Back then they were known by their married names, which is why the first president of the Snohomish County Women’s Golf Association is remembered as Mrs. Roy Thomas. The club’s other officer was the secretary, Mrs. Ray Sargent.
The year was 1932, and the SCWGA held its first tournament at Everett Golf and Country Club. There were 32 golfers on hand and Mrs. Robert Pinnell was the winner of the field.
Looking back over 75 years, Sandy Minnick of Lynnwood, who today is sort of the SCWGA’s unofficial historian, believes “there’s a reason it started at the country club. Those ladies were kind of riding on the shirttails of their husbands. Their husbands were the rich businessmen of Everett, and obviously their wives got to be (country club) members, too.”
In those years, she went on, the women “would not play with the men, of course, but they had their own club. And then they got the other (public) courses to join in. They must have got tired of beating up on each other and they were looking around for new victims.”
As best anyone can tell, that’s how it all started three-quarters of a century ago. The first meeting of the SCWGA was on April 28, 1932, and four golf courses were represented – EG&CC, Monroe Golf Course, Hillcrest Golf Course in Marysville (later renamed Cedarcrest Golf Course), and the now-defunct Edgewater Golf Course on the flats between Everett and Marysville.
Plenty has changed in the last 75 years, of course, but these days the SCWGA is still going strong. And the club’s founding purpose, as outlined in the official minutes book from 1932 – “To provide for an amateur championship tournament each year and to promote generally the interests of golf among women” – remains unchanged.
Somewhere along the way, the women from EG&CC pulled out, preferring to join an association with other private clubs from around the state. Which is why the SCWGA is today comprised of golfers from public facilities throughout Snohomish County, plus Camaloch Golf Course on Camano Island, which is part of Island County.
According to Karla Frey of Camano Island, the SCWGA’s current president, the association holds monthly events at member courses during the golf season. The big get-together of the year, though, is the annual SCWGA championship, which is a two-day, 36-hole tournament. This year’s championship, slated for later in the summer, is at Mukilteo’s Harbour Pointe Golf Course on the first day, and Camaloch on the second.
Another popular event is the Grandmothers Tournament, which is scheduled for Stanwood’s Kayak Point Golf Course later in the year.
Though all women’s club members at Snohomish County courses (plus Camaloch) are eligible for SCWGA events, not all participate, Frey said.
“A lot of ladies just like to get out and socialize on the golf course, and they’re not really serious about golf,” she said. “We have more of those than a (typical) men’s club would have. There are women who are just there for lunch and talk, and they don’t do a lot of outside tournaments.
“But the other half are those who are rather competitive. They like competition, they like people and they like to travel. And those are the ones who support the Snohomish County Women’s Golf Association.”
Chris Edlund of Stanwood, last year’s president, says the SCWGA tries “to encompass all ages and we encourage all abilities.”
Still, the association has more women of retirement age than those in their 20s and 30s. The discrepancy, Edlund explained, is due largely to finances and family circumstances.
“We have some women who are probably in their 30s,” she said, “but so many of them have children and can’t play in these (monthly) events. They’re either working or doing something with their children, and maybe they can’t afford to have babysitters. But we’d love to have more of the younger ones.”
Frey agrees, and mentions that she has “two daughters who probably would love to be out playing,” though both have active families and part-time jobs, and thus little time for golf.
“And I didn’t play when I was young for the same reason,” Frey added. “But then I loved retiring and getting to play all the time.”
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