2020 IGA Yearbook

policies in place to limit the spread while still holding a competitive golf tournament. As the year progressed and we learned more and more about this virus, we were able to make adjustments to our policies. We began allowing caddies, allowing spectators, and we even let those who were comfortable doing so share a golf cart. Some things, such as indoor meals, were never reinstituted. We found creative ways to replace that through box lunches and drink and meal tickets. All in all, it worked quite well in still providing value to our players and some added revenue to our host clubs and courses. Unfortunately, not all events of a typical year were able to be conducted. The aforementioned USGA qualifiers being canceled certainly hurt. After originally postponing the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame Induction ceremony from April to September, we ended up "punting" it all the way to spring, 2021. And the same went for the Annual Awards banquet originally scheduled for mid-December. We feel quite strongly that holding the Induction Ceremony and the Awards Banquet in a fashion that allows the honorees to celebrate with family and friends in-person is very important. Hopefully, we can feel comfortable honoring these individuals and facilities with a typical banquet-style celebration with food and drink very soon. We will see some change to our staff structure in 2021 as well. Bill Dickens (Executive Director 2002- 2015 & Senior Director of Administration 2016- 2020) retired at the end of 2020. He has been a tremendous asset to the IGA for nearly two decades, providing wonderful advice, guidance, knowledge, and mentorship to all of us. We hope and expect to see Bill as a volunteer from time to time at our events, but that will be fairly infrequent as he has moved to his retirement home in Michigan. Replacing Bill on the staff will be new Director of Competitions Ben Larson. You can read more about Ben on the top of this page. While we will miss Bill’s institutional knowledge, we are excited to have Ben in the fold for 2021 and beyond. He brings a lot of positive energy and tournament experience to our group. With that, we put a difficult and stressful year behind us and move on to 2021. We hope the winter treats everyone well, especially this year. See you on the short grass soon enough! - WELCOME - BEN LARSON, PGA Ben Larson is the new Director of Competitions for the IGA. Beginning in January 2021 Larson will take the lead on the administration of IGA Championships, USGA Qualifiers, and support for the rules of golf and the USGA Tournament Management software (Golf Genius). He has spent the past 7 years as the Director of Competitions for the South Dakota Golf Association, where he administered their men's and women's state championships, as well as USGA qualifiers. He has attained an expert rating from the USGA based on his rules of golf exam scores. Ben grew up in Webster City, Iowa, and commented that he looks forward to getting closer to his family. "I am really excited, being from Iowa, to come back and work with a great team that is in place already at the IGA," Larson said. "I look forward to helping continue the progress the IGA is making in the game of golf. It will be good to get back home near family and friends." We are excitd to welcome Ben to our team and we are certain many of you will be getting to know him well over the season.