To see those who have a goal of getting college scholarships reach that goal is really fulfilling. Then there’s the aspect of teaching not just the skills of golf, but helping them understand the values of the game, the rules of the game. The overall growth and development of juniors is something I enjoy as well.

“I really did miss working in golf (during his years teaching). I still do have a passion for education and want to be involved in education. Working in junior golf is a great way to combine my passion for educating young people and also getting to work in golf.”

And coming home — both his parents still live in Colorado — certainly didn’t hurt.

“Denver and Colorado have always been home for me. I enjoyed living in Atlanta, but long-term I wanted an opportunity to move back home,” he said. “And the CGA is an organization I grew up with and had worked with and really respected, so it makes a lot of sense to me to join the CGA and it gives me a chance to move back home. The two years I was working with AJGA, probably my favorite event to be involved with was the Hale Irwin event. The prospect of getting to work full-time in golf in Colorado was really exciting to me. I have a chance to help the CGA continue its mission of growing the game and growing junior golf in my home state.”

However it worked it, Mate considers the CGA fortunate to have Erisman on the staff.

“He’s just an amazing person,” Mate said. “We’re lucky to have him. I think he loves to be back in Colorado, he loves junior golf, and he’s a born teacher. I think he just loves being around kids.

“Having worked with the AJGA it’s been an annual reminder of just what an outstanding person Jacob is, how bright he is, how personable he is, how sincere he is — somebody who’s really the real deal.”

Regarding Bussey, as Mate said she’ll be playing key roles in general administration, but especially regarding the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado.

“She’s really going to be the administrative backbone of the JGAC as well, which we really need,” Mate said.

Bussey indicated she’s happy to be working in the golf industry after more than three decades in the insurance business.

“After 32 years in the Insurance Industry, it was time for a change,” she said in an email this month. “When a friend told me about the opening at CGA, I knew this was the change I was looking for. I’m new to the game of golf as a player but love being out on the golf course and caddying for my husband. I’m very excited about this new opportunity and increasing my knowledge of the game of golf.â€

Overall, Mate is happy with how the recent staff additions and changes have played out.

“I’m really pleased at where we landed,” he said. “A, we promoted from within with Ashley. We recruited from our past intern program with Jacob, and we brought on a former board member in Joe. That’s proof that we maximized our internal network and internal talent. But the whole idea is to have a team that’s addressing the internal workings of the organization so that I — in my role as executive director/CEO can look at (the overarching picture). Every day, I’m able to look at my to-do list and say, ‘Are these things that are going to advance the organization outside of this office?'”
 

When it comes to women assuming major leadership roles in Colorado golf organizations — ones traditionally held by men — the last five years have marked a seismic shift in the landscape.

— In 2014, Leslie Core-Drevecky became the first female president of the Colorado PGA.

— A year ago, when the CGA and CWGA joined forces and became one organization, Juliet Miner and Joe McCleary agreed to serve one year as co-presidents of the CGA, with Miner becoming the first female president of the association.

— This fall, Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee Janet Moore was chosen the new president of that organization. Moore is a five-time winner of the CGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship.

— Also this fall, Molly Greenblatt was selected chairperson of the board for the Colorado Open Golf Foundation, which adminsters the CoBank Colorado Open Championships and The First Tee of Green Valley Ranch. Greenblatt earned low-amateur honors in the 1999 Colorado Women’s Open.

— On a national level, last month Suzy Whaley became the first female president of the PGA of America.

— Then last week, Janene Guzowski (pictured) was elected president of the CGA’s volunteer board of directors, becoming the first woman to hold that position outright. It was just over two years ago that Guzowski and Tracy Zabel became the first women to serve on the CGA board. Before the CGA and the CWGA started down the road of integrating — at the behest of the USGA — “we were operating under the understanding with the CWGA that if there were any talented women that were being considered, the CWGA would sure appreciate the opportunity to have them join their board,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “And that would happen a lot. We’d have a woman we thought highly of, and we’d steer that individual to the CWGA.”

But nowadays, with the boards of the CGA and CWGA having merged a year ago, roughly 40 percent of the CGA board in 2018 were women. That will remain true in 2019. And next year, three members of the Executive Committee will be women, with Guzowski joined by Dana Murray (secretary) and Miner (past president). To see the CGA’s 2018 volunteer leadership, CLICK HERE.

Asked her impression of women taking more leadership roles in Colorado golf, Guzowski said, “It’s a phenomenon, and to me it represents what happened last year with the historic merger of the CGA and the CWGA. Women are coming forward and people are giving us a chance to show everybody what we can do with golf in Colorado. It’s not strictly a man’s world anymore with golf or anything else for that matter. For us it’s an amazing growth and coming together in Colorado golf.”

The CGA has obviously experienced major changes over the last year, and Mate is among those who see the selection of Guzowski as the association’s new president as ideal in several respects.

“We have a lot of positive momentum with the integration and we just want to continue that as we have a lot of work yet to be done,” Mate said. “Having a strong, positive leader like Janene, it became obvious she was the right choice. This was the decision of the Nominating Committee, chaired by Doak Jacoway. They looked at the talent and looked at the situation and what does the organization need right now, and Janene was the clear, head-and-shoulders choice for the job at this point in time.

“She has the right set of skills. She personable. She loves caddies; that’s been her passion. The work she does with the Western Golf Association (which administers the Evans Scholarship for caddies) is also part of our mission. She was the right person at the right time.”

Though McCleary ended up serving three years as CGA president/co-president — while Miner did two as CWGA president and one as CGA co-president — traditionally CGA presidents have served two consecutive one-year terms. That was the case for every president from 2000 through 2015, and likely will be true for Guzowski as well.

“I hope to take us into the new year strong,” said Guzowski, a resident of the Cherry Creek area of Denver who belongs to Lakewood Country Club and Frost Creek in Eagle and owns a 15 handicap. “The committee chairs are all picked and they’re all off and running. I have some big shoes to fill after Joe and Juliet. I have four huge shoes to fill. They were instrumental in bringing the CGA and the CWGA together and they’ve led strongly and wonderfully through the process. I’m looking forward to taking what they have done and running with it.”

Guzowski, a graduate of Southern Methodist University who sells the Carlisle clothing line, is certainly no stranger to being in golf leadership roles on boards traditionally dominated by men. As mentioned, she was one of the first two women on the CGA board. She was also the first female director in Colorado for the WGA, joining that organization in 2011. In addition, she was the first female chairperson of the caddie committee at Lakewood Country Club.

“She’s the most likeable person,” Mate said of Guzowski. “She made it so comfortable for everybody. Let’s be honest: There’s a patriarchal culture, but she came in and didn’t miss a beat (in the WGA role). Now there are more women being considered for director’s positions around the country, and she was a pioneer in that respect.”

