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For the Good of the Game

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The big picture

Bob Thomas used ingenuity and hard work to keep the spotlight on amateur golf in the Southland throughout his illustrious career.

BY MICHELLE FLORESPublished: April, 2009

Bob Thomas could often be found on the scene at regional amateur events. (PHOTO: Katie Denbo/SCGA)
First he put the spotlight on top-level amateur events, attending nearly all of them over 25 years as director of communications for the Southern California Golf Association. Then he helped increase the SCGA’s number of members and tournaments, along with improving service within the association by launching an online directory and being one of the pioneers in online live scoring.

From his first day on the job in 1983 until his retirement in February, Bob Thomas used passion and creativity to grow the game in Southern California.

Here are some parting numbers: The 110-year-old SCGA has 150,000 golfers as members, up from 90,000 when Thomas started. There are 1,100 member clubs, up from 425, and 15 championship events, up from nine. Thomas also was in charge of FORE Magazine, which now publishes six times each year instead of quarterly.

Thomas’s first use of live scoring was at the 1996 U.S. Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge. He updated the card of each player — including that of winner Tiger Woods — hole by hole and posted the scores on the SCGA web site.

His willingness to go to great lengths in serving SCGA members is fueled by an admiration for those who compete for the love of the game.

“They’re playing for a plate, for gosh sakes, not for a million bucks,” he said.

Among his favorite amateurs is Laguna Niguel’s Kemp Richardson, who won the U.S. Senior Amateur twice and the British Senior Amateur. Richardson and his father, John (also a U.S. Senior Amateur champ), are the only father-son winners of a USGA championship.

Thomas feels special gratitude toward Woods, whom he feels entered the SCGA Amateur and California State Amateur in 1994 as a gesture of thanks.

“It was a time when Tiger was out of high school and on his way to winning three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles,” Thomas said. “He didn’t need us.”

Katie Denbo succeeds Thomas as publisher-editor of FORE, and Frank Moore is taking over as director of communications and marketing.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” Thomas said. “From the day I walked in there was never a day that I didn’t feel excited or didn’t enjoy what I was doing.”