
Historical past of Girls’s Golf At Washtenaw Golf Membership
Whereas golf has lengthy been considered a “man’s recreation,” girls have been an integral a part of Washtenaw Golf Membership since 1899.
Of the 99 constitution members of the membership, eleven had been girls. Constitution member DeLynn Whitmore is pictured above in a photograph courting to 1899.
The Washtenaw Girls’s Golf Affiliation was instrumental within the creation of the Detroit District Girls’s Golf Affiliation within the first half of the twentieth century. The “Detroit District” finally morphed into the Golf Affiliation of Michigan.
Shirley Spork, one of many legendary 13 Founders of the LPGA performed and practiced at Washtenaw whereas a pupil at Jap. In a dialog I had with Spork a pair years earlier than her passing, she remembered Washtenaw fondly, noting that the membership let her play without spending a dime.
Lately, Washtenaw Golf Membership has hosted the Golf Affiliation of Michigan’s GAM Ladies Championship and the GAM Girls’s Championship, persevering with its lengthy custom as a woman-friendly membership.
From the one centesimal anniversary commemorative guide:

Washtenaw Girls’s Golf Affiliation Debuts July 22, 1920
Unquestionably, essentially the most lively of Washtenaw’s organizations has been the Girls’s Golf Affiliation.
Below the early management of DeLynn Whitmire (in picture, above) and later that of Doris Greenstreet, it turned the strongest such group within the state. It spearheaded the formation of the Detroit District Girls’s Golf Affiliation and pioneered a junior program at Washtenaw that has been broadly copied by different golf equipment.
Competitors for the ladies’s membership championship has all the time been eager. For a few years, Dee Cameron (Delynn Whitmire’s sister) and Ruth McLain battled it out for the title . Cameron and McLain every gained the championship 11 and 15 occasions, respectively. Later, Helen Bjorkquist would take over because the membership’s
main girl golfer.
And the ladies might elevate cash — and never only for their very own functions. One 12 months they held bridge events, a vogue present, raffle and rummage sale. The place did a lot of the funds go? Males ‘s locker room enhancements!
They managed to gather sufficient to display within the entrance eating room porch. In reality, the ladies’s efforts at fund elevating date again to the infancy of the Washtenaw Womens Golf Affiliation. In a newspaper clipping, Delynn Whitmire notes that in 1920 she determined it was time to brighten the “frog pond” as the women fondly known as their locker room.
She contacted every stockholder, asking for a 25-cent donation. Two of these contacted had been John and Horace Dodge, founders of the Dodge Firm, who had been so amused on the small quantity of the request after they had been often requested for 1000’s that they despatched $10 every. So the frog pond bought a face carry.
The battle years offered some uncertainty concerning the way forward for the group. However the Girls’s Golf Affiliation did its half to assist the battle effort.
In 1942, prizes turned protection stamps as a substitute of golf balls. Balls returned as prizes in 1944, “if previous balls had been turned in.”
In 1945, visitor day was discorninued because of the meals scarcity. In July 1945, Washtenaw Girls’s Golf Associaton celebrated its Silver Anniverrsary Luncheon. Silver {Dollars} got out as prizes.
In 1948, Doris Greenstreet was appointed to prepare a match for the kids – thus founding Washtenaw’s junior program.
In l 956 Doris Greenstreet envisioned a match, for the “older” golfers round thestate. With the assistance of affiliation president Vivian Obermeyer, Ma ry Nelson and Fern O’Hara, the Michigan Girls’s Senior Golf Affiliation was born. Washtenaw girls invited members from all different personal golf equipment. The turn-out was surprisingly giant with 72 girls taking part and organizational steps had been instantly adopted. Washtenaw’s Mary Nelson was elected the primary president.
In 1964 the Women Invitational made its debut. By 1982, this tourney turned a themed occasion with such highlights as Mardi Gras, Disney in Cleats and It’s a Safari .
Because it approaches the brand new millenium, the Womens Golf Affiliation, by way of its fundraising, match sponsorships and different actions continues to be an lively and very important arm of Washtenaw Nation Membership .

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