Bob Ward, the RIGA director, hopes the RIGA’s decision to add more work for its staff is “for the good of the game.”

Journal files / Bob Breidenbach

As anyone who is involved in the game can testify, golf is going through some struggles these days, not unlike so many other areas of society.

Play is down and so is membership in private clubs. Surveys by the National Golf Foundation show that even among those who continue to play, many are cutting back. After so many years of growth, the golf industry is seeing numbers decline almost across the board.

All of which makes what is happening in Rhode Island refreshing.

Rather than cutting back, the state associations, both men and women, are actually expanding their programs.

The Rhode Island Golf Association is taking on new events this year, most notably running both the state Public Links and the Mulligan Interclub Championship for the first time. The R.I. Women’s Golf Association has taken a major step in adding a Tournament Players Division to provide more opportunities not only for its members, but for nonmembers, as well. And the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association continues to provide a range of events for its members, as well, and had picked up sponsorship of the Tournament of Champions.

The willingness of the RIGA to add the Public Links to its schedule probably should not be a surprise. The association has done an excellent job for years in making itself available to all clubs, public and private, to the point where virtually every facility in the state is now affiliated with the association. Bob Ward, the RIGA director, is a product of public course golf and has competed in the Publinx himself.

While the Public Links was a major event for many years, it has struggled in recent years, and only work by Karl Augenstein at Triggs and Mike Lombardi at Cranston has kept it alive. Those two courses will continue to host the event July 5-6, but the prestige climbs with the RIGA running the event.

The Mulligan Interclub has been run for more than 30 years by the players themselves, most notably Kevin Clary and Greg Richard. The event, held at the end of the season, has become successful with competition within each club just to make the team and be able to represent the club in the championship.

Unlike what is happening elsewhere, RIGA activities have not slowed down. The weekly invitationals, the lifeblood of the association, sold out quickly for the season. The early events, including the new net division of the Burke Memorial, are also sellouts. So why did the RIGA decide to add more work for its staff?

“Hopefully,” Ward said, “for the good of the game.”

The women’s component

As beneficial as the RIGA changes are, the biggest development this year comes from the RIWGA.

The women’s golf situation continues to be muddled with the two competing groups. In a switch of role, the RIWGA in recent years has made overtures to the OSWGA to join forces and provide a unified voice and set of activities for women. The OSWGA has said it prefers to stay as is.

The RIWGA twice has moved to open its events, but has not received enough votes from its membership to make it happen. What the association has done is, in effect, come up with a compromise. Most RIWGA events will remain as is — that is, open only to players from private courses.

However, the association has formed a new Tournament Players Club that will hold events open to anyone in the state. They include a Seniors Championship to be held May 28 at Point Judith, a two-ball event July 22 at Agawam, the RIWGA Championship Aug. 5-9 at Kirkbrae and a Stroke Play Championship Sept. 2 at Crestwood.

“We hope,” said Gale Hanna, the association’s tournament director, “that this is a giant step in the right direction.”

No one would argue with that. It is an excellent move.

The OSWGA, in addition to its programs, will take over operation of the Tournament of Champions, which will be held July 27 at Lincoln.

Two to be remembered

The state’s golf community has lost two special members.

Charles Round was the only man ever to win the state Junior (1934), Amateur (1939) and Senior Championship (1973). The former surgeon at Kent Hospital died at the age of 92.

Mal Wendell was a pioneer in the work of golf course superintendent. He was the superintendent at Rhode Island Country Club and Wannamoisett. An outstanding player himself, he won the Attleboro Open three times. He was 82. His son, Neil, also is a golf superintendent.

The Shelter Harbor Club, which this week hosted U.S. Open qualifying, drew raves from the pros, who say it is rapidly earning a place among the best courses in the state. With its rolling hills and numerous stone walls, the club is beautiful as well as challenging. Under the guidance of superintendent Ed Walsh, it has matured quickly into top-level condition.

“It’s a shot makers’ course,” said Alpine pro Eddie Kirby. “You have to be in the right spots or you’re in trouble.”

“We played it at 6,800 yards for the Open qualifier and it was a good test, and we’ll play it at 6,000 yards when we have the Burke Memorial net division there (later this month) and it will be a good test for those players, too,” said Ward, the RIGA director.

The numbers provided by the National Golf Foundation show the decline in golf. The number of players in the United States, the figures show, has dropped from 30 million in 2000 to 26 million.

Players who spend at least 25 days at the course have dropped from 5.9 million, to 4.6 million, and those who play at least eight times a year have declined to 15 million, from 17.7 million.

pkenyon@projo.com