When Ann Guiberson attended the CWGA Annual Meeting on Saturday at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center, she was expecting to see just a smattering of people she knew from back when she worked for the association.

After all, it’s been 15 years since she departed Colorado to take a job at the USGA.

“I thought I’d see a handful of people that I knew from 15 or 20 years ago, but I saw dozens,” Guiberson said after the meeting. “The players’ names are familiar to me. Many volunteers are still the same; they’re still volunteering and giving back to the game. So I’m very comfortable here in Colorado.”

That’s part of the reason Guiberson (pictured above) was hired this week to become just the third executive director in CWGA history. She’ll officially succeed Robin Jervey on April 1, about two weeks after Jervey bids adieu to Colorado after a 22-year run as the CWGA’s top staff member.

Jervey will move back to her old stomping grounds on the East Coast, where her fiance Scott Whitcomb works and resides. Jervey will handle tournament operations for the Legends Tour, the 45-and-over LPGA senior circuit. Officially, Jervey’s title will be director of event management for JBC Golf, a Boston-based management company. (For more about Jervey’s departure, CLICK HERE and see below.)

While Jervey is moving back East, Guiberson — her right-hand person at the CWGA from 1995 to ’99 — is returning to guide the CWGA after 15 years on the East Coast. Guiberson was introduced to the membership at Saturday’s meeting, and she’ll spend the next week working with Jervey on making a smooth transition. Then after attending the Women’s (golf) Association Roundtable Meeting with some CWGA staff and board members March 10-12 in Phoenix, Guiberson will return to her home in Rochester, N.Y., and get ready to move back to Colorado.

Jervey believes she’s leaving the CWGA in very good care.

“I’m happy to turn it over to Ann,” she said. “She’s excited to come back to Colorado. I know her heart is in the right place. The CWGA will be in really good hands.

“She’s wonderful with detail. Nothing will be undone. She’s the kind that will make sure everything is just right. I know we got along very well when we worked together because we both had that same quality of checking all the boxes.

“Her temperament is excellent. It takes a lot to fluster her. Working with volunteers is kind of an art that you learn over time because you’re working with a ton of different personalities. The (USGA) has thousands of volunteers around the country. I think she really enjoys that. It will be great to bring her here because we’ve got our pool to work with and we rely on them heavily to get everything done.”

Guiberson — an All-Big Eight golfer and Scholastic All-American at the University of Nebraska where she played from 1988 to ’92, and an assistant coach at NU and Colorado State University — worked for the USGA from 1999 to March of last year, when her department was realigned. For those 14 years, she was the director of regional affairs for the East and Great Lakes Regions, covering nine states and the District of Columbia and encompassing roughly 30 golf associations. For much of her time at the USGA, she also was the director of the USGA Women’s State Team Championship.

“With the USGA I wore many different hats,” Guiberson said. “I might be giving a presentation, working on a website, marking a golf course, recruiting volunteers. I’ve done a lot of different things. At the CWGA, I worked in the day-to-day, then I went to work at the USGA in more of a strategic position. Now I’ll be coming back and working in the day-to-day as well as the strategic, so I can blend the experience of those two positions.

“I’m excited to get back to Colorado. It’s really returning home for me.”

It was Guiberson’s work with the USGA that helped set her apart for the CWGA executive director job.

“Just look at her resume and the experience she had with the USGA,” said CWGA president Joanie Ott, part of a five-person group that selected Guiberson. “She has all the tools that we’re looking for. Her interview was incredible. She has a fine sense of humor, and her attention to detail, her skill set, her expertise, it just came out. It was head and (shoulders) above other candidates. We’re just thrilled to have her.”

When Guiberson worked at the CWGA in the 1990s, she and Jervey were the association’s only staffers (compared to now, when there are five women on staff). That was also a time in which golf was growing considerably. The number of female golfers in the U.S. jumped from 5 million in ’95 to 5.4 million in 2000, and courses were opening on a regular basis. But from 2005 to 2012, the ranks of female golfers dropped from 7 million to 5 million, and no new course has opened in Colorado since 2009.

