RI Golf Hall of Fame Announces 2018 Inductees

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RI Golf Hall of Fame Announces 2018 Inductees

Lisa McGill PHOTO: USGA
The Rhode Island Golf Hall of Fame has announced its 2018 inductees.

The class is headed by three-time State Amateur champion Kim Augusta, Mike Soucy and Lisa McGill.

“The new class balances present day greats with stars from the past. Interestingly, both of the World War II era champions being honored are Brown University graduates and members of that school’s Hall of Fame,” said the Rhode Island Golf Hall of Fame in their press release.

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The dinner and induction ceremony will take place on December 4 at Valley Country Club.

The Inductees

DR. CHARLES B. ROUND spent much of his medical career as chief of surgery at Kent Country Hospital. He still holds a special place in RIGA history to this day as the only male to win the Junior Championship, the State Amateur and the Senior Amateur. He defeated the great John P. Burke for the Junior title in 1934, topped Sam Nield in the Amateur final in 1939 after making it to the finals the previous four years and won over Alex Corvi for the Senior title in 1975. He was twice the medalist and once a finalist in the New England Amateur. He served as captain of the Brown golf team.

JEAN BAUER GLANZ was two years ahead of Round at Brown. She was one of the greatest allaround athletes in school history while attending Pembroke, then Brown’s sister school. Amazingly, she played basketball, baseball, field hockey, archery, swimming and bowling. She also was president of her class through her four undergraduate years. In golf, she won the State Amateur in 1940, `41 and `42 and took the Mixed Championship four times with two different partners. She was medalist in the Women's Nationals in 1935 and 1941, won the Augusta National in 1934, the Miami-Biltmore Doherty Cup and the Mason-Dixon Championship, both in 1935, the New England title in 1937 and the Southwest Championship in 1939. After she married she spent the rest of her life in New Mexico where she won the city title nine times.

KIM AUGUSTA has lived, and succeeded, in golf since she was a child learning the game from her father, Lou, at Wannamoisett. She won the State Amateur three years in a row beginning in 1992 and twice won the Mixed Championship with partner Tom Goryl. She was the captain of the University of Miami team each of her last two years when the team was among the best in the nation. She was named to the All-America team in 1992 and finished 10th in the NCAA Championship in 1993. She turned to professional golf after graduating and played on the LPGA Tour for four years, played in the US Women’s Open and the Futures Tour for a dozen more, ending in 2011. She has since worked as a club professional, including at the Frenchman’s Creek Beach and Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where she now works. She is a member of the PGA of America.

MIKE SOUCY has been a mainstay in RIGA events over the past four decades. A calm, precise player, he won the State Amateur in 1999, 2001 and 2003 and captured the Senior Four-Ball with Paul Quigley in 2010. Beyond his play he has won admirers for the class and dignity he has displayed in the true spirit of the game. That was never more obvious than in the Senior Championship several years ago at Crestwood where he held the lead with two holes to play. He pushed his tee shot on 17 right, into the hazard that borders the entire right side. As his threesome headed down after finishing all the tee shots, Soucy took a ball out of his bag in case he could not play the one that went in the hazard. ``I didn’t have to hit a provisional. If I had to, I could have hit a provisional from where it crossed the hazard. So I just got in the cart and put it in my pocket,’’ Soucy related. When he reached the hazard, he saw that his ball was playable. He was able to punch it out and get it on the green about 20 feet from the hole. His first putt missed by about two feet. ``I went over and washed my ball. I was the last one to putt, so I put it in my pocket,’’ he related. When his playing partners finished putting, he reached into his pocket, took out a ball _ the wrong ball, not the one he began the hole with _ and tapped it for what should have been a four. As he was bending over to take his ball out of the cup he realized what he had done. ``There were no markings on the ball. I thought, that’s not the right ball,’’ Soucy explained. The ball he putted into the hole was the provisional he had put in his pocket. It had no markings. He was the only one who knew. Nobody else knew. The rules dictate that a player cannot substitute a ball in the middle of a hole. The penalty is two strokes, so Soucy had a six. He then birdied the par-5 finishing hole to finish with a 77 for the day and 144 total. Without the penalty, he would have won the event by one stroke. ``You just have to do it,’’ Soucy said of calling the penalty on himself.

LISA MCGILL is the latest in a long line of players who have moved to Rhode Island and made the golf scene better, joining Hall of Famers JoAnne Carner and Martha Kirouac, among others. The Philadelphia resident spends her summer in Misquamicut and plays out of that club. A fitness fanatic, she has done mountain climbing, including to Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro, and hiking through national parks. She almost did not compete in the State Amateur this year, was among the last to enter and ended up winning the event for the fourth time. She also won in 1995, 2005 and 2015. Afterwards, she dedicated the event to her father, Peter B. Griffin, who died last winter. McGill also has competed regularly in national events and has qualified for the USGA Mid-Amateur match play no fewer than nine times, including in 2007 when she reached the semifinals. Lisa also won the Pennsylvania Senior Women’s Amateur this year.

MAURY DAVITT is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and has given the Rhode Island golf scene a huge boost not through playing but by donating his time and talents for over 40 years with the Burke Fund. He has been the prime mover as the fund has become one of the most successful of its kind in the country. Davitt has been involved in education most of his life. His company had advised students and helped them with college selections. He spent 15 years as president & chief executive officer of Academic Management Services, Inc., which grew into the nation’s largest college tuition payment program. In 1992 he founded Student Resources, a consulting and information firm providing college and financial aid information programs and services to college-bound students and families, corporations and organizations. He joined the Burke Fund committee in 1979 and became the executive director in February of 2004 when the board established the position. Under his leadership the fund has adapted to changing times and not only survived, but thrived. It has gone over the $3 million mark in scholarships awarded since 1946. There are currently 60 students receiving a Burke Fund scholarship. The program began to honor John P. Burke, the Hall of Famer from Newport who was killed in World War II. It originally required students to caddy at any RIGA course for two years. However, as times have changed the policies have changed so that anyone working for two years at an association course can apply. Students who now work on maintenance crews, in pro shops and in club restaurants all can become Burke Scholars, which has led to a growing number of young women being recognized in recent years.


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