Guzowski also has served on the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame board since 2015.

As Guzowski begins her term as the CGA president, we conducted a Q&A with her last week. Here’s some of that conversation:

Q: How does it feel to be one of first women to become president of the CGA?

Janene Guzowski: “Of course, I’m honored and I’m humbled. I’m looking forward to leading the united group (after the merger of the CGA and the CWGA) and serving golf in Colorado for all people. I’m just thrilled. It’s going to be a learning experience for all of us.”

Q: Whenever you were first approached about possibly taking the role as president, what compelled to say yes?

JG: “I didn’t say yes right away. I was first of all very stunned. I understand the reason why they have asked me. I needed to see what kind of time commitment was involved, which is a lot. I’m approaching it as a full-time unpaid job. It already is. I had to think about it, talk to my husband (Alan). I have an 82-year-old gorgeous mother who I spend a lot of time with. I assume it’s going to take some time away from everybody — friends, family — and I wanted to make sure that it was OK with everybody.

“Of course, I was honored and flattered. I feel I can do a good job and do what they’ve asked me to do and expect me to do — and I’m excited to go forward.”

Q: What are your priorities for your time as president?

JG: “We’re introducing our new branding, our new logo, which is amazing. That will all come out at the end of January, and I look forward to representing that logo and getting it out there for people to look at and know what it stands for. I’d like to work with a lot more women’s groups and getting more women involved with the CGA. I’d like to have tournaments that serve a broader range of mainly men — a handicap or flighted tournament for a golfer of any handicap, which we don’t have right now with the CGA. Women have all kinds of (those types of) tournaments, but there aren’t any for the men. I’d like to see if we can get one of those tournaments implemented (possibly for 2020 or 2021). I’d like to have a co-ed tournament sponsored by the CGA open to all level of players as well. Those are some top issues for me.”

Q: Caddies are close to your heart. Will that be another priority for you, whether it be the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course or the Evans Scholarship at CU or whatever the case may be?

JG: “I’ve been on the caddie committee at Lakewood Country Club for 18 years. I chaired the committee for five years on and off. Next year will be my ninth year on the board of directors for the WGA. I’ve work with the Solich Caddie Academy kids. I was the chairman of the Caddie Development Committee for the CGA. All that will continue. It’s all near and dear to my heart.

“I was put on the caddie committee at Lakewood Country Club 18 years ago and watching these 13- and 14-year-old children — they’re children at the time — being trained to be a caddie, trained to talk to adults, trained to get up and be at a job at 6:30 in the morning … These kids are trained to be accountable and to have a future job throughout high school and perhaps college. Watching these kids grow and mature, talking to them about the Evans Scholarship and the possibility of getting full-ride tuition at CU, it changes children into adults and it’s an amazing thing to see. I’ve enjoyed it and will continue to enjoy it. I enjoy training caddies (left), I take caddies, I keep in touch with caddies. It’s going to continue to be a big thing for me. One of my favorite things that Ed Mate always says is the ‘C’ in CGA stands as much for caddies as it does for Colorado. That’s perhaps one of the reasons I became so involved so quickly because I have that same love that Ed does.”

Q: Having been on the CGA board, how do you think the integration of the CGA and CWGA has gone?

JG: “It could not have gone better. Joe and Juliet are now almost best friends. They got along so famously. I love Juliet’s analogy of a marriage. She gave up her name, her bank account, she moved. The CGA offered the CWGA so much in return for what they gave up. Golf in Colorado is going to be so much better for everybody. The Colorado Golf Association is all people, all ages — women, kids, men, people of all backgrounds and all inclusive of golf — whereas it wasn’t in the previous years.”

Q: What’s been your experience like since joining the CGA board in September 2016?

JG: “I think it’s one of the best boards I’ve ever served on. I think the Colorado Golf Association is the best golf association in the United States if you ask me — not that I’ve served on other ones. But in comparison to other boards I sit on, it’s organized and it runs smoothly. The staff … Ed Mate is amazing as our executive director. Meetings are run efficiently and timely. The issues that are brought up are important for golf in the state of Colorado. The talent on the board itself, there’s so much talent that can be tapped. I hope to do that as well; I hope to bring out the best in every person on the board, to get them involved in volunteering. There are so many smart, intelligent, talented people to work with. It’s thrilling.”
 

From a hilarious send-off serenade by co-worker Ryan Smith — a parody sung to the tune of Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” — to a part tribute/part roast by other fellow CGA staffers, to a heartfelt toast from boss Ed Mate, to a tremendous turnout for the festivities, Gerry Brown, Laura Robinson and Ann Bley were sent into retirement in high style Wednesday night at Pinehurst Country Club.

A broad cross-section of the Colorado golf community turned out to bid adieu to the three key retiring CGA staff members, recognizing jobs well done.

Seldom do three top staffers in one Colorado golf organization retire within months of one another. But not only is that the case late this year for the CGA, but the three have been employed by the CGA/CWGA for a combined total of 46 years.

About 175 people showed up for Wednesday’s festivities, in honor of Brown, the CGA’s director of course rating and handicapping; Robinson, the CGA’s managing director of membership and integration — and former CWGA executive director; and Bley, the association’s director of finance. Bley retired at the end of August after 17 years on the job, while Brown (26 years at the CGA) and Robinson (three years combined at the CWGA and the CGA) are following suit at the end of the year.

In addition to fellow staffers saluting the three in videos — and taking good-natured digs — even former CGA employees joined in on the fun. That included former CGA executive director Warren Simmons, who hired Brown back in 1992.

In turn, each of the retirees took a few minutes to fondly recall their days at the CGA/CWGA, share a laugh or two, and vow to spend their fair share of time on golf courses in retirement. That will include tee times and stays at The Broadmoor Resort — going-away gifts from the CGA.

To read more about the golf administration careers of the three, click on the following:

— Ann Bley 

— Gerry Brown 

— Laura Robinson 

Several photos from Wednesday’s festivities accompany this story.

CGA executive director Ed Mate had to chuckle at the fitting symmetry of it all.

When Gerry Brown was hired at the CGA in 1992, he was asked to do the wiring for the first computer network at the association offices, though he was brought on board mainly to help run tournaments.

Twenty-six years later, as Brown’s career at the CGA was winding down leading up to his impending retirement, he found himself in much the same situation.

“Just to show how as a lot of things change, they also stay the same, there’s a phone in our huddle room (in the CGA offices) that wasn’t wired properly,” Mate recalled recently. “I said, ‘Gerry, do you want to do one more wiring job for us?’ Sure enough, he got the ladder and pulled the cable and got it done. So he started out pulling cable and he ended up pulling cable for us. But that’s Gerry.