“The staff is larger, and it’s more sophisticated,” Guiberson said of the CWGA. “They’re expanding their programs. Golf was booming back in that time; it was doing well. There were golf course openings in Colorado. It seemed like every couple of weeks we were working with a new club. Now, there’s a different set of challenges with golf overall — participation, affordability and access and making golf fun and welcoming. That’s all things the (CWGA) is working on. … Everyone is interested in getting more women and players out there to play golf. What every association in the country is addressing every day is membership — growing membership and also retaining membership. That will be a priority.”

While Guiberson has some familiarity with the golf market in Colorado, she will take some time learning how the landscape has changed, and getting to know the CWGA staff and volunteers, the clubs that have opened in Colorado in the new millennium, as well as local PGA professionals.

“The CWGA is a leader in promoting women’s golf,” she said. “I’m confident everything is going to be pretty solid. And we can come in and take a look at where we can expand and what we need to do to increase our membership at this point.”

Guiberson, a 4.0 handicap and a former regular at Willis Case Golf Course who competed in the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1996, also plans to uphold the CWGA’s long tradition of running first-class state championships and national qualifiers. In addition, she’ll be part of the leadership of the CGA/CWGA-owned CommonGround Golf Course, and she’ll be at the forefront of the CWGA’s plans to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016. That just touches on a few of her many duties.

But Guiberson knows it won’t be easy to follow in the footsteps of Jervey, who is one of the longest-serving executive directors in Colorado golf history.

“As I was sitting through the meeting, I was thinking all the things Robin Jervey has done over the last 22 years,” Guiberson said. “She’s done a lot. Those are going to be very big shoes to fill.”

Fond Farewell for Jervey: If there was any question how much Jervey is appreciated for her 22 years as CWGA executive director, it was answered at Saturday’s Annual Meeting, the last Jervey will preside over before heading East for a new job.

When she closed her remarks by noting her impending departure, those in attendance at Inverness gave her a 20-second ovation.

Two of those in attendance, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton and former CWGA president Pat Kuntz, thought so much of Jervey (pictured at left) in her time with the CWGA that they made a special trip from their residence in Tempe, Ariz., to attend Saturday’s meeting.

Not surprisingly, Jervey became emotional when she spoke about leaving in the final minutes of her business-meeting address.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve you for the last 22 years,” she said. “Colorado is an amazing state filled with outstanding people. I will cherish my experiences here and all the wonderful friends and acquaintances I’ve made. … Thank you very much.”

Ott then presented Jervey with “a medallion for you to remember us by.”

Meanwhile, Saturday marked the final day for fellow staffer Kelley Mawhinney, the CWGA’s tournament and junior golf operations manager, who is moving to Charleston, S.C., after three years with the association, the last two as a full-time staffer.

CWGA Annual Meeting Notes: A total of about 240 people attended Saturday’s meeting, with 96 clubs from around the state represented (see photo below). … The three members of the CWGA board of directors who stepped down from that role at the end of 2013 were recognized for their years of service: Kathryn Davis, Karla Harding and Sue Romek. Davis is a former CWGA president. … Also recognized was Jan Fincher, who received the CWGA Volunteer Award at last fall’s Colorado Golf Awards Brunch. … Jervey announced that the CWGA will hold a season kickoff party on April 10, from 4-8 p.m., at the PGA Tour Superstore in Greenwood Village. Admission is free. … Also noted was a new series of social golf outings at CommonGround Golf Course this year, called Monday Mixers. For more information on these and a multitude of other social golf events, CLICK HERE. … Janene Guzowski of Lakewood Country Club, a director for the Western Golf Association, gave those in attendance a brief preview of the BMW Championship, the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoff event that will be held at Cherry Hills Country Club the first week of September. “It is rockin’ awesome because I went to the one in Chicago last year,” Guzowski said. “It’s going to blow Denver away.”

While Ott would no doubt like to lower her handicap index from its current 23, she takes some pride in being that “average golfer”, especially given that she’s just about to embark on a two-year term as president of the CWGA.

“I bring that perspective,” Ott said in a recent phone interview. “My background is in education — as a teacher and an administrator. I bring the lifelong learning element to the table.”

That goes not just for her professional background, but for her history in golf. Ott, 66, began playing the game when she was 12, becoming a regular — along with her two sisters — at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis.

