A Moment in Time (Guest Contribution by Rick Woelfel)

Apr 19, 2012 by Tiffany Litherland

[jbox
width=”250″ color=”white” title=”Guest Contribution” shadow=”4″]

Rick Woelfel is the Editor/Publisher of Women’s Golf Report where this article originally appeared. To obtain a copy via e-mail, contact him at rwoelfel2@verizon.net.

[/jbox]

A Moment in Time

By Rick Woelfel

Phoenix, ARIZONA – The moment epitomized what the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup is all about; 38-year old LPGA veteran Sophie Gustafson chatting with 82-year old Marilynn Smith, LPGA legend and Founder, during a wait on the eighth tee at as gallery members looked on.

The exchange symbolically connected Smith and the other women who founded the LPGA in 1950 with today’s generation of female golfers who may or may not be aware of all Smith and her peers did to give the sport credibility.

Three of the four living Founders, Smith, Louise Suggs, and Shirley Spork, were on hand in Phoenix for the second edition of the Founders Cup (Marlene Hagge was unable to attend).

The trio spent time on the golf course, signed autographs for fans, and occupied seats of honor adjacent to the 18^th green at Wildfire Golf Club. Legendary teaching professionals Peggy Kirk Bell and Barbara Romack were also in attendance, along with LPGA Hall of Famers Patty Sheehan and Pat Bradley.

And if not everyone attending the tournament fully comprehended all these women did to make the LPGA a viable entity, the players Women’s Golf Report spoke with certainly did.

Lori Kane didn’t turn professional until she was 28 after a distinguished amateur career. She believes it’s vital that today’s players understand the contributions their forebears made.

“Without them we wouldn’t be here,” she said. “ I don’t think it’s any fault of the younger players for not knowing the Founders but it requires us as a tour to maybe educate them better. If look at other sports and they celebrate their builders.”

Kane grew up in Canada appreciating hockey, a sport that embraces its history as much as any other and more than most. She’d like to see the LPGA adopt the same mindset.

“We just don’t celebrate our Founders enough,” she says. “I was lucky. Karrie Webb and I spoke quite a while ago and we said we were lucky to be rookies in 1996 because some the legends of our era were still playing, like Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, and Joanne Carner. (Nancy Lopez) and I became very good friends.

“So I think the Founders the people who made the LPGA Tour what it is. need to be recognized on a regular basis, not just once a year.”

Amanda Blumenherst is in her third year on the LPGA Tour. A magna cum laude graduate of Duke, where she double-majored in history and English, Blumenherst says meeting the Founders is akin to getting a lesson in her sport’s history.

“It’s amazing to hear their stories,” she says, “and what they used to do t promote golf. They would put turf down on the diamond at baseball games and hit shots into the outfield to draw a crowd at whatever tournament they were at.

“It’s great to hear just what they’ve done for golf, and how far it’s come for us and how we’ve benefited from it.”

Blumenherst says she’s particularly impressed by the idea that the Founders worked to create something that has withstood the test of time.

“For people to have that love for the game,” she says, “and the foresight to think that someday it might really be a big deal. They had amazing foresight and dedication, and passion. Not many people have that towards a sport or toward anything.”

Womens golf report Apr2012

View more documents from Golf Belles.