“If you’re on a survival quest, you want people on your team that are resourceful, and that’s Gerry. No matter what it was, if you had a problem in the office — the copier won’t work, my computer is acting weird, my phone is not doing what it’s supposed to — call Gerry. He’d be there in two seconds. And not only was he willing to do it, he wanted to do it. It was almost like he would thank you for the opportunity to help you. He’s just an amazing human being.”

Indeed, as the year comes to a close, it’s the end of an era for the CGA staff. Over the last quarter-century, no one besides Brown has been continuously employed by the CGA. That even includes Mate, the CGA’s executive director since 2000 who also worked with Brown in an earlier stint with the association, but spent four years on the Colorado PGA staff in the late 1990s and early in 2000.

Brown is one of three key CGA staffers who have or will retire in the final four months or so of this year. Ann Bley, longtime director of finance for the CGA, departed at the end of August (READ MORE). And former CWGA executive director and current CGA managing director of membership and integration Laura Robinson (READ MORE) will join Brown in retiring at year’s end. A retirement party honoring the three will be held Wednesday at Pinehurst Country Club.

Brown was initially hired by the CGA to help Jim Topliff, who had had a quadruple heart bypass, with tournaments and to work with the Golf Handicap and Information Network tournament pairing program (TPP) that was just being released. As Brown noted with a laugh in 2012, “Jim was strictly — as he liked to call himself — ‘the out-house guy’ and I was the ‘in-house guy.'” Brown also served as the de facto information technology manager. But he’ll retire after being director of course rating and handicapping — or some variation of that title — since 2001. He’s also the managing director of club and facility services. As Mate said, he’s been a very valuable “utility infielder” for the organization.

(Brown, second from right, is pictured above recently at TPC Colorado with CGA course raters Laurie Steenrod and Dick Simpson, and CGA staffer Aaron Guereca.)

So how does it feel leaving a place where he’s worked since 1992?

“It’s extremely difficult,” Brown said in a phone interview last month. “I feel like I’m leaving so much of my hide — all the blood, sweat and tears we’ve put in over the years. To see how smoothly this office has been operating — I can’t attribute it all to me — but there’s been a lot of consistency with having one person, with that longevity, in there. Comparing to other golf associations, you just don’t see that.

“To me, each day was a new day. I never got bored with coming to work. It was always so much fun to come in and see what was happening with courses and with GHIN. GHIN always had their problems with their software; I always chuckled, thinking that’s job security (for me). I enjoyed waking up each day and coming to work. Each day had its pluses and minuses — and there were a lot more pluses. There was instant gratification when you could do something for a golf professional. The golf professionals here in Colorado treated me very well — as an equal and an authority for handicapping, tournament formats, software support, course rating. Whatever question they asked, if I didn’t have the right answer, I certainly got it for them. I think there was a large amount of respect.”

Indeed, to demonstrate as much, on Oct. 15, exactly 26 years after he started at the CGA, the Colorado PGA presented Brown with a Distinguished Service Award at its fall meeting.

“That was a very nice gesture on their part,” Brown said. “I’ve had a number of them call and say farewell; that’s been heartwarming and gratifying. I’m going to miss that.”

Paul Lobato, PGA head professional at Meridian Golf Club, was among those who sang Brown’s praises.

“Gerry is a golf pro’s best friend,” he said.

“Words can’t describe” what Gerry meant to the CGA, added Mate, who worked alongside Brown for more than 20 years. “He’d become the face of the organization in so many ways. I saw (Cherry Hills Country Club head professional) John Ogden recently and he can’t say enough positive things about Gerry Brown. Whenever a club needed something relative to handicapping or course rating, they would call Gerry. When those calls come up, they tend to be urgent — ‘We have a situation where our computer won’t work or we’re trying to set up a tournament for this weekend.’ Gerry would basically be on call 24/7 and had such an incredible way about him and willingness to help.”

Brown, who will turn 68 next month, has long been highly regarded in his work, to the point that he served on the USGA Course Rating Committee from 2011-18, which he calls “the high-water mark in my career.” In that capacity, he’s assisted the USGA staff with calibration seminars around the U.S. and overseas. At calibration seminars, USGA representatives make sure course raters do their work to consistent standards. Raters evaluate the playing difficulty of a course for scratch golfers and bogey golfers from the various tee boxes, based on yardage, effective playing length and obstacles. The idea behind both course rating and handicapping is to make the game equitable for golfers of all ability levels.

In his course rating capacity, Brown has been sent to Scotland (to help instruct the Europe golf associations), the Dominican Republic and Japan.

In fact, Brown has made enough of an impression that he’ll likely continue to help the USGA on the course rating front — but on a volunteer basis, with some expenses paid.

“I think (the USGA) is going to want to keep me as someone to assist with training — and somebody who can travel,” he said. “There’s a lot of small countries and areas with only one or two golf courses so to have a formal course rating group in these areas does not always make sense. The USGA feels comfortable sending me to teach in areas like the Dominican Republican or the islands of the Caribbean. They don’t have any one group that will rate all of these courses. They’re talking about sending me and a team from Colorado to rate the courses as needed. Typically, they only do it every 10 years. … For a larger group like the Japan Golf Association, I’ll continue to do training (through) calibration seminars.”

Brown said he’ll also volunteer to rate courses in Colorado, though now Aaron Guereca, who’s become the CGA’s manager of club and facility services, will do the coordination and the setups. Brown has had Guereca, a former CWGA staffer, “on his shoulder” for 2 1/2 months in the late summer and fall to learn the ropes of the job.

Still, demonstrating his devotion to the CGA and the game, Brown said, “I’ve told Aaron I’m always just a phone call away. If I’m not doing anything, I don’t mind coming in and volunteering an hour or two of time to help him or show him how to do things.”

For a guy who was hired without any background in golf administration — he and his wife Cathey were in the publishing business with their offices located directly above those of the CGA and the CWGA in the early 1990s — Brown has certainly made a name for himself in the business.

“Just the fact that I got this job, given the way golf associations hire staff …,” said Brown, who considered himself a “self-taught computer geek.” “I was in my (early 40s) when I came here and had very little or any golf experience. I was just an avid golfer. But I brought a need to them. I helped them network the office for the very first time and got them onto a singular piece of software. I’ve still kind of hung on to my IT roots and assist with equipment and bits and pieces with the network here in the office.”

But it was in his primary job the last 17 years that Brown especially has made an impression.

