2022 Yearbook

7 Sound familiar? It should. In 2021, Mike’s good friend and longtime fellow competitor, Gene Elliott, accomplished the same feat. I can only imagine what amateur golfers in Great Britain must be thinking about our little state in the Midwest. This was the first time a father-son combo took home the Player of the Year and Senior Player of the Year awards in the same year. Our Super Senior Player of the Year was also a repeat champion. Pat Ryan won the Southeast Iowa Amateur and the Herman Sani Tournament at Echo Valley. Congratulations, Pat, on another outstanding year and your back-to-back POY titles! Our Women’s Player of the Year is Iowa State golfer, Ruby Chou. In addition to winning the Iowa Women’s Amateur at Cedar Rapids Country Club, Ruby finished in the top 15 at both the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA Regional at Stanford. Her finish at the NCAA Regional earned her a spot in the 2022 NCAA National Championship, a feat only accomplished by one other female golfer in school history. On the Women’s Senior side, we had another repeat champion, Laura Leszczynski. Laura successfully defended her Senior Women’s Amateur Championship and qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur which was played in Alaska! One other note from the competitive side of the game this year. At the U.S. Senior Amateur in Massachusetts, we had four players from Iowa advance to the Round of 32 or beyond. Let that sink in for a moment. Jon Brown (Quarterfinalist), Mike McCoy (Round of 16), Gene Elliott (Round of 32), and Joe Palmer (Round of 32) represented our state and played exceptional golf throughout the week. We’re proud to be represented on the national stage by such an amazing group of players. I could go on and on about the accomplishments of our players, but I’ll close the competitive talk with this. I saw a tweet from the USGA last week that showed the average Handicap Index for all 50 states. Iowa ranked 9th with an average index of 13.9. Not too shabby, right? When you look a little closer at the list, it becomes clear that our ranking is truly impressive. Eight of the top 10 states are in climates where you can play year-round. We get it done in eight months on average, and let’s be honest…March and April aren’t generally ripe with perfect playing conditions. I guess what I’m saying is…great playing guys and gals! I’d like to personally thank both Mike Pape and Andy Burton for their time and service on our