2013 Senior PGA Championship Winners!

A little history: In 1897, Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis began hosting spectator and championship golf. Since 1916, The PGA of America has maintained its mission to elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest in the game. In 1937, the Senior PGA Championship started as the most prestigious event in senior golf. 

The 2013 Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid was hosted by Bellerive CC. Kohki Idoki, 51, of Japan won with a 6-under 65 to finish at 11 under, beating front runners Kenny Perry and Jay Haas who ended up tied for second place. That’s a payday of $378,000 for Kohki. Jay and Kenny get $185,000 each for their trouble.

Meanwhile hundreds of volunteers scramble for a chance to work jobs on the Leaderboards and as course Marshalls. These volunteers do it for the thrill of being just a part of a world class event. They volunteer a year in advance and most aren’t certain of shifts or duties. They love the game. I was among them. I gotta tell ya, it is really is a thrill. If you are a golfer, you can’t believe your luck when you raise your hands to hush the crowd for Tom Watson to putt. Volunteers are a part of the week-long celebration that includes pro-am and practice rounds and goes on past the presentation of the Borne trophy.

Somehow it all comes together like magic. The course is gorgeous and it shows well on television for the Golf Channel and NBC broadcasts. Bellerive Country Club members have to be proud. It’s another triumph for St. Louis too. Concessions workers, security personnel, bus drivers, pro shop retailers, corporate sponsors entertaining guests, guests, fans, broadcasters and everyone who got a chance to be a part of this spectacular event. You are all champions.   

Congratulations to Kohki Idoki on a great win!

Stop, Drop and Roll

Hi Wes,

I've been meaning to write to you to thank you PERSONALLY for submitting to the writing contest.  It was fun standing in line with you at the SLCL, and  I really enjoyed your poem--WAITING IN LINE TO SEE CAROLINE!  Could definitely relate! I'm sure you'll continue writing--and maybe you'll submit again next year.  We'll have a new prompt--who knows how it will inspire you!

Amy Gage
Coordinator, Jade G. Bute Writing Contest
Chesterfield Arts is located at 444 Chesterfield Center, Chesterfield, MO 63017
May 9, 2013

(Amy - You Inspire and I think that is so very cool. My Caroline poem didn't win. This one can do no worse. Thank you Amy Gage.)
 
Why the poetry? Why write?
Who really cares? Day or Night?
An idea, a thought , a turn of a phrase,
To express a feeling, you say.

Top – down, focus groups, crowd-sourcing,

Your opinion matters, certainly worth voicing.
Yet it takes winning the hearts and the minds,
Of innovators, adaptors, a share of mankind. 

A composition, a prayer, a Van Gogh chair.
Interpret and comment - isn’t that fair?
Color and beauty, cut and paste.
In the eye of the beholder - no time to waste.

With zeros and ones, knowledge transfers,
Managers always looking for answers.
The books don’t lie but maybe big data does.

Good news, bad news, it’s not like it was.

A composite drawn from inference and transactions,

Of mindless musings and an aggregate of thoughtless actions.
Try to forget while crying online. Think of the sales.
Projections. BOOM. A bomb explodes, the terror prevails.

Posers, composers, foreclosures, look before you leap.

We learn we’ve miles to go before we sleep.
FDR said nothing to fear but fear
Tomorrow, a week, a month or a year

How long for soft science or hard facts

To break down, analyze, interpret, allow us to relax.
…Again, again it all begins.
For a period of time, at least, nobody wins.  

It must add up, point by point…maybe more than a year.
The meaning is abstract, fuzzy and yet, really so clear

You will never return to that time when everything was new.
Justice for all and equity for even a few.

Stoves, Bankers, Beer, Real Estate and Art

Roland L. Kahle, department manager of the Rigen Stove Co, bought about 50 acres on Rott Road in 1916. He planned to spend more than $20,450.00 to design and build a home there. It was four times the cost of an average house. Perhaps he wanted to keep up with his neighbors - South St. Louis businessmen Edwin Lemp, Joseph Griesedieck, Louis Stockstrom, and Adolphus Busch, Jr. who had summer or year-round residences in the area.

Fast forward 25 years. The Kahle property is sold to Henry and Matilda Laumeier in 1941. Henry’s new wife, the former Matilda Cramer is also the former the wife of Conrad Besch. The mature couple, Henry (in his early 60s) and Matilda, lived together in the house nearly two decades. She outlives Henry by nearly 10 years. (He died in 1959. She died in 1969). Her friendship with Wayne C. Kennedy, the Director of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, results in the eventual donation of the property to the county. Banker Adam Aronson, along with Wayne Kennedy and sculptor Ernest Trova worked together to establish what became the Laumeier Sculpture Park. (Trova’s donation of 40 works in 1976 made it official.)

Aronson was instrumental in finding Beej Nierengarten-Smith, to be the director of the park for nearly two decades. (But she resigned in a cloud of controversy about her management.) In December 2002, a $1 million gift from Adam & Judith Aronson. They set up the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment and the Aronson Endowed Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Glen Gentele, as director, was able to restore public trust in the institution by uniting the Board of Directors and staff behind a mission, long term vision and a strategic plan. In 2009, Gentele accepted a position at another museum and Marilu Knode was offered the executive director and endowed professor position at UMSL.

Fire and Ice. Carts and Cocktails. LOVE meier. Art Fairs. Exhibitions (i.e. Not without my Dog, Finding a Home in an Unstable World, The River Between Us, Mound City) Site Specific work. Abstract Expressionism. Figurative. Contemporary. Monumental. Minimal. Conceptual. Educational. Kids Classes. Field Trips. Docent tours. Gallery talks. Landscaping. Lawn Care. Gifts. Grants. Time marches on ... on Rott Road.