2019 Yearbook.indd

| 15 C edar Rapids Country Club underwent one of the most successful restorations, which began in 2015, of any course in the United States. The hard work ultimately led to the club hosting the third ever USGA event in the state’s history, and first ever women’s USGA event in 2019. The state’s only Donald Ross design had become overgrown with trees, which suffocated the turf and covered up many of the bunkers. The club hired “Ross Expert” Ron Prichard to design the changes and then carried them out mostly in-house over the course of a few years. Now completed, raters from around the country have taken notice. The club now owns the #83 ranked Classic Course in the U.S. according to Golfweek magazine. CRCC served as a fantastic host site for the 2019 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in late August. Participants and volunteers alike commented on how well they were treated and what a joy it was to play such a wonderful golf course. 2019 18-Hole Course of the Year Cedar Rapids Country Club Sean Flanders Volunteer of the Year Dennis Samuelson - Marion George Turner Distinguished Service Hillis Rupe & Jerry Danforth 9-Hole Course of the Year Holstein Country Club H olstein Country Club opened in 1969; meaning 2019 marked the 50-year anniversary for the club. In those 50 years, the club has gone through several renovations, including installing new irrigation, constructing new a bathroom/concession building and a new suspension bridge, upgrading the turf across the entire course and renovating the clubhouse deck, patio and retaining walls. Many of these improvements were funded by direct donations from the members. In fact, over $150,000 was raised to improve the outside entertainment area of the clubhouse. The club is known for its welcoming attitude. The membership, board of directors and women’s committee makes the whole club appealing to member and visitors, alike. T he George Turner Distinguished Service award was given to two men who have provided countless hours of service to the course rating program at the IGA. Hillis Rupe of Des Moines (top pic) and Jerry Danforth of Cedar Rapids each captain a team of raters. Combined, they have been involved in course rating for over 25 years. Rupe began participating in ratings in 2004 and took over as captain of the Central Iowa team in 2010. Since then, he has rated over 50 golf courses. Danforth began his course rating career in 2008, working under Lou Fairchild. Three years later, Danforth took over as captain. To date, Jerry’s team has the largest pool of raters of any in the state, proving how good he is at recruiting! The duties of a rating captain are plentiful and time consuming. In addition to performing the actual ratings on site, it includes recruiting & training new members for your team, preparing forms, coordinating schedules and, in some cases, making pre-visits to measure the golf course. V olunteers at our championships work long and difficult days. The commitment of Denny Samuelson to our events earned him the Sean Flanders Volunteer of the Year award. Samuelson has worked his way up to ‘expert-level’ status with the Rules of Golf, proven by his scores on the USGA rules exam. He worked a total of 17 days across eight different events in 2019, many of those being 10 hour or more shifts. He was invited to serve on the rules committee at the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, his first USGA assignment. That went so well that he was later invited to serve as a USGA committee person, which will become official at their annual meeting in February 2020. Now that he has mastered the rules of the game, he is going to focus on also mastering the new rules of the World Handicap System. He has spent the winter studying and preparing as he will serve on the handicap committee of his winter club in Arizona as well as begin serving on the IGA’s Handicap Committee in 2020.