“Course rating and handicapping is a very small niche in the golf industry,” he said. “There’s probably not more than five people in the entire United States that did course rating AND handicapping the way that I did. They go hand in hand in my opinion. One feeds the other. It’s been a natural and easy process for me.”

Combine that with Brown’s general helpfulness, and you have one valuable staffer.

“I’ve never met anybody that is as willing to help as Gerry Brown. That’s just his DNA,” Mate said. “I’m not kidding, if I called him and said I have a personal issue, he would drop everything he’s doing. You’d barely get the question out and he’d be there.

“One of my favorite stories about Gerry Brown: Early in my tenure as executive director, I had a tree in my back yard that I wanted to cut down. I had a little get-together at my house for the CGA staff — this was in wintertime around George Washington’s birthday, and I said, ‘We’re going to have a George Washington birthday party.’ People didn’t know why and I said we’re going to cut down a tree. Gerry, who just had shoulder surgery or was just about to, jumped in with both feet, was climbing the tree and doing all the work. I have video of the tree coming down and Gerry being halfway up it. That’s Gerry; he just wants to help people. I’ve never met somebody so willing. He and Dustin (Jensen, the former CGA managing director of operations) have that same quality. That showed every day. When people called, he was like, ‘What can I do to help?’

“On the other hand, he wasn’t a pushover. If a club called and said we don’t like our course rating, can you change it?, he’d say no, absolutely not, that’s not the way that works.”

Coincidentally, Brown’s first course rating came on Sept. 11, 2001 — at Spring Valley Golf Club in Elizabeth.

“I was standing there watching the television with the head professional, and we’re just jaws down to the floor” in seeing what had happened with the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa. “The (rating) team drove up from Colorado Springs and had left before the disaster and had no idea what was going on.”

Seventeen years after that first course rating, Brown is considered a national expert in the field. Which means it certainly won’t be easy to replace him. But you can’t accuse Brown of not giving Mate fair warning about his retirement. Indeed, he first told Mate of his plans early in 2016. And early the next year he reminded Mate by saying, “two years”.

While the powers that be kicked around the idea that Brown’s duties might be better distributed among two people, the CGA’s unification with the CWGA at the beginning of 2018 helped partly solve the matter. That’s when Guereca was tagged to start working with Brown, learning tournament software, handicap issues, course rating, software support, etc.

As for Brown moving forward, the fourth-generation Colorado native and wife Cathey plan to do some traveling. Among the destinations on their bucket list is South America — Machu Picchu, the Galapagos Islands and perhaps a trip to the Amazon River Basin.

But barring the unforeseen, the Parker resident will continue to call Colorado home for the foreseeable future.

“I have no desire to leave these Rocky Mountains,” he said. “My heart is in Colorado.”
 

It’s been a quick-moving, eventful last three years in golf administration for Laura Robinson.

And, as of the end of this month, the ride will be over for a person who couldn’t have foreseen all the twists and turns along the way.

Robinson, a former CWGA executive director who’s currently the managing director of membership and integration for the CGA, plans on retiring at the end of the year, calling it a career after lengthy stints in the business world, as a college faculty member in an information technology studies program — and these recent years in leadership roles in Colorado golf.

“This has been the most rewarding three years of my career,” Robinson said in a recent phone conversation. “I had to pull knowledge from every aspect of all my experience together — from accounting and finance, employment law, human resources, marketing, customer service (and) operations in order the lead the CWGA, then to integrate the two associations (the CGA and the CWGA).

“I think I’ve been very, very lucky to have this as the capstone to my career. It’s been so much fun. I truly appreciate the support the CWGA board of directors gave me by first hiring me for the job, then keeping me in line and teaching me about golf administration and everything we were trying to do to build out women’s golf in Colorado.”

Robinson, a Colorado resident for the last 20 years, couldn’t have known what to expect when she volunteered in the summer of 2014 to help develop an I.T. stragegy for the CWGA. She then joined the association’s volunteer board of directors in 2015.

When the CWGA board decided to go in a new direction, leadership-wise, it turned to Robinson, who became the acting executive director at the beginning of 2016 and resigned her board position. And in May of that year, the “acting” part of her title was removed and Robinson became just the fourth E.D. the CWGA ever had, following Maggie Giesenhagen (1988-1991), Robin Jervey (1992-2014) and Ann Guiberson (2014-15).

During Robinson’s time as executive director, the CWGA celebrated its 100th anniversary throughout 2016, then the association joined forces with the CGA, becoming one organization at the beginning of this year. The unification, prompted by the USGA’s decision to partner with just one full-service Allied Golf Association in each state or region, was long in the works, with current CGA co-presidents Joe McCleary and Juliet Miner playing key roles in the process, along with Robinson and CGA executive director Ed Mate. (The four are pictured below.)

“This was an unexpected career move for me,” Robinson said regarding golf administration. “I was thrilled to be working for the CWGA for two years and learning about golf administration and running a small business. Merging with the CGA was a wonderful business move and I was really excited to be one of the leaders in that effort.

“It was very exciting formulating a plan make the CWGA and CGA a new organization to support the future of the game. It was so exciting to be part of all that — to lead an effort to integrate two companies so successfully, to identify a new logo, a new website (both of which will be unveiled early next year), a new way of operating, to expand our programs to men. It was just so exciting to be part of making sure the future of golf was strong in Colorado.”

And, given that this process has played out over more than three years, how does she think the integration has worked out?

“The two organizations were combined to make both of us stronger,” Robinson said. “We could share the resources the CGA had. They had more resources than the CWGA. And the CGA could benefit from all of the programs that are developed for women and high handicappers that could be rolled out for men. We were literally building the future of a golf association in Colorado to serve a wider variety of people than either organization had served before. It was really exciting to be part of that.”

Mate has worked closely with Robinson in recent years, both before and after the unification, and he certainly appreciates what Robinson has done to make the merger relatively seamless.

“Laura was just the right person at the right time in so many ways because of her business background, her ability to organize, prioritize and really kind of tease out the right questions through the integration,” Mate said. “She maintained the really good continuity with the leadership of the CWGA through this transition. She was just indispensible.

“Her business background has been such a great addition, a skill set we’ve been able to really capitalize on because she was able to develop a strategic plan by working with a team during the busiest time of the year. As we’re preparing for next year, we have by far the best blueprint to guide us for the next several years. She led us through a process of prioritization and analysis of membership. She almost did a Masters degree project that was an excercise in strategic planning. It will have huge benefits moving forward. She’s leaving us in great position. What a great legacy that that will live on for a while.

“Beyond that, she’s been very fun to work with, very passionate about the game of golf.”

