Betsy McClain - EWGA Member since 2009, EWGA 2011 Championship Winner - Third Flight, 3rd Place
My parents played and thought it was a good idea to give a nine year old lessons even though I would have rather been in the pool with my sister or driving the golf cart, but I learned. It wasn't until 1997 when I achieved a professional designation that I decided that golf would be good for business and took some lessons. I loved the game, bought clubs but didn't play much for several years. I gradually found other women to play with but didn't start in earnest until I found the EWGA.
My day job is Vice President for Tanner, Ballew and Maloof, Inc. We are an independent insurance agency handling commercial lines clients. I am the marketing manager so I get to spend time with insurance companies so we can put together the best program for the best price for our customers. I have my CPCU, ARM, CRM, CIC and a few others (some would call it a hobby of mine), but I'm finished with my professional designations because I now have golf!
My story about the 2011 EWGA Championship is pretty simple. I had toyed with the idea of entering competition for a couple of years but timing was always bad. I signed up on a lark. The day of the tournament I pulled up to the bag drop,
parked my bags and the car and was walking in to register when I heard Pam and Kelly applauding and calling me a champion. They told me I was the only one who signed up in fourth flight and all I had to do to advance to Savannah was to finish legitimately! Pressure off.
On to Savannah with four wonderful ladies; Ginger Rouse, Anne Richardson and Sue Evans. We shared a house that a realtor friend of mind arranged for a very inexpensive few days. We had a ball. We played a practice round and I got some wonderful advice from Anne....avoid the bunkers. And there was a lot of them. Wonder of wonders, I placed in Savannah, but I really didn't think I could play on the national level and had decided I was not going to advance. Well don't tell our ladies that! Up on the roof top in downtown Savannah I was shown no mercy! Just kidding...the words of encouragement were very warm and wonderful.
On to California. My significant other Mark had encouraged me to go and so we made a vacation of it. I followed the route of find a house (Vacation Rentals By Owner) as I later learned some of the other Atlanta competitors did as well.
The first day of play didn't go as well as I had hoped. I was placed around 14th in a field of 28. Right down the middle...not bad really. But somewhere between Savannah and California I had a couple of good rounds and got moved up to third flight. Initially this caused a little panic. I later learned this was to my advantage.
The second day of play was with two lovely ladies. None of us believed we'd place so the pressure was off and we just had fun. Ahhh, but the higher handicap in a lower flight proved that you can take third place net on a national level. Who knew?
Well, I'm back to compete again, but this time with a Green Monster of a scramble team! We won last Saturday and we are moving on to semis in Birmingham next month. Bring it!