Tobin can’t escape spotlight

After turning 50, Anne Marie Tobin had hoped that she could play golf into the sunset years of her life quietly, without fanfare.

Well, that was the hope anyways.

Ann Marie Tobin

The Lynnfield resident and Bellevue Golf Club member added another chapter to her remarkable golf career at the 59th annual Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund banquet on May 19. Honored along with Grand Slam winner Gary Player, Tobin received the Richard F. Connolly Jr. Distinguished Service Award for her three-decade involvement with the organization.

More than 1500 watched at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center as Connolly, himself a 30-year contributor to the Fund, made the presentation to Tobin. “Just to have my name mentioned in the same breath with Dick Connolly is an honor,” said Tobin, a former president of the Ouimet Fund. “I love the Ouimet Fund and all that it does for young men and women.”

Tobin, wife of Bellevue head professional Jim Tobin, has been a major presence on the Massachusetts golf scene ever since she began winning a record seven WGAM titles in 1988. The WGAM Player of the Year award is named after her.

“I started giving my time to the Ouimet Fund after I graduated from Mount Holyoke and the Fund first included girls in its pool of scholarship applicants,” Tobin said. In the process she has been a long term member of the Ouimet Board and became the second woman to serve as the Ouimet Fund’s president, after Gitty Scheft.

Growing up as a member of the prominent Reading-based Locke clan that played at Thomson Country Club, Anne Marie was not herself a Ouimet scholar, but she’s grateful for the chance to help others become Ouimet scholars.

“I’ve loved being chairman of the scholarship committee,” she said. “We’ll give out nearly $1.5 million this spring. I’m awfully proud of that.”

“Anne Marie has enjoyed a tremendously distinguished career in golf,” says Ouimet Fund executive director Bob Donovan. “In her roles as president and scholarship chairman, she has played a huge part in our success the last ten years. She and her husband, Jim, by the way, were the first husband-wife members of our board. Jim served when he was president of the New England PGA.”

Tobin becomes the 13th recipient of the award and the first woman recipient, since it was instituted in 2000. Dennett Goodrich, a former Essex member now based at Dedham, was one of three inaugural recipients in 2000.

Now it’s back to the competitive wars for Tobin. She is focusing on the WGAM Championship, set for one of her favorite courses, Salem, in July, and then the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur in Tulsa the end of September.

Westford’s Walshe honored

Vesper’s Alison Walshe, who was part of the eight-player American team for the Curtis Cup match being played at St.

Alison Walshe

Andrews the end of May, was named Golf World magazine’s College Player of the Week in the March 28 issue after shooting a 66 as part of her winning 213 total for Arizona at the Dr. Dennis Thompson Invitational in Hawaii. It was the Westford resident’s second victory of the season.

WGAM championship slated for Salem CC

The North Shore will play host to two of the biggest women’s tournaments later on this summer. The WGAM Amateur Championship and President’s Cup tees off at Salem CC July 21-24. Current Harvard University standout Claire Osgood of Milton is the defending champion.

The following month will see some of the top players in New England come to the area when the Massachusett’s Women’s Open returns to challenging Ipswich CC, August 13-15

 

WGAM Tournament Schedule
Date	Tournament	Course
June 9, 2008	Chris Eaton Foursomes	Allendale CC
June 16, 2008	Edith Noblit Baker Tourney	Eastward Ho!
June 24, 2008	NEWGA Championship	Abenaqui CC
June 30, 2008	Mother/Son Championship	Fall River CC
July 1, 2008	Mother/Daughter	Olde Scotland Links
July 1, 2008	Member/Junior	Olde Scotland Links
July 8, 2008	Townsend Cup	LeBaron Hills CC