The staff of the CWGA didn’t simply move into the same offices as the CGA. The volunteer boards of the two organizations were joined together — with McCleary and Miner agreeing to serve a year as co-presidents to further ease the transition period — and the CWGA staff has become integral in CGA work moving forward. That includes Kate Moore, Matthew Walker, Aaron Guereca and Debbie Kolb — in addition to Robinson.

“We had a great team in the (CWGA) office, and I’m so glad for the CGA that every one of them has decided to stay,” Robinson said. “I feel like I’ve made friends for life through this whole experience.”

And Robinson’s run over these recent years also gave her an ever-increasing appreciation of the work volunteers do — and have done — for the associtions.

“Due to this experience, I truly learned about volunteerism,” she said. “The CWGA has almost a hundred dedicated volunteers, passionate about golf, passionate about giving back to the game they love. Without the volunteers, we couldn’t have had the successful tournaments and Golf Experiences that we had. Thank you to each and every one of the volunteers for being part of the success.”

During the last year as part of the CGA staff, Robinson (at left with Miner) has taken on a multi-faceted role in the effort to make the association as good as it can be serving its newly combined membership.

“I led the team to integrate the two organizations,” she said. “It was a lot more than simply moving in together. We had to identify new roles and responsibilities. We kicked off a plan to develop a new brand and identity through a new logo and color scheme, which will be shared with the public at the (Denver) Golf Expo in February. We have a new website that is currently under development to take advantage of the new brand identity — presenting one consolidated view of the CGA to all golfers in the state.

“I was behind the effort to create a strategic plan for the newly formed CGA. It wasn’t merely taking two organizations and band-aiding them together. We really wanted to take advantage that we were a new organization focused on new programs, new demographics and a new way of operating. So a strategic plan that I developed helped support that effort. We still have a few tasks left in the integration, (including) merging all of our documents and the combined website. Though we started moving in (to the CGA offices) in late October of 2017, it truly has taken over a year to complete the integration of the two organizations.”

As the CGA forges on, Robinson and her husband Paul will continue to split time between Colorado and Florida — and will remain members at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen. The plan for the foreseeable future includes “playing lots of golf, ski and travel,” she said.

And, there will be time to reflect on these eventful last few years in golf administration.

“Every day was memorable,” she said. “Every day was a learning experience, meeting new people, developing new programs, cementing our relationship in the golf community. One of the highlights was when the CWGA (received a distinguished service award from) the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. I think that cemented our history and our place in history in the golf community. Another high moment was when I chaired my very first annual meeting for almost 175 women from clubs all over the state. That was incredibly rewarding to see the level of passion, energy and participation from public clubs, private clubs, nine-hole leagues, 18-hole leagues, championship golfers and high handicappers alike.”
   

When PGA head professional Dan O’Shaughnessy and the rest of the folks at Meadow Hills Golf Course in Aurora first heard about the Youth on Course initiative coming to Colorado early in 2018, his reaction was simple:

“Win, win.”

A win for kids in the Youth on Course program, who pay no more than $5 per round at participating facilities. And a win for those courses, which receive a subsidy as part of the initiative, and which can be adding long-term customers. And it’s also a victory for golf in general, helping kids fall in love with the game, which can pay dividends years and decades down the line.

In Colorado, Youth on Course was launched at the beginning of 2018 with the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado — founded and operated by the CGA and the Colorado PGA — overseeing the program in the Centennial State. Fifteen courses in Colorado signed on for 2018 — some allowing the kids to play for $5 or less anytime, and others with day and time restrictions.

Those 15 courses include facilities from the western half of the state (Lincoln Park in Grand Junction, Gypsum Creek and Vail Golf Club), the south (Silver Spruce in Colorado Springs) and the north (City Park Nine in Fort Collins), besides the Denver metro area. All five City of Aurora courses were among those to embrace the initiative in its first year in Colorado. For a complete list of the participating facilities in the Centennial State, CLICK HERE.

Overall, 661 junior rounds were played in the state as part of Youth on Course in 2018, with more than $3,800 in subsidies paid out to participating facilities by the national Youth on Course foundation. Soon, Colorado-based funding will be used to pay the subsidies.

Youth on Course was one of the topics of conversation last week at the annual Colorado Public Golf Operators Meeting held at Meadow Hills.

That site was appropriate given that Meadow Hills led the way on the Youth on Course front in Colorado in year 1. O’Shaughnessy, who accepted an award on behalf of Meadow Hills for that reason (left), said the course had about 230 Youth on Course rounds in 2018.

“They gave us the info (on the program) in February or March. We read it over and thought, ‘Win, win,'” O’Shaughnessy said after the meeting. “Number 1, we’re not doing something that reduces our revenue. We keep it the same, but by reducing the cost to the participant, it’s a winner. A kid comes in at 2 o’clock, $5, he’s off and playing. We’ll get our $6 back (on an $11 junior green free). It’s fantastic from that perspective.”

YOC, a non-profit started in 2006 as a Northern California Golf Association initiative, has been steadily taking root across the country, mainly through USGA-affiliated Allied Golf Associations — traditionally known as state and regional golf associations — and affiliated organizations. To date, according to the Youth on Course website, there have been 45,000 members, with 900 participating courses and more than 700,000 rounds of golf having been subsidized.

In Colorado, in order to participate in the Youth on Course program, youngsters must be JGAC members. Youth on Course members in Colorado can play for $5 or less at participating courses outside the state as well.

In Meadow Hills’ case, Youth on Course was used in part to lessen costs for junior golfers as the facility launched a league for kids 14-16 years old — just older than those who participate in PGA Jr. League.

“We did quite a few through that league,” O’Shaugnessy said. “They would come out every Monday, play in a league, play match play, play stroke play, and have fun and it would cost them $5 (per round). That was easy to put into a package and we had about 50 (participants) this year. We hope to double it next year. There were two prices: $250 and $170. All they had to do to get the $170 deal was join the Junior Golf Alliance and become eligible for Youth on Course. It was a pretty simple equation.”

Meadow Hills uses Youth on Course as part of a bigger initiative to build junior golf.

“We didn’t see a lot of loveblood” years ago, O’Shaugnessy said. “But we built a little three-hole course on a dead area on the course. We paired with First Tee of Front Range to bring in their programming here. So this (Youth on Course) was part of a bigger puzzle to try to build our club to be more junior focused. We’ve been doing PGA Jr. League for six years — we’re one of the initial ones to do that — so that’s been a great component. And now we’re building some other components around it because it’s got a lot of momentum. It’s a high priority.”

CGA executive director Ed Mate predicted a year ago that Youth on Course could be a game-changer for player development.

And what’s his impression after one year of having the initiative in Colorado?

“I think it’s a good start,” he said. “Like most things, it takes time to establish them. … My sense is we’re going to double next year easily, then it will just go from there.”

