LPGA documentary coming to Cape Region March 28

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society is running its second annual Women’s Film Series, in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Sussex County. 

The March screening is something special for Cape Region golf fans. “The Founders” is an award-winning documentary about the women who created the LPGA in 1950. The movie combines archival footage with interviews of surviving founders and current players for this important story.

The documentary will be shown at the Cinema Art Theater on Dartmouth Drive just off Route 1 in Lewes at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 28. Rebecca Dengler will also give a short talk. She is an LPGA Master/PGA Teaching Professional based at Ed Oliver Golf Club in Wilmington, and she was the 2016 PGA Section Teacher of the Year.

Tickets for the screening are $9 apiece, and the society recommends using its online reservation system at rehobothfilm.com.  

For more information, contact the film society at 302-645-9095. 

May 1 deadline for DSGA Scholarship applications

The Delaware State Golf Association Scholarship Fund provides serious money for worthy applicants looking for help with their college expenses. 

Each year, three or four students receive a four-year stipend, based on the award committee’s assessment of scholastic achievement, community involvement and love for the game.  

Several Cape Region kids have earned these scholarships, most recently Jack Ashby, Madeline Baptiste and Rachel Hagen, along with applicants from the rest of the state. The DSGA runs an annual golf tournament at Rehoboth Beach Country Club that provides a major part of the scholarship proceeds.

The applications are due Monday, May 1, and the forms can be downloaded from the association website, dsga.org. For more information, contact Ron Barrows at 302-227-4404 or email r.barrows@verizon.net. 

Great-looking high-end golf bags

David Rutt is a proud uncle.

The longtime attorney for the Sussex County government is also a partner in private practice with J. Everett Moore Jr. in Georgetown and Milford. He advises Shawnee Country Club Inc., and I met him last fall to discuss some of Shawnee’s legal issues. 

When I mentioned I was going to the 2017 PGA Merchandise Show, Rutt’s face lit up. “You have to meet my nephew Brien!” he said. “His company did the Ryder Cup golf bags!”

Not missing a chance to put a local connection into the PGA Merchandise Show columns, I readily agreed.

I went to the Belding Golf Bag booth and asked around for Brien Patermo, Rutt’s nephew and the company’s managing director. He was busy with potential customers at that point, but later that day we had a great time talking about his uncle, himself and his company.

If Rutt’s ears were burning Jan. 25, there’s a reason. 

Patermo was born in Milford, but moved at a young age to New Jersey. After graduation from college, he went into the golf business and stayed there.  

The Belding Golf Bag Company has been around since 1972, making golf bags and accessories at its California facilities. In addition to the Ryder Cup bags for the U.S. team at Hazeltine last fall, the company does a nice business making bags for a wide variety of golf clubs, in leather and other fabrics. 

Except for the Japanese market, which favors big and bold lettering directly identifying the bags as genuine Beldings, the company’s logo is usually understated in favor of the client’s own logo choices.

In January, Belding announced a new distribution agreement with OUUL, an international golf bag and accessory maker. At the booth I also met Leon Lyons, the director of OUUL. 

These golf bags are remarkably tailored, using high-tech fabric printing machinery and specialty materials. Complex patterns match where they should, because they are built that way. 

What I like about the OUUL bags is that they are not covered in club maker logos. If I’m using Ping irons, Cobra fairway woods and Cleveland wedges, why would I be interested in a bag that featured only one of the makers? I don’t think I am all that unique with that attitude, and the bags OUUL sells should prove that point. 

Lyons said they work with golf clubs to provide logo space on the bags, such as along the lining for the jacket/towel compartment. He also showed off OUUL’s new waterproof bags, complete with sealed-seam zippers that block water infiltration. From all appearances, these bags are fully water repellant, not merely water resistant.

I also lifted one of OUUL’s new stand bags, which weighed a mere 2.7 pounds. That’s incredibly light compared to most of their competition.

Several OUUL bags are aimed at the women’s sector and offer a far wider range of colors and patterns beyond pink and white solids. 

From the dozens of customers I observed at the booth, the new arrangement between OUUL and Belding looks like a successful combination for the two companies.

David Rutt is right to be proud about his nephew.

Children’s Beach House Fundraiser 

The Children’s Beach House is holding its annual charity golf event Thursday, May 25, at The Peninsula on the Indian River Bay. Ellison Carey of Merrill Lynch of Dover is once again the naming sponsor. Several other sponsorship opportunities remain available.

The tournament schedule begins with the range opening at 11 a.m., and the tee-off beginning at 12:30 p.m. The festivities include a poolside dinner buffet with a wide range of awards for the golfers. 

Registration fees are $210 for a single golfer, and $840 for a foursome. For more information, contact Children’s Beach House at cbhinc.org, 302-655-4288 or 302-645-9184.