Hawaii retiree, Humanitarian, LPGA veteran named PGA First Lady of Golf

Mary Bea Porter with Alexis Thompson
at 2008 Junior PGA Championship

Mary Bea Porter-King of Kapaa, Hawaii, a celebrated four-sport collegiate athlete, LPGA Tour veteran, a pioneer in junior golf within her state, and one of the country’s most respected Rules officials, has been named the recipient of the 2011 PGA First Lady of Golf Award.

Porter-King, 61, will be honored at The PGA of America Awards, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, during the 59th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center’s Chapin Theater in Orlando, Fla.

Born in Everett, Wash., and raised in Costa Mesa, Calif., Porter-King began playing golf at age 7, mentored by LPGA co-founder Betty Hicks. Porter-King paved her way in junior golf by conducting a golf clinic at age 8 with Hall of Famer Patty Berg. She went on to become a four-sport star athlete at Arizona State University before devoting her career to golf. She was a co-founder of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association in 1998; and served from 2001-06 as a member of the USGA Executive Committee and from 2006-09, as an Independent Director on The PGA America Board of Directors. As a member of the PGA Rules Committee, Porter-King has officiated for nearly two decades at golf’s premier events, including all of the game’s men’s and women’s major championships.

“Mary Bea Porter-King’s remarkable career of service to our game is on display within her home state in a junior golf program that has produced countless success stories, and is a model for how our industry may improve the future of so many young people,” said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. “Mary Bea also has served golf at the highest levels, a record that includes an unwavering commitment to the integrity of our sport as a premier Rules official. It is with great honor that we may now refer to her as our next PGA First Lady of Golf.”

Porter-King served on the USGA Girls’ Junior Committee from 1994-2000, and since 2001, she has been a member of the U.S. Junior Championship Committee. In 1998, she co-founded the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association, which annually engages more than 500 juniors from elementary to high school age. The program has produced hundreds of collegiate golfers, with several program graduates including current LPGA standouts - Michelle Wie and Kimberly Kim.

“I am very humbled by this honor; first to be honored by The PGA of America, an organization I have revered all my life, and secondly, it is so special to have my name listed with all of the previous honorees, women of whom I have so much respect,” said Porter-King. “I love this game and have spoken for many years to encourage all of us, The PGA, LPGA, and USGA, to combine efforts to develop the next core golfers.

“All of us, who love the game, need to do everything we can to make sure all future generations who are given the gift of golf understand, play by, and protect the core values of the game while maintaining its integrity. It is so important we all work together to develop the next core golfer to ensure that the future of the game is in good hands. Who will fill the next shoes in our sport? It is up to all of us.”

Porter-King was inducted in 2001 into the Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame in four sports. Competing from 1968-73 in the pre-Title IX era, she excelled in volleyball, softball, golf, and basketball. Before graduating in 1973, Porter-King was a starting second baseman for the 1971 ASU College Softball World Series Championship team, and earned 1972 All-American honors in golf, and was a member of the school’s 1970, ’71 NAIA Women’s Golf Championship teams.

Porter-King began her professional golf career in 1973, earning LPGA Tour Qualifying School medalist honors. She captured the Golf Inns of America Classic in 1975. She left the Tour from 1983-85, and returned in 1986 and competed until her retirement in 1998.

She is a past president of the Kauai Junior Golf Association, and in 2004 was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. Traveling more than 100,000 miles a year, Porter-King has officiated at 14 U.S. Women's Opens, 10 U.S. Men's Opens, 10 U.S. Senior Opens, five Masters, four PGA Championships, and one Open Championship.

Porter-King earned universal praise for a courageous act on March 16, 1988, during a qualifying round for the former LPGA Standard Register Turquoise Classic in Phoenix, Ariz. Having hooked a second shot badly on the 13th hole of Moon Valley Country Club, Porter-King approached the fence to look for her ball and saw a family in peril. Jonathan Smucker, then a 3-year-old from Ronks, Pa., had fallen into a swimming pool and was lying lifeless. Porter-King was helped over the fence by her caddie, administered CPR, awaited arrival of paramedics, resulting in saving the life of the child.

For her action, she was later that year the first recipient of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award, honoring a heroic or humanitarian act that enhances human life. The same Association presented Porter-King this year with its MGWA Distinguished Service Award.

Porter-King and her husband, Charlie, live in Kapaa, Hawaii. The couple has a son, Joseph, 29, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and a daughter, Sherry, 39, married to Mike Niethammer, with three sons, Charlie, 7, Will, 4, and Max, 2, of Oahu, Hawaii.

The PGA First Lady of Golf Award, inaugurated in 1998, is presented to a woman who has made significant contributions to the promotion of the game of golf.

PGA First Lady of Golf Recipients
1998 Barbara Nicklaus
1999 Judy Rankin
2000 No recipient
2001 Judy Bell
2002 Nancy Lopez
2003 Renee Powell
2004 Alice Dye
2005 Carol Semple Thompson
2006 Kathy Whitworth
2007 Peggy Kirk Bell
2008 Carol Mann
2009 Donna Caponi-Byrnes
2010 No recipient
2011 Mary Bea Porter-King

photo credit: PGA

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Can Yoga help you become more empowered in golf?

