2020 IGA Yearbook

RULES & COMPETITIONS The game of golf has a way of teaching us many lessons. The varying ways this game can knock you down both emotionally and physically are endless. At one moment a person could be walking down the fairway with great confidence only to see that virtually evaporate after a few poor shots. It can be a cruel game at times but one that we truly love. That toughness is what I believe helped prepare those in our association and our industry to deal with the global pandemic. I couldn’t have been more proud of the way our association managed to pave the way, leading our state through such an unprecedented time. I am truly honored to have been in a position to help and I want to thank all of our volunteers and staff who made it possible. It can be hard to know how much you value someone or something until they are taken away fromyou.This pandemic has been tough on all of us and we have unfortunately lost some good friends along the way. I truly believe this year has given us a new perspective on what we have at the Iowa Golf Association and has made us better for it. I’ve learned we aren’t just a golf association; we are a family. I write this in my final term as Committee Chairman as I will be passing on this role to my good friend Mike Purcell of Ames. I am very humbled as I think back to what we accomplished over the years but specifically this year. It will be one I will remember for the rest of my life as I am sure 2020 will go down in history as one for the ages. We started the year by overhauling the Player of the Year Points System, making it much simpler and easier to administer. This was developed after countless interviews with our players who informed us that the system had become too confusing and didn’t value events in Iowa as much as it should. After multiple meetings with our staff and members of the committee, we cut the existing system down to its bare bones before building it back up. The result was a cleaner system that valued strong performances in IGA and USGA Championships. Due to the pandemic, we were forced to shut down right before the start of the season. The IGA staff worked from home and our committee started meeting online to discuss contingency plans, as we were unsure how the year would turnout. As the shutdown progressed, some of our earliest Championships scheduled for May had to be postponed. It was during that time that the IGA staff created a list of policies and procedures to ensure the safety of our participants at our events. After the committee had time to review the policies and procedures, we determined with confidence that we could successfully hold an event. Although that was just part of the equation, as the next step required us to determine if players would even be willing to travel and compete in a tournament. We decided to send a survey to our tournament players and the responses we received were overwhelmingly favorable to returning to golf. We decided our first event back would be the IGA Senior Match Play Championship at Veenker Memorial Golf Course on May 28-30. This afforded us an opportunity to put our procedures to the test. Those included things such as requiring players TOM CHRISTENSEN, COMMITTEE CHAIR