I am excited and proud to be addressing the OSWGA membership again as its President! I thank you for your continued support both on a personal note and for OSWGA. Thanks and appreciation are also due to all of our host clubs; their pros, banquet staff and all personnel involved with hosting our tournaments.
I’ll take this opportunity to share some of my personal highlights of 2012.
OSWGA successfully ran 28 tournaments including the Skills Challenge and The Player of the Year Championship. In doing so, your organization contributed $115,000.00 to its host clubs in the form of cart & lunch fees and $$ spent in the pro shop for prizes for the winners in those tournaments. 2,221 players played in those 28 tournaments. An additional $7,973.00 was added to the Scholarship Fund from membership fees, tournaments at private courses and raffle ticket sales. $7700 was paid out in scholarships to 11 deserving young female golfers. We launched a new website and took measures to decrease the cost of keeping that website up and running. Ali Prazak, an OSWGA scholarship recipient was Medalist and the winner of the 2012 RI State amateur-no easy feat and rarely accomplished in the same year. The Rhode Island Endicott Cup Team, which included members of OSWGA, was victorious in winning both the gross and net cups for the first time since the 1970’s. Ann Moran won the title OSWGA Player of the Year for the second year in a row. Finally, charter member and long-time supporter and volunteer of OSWGA, Janina McCloskey was announced as the 2012 Trudy Dufault Service Award winner at the annual banquet. Kudos to all-I’d say we had a pretty good year!
There were rumblings and many of you have asked if we expect anything to change for OSWGA with the upcoming RIGA/RIWGA merger. Your board is confident that OSWGA will continue to be a force in women’s golf in Rhode Island. A drop in membership is not anticipated nor can you expect anything to be done differently than what’s been done since OSWGA’s inception in 1995. I’m hopeful that our host clubs will continue to welcome OSWGA. As mentioned, we contributed $115,000 to those host clubs and we look forward to continued play at some of the finest golf venues this area has to offer! We wish both the RIGA and the RIWGA well and believe there is room for us all to continue to be successful at what we do in Rhode Island. I plan to attend the informational meeting in April that RIGA will be holding. Details on the meeting will be posted at www.rigalinks.org.
So what have we been doing since 1995? We have been running competitive golf tournaments open to all women regardless of course affiliation or handicap! Thank you for your continued support-I hope you all realize just how important each and every one of you is to the success of OSWGA. By joining, you pledge your support, playing in our tournaments keeps us running and volunteering in any capacity is the glue that holds it all together. Thanks go out as well to my fellow Board members. It has been a pleasure to work with them and I’m excited to take on 2 more years with this board as President. Remember, this board works for you and you are encouraged to attend monthly meetings as your opinion and ideas do matter.
I left the banquet in November and was sad because it meant I wasn’t going to play golf or see any of you for 5 or so months. Thank goodness time flies. I am so confident our season is nearby I am going to go toss my snow shovel in the shed. Can’t wait to see you and share in this delightful game.
Your friend and President,
Jackie Booth