In the immortal words of John Wayne, “No brag, just fact.” That must be an important idea because, after all, it was said by the Duke. In Eastern Pennsylvania, we really adhere to the “no brag” concept. While we can be assertive (OK, brutal) with our opponents (especially the hated Dallas Cowboys), we don’t spend a lot of energy in explaining how good we are. That’s what makes this issue of the Golf Association of Philadelphia Magazine so special.
In this edition, the Association celebrates its outstanding golfers, from our Association standouts to your club champions. The 2017 Golf Association of Philadelphia Players of the Year carry on a tradition of superlative amateur play tracing back to legends such as Woody Platt, Bill Hyndman, Jay Sigel, Gordon Brewer, Buddy Marucci and too many other champions to mention. Simply put, the likes of Chip Lutz (Senior Player of the Year) and Don Donatoni (Super-Senior Player of the Year) have proven that our GAP members continue to be at the top of the heap in amateur golf. No brag, just fact.
We’re a little shy about mentioning that the BMW Philadelphia Amateur is one of the three longest running golf championships in the United States at 121 years (117 playings); the other two are, incidentally, the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur. We don’t talk much about GAP being the oldest state and regional golf association in the country. We haven’t made a lot of noise about the BMW GAP Team Matches being the oldest and largest interclub competition in the U.S. (and possibly the world). If we were another area (New York?), we would have a lot of press about this and probably some monuments. But not us. No brag, just fact.
These words are authored by your new president. I am, like my predecessors, honored to have the chance to lead the best state and regional golf association in the United States. I have been privileged to work with the last six GAP Presidents who have led this organization with great wisdom for the last 18 years. I’ve been mentored by our past president Bob Morey, who has forgotten more about golf than I will ever know. The vision for what the Golf Association of Philadelphia will be in the future was set years ago, but, with some tweaks and
Finally, we will continue our longstanding mission to expand the GAP profile. We will continue to build our women, junior and public golfer initiatives. We will have a bigger geographic area, which we will embrace and build with programming investments. We’ll be doing all of this with a President who is obsessed with golf but really a hacker. We have had a long line of great golfers who served as the GAP President. I’m not one of them. So, for those of you who love golf but don’t put up good scores, I feel your joy and pain. No brag, just fact.
T. Quinn Spitzer
