2018 Yearbook

13 his first in 2017, repeated as male Player of the Year. Sydney Eaton captured her first female Player of the Year award. Rob Christensen has now won the first two Super Senior Players of the Year titles, while Joe Palmer won the male Senior Player of the Year for the second time. Robin Webb won the female Senior Player of the Year title, edging out two-time defend- ing champion Rose Kubesheski. And finally, Jake Marvelli (boys) and Paige Hoffman (girls) were our Junior Players of the Year. All of these terrific golfers had an outstanding year in 2018 and we were thrilled to recognize them at our annual banquet in mid- December. A few other individual accomplishments I would like to mention include Tripp Kinney and Sierra Hargens capturing their first Iowa Amateur and Iowa Women’s Amateur Championships, respectively. Both played wonderful golf on their way to capturing the state’s most prestigious titles. Jon Brown made a run at both the regular Player of the Year title and the Senior Player of the Year title, ultimately finishing runner- up in both. A large part of that was due to his third victory at the IGA Match Play. No other player has even won two. And Gene Elliott continues to amaze on the national senior circuit. Gene did not play quite as much in Iowa as in years past and that led to him being named by Golfweek as their Senior Ama- teur of the Year and ending the year ranked as the #1 senior amateur golfer in the United States! Des Moines Golf & Country Club was the site for our record-setting Iowa Senior Amateur. We knew that since the course was coming off hosting the Solheim Cup in 2017 that we would have terrific interest. We had never actually filled up the Senior Amateur, but we thought there would be a good chance of that in 2018. We did not expect it to fill up three months prior to the entry deadline and have over 25 people on a wait list! We were also thrilled that we ultimate- ly were able to get all the people into the event off the waitlist, due to withdrawals (which are expected when people enter so early) and our hosts allowing us to add 12 more golfers to our field size. While the first day of the championship was hampered by rain and, ultimately, lightning (of course!), the remaining two days were nearly perfect. We were able to move all 156 golfers around the South course and finish all three rounds, thanks to the tremendous efforts of Rick Tegtmeier and the entire grounds crew at Des Moines G&CC. 2018 ultimately was a very successful year. But as we close the book on 2018 we have some great things planned for 2019, including a very big change to the rules. On January 1, 2019, the most significant updates to the rules in the last 60 years goes into effect. As the Allied Golf Association for the USGA here in Iowa we have a duty to educate golfers on these changes. Therefore, we have scheduled more seminars in 2019 than we have done in the past 20 years, held all around the state, to provide all of you with the best chance to learn more. You can find informa- tion about these seminars at our website. They will be conducted by a mix of staff and our trained rules volunteers. They are free to attend and you will receive rules materials (books, handouts, etc) that you can keep. We actually did one seminar in December that had nearly 50 people attend, so we are looking forward to informing everyone as we move closer to the season starting here in Iowa. Finally, I encourage all of you to check out the vari- ous playing opportunities we have for you next year. Chances are strong that there is a championship or qualifier near where you live that you should consider playing. I would love to have you try out an IGA event, especially if you have never given it a shot. I might be biased, but I think you will find it to be a great time and you will definitely meet some wonder- ful people. Until I see you on the first tee, have a great winter. Jon Brown (L) & Matt Weresh (R) congratulate Joe Palmer on the 18th green after Palmer closed out the Iowa Senior Am