We have been playing golf with and against each other for more than 20 years and enjoying the competition and friendship. Western Massachusetts is our home, or was for me, and we all have played most of our golf on Donald Ross courses.
The opportunity to unite here at Pine Needles, also a Donald Ross course, and to see the top women golfers of our day compete for a national title, was all we needed to make plans to share these days together.
Mary Lou Walthouse and I are working the tournament as volunteers from the Country Club of Whispering Pines. Mary Lou, a member of Longmeadow (Mass.) Country Club, will be a Whispering Piner for the week. We have been assigned gallery control on hole No. 2 and will be required to work four times in seven days, four hours each shift. Our badges will make us welcome spectators on the days we are not working.
Roberta Bolduc, also a member of Longmeadow Country Club, will be a part of the USGA Rules committee. She will be a lot busier than we will be. She will have meetings to attend most of every practice day and will be on duty from Thursday to Sunday in her capacity as a Rules official.
Mary Lou and I only needed to send in our applications requesting where we would like to be assigned. Once accepted, we ordered our uniforms. Then, the week before the tournament, we attended a practice session where we were introduced to just what our jobs entailed and how we were to conduct ourselves while on duty. Not a difficult thing to do.
For Roberta, it was a much longer journey to get to this U. S. Women’s Open. To be a member of this USGA committee, it was necessary for her to attend the Rules Seminars that are presented regionally, throughout the United States, under the direction of the USGA. Roberta has attended seven of these seminars, at least one every three to four years.
Once her Rules skills were recognized, she was given her first assignment, right here at Pine Needles in 1996.
This assignment in 2001 will mark her sixth U. S. Women’s Open. In addition, she has also officiated at five USGA Women’s Amateur Championships, and this year she has accepted an invitation to be a rules official at the U. S. Open Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
On Tuesday, we were able to meet in the late afternoon. As we walked the fairways and approached the greens, we were struck at how many similarities there are to courses that have been designed by Donald Ross. The placement of bunkers, the narrow fairways, and the elevated greens all show the care and attention he gave to utilizing the natural contours of the land as he built golf holes that were playable yet challenging for all players.
Longmeadow Country Club is currently in the process of returning its course to its original Donald Ross design. Upon discovery of the original plans, it was decided by the membership to begin this project with expectations of its completion by 2004. It is a huge undertaking but one that is bringing pride to its membership.
So often we read about the benefits of golf. We enjoy the chance to be outdoors for a morning or afternoon, the companionship of our foursome, the competition, the betting, the laughter, and the stories. Actually, the list is endless. An unexpected pleasure is the friendships that have become an integral part of our lives.
After all, it is golf that has brought us here. We are enjoying every minute of it.
