There have been so many thrills and accomplishments in Bob Thomas 25 year career with the Southern California Golf Association, it would take hours to reminisce about them after his retirement this month.
The regrets? Few, although he certainly would have liked to pare his handicap. Working for the organization that tallies every golfer s handicap in Southern California, Thomas can t fudge when you ask him about it, and his index number right now: a hearty 24.3.
One of my retirement goals is to get a little bit better, which would imply actually playing and practicing, Thomas joked.
It s a truism in the golf industry. The higher you rise in the business, the less time you have to play, and seldom has a golf index number been more irrelevant when measuring a person s contributions to the game.
For the past quarter century, Thomas, 63, has been an instrumental part of the SCGA as its director of communications and publisher and editor of FORE Magazine. As the longest standing employee, he has been a roll up your sleeves participant in the enormous changes that have come to the game and the SCGA.
The 110 year old SCGA had 90,000 golfers as members when Thomas came over from a corporate communications job in September 1983; it has 150,000 today. There were 425 member clubs; now there are 1,100. There were nine championship events; now there are 24. Thomas grew FORE Magazine from a quarterly to six times a year, and he inaugurated the valuable SCGA Directory in 1992.
He has taken thousands of photographs and written millions of words about amateur golfers who played for the love of the game, not for money. The best part is that he shared their passion.
The word legend is a big word, but to the Southern California golf community, and to amateur golfers, that s really what he s become, said Katie Denbo, a protege of Thomas who succeeds him as the editor and publisher of FORE.
Frank Moore, 42, has arrived from media relations at Northrop Grumman to be the SCGA s new director of communications and marketing.
Hands down, I think he s one of the most talented communicators in the industry, Denbo said of Thomas. He just has that knowledge of how to interact with players, golf courses, the media, advertisers, all of these different levels. Everybody really respects him.
Said Thomas: I care passionately about the game, passionately about the SCGA. We do great work here. The people I work with and work for, the members are uppermost in their mind.
With the magazines, the directory and Internet site, we spent a lot of hours trying to do the best we could to bring knowledge to people. We wanted people to understand that there was more to golf than hitting a ball around a course. There is so much more to the game.
Kevin Heaney, the current executive director of the SCGA and the fourth under whom Thomas served, chuckled when he thought of the hours and energy expended by Thomas, who d send e mails at 4 in the morning and make phone calls late into the night.
Author Resource:
Sarfaraz with Golf Outlets of America provides you reliable details to choosing golf equipment and golf sets. http://www.golfoutletsusa.com/ http://www.golfoutletsusa.com/golf-clubs.aspx
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