2021 IGA Yearbook

There were marking points throughout 2021 that signaled a difference from the previous year. The growth of the Youth on Course program was one of those and, sticking with our Foundation programs for a moment, another was finally inducting a Hall of Fame class. In fact, we inducted two! It was a pleasure to spend an evening in September with the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 inductees and their families. It is always inspiring to hear about the accomplishments of the inductees and it was rewarding to finally give them all the evening they deserved. It is always a top memory each year. The return of a full schedule of USGA events and qualifiers was a welcome sight. After only four USGA championships were contested in 2020, which included zero qualifying sites, we were back running seven qualifiers in 2021. While that adds to the calendar, it also is a very rewarding part of what we do. For many people, simply qualifying for a USGA championship might be the pinnacle of their amateur golf careers. It is fun to see those dreams realized and we were deprived of that last year. Simply qualifying for a USGA championship is not the pinnacle of Gene Elliott’s career. But winning one might be! The Iowa golf stalwart accomplished that lifelong goal in 2021, winning the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at the Country Club of Detroit. In doing so, he joined a very select group of Iowans to have won a USGA championship, which includes his very good friend Mike McCoy. But the USGA title wasn’t the only one for Elliott. Earlier in the year, he traveled to the U.K. and captured the British Seniors Amateur as well. He is just the second person to win the amateur senior championships of the USGA and R&A in the same year, joining Paul Simson of North Carolina who accomplished the feat in 2010. And if you get a chance, ask him about the protocols he faced just to travel and play in the British Seniors Amateur – that alone was a victory! Gene has always made Iowa golf proud and we are grateful to join him in celebrating his accomplishments this year! 2021 also marked a year of change for our staff as IGA veteran Bill Dickens retired at the end of 2020 and we welcomed Ben Larson early this year. With Ben’s addition, a few staff roles were shifted around. Ben took over the lead on most championships, Nate McCoy shifted over to focus more on the Handicapping and Course Rating programs, while Katelynn Hogenson moved into the Chief Operating Officer role. She handled most of the day-to-day bookkeeping duties as well as led our general membership programs. Anytime you add a new staff member there is going to be a period of settling in. We experienced that but managed to get past it and into a nice groove fairly quickly. We had three interns this year – normally we have only two – which gave us an extra staff member during the busiest time of the year. Our interns were wonderful and worked hard. We even hope to have a few of them back again next year. We are focused and looking forward to keeping the momentum of the past 20 months going in our business. We have a terrific group of host sites once again and hope that the increased participation that was derived from the pandemic sticks around for a long time. That is going to be good for everyone who plays this game.