What a year 2020 was? In late October, I was texted a cartoon that said, “I’m not turning my clock back on Sunday. The last thing we need is an extra hour of 2020!!!” Well, one of my favorite quotes is, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it.”
How did we react to 2020? Even during a pandemic this year was, golf-wise, their best year ever. So, let’s celebrate the small and big wins, GAP and others had this year. Let’s celebrate and thank our Member Clubs for their hard work in keeping golf open in our Association’s four-state footprint. As many other activities were pronounced unsafe or unavailable, golf was front and center. The sport thrived in providing a healthy outlet for exercise and competition. Let’s celebrate the record number of rounds posted across GAP – more than 1.85 million. It was exciting and heartwarming for me, personally, to see so much youth, women and family golf fill up courses and practice ranges across the region. Let’s welcome and encourage these groups to continue playing. In GAP, and in this issue, we celebrate our Players of the Year and club champions.
I am humbled and blessed to have been elected the 34th GAP President on Oct. 28. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my predecessor Quinn Spitzer for his leadership and mentorship the last three years. And, to recognize Quinn for demonstrating exceptional leadership in a year for which we had no playbook. In the end, Quinn, along with the organization’s talented Executive Committee and our best-in-class Executive Director and staff made 2020 one worth celebrating.
As we review 2020 and look forward to 2021, it is our collective goal at GAP to maintain our “Legacy of Championship Excellence” and to capture the returning and new golfers seen on our courses this year (with special player development focus on women, Junior and public golfer initiatives).
Let’s all stay positive and stay safe so we can stay open. Support your clubs. The next several years will provide new opportunities to celebrate amateur golf, which GAP has been doing since 1897.
We will also have opportunities to celebrate and support two GAP Member Clubs as they welcome the PGA TOUR’s finest with the BMW Championship returning to the area. Please be on the lookout for opportunities to enjoy, volunteer and attend. In August 2021, Caves Valley Golf Club, GAP’s newest Member Club will host, and in August 2022, it will be Wilmington Country Club’s turn. Two GAP clubs hosting the Top 70 Players in the World Rankings the next two years. That’s worth celebrating!
Hoping to see you on a golf course soon.
Oscar L. Mestre
