2018 Yearbook

10 I am grateful that I write this report each year. As I start to ponder what I want to touch on, I spend a great deal of time think- ing about the past 12 months and everything we did. And, frankly, if I didn’t have to write this, I am not sure I would go through that exercise. One of the first questions I asked myself was, “what things were ‘new’ this year?”. Two things jumped straight to the top of my mind. One, we added Nate McCoy as a full-time staff member, and, two, we launched the Youth on Course program here in Iowa. Nate has been a wonderful addition to our team. Many of you know that he is an accomplished golfer (who recently got his amateur status back), but he has proven to be a quick learner, organized and skilled at golf administration. Now that he has a full year under his belt (he was an intern in 2017) and he continues to learn, we will move more of the championship and course rating duties onto his plate. And the rest of our staff continues to be great to work with. Bill, Clint & Katelynn are ter- rific administrators who know the game extremely well yet still find ways to improve. We are lucky to have them. The second ‘new’ thing this year was the Youth on Course program. This program removes the finan- From the Executive Director Chad Pitts Executive Director cial barrier for kids to try the game of golf. The basic premise is that it subsidizes rounds of golf at participating courses for juniors. It was started by the Northern California Golf Association back in 2006 and in 2018, Iowa became the 21st state to participate. Our numbers were solid in our first year. We had nearly 100 kids sign up for the yearly membership and over 275 rounds played throughout the state. We hope to more than double the number of kids we have and at least triple the number of rounds in 2019. We think this is the most important program around the country to grow the game amongst our youth and we are very proud to be a part of it. So after I thought about the ‘new’ things we did, I began to ask myself, “what stood out about 2018?”. Again, two things immediately popped into my mind. One was the weather and how difficult it was for the golf industry as a whole. Two was the wonderful response and record entry we received for the Iowa Senior Amateur Championship. The weather was abysmal in 2018. I saw a post on social media from an Iowa golf course superintendent (sorry, I don’t recall who it was ex- actly or I would give proper credit) that said something to the effect of, “I don’t know why everyone is complaining. It has only rained twice this year. Once for 45 days and then again for 30 days”. Unfortunately, that joke wasn’t very far from the truth. Of our multi-day championships, 9 of our first 10 either had a suspension, an entire round canceled, was postponed entirely or had a reduced number of holes available due to weather. I know we have had to deal with weather over the years, but to have so many events impacted was stagger- ing. Thankfully, we were able to ‘roll with the punches’ and our players were always extremely patient and understanding. It was a very difficult year to have a golf course in great condition, and we are The Youth on Course program subsidizes round of golf for kids.