NCGA Golf - Associate Club Focus
Fore Women Golf Association
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From humble beginnings, the Fore Women Golf Association has grown into a thriving associate club of 240 women. The club’s activities, including an engaging schedule of more than 17 tournaments, four days of casual golf per week, a detailed monthly newsletter and active charitable giving, provide evidence of a group of women who do more than just play golf.
Fore Women’s members are primarily based around San Ramon but the membership draws from four surrounding counties. The club plays at the area courses including Poppy Ridge, Deer Ridge, Callippe Preserve and tournament venues such as Poppy Hills and Windsor. At its annual tournament played at Dublin Ranch, FWGA stages a silent auction and raffle with proceeds donated to Lake Chabot Junior Golf and the Women’s Cancer Resource Center of Oakland among others. More than $15,000 has been raised in the last three years alone.
“We always do things to encourage participation,” said Judy Buti Dunton, club president. Through the NCGA website, the club’s own site, brochures at local vendors or its best recruiting tool, word of mouth, the club has maintained its large roster. “Most of the time, other women see us at a course. There’s a comfort level for other women to see another group of women playing a course,” said Buti Dunton, director of Laboratory Outreach at John Muir Health.
Buti Dunton and Vice President Kathy Lee Fier, retired, but who now has her “dream retirement job” working at Callippe Preserve, lead a diverse group of members ranging in age from the late 20s to 80. Club costs are kept low ($85) to further encourage women to join.
The club’s mission statement reads, “To provide opportunity for women to play golf with other women and to have fun while engaging in quality experiences.” It is clear the club is doing just that.
Yahoo Players' GC
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As a workplace golf club, the Yahoo Players Golf Club isn’t the largest of the NCGA’s more than 800 associate clubs. But the fact the club consists of employees from one of the best-known Internet-based companies in the heart of Silicon Valley distinguishes the organization. Handicap Chair Ron Jacoby, one of the three founders of the golf club, created the group in 2000 when Yahoo was located in its old, much smaller building in Sunnyvale. The sprawling campus the company inhabits now provides evidence of both the company and the golf club’s growth. The 80 members (90% men – 10% women) represent the largest number the organization has ever had. As the company has grown, so has the golf club. Jacoby, chief architect of platform engineering, said, “We inherited Alta Vista Golf Club,” referring to Yahoo’s takeover of another Web search engine a few years ago.
The club plays 20-25 individual, stroke-play events a year at venues ranging from Poppy Hills and Poppy Ridge to Harding Park and Wente Vineyards. The club looks to courses that have flexibility in scheduling because the number of golfers per event is always in flux due to business travel schedules. “Our club has been successful because it created a way to make us play golf,” Jacoby said. “It’s a way to know you’re going to play golf.” A sentiment echoed by many business golf clubs to be sure. Club communications are handled through an e-group created, not surprisingly, on Yahoo’s site.
MAGA - San Jose Chapter
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The Mexican American Golf Association embodies diversity, and the San Jose chapter, one of 13 MAGA chapters organized geographically in the NCGA, exemplifies a very active golf club.
Northern Council Director Marc Longoria presides over 10 NCGA MAGA clubs (in the Northern Council) that form an organization originally created because “Hispanics were not readily accepted in public or private golf organizations, nor could they easily enter tournaments,” according to Longoria. “MAGA provided the opportunity and clout to schedule tournaments, promote golf within the Hispanic community and provide scholarship assistance to Hispanic students.”
The San Jose MAGA club is representative of a typical MAGA chapter. Led by President Paul Curiel, the chapter was incorporated in 1983. It has a membership of 86 golfers, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic. The club participates in 12 chapter tournaments each year, plus the Northern Council Championship, an eight-person team event. The championship, held this year at Napa GC at Kennedy Park, featured a MAGA team chapter competition, plus individual flight competitions for all golfers. Other monthly tournaments in the San Jose chapter are played at area courses such as Poppy Ridge, Seascape, and Crystal Springs.
The organization’s website, www.magaofcalifornia.com, serves as the primary communications medium and is reflective of a thriving club with non-profit status dedicated to promoting golf and assisting their communities through volunteer efforts and scholarships.
The MAGA was formed in 1963 in Fresno and has expanded throughout California, Arizona and Texas. MAGA of California, with more than 1,000 members, is divided into three councils with the Northern Council (region) being the largest.
The Dot Squad
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The Dot Squad had a very good year. The Sonora-based club claimed the NCGA Associate Club Championship in August, capping a nine-year journey from its inception.
The club’s 80 members include eight women and represent a variety of ages and professions. Members play in a variety of events throughout the year, often taking a chartered bus to the host course. “We take a bus to the courses we wouldn’t go to otherwise,” said club president Chris Perry. Qualifiers for NCGA events are often held in conjunction with these trips. The competitive spirit runs deep within the club. Besides the Associate Club Championship, the club also had a team take third place at the NCGA Associate Club Four-Ball Net Championship.
Club meetings are staged at The Peppery Gar and Brill in Sonora, the restaurant owned by Perry. A golf simulator (pictured above) gets a lot of use after the meetings, where club member and Saddle Creek Head Professional Chris Bitticks often provides lessons. Saddle Creek is the home course for the club, hosting up to seven events throughout the year, but bus trips to courses such as Stevinson Ranch, San Juan Oaks or Wente Vineyards also highlight the schedule. Travel is a major component on the club’s agenda, with an annual trip to Las Vegas joining a schedule that has also included trips to Palm Springs, Hawaii and Florida.
The club’s name, which is often confused with the department of transportation, actually stems from the often large number of handicap dots on their scorecards.
“We have a fun group,” Perry said. “And we have been able to introduce the game to a lot of people.”
Fairway Couples
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For more than 45 years, the Fairway Couples GC has provided organized golf to men and women in the South Bay area. Becoming an NCGA Associate Club in 1993, the organization now stands at 25-30 couples.
Membership is available only to couples. A married relationship is not a necessity though most of the members are married. For a couple to join, they must have known a member for at least a year and played golf with a member twice.
Couples handle various club duties as well. Wife and husband Carol Millie and Jay Margulies are the current presidents. Another couple handles tournament scheduling (the club plays several events throughout the year at venues ranging from Poppy Hills and Laguna Seca to Eagle Ridge and Coyote Creek). Club officers have no term limits because the learning curve required for each job makes it more efficient for officers to stay in a position for a while. A season-ending trip always wraps up the schedule.
The impetus behind the club’s formation was to provide an outlet for spouses to play together in a social setting. Getting its start as a church-based group, the club soon expanded. The emphasis on fun permeates the club via events which are often played for prizes consisting of nothing more than three golf balls for the winning team. The Rules of Golf are always followed, and competitors always play their own ball.
“People join us because they love golf, not because they’re trying to win,” said Millie, reflecting on the club’s spirit.