JUST FOR YOU

Special Offers for Members

3 SHEILAS WINE & SPIRITS

Putting World

Putting World is the first of its kind, indoor state-of-the-art game improvement and entertainment venue focused solely on putting – and FUN! Play 18 holes on an indoor Championship putting course, enjoy delicious and unique offerings from the Pick It Up Grille or the full-service craft-cocktail bar/restaurant Bar 19, shop for special items in the golf shop, host a special event in our private event spaces or get fit for a putter and get a lesson so you can be the best putter in Arizona! Memberships are available so you can make Putting World your new world for fun and competition. Special limited time offer: AGA Members receive a complimentary craft cocktail* or appetizer* with a full paid round Sunday – Thursdays in FEBRUARY/MARCH 2023. Must present ID and AGA Card. (*Exceptions apply)

16259 N. SCOTTSDALE ROAD SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85254

(480) 398-8201 PUTTINGWORLD.COM

A Phoenix-based distributor, 3 Sheilas Wine & Spirits offers small-batch craft cocktails like the iconic Black’s 66 Old Fashioned. A blend of doublebarrel premium rye whiskey, cold smoked agave and bitters is aged in white oak chardonnay barrels to lend this iconic cocktail a complex flavor. This instant classic is available in all Arizona Total Wine & More and at select country clubs and resorts in the Grand Canyon State.

3SHEILASAZ.COM

PEAK 10 SKIN ‘KEEP MOVIN’ CBD MUSCLE GEL

Payson, Ariz.-based PEAK 10 SKIN’s keep MOVIN’ is a fast-acting, non-greasy CBD muscle + joint gel – a high potency formula enriched with 2000mg of CBD. Pumped out of a 3.4 oz container, it contains essential oils to help ease over-worked, strained or tired muscles. Carry it in your golf bag or use after a long day on the course to keep movin’ and enjoying the things you love to do.

PEAK10SKIN.COM

Lucky In Love

Feeling lucky this Lucky in Love is a leader in the golf apparel industry with five generations of experience in the sports apparel market. Based in Miami, Fla., Lucky in Love offers fashion-forward designs and fresh releases every month, all to help players look and feel their best both on and off the course.

Spring?

SHOPLUCKYINLOVE.COM

G/FORE MG4X2 CROSS TRAINER

Put your best foot forward on & off the course with G/FORE’s fan favorite multi-functional MG4X2 Golf Cross Trainer. Equipped with a water & stain resistant upper, an auxetic lattice midsole, a sawtooth traction pattern for grip and finished with plus a triple-density foam cushion footbed for all day play.

GFORE.COM

BY JOE PASSOV

WOMEN’S GOLF

Deep in the desert in April 1923, when not a single Arizona golf course featured grass putting greens, women stood—or sat—side by side with the men, at the state’s very rst meeting of club representatives. In an alcove at Phoenix Country Club, the men created the Arizona Golf Association. Simultaneously, the women formed the Arizona Women’s Golf Association. Together, the two organizations trekked mostly parallel paths for 96 years. Although the men grabbed more of the newspaper headlines, the women of the AWGA produced an abundance of capable administrators, legendary champions and heroic moments of their own.

The Pioneers

In early March 1924, Phoenix Country Club played host to the inaugural Arizona Women’s State Match Play Championship. e tournament drew entrants statewide, including players from the Ray Golf Club, Warren District Country Club in Bisbee, Cobre Valley Golf Club in Globe/Miami and Hassayampa Golf Club in Prescott. e nal featured a formidable matchup between two of the host club’s members who were also two of the West’s best female golfers, Lorraine McArthur and Josephine “Jo” Goldwater. Mrs. Goldwater was no average Jo on the golf course, earning qualifying medalist honors at the 1924 event. Still, McArthur got the better of her in the nal, winning 5 & 4.

McArthur would defeat Goldwater again in the 1926 nal and snagged two other crowns, in 1928 and 1929 before moving to California.

Other Early Standouts

Hulda Skov of Benson earned medalist honors in 1927 at Douglas Country Club with an 89, that featured a course record of 43 for nine holes. Not bad considering that course conditions and equipment were far inferior to what we’re accustomed to today. Skov captured the inaugural Southwestern Women’s Amateur in 1928 and four times placed runner-up in the State Match Play, in 1928, 1930, 1931 and 1935. She acquired further renown for wearing knee-length knickers called “plus-fours” during a period when ladies routinely were expected to wear skirts. e 1950s were notable for the presence of Ruth Prather. Pronounced “Pray-ther,” for ve years running, from 1951 through 1955, her opponents didn’t have a prayer. So dominant was Prather that not only did she win ve straight, she was qualifying medalist in four of the ve as well. She won all over the state, too—Prescott, Yuma, Douglas, Mesa and Tucson.

