House Elected NCGA President; Boyns, Miller Honored as Players of the Year; Nakamura and Haber receive Distinguished Service Awards.
PLEASANTON - October 12, 2007
House Elected NCGA President
Mark House of Carmel Valley, a member at Corral de Tierra CC, was officially elected as 81st president of the Northern California Golf Association.
House and other board members for the 2008 golf season were affirmed by a gathering of more than 200 officers from NCGA member clubs at the Annual Meeting held at Castlewood CC on October 12.
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The 46-year-old House has been a member of the board of directors since 2000.
Born in Portland, Oregon, House has degrees from the University of California, Davis (1984 — Environmental Planning & Management) and Golden Gate University (1988 — MBA in Marketing). House is one of the principal owners of House Properties, a California-based real estate investment firm. He and his wife, Libby, have three children: Marcus, Max and Julianna.
He will also be on the boards for the California Golf Association and the Pacific Coast Golf Association, as well as the NCGA’s personnel/advisory committee.
House succeeds Dean Bartee, a member at La Rinconada in Los Gatos. Also seated were Vice President Michael Hexner of The Olympic Club (in his seventh year on the board) and Secretary-Treasurer Vaughn Kezirian of Fort Washington GCC (also in his seventh year).
Current NCGA directors that were renominated for the coming year are: Lou Carpine of San Luis Obispo GCC (sixth), Chris Clark of Pasatiempo GC (fifth), Bill Downs of Oakmont (fourth), Lee Gidney of Yolo Fliers (second), Kerry Gordon of North Ridge CC (sixth), Dan Hansford of Castlewood CC (fifth), Jim Moriarty of The Olympic Club (sixth), Brian Morse of Merced GCC (fourth), Brooke Phayer of Pajaro Valley GC (second), John Ronca Jr. of San Luis Obispo CC. (second) and John Whitelaw of Del Paso CC (fifth).
Joining the board for the first of a three-year term are Lyn Nelson of Half Moon Bay GC, John Erskine of Castlewood CC and Rudolph Loncke of Sacramento Area Black GC. Retiring after many years of service are Past-President Dick Skavdahl of Almaden CC, Ted Budach of Round Hill and David Englert of Riverside.
Boyns, Miller Earn Player of the Year Honors
Casey Boyns of Pacific Grove and Mark Miller of Antioch both had outstanding seasons in earning NCGA Player of the Year and Senior Player of the Year honors.
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At an age when many golfers start thinking about competing on the senior level, 51-year-old Casey Boyns woke up the echoes of his storied past to earn an unprecedented fourth player of the year honor. While the Pebble Beach caddie endured an eight-year period with no victories dating back to the 1999 Northern California Open, he produced a blazing-hot July, where the two-time State Amateur champion won both the NCGA Master Division and Stroke Play championships, propelling him to the top of the points’ list. Boyns earned 1,577 total points to outdistance runner-up Randy Haag by 366.The Player of the Year award joins those earned in 1987, 1989 and 1996 cementing Boyns’ stature as one of the premier amateur golfers in Northern California history.
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Mark Miller’s winning senior Player of the Year campaign was built on remarkable consistency. The 56-year-old placed in the top five an extraordinary 24 times in 2007 and earned points in 28 different points’ events. This included three championships and nine runner-up finishes. Miller’s 1,746 points were more than 600 clear of the runner-up, last year’s player of the year Gary Vanier.
Distinguished Service Awards
John Nakamura of Sacramento and Ed Haber were honored with the NCGA’s Distinguished Service Award.
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The Distinguished Service Award was presented to Nakamura for his leadership in golf. He is a past president of both the NCGA and the California Golf Association. He served as tournament chairman, vice president and president of the Sacramento Golf Club where he has been a member since 1972.
While serving on the board of directors for the NCGA he chaired numerous committees before accepting the presidency in 1994.
Nakamura has also been an active participant with the USGA. He currently is a member of the U.S. Public Links Championship and the Regional Affairs committees. He serves as the chairman for Sacramento area sectional qualifying for the U.S. Public Links Championship and is the official starter for the championship proper. Mr. Nakamura has also served as a trustee for the Pacific Coast Golf Association and is currently a Trustee Emeritus. Additionally, he volunteers as a Rules Chairman and Rules official for numerous other organizations throughout Northern California including the American Junior Golf Association, Sacramento Golf Council, Future Collegiate World Tour, Nevada Open Championship, Scratch Players Championship, Spanos California Tour and various other competitions.
The NCGA also posthumously honored Ed Haber his lifelong dedication to golf. The Quail Lodge Resort founder and 1933 San Francisco City champion provided his course countless times to youth golf as well as numerous other events. He founded the Haber Cup, an event that allows participants to endow their winnings to charity.
Haber was a major supporter of the AT&T Junior Golf Program and received the Golden State Award from the California Golf Writers in 1991 and the USGA’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2001.
Haber exemplifies the type of person the committee had in mind when the award was created.
The NCGA has recognized individuals for exceptional service to golf since 1982. The award was formerly known as the Grand Master Award.
Other Awards
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Other awards announced at the Annual Meeting included Tournament Official of the Year, presented to John LoFranco of San Jose, and Course Rater of the Year, presented to Bill Carr of Visalia.
LoFranco and Carr were chosen for their outstanding and dedicated service from among the NCGA’s corps of more than 250 volunteers.
LoFranco became a tournament official in 2001 and worked more than 60 days in 2007. Carr became a rater in 1982 and was promoted to captain shortly thereafter. He has assumed a greater leadership role serving with distinction as essentially the lone captain south of Stockton and Sonora.
Annual Meeting Information
Player of the Year Videos
Click button in lower left of each window to play.
Casey Boyns Player of the Year
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Mark Miller - Senior Player of the Year
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