We recently returned from a wonderful week at The Breakers Resort for the 2021 Stroke Play Championship. For those of you who were not able to join us, we had the incredible surprise of having Gary Player join us for the opening reception and dinner at the Flagler Restaurant! The ageless Mr. Player delivered a wonderful speech and was gracious in his time spent chatting with members and posing for photos throughout the evening. He was presented with the ASGA National Award, an honor that has previously been given to both Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus so the Big Three is now complete! He was also made an Honorary Member of American Seniors Golf Association.
We were extremely pleased to present a donation from the ASGA Charitable Trust to the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation in the amount of $25,000 for which Mr. Player was very appreciative. As many of you know, his lovely wife of 64 years passed earlier this year and the Player family is focusing the newly-named Foundation on children’s causes that were very dear to Mrs. Player. For more information about the Gary and Vivienne Player Foundation, please contact their daughter Amanda at amanda@
The ASGA Charitable Trust has also made significant donations this year to the NYC City Parks Foundation as well as the scholarship funds for the courses that we utilize on Cape Cod each year. The Trust is a registered 501(C)(3) charity and contributions to the Fund are fully tax deductible by the donor. The sole source of support for the Fund is contributions from our members and the continued success of the Charitable Trust Fund is dependent upon the generosity of our members. The Governors understand that you receive many solicitations for charitable contributions, especially this time of year. The ASGA is pleased that you would consider including the ASGA Charitable Trust in your annual giving. Please know that Governors and many members participate each year.
As a further note, all of our support to worthy causes comes as a direct result of programs introduced to us by ASGA Members or Clubs that we visit for our events. It is most gratifying when we are able to make contributions to golf charities that are meaningful to our Membership and to that end, we are always on the lookout for new programs. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a suggestion in this regard and the Trust Committee and ASGA Board will be happy to consider. Of course if you are interested in making an end-of-year, tax-deductible donation, checks of any amount can be made out to the ASGA Charitable Trust and mailed to the ASGA Office at the address below and please do not hesitate to contact the ASGA Office if you have questions about the Trust.
In closing, we would like to share with you a favorite poem of Mr. Player which he read during his speech. We found it to be most relevant to the man of 86 who has more energy than most 25 year-olds! Have a wonderful Holiday Season and we look forward to welcoming you to ASGA events often in 2022!
Youth
by Samuel Ullman
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exits in a man of 60, more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by the number of years; we grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from infinite, so long as you are young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with the snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 100.
