For
many years the women golfers of Missouri wished to be represented
at the major tournaments by a State Champion; and since the old
state organization had dissolved some years past, a group of representative
women, golfers throughout the state, gathered at the Blue Hills
Club in Kansas City on July 15, 1935, and reorganized the Women's
Missouri Golf Association.
The first tournament was held over the Kansas City Country Club
course, with a total of 104 entries. From then on the number of
contestants increased and because of the assured survival of the
newly organized Association, some of the members of the old organization
assembled their remaining assets and in 1937 presented the present
Women's Missouri Golf Association with a beautiful perpetual championship
trophy. This gesture was a challenge for the new organization
to branch out and interest more out-state women in tournament
golf, and today our roster of over 750 women members includes
golfers from 81 clubs in various sections of our state. Successful
tournaments have been held in Joplin, Kansas City, St. Joseph,
Mexico, Springfield, St. Louis, Excelsior Springs; and each year
the names of new contestants are being added to the list of entrants,
which is evidence of the growth and scope of the activities of
our Association.
As the Yearbook goes to press, the Officers, Directors and Advisory
Members acknowledge with appreciation the fine spirit of cooperation
from the clubs and members which has made the Missouri Women's
Golf Association an outstanding and successful organization.
NOTE:
As the growth of women's golf evolved, so too did the WMGA. Therefore,
in 1992, the Association was formerly reorganized with new Bylaws
and Incorporated; and became known as the Missouri Women's Golf
Association, open to all amateur female golfers in the state of
Missouri and Johnson County, Kansas.
It continues the pursuit of amateur women's golf in the state
of Missouri and Johnson County, Kansas. It takes an active interest
in all phases of women's golf including competition within the
Junior area by sending an annual team of five junior girl golfers
to the Four State Competition--Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri--to
determine the best girl golfers within the four states.
In 1995 the MWGA began participating in a new event, the Fore
State Team Championship, in which teams of 10 women from Arkansas,
Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma compete annually in three different
tournament formats.
The
MWGA also forms teams of volunteers to rate golf courses throughout
the state of Missouri. It works hand in hand with the USGA and
other state associations to insure that our course ratings are
up to date and that our raters are qualified to render those ratings.
One of our most rewarding duties is granting scholarships to junior
girls annually. These scholarships are funded not only by the
Missouri Women's Golf Education Association, Inc. but also by
the Shepherd Foundation which allows the MWGA to award the Susan
E. Shepherd Memorial Scholarship annually. We will continue to
build our scholarship fund through the efforts of our generous
membership. |
