Judy Bell Award Presented To NJSGA
The prestigious Judy Bell Award, which recognizes significant contributions to women’s and junior golf in the Metropolitan area was presented to The New Jersey State Golf Association by the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association at its annual meeting on Tuesday, October 29 at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Accepting for the NJSGA were president Frank O’Brien and NJSGA Women’s Committee chairperson Coleen Luker.
The Metropolitan Golf Association was also named as a recipient of the Judy Bell Award.
The WMGA established the Judy Bell Award in 1997, with Ann Beard of Essex Fells, a USGA rules official and former WMGA president, the first recipient. The award is permanently housed at WMGA headquarters in Elmsford, N.Y.
PREVIOUS JUDY BELL AWARD WINNERS PHOTO GALLERY
“It is proper and fitting the NJSGA and the MGA receive this award in honor of its participation in women and junior golf,” said WMGA president Amy Hyman. “Your association has shown a great deal of generosity to the WMGA and the game of golf.
“Your financial support of our course rating program and our USGA State Team, inter-district, and national/international competitions has been greatly appreciated.”
Bell has served as Consulting Director for the USGA Grants & Fellowship department which operates the Association’s “For the Good of the Game” Grants Initiative. Since 1997, this initiative has provided more than $65 million to organizations across the United States that conduct golf programs for underserved children and individuals with disabilities, including nearly $2 million to Girls Golf.
Bell, a lifelong golfer, joined the USGA in 1961 as part of the USGA U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship Committee. She has held a variety of positions within the USGA and, in 1987, was the first woman elected to the USGA’s Executive Committee. On Jan. 27, 1996, she was elected as the 54th president of the USGA – the first and only woman to hold that position.
On the golf course, Bell was a very successful amateur player, first winning the Kansas State Women’s Amateur Championship in 1952 and again in 1953 and 1954. She set the U.S. Women’s Open 18-hole scoring record in 1964 with a 67 (the record has since been broken) and was a member of the 1960 and 1962 USA Curtis Cup Teams. She went on to become captain for the 1986 and 1988 squads, as well as captained the 1988 USA Women’s World Amateur Team and 2000 USA Men’s World Amateur Team.
LPGA Hall of Fame and professional golf commentator Judy Rankin served as guest speaker.
Five of eight young ladies who receive an average of $750 per semester from the WMGA Scholarship Foundation are New Jersey residents. They include Erin McElwee of Princeton (Fairfield University), Jasmine Megett of Dumont (Quinnipiac), Jennifer Suh of Princeton (Boston College), Lauren Relyea of Bloomingdale (Carnegie Mellon) and Maxiel DeJesus of Paterson (New Jersey Institute of Technology).
