Northwest Golf Media Association closes its doors after 26 years Group leaves historic marks in philanthropy, education and golf journalist advocacy
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BY JEFF SHELLEY • CO-FOUNDER • NORTHWEST GOLF MEDIA ASSOCIATION
ascade Golfer’s Publisher, Dick Stephens, asked me to write about the Northwest Golf Media Association (NWGMA). So here’s a glimpse at the nonprofit organization’s 26-year journey. One night in August 1995 over some liquid refreshments and a roaring campfire, Bob Spiwak and I — two Washingtonians and regular members of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) who had become disillusioned with the organization’s East Coast bias — started a Northwest-centric golf media association. This all occurred after a tournament at Bob’s fabled, ultra-private, Whispering Rattlesnakes Golf & Flubbers Club in Mazama. Thus, the NWGMA was born. Primarily due to transportation costs, we rarely traveled to the GWAA’s annual events on the East Coast and did what any renegade Northwesterner would do -- form a regional media association that reflected interest in the beautiful golf found in our own neck of the woods. Since Bob resided in a remote part of north-central Washington, I — a Seattleite — took the reins of promoting the new organization to my fellow golf scribes, while Spiwak did the same as best he could east of the Cascades. It helped that, in the mid-1990s, I was media director of the Fred Couples Invitational, a two-day event hosted by the Emerald City golf legend that attracted many PGA Tour stars as well as international media to Seattle. To ramp up memberships in the nascent organization, my wife, Anni, and daughter, Erica, handed out Xeroxed application forms to regional reporters attending these tournaments, several of whom became NWGMA founding members. 84
JULY 2021
Co-founder Anni Shelley (bottom right) at one of the final NWGMA events at Sand Point GC with our editor and past Distinguished Service Award recipient Tony Dear (top left), star course designer David McLay Kidd (bottom left) and Seahawks legend Sidney Rice.
I continued to cajole and twist arms among media folks from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia over the next few years. But, with my volunteer time dwindling and more books to write and publish, I went to the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA) for assistance. Then executive director John Bodenhamer — now in upper manwagement at the USGA — kindly stepped in and helped, recognizing that the NWGMA served an important purpose. For a few years thereafter, the PNGA handled the day-to-day operations, with its communications director, Angie Wean, serving as our initial managing director. In 1999, bylaws were created and, soon after, the NWGMA became a 501(c)7 nonprofit. These steps led to an organizational structure with a Board of Directors consisting of member-elected officers: president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and an appointed managing director. Membership categories — Regular (working golf media) and Associate (individuals from the Northwest golf industry) — were also established with commensurate dues for each. I served as the original president and was followed — in succession for various-length terms — by Paul Ramsdell, Guy Generaux, Tom Cade, John Tipping and Bob Sherwin. Wean was succeeded as managing director by Lisa Murray-Speltz and, lastly, my wife. In its prime, the NWGMA boasted a robust roster of 125 members who worked for print, television, radio and internet entities. To honor notable media contributors to Northwest golf, the Distinguished Service Award was created in
2000. Voted on by Regular members, Doug McArthur was its first recipient, my longtime friend and fellow golf writer Dick Stephens, the last. In-between honorees included media folks from Washington, Oregon and B.C. Following McArthur, a sports director for Tacoma’s KTAC radio and the tournament director of the LPGA Tour’s SAFECO Classic, the winners were: Dale Johnson (founding father of the modern PNW Section of the PGA and OGA; sportswriter for The Oregonian from 1947-59); Margaret Maves (media coordinator for LPGA Tour’s Safeway Classic and other Portland tournaments); Bruce King (KOMO-TV’s popular sports director, four-time winner of the Washington State Sportscaster of the Year award and two-time Emmy winner); Bob Robinson (longtime golf columnist for The Oregonian who covered dozens of PGA Tour events and majors); Blaine Newnham (The Seattle Times columnist and author of the book, “America’s St. Andrews”); Bill Yeend (Seattle TV/radio personality who hosted two Seattle golf shows on TV); yours truly; Ramsdell (sportswriter for Tacoma News Tribune, The Seattle Times and Eugene Register-Guard); Craig Smith (longtime Seattle Times golf and high-school sportswriter); Paul Backman (executive director of WWGCSA and Northwest Turfgrass Association who worked with media to preserve golf’s role in the region); Bodenhamer (founder of PNW Golfer Magazine and prime backer of “Championships & Friendships: The First 100 Years of the PNGA); Arv Olson (the voice of golf for the Vancouver Sun newspaper over 38 years); Mike Riste (founder of the BC Golf House, co-author of cascadegolfer.com