“I was really lucky that I had parents who really loved the game,” she said. “Golf was important to my family when I was growing up.”

The amount of golf Ott played waxed and waned over the years, largely depending on her career. But when she retired from the Aurora Public Schools in 2001 — though she did contract work for another decade, largely recruiting teachers — Ott joined Heather Ridge, a course on which she now lives.

But suffice it to say her fondness for the game never left her, which is one reason she now finds herself in the top volunteer leadership position for the CWGA. Ott officially will succeed Kathryn Davis as president on Jan. 1.

“Joanie is a very soft-spoken individual, but very well respected,” CWGA executive director Robin Jervey said. “She’s not a boisterous type of individual, but when he speaks, I always listen because she has something (important) to say.

“She’s really good at working with people and she’s mentored a lot of volunteers over the years. She has a great personality in working with others, and she’ll be a great person to work with the leadership of the CWGA.”

Ott discussed her vision for the CWGA for the coming two years with COgolf.org. (A feature story on new CGA president Phil Lane was posted on COgolf.org last week. To read it, CLICK HERE.) 

“I’m looking forward to the next two years,” Ott said. “We’ve got a lot of challenges ahead, and I’m looking forward to working with the (CWGA) board and the membership.”

While Ott will be moving up to the president’s seat in 2014, there will be one newcomer to the CWGA’s Board of Directors, Jennifer Cassell of Denver’s City Park Golf Course. Meanwhile, leaving the board after years of volunteer service are Davis, Karla Harding and Sue Romek. Cynthia Evans stepped down from the board earlier this year. To see brief biographies on all of the members of the CWGA Board of Directors, CLICK HERE.

Among the top priorities Ott set forth heading into her term are:

— Increasing CWGA membership.

As has been the case with many golf associations since the economic downturn started five-plus years ago, the CWGA experienced a membership drop in recent years, though it leveled out in 2013. Ott would like to see a jump in membership.

“I want the face of the CWGA to be the face of everyone (regardless of golf ability level),” Ott said. “Sometimes I think we’re known as an organization that does tournaments for golfers. We do do that, but we’re also interested in connecting with women who may not have a handicap or may not be interested in tournament golf.”

Ott said the CWGA has made some inroads with events such as the CWGA Experience — golf outings that combine small-group instruction with some fun social interaction with other women interested in the game — and other similar golf outings. But she’d like to make more progress in promoting women’s golf.

— Getting more girls involved in the game. The number of girls — and women — playing golf has dipped significantly since 2005, at a greater rate than among males. Female golfers dropped almost 29 percent from 2005 to 2012, while the number of golfers overall have decreased 16 percent, according to the National Golf Foundation.

“We need to work at getting more girls interested in the game, and that’s a challenge,” Ott said. “It’s one of our goals.”

One recent step in the right direction was the Girls Golf Fair that took place at CommonGround Golf Course in May. The CWGA, Colorado PGA and other golf organizations put together the event, which was attended by 81 girls.

— Speaking of CommonGround, given that it’s the home to many community-outreach and growth-of-the-game programs, getting it back to full strength is one of the foremost issues at hand for the CWGA and CGA. CommonGround, which opened in 2009, is owned and operated by the two golf associations.

September’s flooding did significant damage at CommonGround, which is operating as a nine-hole facility — in addition to the nine-hole Kids Course — while the eight affected holes are restored.

“What CommonGround is going through after the flood is very challenging financially for the CWGA and CGA,” Ott said. “That’s a tough ticket. It’ll be difficult to work our way through that, but I’m sure we’re up to the task.”

Ott began working with the CWGA as a volunteer six years ago, when she joined the Course Rating and Handicap Committee. She became chairperson of that committee two years later and has served on the Board of Directors for the last four years overall, including the last two alternating as secretary and vice-president.

Professionally, the University of Colorado graduate was a teacher and administrator in the Aurora Public Schools, and an administrator at Arapahoe High School in Centennial. After retiring as the director of instruction for the Aurora Public Schools in 2001, she spent a decade doing contract work, primarily focused on the recruitment of teachers.

“I’ve found in my career that one of my strengths is I’m able to empower others,” Ott said. “To be frank, I’m a pretty good leader. That’s one of my strong points.”