The 97th annual meeting of the Maryland State Golf Association was held November 10, 2017, at the Five Farms clubhouse of Baltimore Country Club. Among the features was the installation of a new slate of officers, headed by Jan Miller, president, from Baltimore CC. As has been the custom, the meeting was held at the club of the incoming president.
Executive Director William Smith reported the current tenant of the future MSGA office space will be leaving December 1, with renovations to follow. A formal opening is expected in the spring of 2018.
In addition, aside from the previously announced Players-of-the-Year (Billy Wingerd and David Nocar,Jr.) no major awards were presented, but the scholarship recipients were announced.
For Miller, a former golf professional and the first with regained amateur status to be the president, it was a long, somewhat circuitous path. “I was asked to join the MSGA as a vice-president a couple of times, but it just did not work out until 2008 when I became the replacement official for out-going president Michael Kuntz,” Miller said during a recent conversation.
A Baltimore native, Miller moved with his family to Jacksonville, Fla., as a youngster and served four years in the U.S. Air Force following his graduation from high school, “My last duty was in Hawaii, and after my discharge, I lived in San Diego, Calif., for two years while attending the San Diego Golf Academy. Following graduation [with honors], I returned to Baltimore to work for Johnny Bass at Pine Ridge Golf Course.
“I left in 1981 to work for Ward Burgess at the Chevy Chase Club, and three years later member Ralph Bogart convinced me to leave the golf business and go to work for his insurance agency [Bogart and Brownell] in Bethesda. I was there for three years, then returned to Baltimore, taking a job with the Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes Agency.” It was an association that would last for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 2015.
Miller and his wife Barbara live in Timonium. They have two grown children, a daughter, Meredith, and a son, Brad, a professional golfer, who is the reigning Maryland Open champion.
“In 2008, I was no longer involved in the children’s sports activities, and able to join the MSGA because I had more time to devote to it,” Miller said. “I have enjoyed my time more than I expected and have made every effort to become a capable rules official.”
Miller was forced to miss the entire 2015 tournament season because of a serious infection. He participated on a limited basis the following year and by this year he was able to return full-time. “Now, I am very much looking forward to serving as the president for 2018.”
Out-going president Jack Barse summed up a year of expansion and growth for the MSGA by saying, “The game teaches us many lessons. One of my favorites is that, like life itself, a round of golf is a journey. But since you wind up not very far from where you started, it’s not the destination that counts. It’s about who you go with, what happens to you along the way, and how you deal with it. And so it is with service to the game and to this association.”
In addition to Miller and the returning vice-presidents, also returning are Robert Sherwood, secretary, and John Pauliny, treasurer. The new vice-president, coming on as Barse goes off, is Geoff Gonella of Columbia CC.
New Scholarship Awarded
Olivia Zachman, a St. Lawrence (N.Y.) University junior and a member of its women’s golf team, is the first recipient of the MSGA-Women’s Division’s Caves Valley Golf Club Foundation Scholarship. It is to be awarded to a female student who has completed at least her junior year of high school and has a bonafide connection to golf. Her father, Jeff Zachman, has served as the head professional at Piney Branch Golf Club since 1989.
The MSGA, which has been making similar awards to males since 2006, announced this year’s recipients, all college freshmen: Rajah Hussain (Northwood High School graduate), University of Maryland Baltimore County, pursuing a degree in sports medicine; William Kreps (Catonsville H.S.), University of Dayton, majoring in finance; Tanner Leonard (Stephen Decatur H.S.), York (Pa.) College, majoring in business administration and a member of the golf team, and Anthony Peterson (Frederick High School), George Mason University and its Honors College, majoring in biology. Also having previous scholarship aid renewed were Aria Jalalian, University of Maryland; John McMullen, Eastern Kentucky University, and Grant Zangwill, Georgetown University.
Jordan Steinbach, a senior at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, has been awarded the Dave King Scholarship. It is funded by the long-time Middle Atlantic amateur golf standout through the MSGA and annually recognizes an outstanding student. Steinbach, a member of the varsity soccer and track and field teams, is an Honor Roll student who is active in organizations in and out of school as a participant and volunteer.
The MSGA also sponsors the Emmet Gary Scholarship, presented annually to agronomy students at the University of Maryland. This year’s recipients are Kurtis Sommer, 20, a junior from Fallston, who has worked at Winter’s Run GC the last four years, and Brendan Keane, 20, a junior from College Park.
