2017 Yearbook (2)

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Andy Burton
Past President
Tournament Club of Iowa
Mike Pape
President
Whispering Creek GC
Bill Eby
Vice President
Davenport CC
Bill Tank
Crow Valley GC
Tom Christensen
Sunnyside CC
Vaughn Halyard
Cedar Rapids CC
Leighann LaRocca
Treasurer
Des Moines G & CC
Mike Mumma
Jefferson Municipal
Tom Newbanks
Indian Creek CC
Brenda Samuelson
Clarinda CC
George Turner
Waveland GC
Mike Purcell
Veenker Memorial GC
Gene Elliott
Glen Oaks CC
Michelle Klein
Waterloo Women’s GA
Ron Koontz
Bent Tree GC
Randy Larson
Finkbine GC
Steve Jermier
Secretary
Echo Valley CC
Al Pottebaum
LeMars Willow Creek GC
Chad Pitts
Executive Director
Bill Dickens
Senior Director of
Administration
Clint Brown
Director of Communications
and Marketing
Katelynn Hogenson
Director of Membership
Services and Women’s Golf
Nate McCoy
P.J. Boatwright Intern
Board of Directors & Staff
Brooke Miller
P.J. Boatwright Intern
In Memoriam
Betty Thye
By Matt Levins
The Hawk Eye
Respect. Integrity. Sportsmanship. Those are three words that describe Betty Thye, well, to a ‘T.’
BGC member and BGC Men’s Championship and City Championship winner John O’Neill III
described Thye best, calling her “Burlington’s First Lady of Golf.”
Thye is one of the biggest reasons why southeast Iowa churned out
junior golfers who went on to play and excel at the game the rest of
their lives.
Thye, who was inducted into the Iowa Golf Association Hall of
Fame in 2009, died on Tuesday morning. She was 99. She would
have turned 100 on July 22.
Thye leaves a legacy that dates back to the 1950s. Her influence on
the game was felt from the Missouri River to the Mississippi, from
the Minnesota border to the Missouri border.
But nowhere was her gentle touch and soft words of encouragement
more felt than in Burlington and at Burlington Golf Club, where she
was a longtime member and spent much of her time.
Thye’s passing leaves a void that will be impossible to fill.
“She was one of the most influential people on juniors, as well as Joe (BGC PGA
professional Butler) and Jock (former BGC professional Olson),” said Jill Blackwood, longtime
member at BGC and one of Thye’s closest friends. “She didn’t teach me how to swing the golf
club, but I would never be the player I was able to become if not for her. She taught me how to
play the game.”
In her letter nominating Thye, Blackwood, a former Iowa Women’s Golf Association President,
stated that “Every woman golfer in Iowa has benefited from her efforts and they will continue to
benefit in the years ahead.”
“It’s a sad day in Burlington,” Butler said. “She hadn’t missed a single day of junior golf in my first
24 years here until this year. She loved golf and she helped teach the rules of golf. She was a rules
stickler, for sure. She leaves a tough void to fill, without a doubt.”
Betty Thye
July 22, 1917 ~ July 11, 2017