One issue is potentialy making the Youth on Course initiative work for facilities that have “kids play free” programs already in place. It’s possible moving forward that Youth on Course can help such facilities by using subsidy dollars for marketing and advertising such programs.

“Today just proves we need to be nimble to adjust,” Mate said after hearing some feedback from public course operators.

But generally speaking, Mate sees great promise for Youth on Course — and the potential for considerable growth, both locally and beyond.

“It’s such a small footprint of courses doing it (so far in Colorado), but the ones that were — like Dan here — just loved it,” Mate said. “I’d love to see more of the Youth on Course stuff in windows, but I just think we did a really good job of setting the stage for next year.

“This group today (at the Public Course Operators Meeting) is our core audience for that because it’s not something you offer through private clubs. It’s a public golf initiative. That’s one of the reasons I love it. If it wasn’t for public golf, I wouldn’t be a golfer. And if wasn’t for municipal golf, I wouldn’t be a golfer. This is my home here.”

And at facilities like Meadow Hills, the bottom line is that Youth on Course helped increase rounds among junior golfers — which is exactly what the initiative is all about.

“They played a lot more,” O’Shaghnessy said of participants. “You’re just taking the number of rounds up. If they played two or three times — he or she has that many dollars — and now they have more dollars (thanks to the subsidy) and they play five, six, seven times. We definitely saw that.

“I don’t know if it brought a new player into (the game) — there are other avenues to get kids in — but an established kid that wanted to play heard about this program, signed up and played more.”

For more information about Youth on Course in Colorado or to inquire about joining the program, contact Holly Champion from the Colorado PGA at hchampion@pgahq.com

Public Course Operators Meeting Notes: Fifty-two people attended the Nov. 1 Colorado Public Golf Operators Meeting at Meadow Hills (left). As always, much of the discussion at the event was centered around best practices — and bouncing ideas off one another — so that public operators can run as efficiently as possible. Also, attendees were brought up to date on programs and activities operated by the CGA, Colorado PGA and the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado. During the winter and early spring, the CGA compiles data from a rounds and revenue survey of the public golf operators that gives a sense of the general direction of the golf business in the state.

Bob Austin has scored 100 percent on the PGA/USGA Rules of Golf exam the last three times he’s taken it — and four times overall. He’s answered a question incorrectly on the exam a grand total of three times over the last eight years.

Yet, as much of a rules expert as he’s been, there he was on a beautiful Saturday morning/early afternoon a couple of weeks ago, attending the first of five rules seminars the CGA is conducting this fall.

Why?

Because, as CGA executive director Ed Mate noted early on, seldom in history have the Rules of Golf undergone as significant a chance as they’re currently undergoing. This major “Rules Modernization” will take effect on Jan. 1.

In other words, ready or not, here they come.

People like Austin — and the other 21 people who attended this particular rules seminar on Oct. 20 at Todd Creek Golf Club in Thornton — are doing their best to be proactive, trying to fully memorize and understand the new rules as well as they did the old ones.

And that’s the idea behind a couple of significant projects the CGA has undertaken this fall:

— Mate — who has played a significant role in the impending rules changes, having served on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee for the last three years — and the CGA are putting together a series of “Ready for the 2019 Rules” videos which are being released each Monday for 18 weeks this fall.

— And, complementing the videos, there are five four-hour rules seminars, accompanied by a meal, that are being conducted by the CGA. There was the aforementioned first one at Todd Creek on Oct. 20, one at Lone Tree Golf Club on Oct. 27, and another at Fossil Trace Golf Club in Golden on Saturday. Upcoming are ones at The Club at Flying Horse in Colorado Springs (Dec. 8), and at Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins (Dec. 15).

And at least 10 more CGA rules seminars will be held in the spring, according to CGA director of rules and competition Robert Duke.

To access the CGA’s Ready for the 2019 Rules page, which includes both the videos and the list of seminars, CLICK HERE.

At Todd Creek, the seminar was led by Mate and Duke. With the help of a presentation program and videos, they went one by one through many of the major changes in the rules that will take effect on Jan. 1, took questions and led discussions that came up.

“When the flag went in the hole at the Mid-Am (the final individual CGA championship of 2018) and we started doing the Monday videos, we thought, ‘We ought to pair these with seminars,'” Mate said. “It wasn’t planned, but I’m really glad we did it and I think it’s worked out great.

“Nobody is an expert now. Everybody has to reprove their expertise.”

About 50 people were on hand at Lone Tree, following the 22 at Todd Creek. And there were more than 70 signed up for Fossil Trace this past weekend. Attending are rules officials, various representatives of men’s and women’s clubs, PGA professionals and plenty of others.

“Working on the rules is hard, it’s a process,” noted Austin, who typically serves as a rules official at 8-10 USGA/NCAA tournaments per year. “But even if you’re a beginner or wanted to start officiating, these (the rules seminars) would be a place to start. And I’m sure everyone benefited from listening to the conversations.”

As of Jan. 1, there will be 24 rules in the Rules of Golf, down from 34. Some of the major changes will be:

— When taking a drop, it will be done from knee height rather than shoulder height.

— Players can leave the flagstick in when putting, with no penalty for their ball hitting it.

— The search time for lost balls has been reduced to three minutes from five.

— Most green damage, including spike marks, can be repaired without unduly delaying play.

— A ball unintentionally moved during a search should be replaced with no penalty.

— A ball wedged against the flagstick and the side of the hole is deemed holed.

— It’s not permitted for caddies to line up players before they strike their shot.

— There’s no penalty when a ball unintentionally hits a player or his/her caddie or equipment.

— There’s no penalty for an accidental double hit. Play the ball as it lies.

— An expanded version of water hazards — not including bunkers — are now referred to as penalty areas.

— Loose impediments can be removed in penalty areas and in bunkers.

— Clubs can be grounded in penalty areas.

— A ball — or ball marker — moved accidentally on a putting green should be replaced with no penalty.

— A player may keep using any damaged club, no matter the nature or cause of the damage, even if the player damaged it in anger.

Of course, those are just the highlights. There’s much more to it than that. For a summary the CGA created comparing the current rules to the 2019 rules, CLICK HERE.

“If the facial expression and body language are any indication, (the seminar attendees) really do like (the rules changes),” Mate after the Todd Creek seminar. “I’m not saying they are perfect by any means. Are there still weird things that are head-scratchers? Yes. There’s always going to be nuance, but overall on a scale of 1 to 10 of intuitive, we moved it from a 3 to a 7. It’s a huge improvement. It’s just so much more logical.