Barbara Williams rebounded by winning a record-tying four consecutive State Women’s Amateurs, from 1931-1935. (No tournament was held in 1933). Her rst win, at El Rio, rekindled her rivalry with Skov, but 1930 champion Elva Studley made news as well, winning the long drive contest with a smash of 235 yards.

Changing Of The Guard

e Swinging 60s were tumultuous times in America. In Arizona women’s golf, the times were a-changing as well. Junior programs began to blossom, leading to a bevy of talented young golfers populating the elite ladies ranks. e leading ag-waver in the promotion of junior golf was Dorothy Pease. A member of the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2000, Dorothy founded the Junior Girls Championship in 1958, an o shoot of the main Match Play event. She also helped create the Arizona State University Women’s golf program. Pease, an outstanding player in her own right, served so admirably as a volunteer, that when the AWGA’s highest honor for service was created in 2011 it was named the Dorothy Pease Award.

Judy Loft eld claimed the title in 1961 at age 18, surging from level after 27 holes to grab a 4 & 3 win. She won again in 1963 and under her married name, Judy Whitehouse, took three more championships, in 1965, 1973 and 1974. She joined Ruth Prather as the only ve-time winners of the State Match Play and capped her career by earing the Dorothy Pease Award in 2014. In between Judy’s rst two wins, the sensational Joanne Winter captured the 1962 event at Moon Valley.

Going back 50, 60, 70 years, tournaments were contested with a spirit that was as much social as competitive. Donna Cunning, a four-time State Seniors champion between 1985 and 1991—an event created in 1963—remembered how things used to be.

“In the early years, the AWGA (or WGAA as it was called in Donna’s era), was run by a volunteer board with representatives from each club,” she said. “It was expected that each club host the championship, and they took pride in doing so. e club named a chairman for the event and many planned their event around a major theme…much the same as the club invitational today. e championship dinner would include skits put on by golfers of various clubs. e board would oversee the plans and make sure everything ran smoothly.”

In 1962, the theme at Moon Valley was “Rocket to the Moon,” and the event poster depicted a woman in a space helmet with her golf clubs, about to board a rocket called the Moon Valley Special. Actual rockets blasted o and descended by parachute to launch the beginning of the tournament. Perhaps that simple animation was appropriate, because winner Joanne Winter was an athletic reball. A former pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s, she later consulted on the movie “A League of eir Own,” which chronicled the exploits of those pioneering women. Turning to golf, she reached the 1962 Match Play nal one month shy of her 38th birthday, where she defeated fellow Encanto Women’s Golf Association member Joan Clark 2-up. Winter turned pro in 1963, and soon became an award-winning teacher, a successful golf coach at Arizona State University and the founder of the prestigious Arizona Silver Belle tournament.

Not every subsequent event in the 1960s featured rocket launches, but credit Evelyn “Evie” Hill as a trail-blazing comet in her own right. Evie won the State Amateur Match Play in 1964, 1966 and 1968, was Paradise Valley Country

WOMEN’S GOLF

Club’s champion nine times and twice served as President of the WGAA, in 1963-65 and again in 1977-79. She won the State Stroke Play when it debuted in 1974, and her outstanding play and contributions to golf landed her a spot in the Arizona Hall of Fame in 2003.

Soon to emerge as the Queen of Arizona golf was Heather Farr. In 1978, at age 13, Heather became the youngest player ever to win the State Amateur Match play when she cruised to a 7 & 6 win over Lila Blandford in the pines of White Mountain Country Club. She backed that up in 1979 with a 9 & 8 rout over future ASU star and 1993 U.S. Women’s Open champ Lauri Merten at Mesa Country Club. She managed a four-peat in the State Stroke Play from 1981-1984, won the Match Play again in ’82 and ’83, captured three Arizona High School State Championships, snagged the 1982 U.S. Girls’ Junior and won the 1984 U.S. Amateur Public Links. She also helped the U.S. to victory in the 1984 Curtis Cup at Muir eld in Scotland.

Elote Café

Her contemporary and fellow champion Kay Cornelius explained what made 5‘1” Heather Farr such a dynamo. “Heather’s short game was phenomenal,” said Cornelius. “And talk about a ery competitor! Her focus and will to win were remarkable.”

A three-time All-American at ASU, Farr’s pro career—and life—were tragically cut short by cancer.

Cornelius herself was also an astounding junior prodigy. e daughter of 1956 U.S. Women’s Open champion Kathy Cornelius, Kay won the 1981 U.S. Girls’ Junior at age 14, the youngest winner ever. Kay Cornelius reached the 1979 State Match Play quarter nals at age 12, losing to Lauri Merten, then reached the nal at age 14 in 1981 before losing to Geri Cavanagh of Paradise Valley Country Club, the 1976 champion.

Cavanagh also snagged the Stroke Play title in 1986, played collegiately at ASU in her mid-30s and won 12 club championships at Paradise Valley Country Club. Yet, she’s best known for her philanthropic e orts, donating $1.5 million to junior golf, area tournaments and the AWGA. She was the inaugural recipient of the AWGA’s highest honor, the Dorothy Pease Award, in 2011 and gained admission to the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame in 2022.

Kay Cornelius was also a victim in the 1984 nal, in one of the event’s most dramatic championship duels. Former University of Arizona student Kathy Budai, 21, was headed to a certain defeat against the 17-year-old Cornelius, who had graduated from Saguaro High School that week. Budai rammed home a 45-foot eagle putt on the 18th to force extra holes, then clinched the title with a birdie on the 39th hole after a marathon seven-and-a-halfhour match.

Younger sister Missy Farr followed Heather to ASU and helped the Sun Devils win the 1990 NCAA Championship. As Missy Farr-Kaye, she triumphed in the State Match Play in 1997 and 2001, then turned to coaching. She was part of an NCAA Championship-winning team as an assistant coach in 2009, and as head coach, led her team to the title in 2017. A three-time cancer survivor, Farr-Kaye joined the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame in 2022.

Cornelius’ memories turn more positive when she recalls some of the administrators of the AWGA, especially Ann Votik, president of the organization from 1981-1985.

“Ann was hilarious, and larger than life,” remembered Cornelius. “She was a tall lady and had big hair. She treated us kids as her own. When we all got a bit too competitive—the Farr sisters, the Ammaccapanes (Danielle and Dina), the Draegers (Colleen and Laura)—she would have us to her house. She would make lasagna and sit us down and explain how we needed to get along. She was a uni er, a big believer in everything that golf stood for. She was a great lady.”

Great ladies, talented girls, outstanding women—all had come to de ne those who competed in AWGA events and those who administered them. e past three decades have seen more of the same. No one player dominated the 1990s, but in the two decades since, a stful of names stand out, starting with uhashini “Tui” Selvaratnam. e Sri Lanka native helped ASU to win NCAA titles in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and she didn’t stop there. In all, she won 11 Arizona State Championships, including the Match Play in 2005, 2008 and 2011, plus four straight Stroke Play titles from 2000-2003. Most remarkably, Tui was named AWGA Player of the Year 11 consecutive times from 2001 to 2011 and added three more POYs in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Another prominent name etched on Arizona tournament trophies is Kim Eaton. She twice captured the State Stroke Play, in 2013 and 2016, was half the winning duo in the State Four-Ball on six occasions and won the State Senior Stroke Play eight times, including ve in a row from 2013-2018. Most impressively, Eaton earned her ninth Senior Women’s Player of the Year award in 2021.

So many other signi cant names have helped propel Arizona women’s golf to greater heights, from former ASU coach Linda Vollstedt, to Xavier College Prep coach Sister Lynn Winsor, both members of the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame. Mary Pomroy, longtime Executive Director of the AWGA from 1999 to 2018 deserves many accolades for leading the women into the 21st century. Pomroy founded the Women’s Golf Alliance, helped usher in a program dedicated to girls’ golf in high schools, and helped put together an elite team that won the 2007 USGA Women’s State Team Championship.

Finally, it would be impossible to speak to the history of in uential women in Arizona golf without mentioning Lorraine ies and Dot Straw. ies started as the rst executive director of the AWGA in the early 1990s. She soon moved around the corner to do dazzling work for the AGA. From running collegiate tournaments to rules o ciating to coordinating handicapping to managing budgets, ies did it all and did it well. Straw was the engine that drove junior golf in Tucson—ably assisted by her husband, Bill—for three decades. As recognition for their exemplary volunteer service, Dot and Bill earned the AGA’s most prestigious honor, the Updegra Award, in 1993. e Arizona Golf Hall of Fame inducted Dot in 2001.

In 2019, the AWGA integrated with the AGA, with 22,000 women golfers joining 55,000 men under the Arizona Golf Association name. e AWGA lives on, certainly philanthropically. In 2022, the AWGA gifted the Junior Golf Association of Arizona (JGAA) its entire Legacy Investment Fund. With stellar young players such as Ashley Menne and Ashley Shaw, and a full slate of tournaments for all levels, women’s amateur golf in Arizona is poised for a very bright future.