Louis Hughes Puts In Quarter Center Of Dedication To WAPL

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

Devens, Mass. – Twenty-five years ago, Louise Hughes of Philadelphia, Pa., said, “I will.” Twenty-five years ago, when someone asked for volunteers, Hughes raised her hand. Like every USGA committee member, she’s one of those people who gets things done.

Hughes is a member of the USGA’s Women’s Amateur Public Links Committee. Other committee members are just as dedicated, such as Penny Hunt of Pittsburgh, Pa., who is retiring this year after 28 years, and Sara Wold of Ann Arbor, Mich., who can match Hughes’ 25 years of service.

These are the USGA’s troops. They perform the myriad tasks necessary to run a national championship. Long before the first tee shot is hit, they organize and conduct the sectional qualifying events, sort of “mini” championships to determine who gets to play in the championship proper.

Louise Hughes is retiring after 25 years of dedication to the WAPL Championship Committee. (John Mummert/USGA)

When they arrive at events such as this year’s WAPL at Red Tail Golf Club, they serve as the Rules officials who walk with each match. This is no small task. On most days, there are 36 holes of competition and that’s a little more than 10 miles of trudging up and down hills and fairways.

They make sure there are plenty of tees, scorecards, Rules books, pencils, hole-location sheets – everything a player needs short of a good golf swing – on the first and 10th tee. They announce the matches to send the players off, then officiate. Late in the day they man scoring tents behind the ninth and 18th greens during stroke-play qualifying, carefully checking each score, ready to nab any player leaving the tent before she’s carefully checked her score in order to prevent a penalty or, worse, disqualification. (Committee members call a disqualification a “trunk slammer.” It’s part of the lingo they use and all of them know what it means.)

Often they help with scoring and pairings, or shuttling players in from the course during match play. Their work days are 12-14 hours long, and made to seem longer by the heat or the rain delays that seem to plague every summer’s national championships.  So they stand in the broiling sun or the pouring rain and at the end of the day they suit up to attend official dinners. They come from all over the nation to work the championship for 10 days at a stretch, and they pay their own expenses.

They’re not cops, they’re caretakers of the game.

Louise Hughes has the ideal background, she’s a golfer (weekends only) , a businesswoman and a mother.

“I raised six children,” said Hughes. “I was strict, but we did everything as a group and we had a ball.”

Which is a bit like overseeing 156 mostly teenage girls and collegians who play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

Hughes’ career as a volunteer was bumpy at the start. Her first job was to conduct sectional qualifying at her home course, Center Square (Pa.) Golf Course. After weeks of preparation, it began to rain and Hughes hurried to the course the night before qualifying. It was pouring.

“We were rained out,” said Hughes. “The 12th hole and the 17th hole were under water, and I stood there and cried. We cancelled the next day’s round. I had some people help and we called our 65 qualifiers and told them we were delaying the round by one day. But we lost half the field because these are working women who couldn’t get off work again.”

Championships can be expensive for everyone involved and, a few years ago, part of the WAPL Committee’s job was to raise expense money to assist the public course players in getting to the championship. Money could be raised for the players’ gasoline, airfare and hotel rooms.

“The most expensive year was Hawaii in 1998,” Hughes recalled. “We all stayed in a condo together, but I needed a total of about $7,500 to pay the expenses of my five qualifiers from my section.”

Hughes became a master at running small tournaments to generate funds. She called two of them the “PAWP” tournaments, for Pennsylvania Amateur Women’s Public Links. And she staged a “Night Light” tournament. “The winners wouldn’t take any prize money,” she said. “Nine holes and I’d make 900 bucks.”

Committee members no longer assist in raising money for the players, but Hughes’ home course, Center Square, hosted the national championship twice. More money was needed. Hughes got a tip from a friend that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania may be able to help. She contacted state officials, sent them a detailed plan and the state kicked in $15,000. She also was working and after an eight-hour day at the office, she came home and worked on the championship and its organization throughout much of the night.

Over the years Hughes has seen some great golf, such as the Connie Masterson - Holly Reynolds final at Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Golf & Tennis Club in 1993. Masterson won that one, 1 up. And the 1991 championship at Birdwood Golf Club in Charlottesville, Va., where her home team nearly won the team championship.

“Our team played super!” Hughes said.

Hughes has shepherded “her” players from coast to coast, once having a 14-year-old player as a roommate because the girl’s parents asked Hughes to make sure she took care of their daughter.

“Parents didn’t come to the championship with their daughters, in those days,” Hughes said.

Her favorite memories include the two championships conducted at Center Square and the willingness of her friends to contribute and help. She’s also fond of USGA president Judy Bell’s visit to Center Square in 1997.

“She came to the Players Dinner and the next day she came out to the course,” Hughes said. “She was so charming and she sat around the tenth tee and talked with everyone who came up to her.”

Hughes is retiring this year after 25 years on the job. For her work, she received the Ike Grainger Award from the USGA. What motivated her do this work for more than two decades?

“(TV talk show host) Mike Douglas was interviewing Joe Namath one day,” Hughes said. “He went down a list of all of Namath’s injuries and then he said, ‘Look at all that you’ve given to football.’ And Namath said, ‘I’ve given a lot to football, but not nearly as much as football has given to me.’ ” That’s how I feel about golf. What golf has given to me, the knowledge, the friendship, the love.”

Rhonda Glenn is a manager of communications for the USGA. E-mail her with questions or comments at rglenn@usga.org.