By Linda Clauss, Coordinator of Intramural Sports and Special Events, Stanford University
This past October, I had the opportunity to assist in the planning and delivery of the 2006 Stanford Golf Classic, which served as a local qualifier for the 2006 National Collegiate Golf Championship. While I have been actively involved in NIRSA and the National Campus Championship Series program with sports such as basketball and flag football, this was my first experience with assisting in the delivery of a golf tournament, and it was the first local qualifying event that Stanford has ever offered.
As a new professional at Stanford, two of my overarching goals are to offer programs that cater to all interests and skill levels, and to offer students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to represent Stanford at a national level. So it was very rewarding and refreshing to work with the Collegiate Golf Alliance (CGA) to deliver a tournament involving a sport not previously offered at Stanford, and to extend to our local qualifier winners the opportunity to advance to the National Championship.
On “game day,” I was very excited to see all of the participants have a great time and benefit from a quality recreational experience. Everyone enjoyed the friendly competition, skill challenges, and each other's company. We capped the day off with a raffle, and by inviting our two winning student teams to attend the 2006 National Championship in Las Vegas as Stanford representatives. Although neither student team could attend the national tournament due to class work, I was able to attend as a staff member.
Attending the national tournament as a staff member afforded me the opportunity to gain insight into how other high-level golf tournaments are delivered successfully. I was able to gather new ideas and learn about what interests participants at tournaments and what keeps them coming back. Most importantly, I witnessed how participants from all across the nation are brought together through sport, the efforts of supporting businesses, and employees in campus recreation programs.
Due to the benefits that a program like CGA's provides to the campus community, we are currently looking to put a NorCal spin on it and invite players from all of the NorCal schools. We NIRSA folks talked about it at our recent NorCal State Workshop. Stanford will do a fall local qualifier, and UC Davis will do a spring local qualifier. We’re going to do everything we can to make this a great event that engages as many recreational golfers in the NorCal area as possible. Next year, we hope to build off of both the fall and spring qualifiers to start contributing additional fundraising dollars to the state association, like SoCal does, to be used for student scholarships.
Stanford is excited to partner with the CGA and support the programs and services they develop for golf enthusiasts. Looking forward to next year!
A rookie’s view of a National Collegiate Golf Championship local qualifier