This past week, I attended a volunteer training seminar provided by the Golf Association of Philadelphia at Plantation Lakes Golf & Country Club in Millsboro.

GAP Tournament Director Grant Morse ran the event for a small crowd of golfers who want to help operate the golf tournaments held in Delaware and the rest of GAP’s service area, which includes eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and part of Maryland. 

The GAP tournament schedule for Delaware includes 19 events, such as the open, the amateur and the juniors for both boys and girls. 

GAP is part of the golf association network of the United States Golf Association. It has 342 member clubs, including most of Delaware’s collection.  

The seminar covered best practices for volunteers and their tournament activities. The volunteers help run these events as starters, by maintaining pace of play and scoring checkpoints, and for the truly ambitious, assisting with rules officiating. 

GAP holds about 175 competitions of all types each year throughout its service area. It has a small contingent of paid staffers, so none of its popular tournaments could happen without public-spirited assistance from hundreds of avid golfers who want to support the game’s continued growth and success.

As Morse said during the seminar, “Golf is an individual sport. Officiating is a team sport.”

The engagement program also includes a variety of inducements, including GAP-logoed shirts and hats for the fashion-conscious.

For more information about volunteer opportunities, go to gapgolf.org/gap-volunteers.

Delaware Junior Golf Scholarship Fund

The Delaware Junior Golf Scholarship Fund is seeking applications for its college scholarship awards. 

Founded in 1986, the fund is celebrating its 40th year of providing significant stipends to incoming freshmen demonstrating academic excellence, community involvement and a strong relationship to golf. The total scholarships awarded have now gone beyond $1.75 million.

For many years, the former Delaware State Golf Association assisted the fund with publicity efforts and other help. That support has continued since the DSGA merger with the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

More than 175 college seniors have earned these awards, typically arranged in annual increments renewable with continued academic performance for up to four years. Recipients come from all over the state, with Sussex County and the Cape Region often well-represented. For many years, the fund has been able to award four or five scholarships from an annual pool of about $100,000.

Applications are due Friday, May 1, and can be downloaded from delawarejuniorgolf.org.

Considering what is at stake, however, the number of applications has never been large. In past years, the applicant pool has been about 20. According to a conversation I had this week with fund board member Linda Outlaw of Rehoboth Beach, the applicant pool remains low at this point.

Most of the scholarship money comes from an annual fundraiser golf tournament held at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, complete with a silent auction. It often sells out, with scholarship fund alumni well-represented among its players. This year’s event is scheduled for Sept. 1. 

For more information or to arrange a donation, contact fund President Jerry Medd at dejuniorgolfscholarship@gmail.com.

Sussex Academy continues winning ways

The Sussex Academy golf team continued its unbeaten streak with an April 15 defeat of Indian River 170-182 at Kings Creek Country Club, the Seahawks’ home course.

Sophomore Ellie Walls of Indian River won medalist honors for the round with her two-over score on the back nine.

Nicholas DeEmedio and Ryan Kline tied for best among the Seahawks with a pair of 42s. Jack Dale and Jordan Green completed the team scoring, pairing each other with 43s. Sussex Academy coach Keith Kendzierski summed up his squad’s day succinctly: “Pretty cool!”

The Seahawks’ next match was also scheduled for Kings Creek, a tri-match against Sussex Central and Cape Henlopen set for April 16.

Delmarva Christian loses to Salesianum

The Royals of Delmarva Christian lost their April 15 match against upstate powerhouse Salesianum School at Baywood Greens 159-199.

Jonathon Puskar of Sallies won medalist for the day with his two-over 38 on Baywood’s front nine. 

Senior Cole Parker led his Royals teammates with a 47. Avery McCoy again contributed to the team total, this time with her 50. Nick Gipko and Gideon Woods completed the Royals’ score totals with a pair of 51s.

Royals coach Ray Davis said, “We didn’t come away with the win today, but we proved something just as important – we competed, we stayed resilient through adversity and we learned where we can get better. Against a great team, that kind of fight matters. If we keep that mindset and build on what we saw today, this season has a lot of promise ahead.”

Local club competition results

The ladies of Mulligan’s Pointe started off their 2026 competition season April 14 with a team scramble.

Jackie Adams, Pat Burke, Penni Hope and Wendy Michaelson won first place. Jackie Chernuta, Tammy Bresnahan, Chris Bielenda and Karen Feuchtenberger finished second.