With heavy rain Friday and more in the forecast for Saturday, organizers of the Ladies Golf Association’s Member-Member tournament were concerned they would have to make some major changes to the format and limit competition to one day.
Instead, the weather cleared, allowing for the tournament to go on without a hitch Saturday and Sunday at the Kahite and Toqua golf courses.
“We got rained on yesterday — Kahite was very wet from the night before, but we got rained on probably 10 minutes, and the rest of the day the weather was either a little overcast or the sun kind of came out from behind the clouds,” Kathie Trocolla, LGA-18 Member-Member chairwoman, said. “So it was fine. Nobody quit yesterday. We all just put our rain gear on for 10 minutes and finished the round. So that was very good.
“I was absolutely thrilled,” she added. “It’s been a two-day tournament. … That’s a busy time around here, especially in May. For women to have two courses over a weekend is a big deal over here. So for the weather to hold, that was great.”
Most Saturday scores at Kahite were higher than those shot Sunday at Toqua because of the effect rain had on the course.
“I think everybody scored better today because the course was dry at Toqua, (and) the weather was much better,” Trocolla said. “You weren’t up to your knees in mud.”
The tournament, a select shot format in which each two-person team recorded one 18-hole score at the end of each day, named two overall winners.
Alice Williams and Christie Pruski, the gross score overall winning team, carded a 163 on 36 holes, while the team of Linda Romero-Mezza and Susan Heinzman was the net score winning team with a 122.
Gross winners were based purely on strokes, while the net winners were adjusted for handicap. Keeping track of handicap across the two days was an added element because of play on two different courses.
“So the handicap is much different because we have mixed tee players,” Trocolla said. “Some people play from the green tees, and we’re getting to the point where we have more people playing from the forward or yellow tees. What happens is your handicap changes from course to course because your yellow tees at Toqua are so much more forward that your green tee players are at a disadvantage. So (golf pro Jeff Harrington) changes their handicap to equalize the play. At Kahite between the green and yellow it’s only a couple of holes that’s a big difference.”
Planning for the tournament began in January, and players said they were pleased with the result. Sixty-four players — a four-player increase from the last two years — competed in the tourney.
“People were pleased because there’s lots of parts of it,” Trocolla said. “You choose a tee gift, which is something every entrant receives. You plan a breakfast and you plan — we had hors-d’oeuvres and an open bar, cash bar tonight. There were prizes and then coming up with a format for the play. So it takes a lot of time, but everybody seems really pleased with the theme and the prizes, and I didn’t hear too many moans and groans, which out of a group of 64 women that’s always good.”
In addition to competition on the links, keeping a strong social aspect to the tournament was also important to the LGA-18 group, Trocolla said.
“We have some older women who probably were amazingly great golfers 20 years ago, but they love being out on the course. Their golf isn’t so good, but they love being out with other women,” she said. “So you’ve got some great golfers out there, you’ve got some mediocre golfers and you’ve got people who are just happy to be out there playing 18 holes of golf.”
