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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:33 AM CDT
Local women help at Solheim Cup, preparing for state tourney here

BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com

MATTOON -- Preparing to help Mattoon play host to a big golf tournament next month, Barbara Haberer has already been involved in a bigger one.

The board member on the Illinois Women’s Golf Association as well as another Mattoon Golf and Country Club member Paula Zinschlag were close-up witnesses of the United States’ victory over Europe completed Sunday in the Solheim Cup.

Well, at least they were close-up witnesses of hole No. 5 at Sugar Grove’s Rich Harvest Farms course where they served as green marshals.

“The Solheim Cup was really exciting,” Haberer said. “There was so much support and excitement for the U.S. team. It was easy to watch the crowd. There were people with a flag in their hats and carrying flags. Men and women were both there supporting the players. They supported both teams but you knew who they were really supporting.”

So the past week Barbara was the official although things did not get quite as physical as when her husband Roger Haberer used to work as an umpire for Big Ten Conference football games.

“Our responsibility was to make sure fans stayed behind the yellow rope,” Barbara Haberer said. “The spectators were so courteous. We didn’t have to deal with any big problems. We just had to make sure they were standing behind the ropes and make sure there wasn’t any ruckus when someone was getting ready to putt. In one situation there was a ball that went behind the rope and we had to move the yellow rope back to give them room.

“Watching players come with their caddies, the TV, the press - it was all very interesting. People were so cooperative. It was a great opportunity for me and for our board to help with it.”

Now the IWGA board is getting ready for its third major tournament in the state.

The Illinois Women’s Amateur at Kankakee and Women’s Junior at Savoy’s University of Illinois course were played earlier this year.

The 40th annual Illinois Senior Women’s tournament for ages 50 and older is to be played Sept. 22-24 at Mattoon Golf and Country Club.

The 54-hole stroke play tournament has already reached its 120-player limit with others on a waiting list in case someone withdraws.

“We have people coming from Pinckneyville in the south to Lake Bluff and Rockford up north,” Haberer said. “They’re coming from all over the state.”

Entries closest to this area are from Effingham and Champaign.

Other IWGA board members have already visited Mattoon in July seeing what facility changes might be needed and what holes might need to be shortened or lengthened for this Senior tourney.

Mattoon Golf and Country Club was the site of the 1992 Illinois Women’s Amateur so this kind of event is not exactly new to many of the local volunteers.

“When our board was looking at golf courses, one of the reasons Mattoon was selected was they felt when they were here earlier everything was in place,” Haberer said. “They liked the distance. It was a challenging course.”

Haberer is in her sixth year on the IWGA board.

Getting a close view at the Solheim Cup was one of the perks for plenty of organization on state-level events.

“The ladies on the IWGA board are a very hard-working group of volunteers,” Haberer said. “They have run many tournaments. We have a check list and check sheets. We continually receive compliments on the tournaments we run. It’s not the scope of that one but we get many compliments for our tournaments.”

Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.

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