“I used to say to people who were not rules experts and would say, ‘I’ve got reasonably good common sense.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s not going to help you'” understand the rules. “It doesn’t help you. There was ‘rules common sense’, and once you became a rules expert and understood the philosophy behind it then common sense in that context would work for you. But unless you understood this, it didn’t help you. Now, if you just have common sense, they make more sense — if that makes sense,” Mate said with a chuckle.

And that’s hopefully the case for people affectionately known as “rules geeks” as well as for relative novices.

Austin definitely falls into the former category. Besides being a prominent national and regional rules official in his own right, he’s married to Christie Austin, the first woman to chair the USGA Rules of Golf Committee.

“I grind on it and work at” being very knowledgeable about the Rules of Golf, Bob Austin said. “My wife says I study more than anybody who she knows. But I really enjoy the academic study of the rules. Most days I spend a half an hour or an hour just reading things, looking at things and just kind of working on it. To do it right, and to do it at a really high level, it takes a lot of work. I love the work, but you need to be diligent about it.

“Christie and I both joke about it. When we’re both studying for rules, we both have decision books on our bedside table. That’s sort of the standard joke with our rules officials. (Christie and I) will talk about situations that come up. She’ll ask me what I learned today. We actually talk about (the rules) a reasonable amount. As a past chairman of the USGA Rules of Golf Committee, she has a great knowledge also. Every time we take the test together, we have a little bit of a friendly (competition). I hope she gets 100, but we certainly have a friendly rivalry about it. She’s academically smarter than I am, and it drives me crazy because I work a lot harder at it that she does. But she can get to the same level as I am in less time. It drives me crazy, but I’m proud of her for it.”

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who want to play by the rules without having to study the topic so intensely.

The key to an effective rules seminar “is being able to give beginning, intermediate and advanced offerings,” Mate noted. “Sandy Schnitzer, who is the co-chair of our Rules Committee, I’ve seen her do rules seminars and she’s so good at teaching to a beginning audience. What we do, as people who live it every day, we hear a question and either we overthink it and try to give a much more detailed answer than is necessary or we underthink it. She’s just so good at getting (what a questioner is asking, no matter at what level).”

As many changes as will take effect on Jan. 1, it’s safe to say that not all will be set in stone. Any long-term student of the game can tell you as much.

“The Rules of Golf are very fluid,” Bob Austin said. “I was surprised by some of the changes, like when you throw a club and damage it, you can continue to play with it. I understood the reason behind each one. But the rules are fluid. And not everything in the rules are going to work out. And the next time they make (a new rules book), there will be tweaks and changes. The USGA and its rulesmakers are going to be watching and looking, and they’ll see what works and what doesn’t work. I certainly trust their judgment.”
 

The North Dakota pipeline continues to produce for the CGA.

Not only have North Dakotans been a constant presence on the CGA staff in the new millennium, but they’ve become fixtures as managing directors of operations for the association in the last seven-plus years.

First, it was Briena Goldsmith who capably served as the CGA’s managing director of operations from 2011 until late 2014, when she moved back to North Dakota with her husband and kids.

Then there was Dustin Jensen, who returned to the CGA from North Dakota with the same title as Goldsmith had had. Jensen spent three years in that role until moving back to North Dakota at the end of 2017.

And now Ashley Barnhart (pictured) is becoming the latest North Dakotan to earn a similar title. On Thursday (Nov. 1), the current CGA director of junior competitions will be promoted to managing director of golf operations for the association.

“There’s sort of a North Dakota work ethic that I swear is real,” CGA executive director Ed Mate said. “There’s what I would describe as resourcefulness, problem solving, get it done.”

Mate was speaking specifically about common qualities possessed by Barnhart and Jensen, though they same has been true of Goldsmith as well.

In her new role, Barnhart will continue to be a point person for the CGA in its partnership with the Colorado PGA regarding the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado. She’ll also oversee CGA championships, USGA qualifiers, Rules of Golf and amateur status monitoring. Jensen did likewise during his most recent stint with the CGA, though the plan moving forward is that some areas formerly under his purview will soon be handled by another staffer. Specifically, handicapping, course rating and GHIN/USGA tournament management software support will be managed by a future hire.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to really engage with a bigger piece of the golf landscape rather than being solely glued to junior golf,” said Barnhart, who’s been a popular figure as one of the leaders of the Junior Golf Alliance since it was launched about three years ago. “I have a unique opportunity to create some synergy between our men’s, women’s and junior world.”

And Barnhart will take on this greatly expanded role at the age of 24, 2 1/2 years after graduating from college and becoming a full-time CGA staffer. But promoting her to managing director of golf operations at this point is a testament to how highly regarded Barnhart is by CGA leadership.

“I’ve always been a believer that there’s only one way to gain experience — and that’s through experience,” Mate said. “I’m reminded of one of my favorite television shows, ‘The Voice’, which I hate to admit that I watch. Sometimes you’ll have these 13 year olds that come onto the stage and sing and perform as if they’re 30. (Age is) just a number.

“The qualities of the millennial generation that are often cited unfairly are that there’s no loyalty, a short attention span, flightiness … Ashley embodies everything that’s not characteristic of what we mostly think of when we think of millennials. She’s incredibly well organized, she’s incredibly loyal, she’s got extremely high standards. If anything, she sometimes gets in trouble for not wanting to relax those standards. There’s a term in psychology called ‘executive function’, which is basically your ability to organize, plan and execute. Ashley is just a ’10’ in executive function. Organizing, planning and execution — she’s just exceptionally good at those things. To put her in the role of managing the golf operations is putting her in her area of strength.”

For Barnhart herself, a can-do attitude and a strong work ethic are far more important than any consideration of age.

“Twenty-four or 44, there’s work to be done and I think I can accomplish some of that with the help of our management team,” she said.

Barnhart and Jensen, of course, have a linked background that far predates the years they spent working together at the CGA. Barnhart played golf at the University of Jamestown in North Dakota when Jensen was coaching both the men’s and women’s programs at the school.

As noted above, Mate believes the two share the same strong work ethic, resourcefulness, problem-solving ability and get-it-done attitude.

“Those are common denominators, but beyond that, they’re very different people,” Mate noted. “Dustin is more gregarious, more outgoing, definitely an extrovert. Ashley is more introverted. And their strengths and weaknesses are different. But they both share that North Dakota, ‘I’m going to just get this done.’ I love it. You want someone like that where if you give them a task, you know it’s going to get done and there’s not going to be any excuses. That resourcefulness I just love.”

One of the first major items on Barnhart’s to-do list in her new role will be to hire her replacement, specifically a new director of junior competitions. Barnhart has been either a manager or director of junior competitions since the spring of 2016. She also served as a CGA summer intern in 2014 and ’15, and did a lot of part-time work over the 2015-16 school year.

