Lon Haskew--Lifetime Achievement Award
Lon Haskew still fondly remembers the first event where he served as a volunteer for the USGA.
It was at the 1993 U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills Country Club outside of Denver. The winner was a guy named Jack Nicklaus.
Among the things that struck Haskew was the magnitude of the event. The four years prior to arriving at Cherry Hills, Haskew served as a tournament official for NCGA events.
While he has always enjoyed officiating NCGA events, it was his experience at the 1993 U.S. Senior Open that really got him hooked.
In fact, it would be just the start for Haskew.
Following that trip to Cherry Hills, Haskew went on to serve as a volunteer Rules official for over three decades, working at the state, regional, national and international levels. As of today, he’s officiated at over 100 USGA championships and has also served on the USGA committee and U.S. Mid-Amateur committee. In between it all, Haskew, a member at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, also served as president of the NCGA in 2001. Fittingly, it was that year that the NCGA celebrated its 100th birthday.
All of Haskew's volunteer work and service did not go unnoticed either.
In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Joe Dey Award from the USGA for his meritorious service as a volunteer. He was the first NCGA president to earn the award, and to the day is the lone NCGA Board member to be recognized. The only other Northern California official to be recognized with the award was the late Pearl Carey in 2005.
And it all started from reading a book. Haskew first immersed himself in a copy of the Rules of Golf book. Later, he was introduced to the Decisions on the Rules of Golf book (now known The Official Guide to the Rules of Golf).
Today, at the age of 80, Haskew is still keeping busy. He still occasionally attends Rules seminars and spends much of his time helping and teaching his goddaughter Alice, who is new to the game.
As Haskew will tell you, it’s all about giving back.
Sally Tomlinson--Distinguished Service Award
Benjamin Franklin once remarked that energy and persistence conquer all things.
In the case of Sally Tomlinson, she could be called a double-dynamo.
The Oakland native, who was introduced to golf by her father at the age of five, learned the game under the tutelage of legendary Claremont Country Club pro Dewey Longworth. And while a young Tomlinson wasn’t always thrilled with swinging a club, it turned out she was pretty good at it.
By the time she was nine, she entered a girls’ tournament at San Francisco Golf Club and won. Another nine years later, Tomlinson was the Claremont women’s club champion.
It would be the first of many. Either as a member of Claremont or later Merced Country Club, Tomlinson won women’s club titles in her 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. In 2022, she picked up her most recent win at Merced, giving her a grand total of 34 club titles.
Still carrying a solid 13.9 Handicap Index today, it hasn’t just been on the course, however, where Tomlinson has left a lasting impression.
Her service to the game has been just as remarkable.
A schoolteacher by trade, Tomlinson used any extra time off to ensure that she gave back to the game. In 1994, she began serving not only on the U.S. Junior Girls’ Committee, but also the California Women’s Amateur Championship committee. At the same time, she also became a committee member of the Women’s Trans-National Golf Association, today known as the Ladies’ National Golf Association.
Things went so well that in 2008, Tomlinson became the first person to be honored with the CWAC Helen Lengfeld Award. Later, from 2010-2011, she would serve as president of the CWAC and the Women’s Trans-National Golf Association.
Overall, Tomlinson served on the U.S. Junior Girls’ committee for 30 years and has volunteered for the CWAC for over three decades. In 2018, she was honored by the USGA with the Ike Grainger Award for her longtime service.
The young girl who once had to be dragged to golf lessons, ended up living and breathing golf for decades. Both on and off the course.
Jim Knoll--Player Achievement Award
Jim Knoll hasn’t always been involved with golf. But when he is, you certainly know it.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Mountain View, Knoll was first introduced to the game at age nine by his father, who would take him out to what was then-San Mateo Municipal Golf Course.
They’d leave to play before dawn, and be back home by 9 a.m., with Knoll often using sawed-off clubs that were held together by electrical tape.
While Knoll enjoyed it, he was still a baseball guy. But that all changed his junior year in high school, when he opted to play golf instead.
Fate was playing its role. Improving each year, Knoll ended up first playing at Foothill College, where he not only won the 1972 junior college individual state title, but also met his wife-to-be, Terry. Among those taking notice was then-San Jose State men’s golf coach Jerry Vroom, who gave Jim the Spartans’ lone golf scholarship.
He'd play at San Jose State from 1973 to 1975, earning Honorable Mention All-American honors in 1975.
Following his time at San Jose State, he turned pro, eventually making it onto the PGA Tour. After five years, however, and missing the cut at the 1979 U.S. Open, Knoll decided to walk away from the game.
After a three-year wait to get his amateur status back, Knoll returned by claiming his first NCGA victory at the 1982 Public Links Championship. But he’d soon after again step away, this time focusing on Terry and their two children.
For nearly two decades, Knoll didn’t play in any competition. When he finally did return in his early 50’s, he was a force to be reckoned with.
He’d go on to win 11 NCGA Senior titles, becoming the first senior to reach that mark. He won a still-record five straight NCGA Senior Player of the Year awards and still has the Senior record for most points in a season at 3,006. In 2022, he added a Super Senior Player of the Year title.
Other accolades include two SCGA Senior Player of the Year awards, a California Senior Amateur crown, three San Francisco City senior wins, and four titles at the Senior Alameda Commuters, including a still-record three in a row. He’s also a two-time Super Senior champ of the prestigious Trans-Mississippi, a winner of the PNGA Senior Amateur and has competed in 13 USGA championships.
Off the course, Knoll has been just as much a champion. He for over two decades has served as a liaison between Senior amateurs and the NCGA, helping with among other things the Player of the Year points program and scheduling.
He’s been so involved that he is affectionately known as The Commissioner.
Tom Culligan--Player Achievement Award
Do what you love, and love what you do.
For over seven decades now, that love has been the game of golf for San Francisco native Tom Culligan.
It all started around age 12 when, after moving to San Mateo, his father began taking him out to Peninsula Golf and Country Club. While Culligan played other sports, it was golf that fit his athletic skills the best.
It would indeed be a perfect match. By the time Culligan got to Serra High School, he carried a zero Handicap Index. That eventually led to a scholarship to nearby San Jose State, where his game really began to take off. During his junior year at San Jose State in 1966, Culligan helped the Spartans to a runner-up finish to Houston at the NCAA Championships. At the same time, he also competed in his first U.S. Amateur and British Amateur.
It was all signs of bigger things on the horizon. In 1968 and 1969, Culligan became the first player to win back-to-back NCGA Four-Ball titles. In 1972, meanwhile, he competed in the Masters, earning a spot due to his finish in the U.S. Amateur.
Two years after that, Culligan won not only the NCGA Amateur, but also the San Francisco City Championship, leading him to be named Player of the Year by the California Golf Writers’ Association. In 1977, he was medalist at the California Amateur.
Aging never slowed down Culligan, either. In 1990, he won the NCGA Master Division title. Seven years later, he won the NCGA Senior Championship.
Overall, Culligan has competed in over 19 USGA championships, 15 British Amateurs and on over 10 NCGA Amateur Cup teams. In a testament to time, he’d win an NCGA title over four decades—from 1968 thru 1997—and is a 13-time club champion at Peninsula Golf and Country Club and two-time champ at The Olympic Club, where he’s in the Hall of Fame.
And that is all just what he has done with clubs in his hand. Off the course, Culligan has been a longtime supporter and philanthropist of Bay Area organizations and events such as the San Francisco City, San Mateo County Championship and First Tee of San Francisco, where he was a director working with now fellow Hall of Famer Sandy Tatum.