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Female Golfers Drive Controversy

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By LAURA CONE The Sun

Published: February 4, 2009

Women and ladies might be synonyms in the thesaurus and dictionaries of the world, but for the women who belong to two golf associations in Sun City Center, the words are worlds apart.

Jan Huber, the president of the Women's Golf Association in Sun City Center, said she has spent several weeks clearing up a community misconception and confusion about her group disbanding.
Huber said a number of people mistakenly believed the Women's Golf Association is breaking up because they have it confused with the Ladies' Golf Association (LGA). The LGA, a spin-off group associated with the Sun City Center Golf and Social Club, is not disbanding either, but their membership recently took a hit.

"The Women's Golf Association is not breaking up," she said. "Many of the gals take a lot of pride in their organization and it's confusing to a lot of the older members."

Larry Brown, the president of the Sun City Center Golf and Social Club which formed December 2007, said the 18-hole WGA members did join the golf and social club in September but the women withdrew from the organization Jan. 9 after taking another vote.

"It's just awful," Brown said. "I feel sick about it.

According to Brown, a faction arose from the WGA and petitioned their group for a revote. However, 60 women from the WGA chose to stay with the golf and social club, remaining as part of the female segment of the club called the LGA, he said.

Brown said the move will impact the golf and social club's budget. They charged $25 a year for the Ghin handicap system. The WGA members use the GolfNet system.

"(The fees) are going to go up. We are going to run in the red now since our population has decreased," he said, adding the golf and social club has about 400 members.

According to Brown, women may belong to both the 18-hole WGA and the 9-hole LGA, and hopes for a reunification.

"If we can go through a cooling off period maybe we can reunite some how," he said. "There are a lot of folks mad at each other. It just makes me sad."

Brown, who suspects there was some misinterpretation and lack of trust, said the goal of the golf and social club was to unite golfers in troubling times.

"If you don't like what an organization is doing, what you need to do is leave," he said. "You leave when they do something wrong, not when you think they are going to do something wrong. They never gave us a chance."

Brown pointed out men and women golfers share similar challenges in Sun City Center.

"There are so many problems facing the golfers in this town," he said. "The fact is that our play in the last eight year has declined tremendously. The problem we are having is people are getting older. They are stopping to play golf and no new golfers are coming into the town. We are trying to get this reversed somehow and get the community involved."

Handicap For The Clubs
Huber said members of the WGA may use GolfNet at no charge.

"All women will be receiving their handicaps twice a month just as they had previously with the Ghin system," Huber said. "GolfNet is the second largest handicapping system in North America and is recognized by the Florida State Golf Association and the USGA."

Ed Barnes, the president of the SCC Community Association board of directors, said women make up a significant number of the golfers in Sun City Center.

He said the Sun City Center Golf and Social Club approached the board about a year ago requesting it fund an evaluation of the golf courses.

Barnes said the board turned them down, but created their first task force to identify potential vendors to study the courses. He said a second task force is now studying a 1984 agreement with developer WCI regarding the north and south golf courses.

"What we are doing with the task force and the study is looking at the 1984 agreement to see what we can do to make the golf courses viable in the future," Barnes said. "Golfing is an integral part of Sun City Center. We want those golf courses to grow and get new membership. It's very important to the community as a whole."
Huber said it's true members of the Women's Golf Association, which has been in SCC for more than 25 years, voted not to be part of the Sun City Center Golf and Social Club.

But the different club names and changes have confused some members.

"I've been trying to keep our members calm because they are upset," she said. "It's a very strong organization. It's not going away."

She said the Women's Golf Association's main agenda is to raise money for the "Rally for a Cure" golf tournament. They have more than 160 participants who help raise money for breast cancer awareness and research.

"That's our agenda and our concern," she said.

Editor Laura Cone may be reached at lcone@mediageneral.com.

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