“Ashley has been the glue that has held the JGAC’s competitive tournament program together and is directly responsible for much of the success the JGAC has realized over the past three years,” Mate noted. “… The JGAC has been recognized as a model of collaboration and strategic alignment and has taken our partnership with the Colorado Section of the PGA to a new level.”
 

Considering he was receiving a golf-related award on Sunday evening, Armando Duarte didn’t used to have the most positive attitude about the game.

“Before I started (caddying), I never knew anything about golf,” the 15-year-old sophomore from Regis Jesuit High School said. “I thought golf was the most boring sport ever. Now, I’m back to playing it. I tried out for my high school team. I didn’t make it but I’m still playing. I think it’s a great thing to do. I got all that from caddying.”

And, specifically, from doing so as part of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, which on Sunday celebrated its seventh season with an awards barbecue at CommonGround Golf Course, the CGA-owned facility where the Academy started in 2012.

Over the seven golf seasons since, the Solich Academy has put together some impressive numbers:

— Now with three sites for the program around the state — CommonGround, Meridian Golf Club in Englewood and Lincoln Park/Tiara Rado in Grand Junction — the Academy has produced more than 8,500 caddie loops over the seven years. That includes a record total of more than 1,500 in 2018, with 46 caddies participating. There were 888 loops at CommonGround, 419 at Meridian and 215 in Grand Junction.

— This fall, a record-tying four Solich Academy caddies became Evans Scholars — three at the University of Colorado and one at Northwestern — after being awarded the full tuition and housing scholarship earlier in 2018. All told, 17 Solich kids have earned Evans Scholarships, almost all at CU.

— Then there are the 10 key elements of the “Code of the West”, which are key parts of the “leadership” aspect of the Solich Academy: 1) Live each day with courage; 2) Take pride in your work; 3) Always finish what you start; 4) Do what has to be done; 5) Be tough, but fair; 6) When you make a promise, keep it; 7) Ride for the brand; 8) Talk less and say more; 9) Remember that some things aren’t for sale; 10) Know where to draw the line.

— And on Sunday, at the season-ending awards barbecue at CommonGround, nearly 150 people showed up for the festivities — caddies, their families, and supporters and organizers of the program.

That included one of the two people who lent their name and foundational support to the Solich Academy — brothers George and Geoff (Duffy) Solich. Both caddied themselves as teenagers — at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs — and subsequently were awarded Evans Scholarships at CU. They’ve long been successful Colorado-based oilmen and philanthropists.

“What always stands out to me is the family support these kids have,” Duffy Solich said after Sunday’s festivities. “It’s really cool to see all these people here.”

Indeed, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy continues to blossom. The program promotes the use of caddies by paying their base fees through an educational grant, with participating golfers having the option of adding a tip.

And, as noted earlier, there’s also a hearty leadership aspect to the Academy. Each youngster who participates not only caddies but is required to attend weekly leadership classes and do community-service work each summer.

“I think it’s an amazing program,” said CGA co-president Joe McCleary, who has regularly helped train some of the Solich Academy caddies over the years. “It’s just a great program for the kids. It provides a lot of learning opportunities and I think it’ll make a difference in their lives.

“I’ve said it before: The golf course (at CommonGround) is a laboratory for a variety of programs, and this is one of those perfect programs that fits right into the laboratory.”

And that lab has produced kids like Duarte, who on Sunday was named “Caddie Leader of the Year” at CommonGround for 2018.

“I get discipline out of the program,” he said. “This is pretty much a first job for a teenager like me. It teaches us how it is to have a job.

“Many of my golfers really gave me confidence to open myself up more to new people because I was a really shy person. That was really good for me.”

At all the Colorado courses, the Solich Academy is a flagship program for the CGA, which devotes considerable resources in nurturing and managing it. CGA executive director Ed Mate, like the Soliches, attended CU on an Evans Scholarship. Also playing key roles in the Academy’s success from the assocation are manager of caddie development Emily Olson, director of youth programs Erin Gangloff and director of development Ryan Smith.

The CGA raised almost $40,000 for the Solich Academy this year through two trips that were generously donated by the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon — with one being raffled off and the other being awarded through an auction.

BMW, a presenting partner of the CGA, is also the exclusive partner for the Solich Academy at CommonGround.

Besides CommonGround, Meridian, Lincoln Park and Tiara Rado, courses in southeast Wisconsin and in Oceanside, Calif., have taken the Solich Academy template and used it at their facilities, with tweaks as necessary.

“There’s room for people to take the ball and run with it” regarding expanding the program’s concept, Duffy Solich (left) said.

The normal pattern in the Denver metro area is for Solich caddies to spend two years at CommonGround or Meridian, then graduate to other programs around the area such as those at Cherry Hills Country Club, Denver Country Club, Lakewood Country Club, etc.

“It’s so gratifying to go to these other courses and see caddies who have graduated from here thrive at these other courses,” Duffy Solich noted.

Meridian came on board by establishing a Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy chapter four years ago. And now the Englewood-based club is up to 11 caddies who this year produced 419 loops, a season-high for the course. Paul Lobato, the longtime PGA head professional at Meridian, has shepherded the program at the club, and is trying to take it up a notch or two. Lobato and his team at Meridian spend 10 hours working with the kids before ever sending them out to caddie.

“I think we’re holding the kids to different expectations — that we expect them to get better each time out — to raise the level from being just bag carriers and sherpas to being more of a true caddie,” Lobato said.

Lobato finds it very gratifying to see the results — not only at his course, but for the Solich Academy program in general.

“It seems that caddying is very much back in vogue,” he said. “People are requesting them, people are interested in them. They’re interested in kids not only as caddies but as golfers and students and things like that. It is fun to see the growth of it.

“Caddies only used to be at certain places, but now they’re becoming a lot more common around town. Everybody is kind of getting their foot in the door. We just need to bust the door open and get stronger caddie programs with better caddies and people requesting them more.”

Here are the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy awards that were presented on Sunday:

Caddie Leader of the Year
CommonGround — Armando Duarte
Meridian — Tara Simone
Grand Junction — Chloe Manchester

Congeniality Award
CommonGround — Anthony Montoya-Olivas
Meridian — Kimberly Helfer
 
Rookie of the Year
CommonGround — Lindsi Reyes
Meridian — Antonio Vasquez

Most Improved Caddie
CommonGround — Jaziel Guerrero
Meridian — Aidan McMahon
Grand Junction — Kalea Potter
 
3D Award (Dedication-Determination-Desire)
CommonGround — Simon Seyoum
Meridian — Logan Douglass