Just listening to Margarit Brigham's calming voice asking this fast-paced businesswoman to take a few minutes and breathe calmed me almost immediately. I inhaled/exhaled and allowed my mind to center wondering if this simple exercise will help lead me on the path to a more consistent golf game.

 

Brigham, a.k.a. "Golf Goddess", dedicates herself to instructing women on connecting with the higher self through Yoga. In this week's BlogTalkRadio Show, "Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Golf", Margarit discusses how Yoga can be the connecting link to Joy in both the game of golf and the game of life.

 

Yoga is not only meant to improve flexibility, there are definite cerebral advantages to connecting with our higher self. Just as discipline is needed for Yoga, it is also a necessity in golf. Centering the mind to learn how to be more in the moment will help women to act, not react. If we can connect mind and body, Margarit says, we can meet more challenges without despair, more easily control negative emotions and become self-empowered.

 

"Golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half inch course;
the space between your ears."
- Bobby Jones

 

Professional golfers like Juli Inkster, Brad Faxon, Gary Player and Stewart Cink practice yoga to stay "in the zone". As father Earl Woods reminds Tiger Woods in his book, Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Golf and Life, "If you don't clutter your conscious mind with endless pointers and tips, you make it easier for your subconscious instincts to guide you." (see Yoga Journal).

 

Learning a few yoga stretches (done properly) will most certainly help the physical aspect of your golf game: your alignment, posture range of motion and stamina will improve. Listening to Margarit Brigham's Golf Goddess internet radio show and reading her book, "How to Become a Golf Goddess" should help you to improve the deeper connection within yourself to be able to play beyond par.

 

 

 

About Margarit Brigham:

Margaret (Peggy) Brigham is a NCCP Level 1 Coach and a certified yoga teacher who has been developing Yoga for Golf™ since 1997. Yoga for Golf has been taught as a weekly course, workshop and seminars, before corporate tournaments and in combination with golf pro's during clinics.

 

Post Golf Yoga questions to Margarit Brigham @GolfGoddess on Twitter

 

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Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Martin Kaymer, newest golf hero?

Martin Kaymer ended the run of first-time winners lifting the sport’s top trophies and lifted himself above the crowd when he won the WGC-HSBC Champions. Shooting a record low winning round for the World Golf Championships, the German’s nine birdies in his last nine holes propelled him over a leader board packed with recent WGC and Major winners and past overnight leader Fredrik Jacobson to a nine-under-par 63 final round and a three-shot victory. Tim Maitland reports.

“To shoot 63 in a final round is always great, but on a golf course like this and in a World Golf Championships is obviously special. The way I played was different. It was really special," recalled Kaymer.

"I can’t remember a day when I played golf like this. My putting was outstanding," said 26-year-old Kaymer, who, having won the 2010 PGA Championship becomes the first of golf’s new breed to follow up his first big breakthrough win with another top-level victory.

Kaymer’s late charge lifted him above a leader board that seemed to have most of the contenders to the crown of being the game’s next dominant player. Reigning US Open champion Rory McIlroy and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel finished tied for fourth along with Paul Casey while 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell came third.

“If Martin Kaymer had not skipped the last couple of holes, we might all have had a chance,” joked the Northern Irishman, who got to see some of Kaymer’s fireworks from the group behind.

“He's an unbelievable frontrunner; when he gets a sniff of a win ‑‑ he's pretty prolific and very clinical when it comes to finishing.  Hats off to him!  He's a classy player and he was impossible to catch out there.”

Casey, marking a return to form after a season plagued by a toe problem, had initially threatened to be the one making a winning charge making five birdies. He was slowed by the return of a swing fault caused by the injury but had the best seat in the house playing in the winner’s group.

“He didn't flinch.  It was very good stuff from him. [I had a] front row seat for Martin Kaymer, watching, that because that was a brilliant performance.”

In the long-term, perhaps just as impressive was the achievement of relatively unknown local player Zhang Xinjun beating the previous record for the highest finish by a Chinese player at the HSBC Champions. A professional for only a year, the 24-year old from the Terracotta Warrior city of Xian tied for thirteenth alongside Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter thanks largely to an eight-under-par third round. The previous best finishes were 24^th by Liang Wenchong in 2008 and 25^th for Zhang Lianwei three years earlier.

“He played very solid golf,” declared Kaymer of the former security guard. 

“He's a long hitter.  His putting is brilliant, so I can see him playing well in the future.  I had never heard of him before, but you've got to watch out, there are more players coming from Asia and he's probably one of the better ones!” he added.

For Kaymer, his victory shone a different light on a year that started with a stunning victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in January. The German said the pressure of becoming world number one in February – and not swing changes to prepare for a challenge at Augusta – was responsible for a relative slump, but that completing a sponsor’s double has turned an okay season into a good one.

“I started off with my HSBC win in Abu Dhabi and I’ve finished my year by winning the tournament in Shanghai. I obviously really like the HSBC tournaments!”

With the end of Tiger Woods' reign, golf has truly entered a brave new world!

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photo credit

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous