About The NCGA

Since 1901, the NCGA has been serving the golfers of Northern California in an effort to provide an enjoyable and fulfilling golf experience. Join the NCGA and become part of a tradition that has stood the test of time and has continued to evolve through the years.
Mission Statement:

“To support and promote the game of golf in Northern California and to enhance the knowledge, enjoyment and participation of NCGA members.”

NCGA History

The Northern California Golf Association was formed more than 100 years ago by five clubs - Menlo CC, Oakland GC (now Claremont CC), Presidio GC, Linda Vista (now San Jose CC), and San Francisco GC - with the sole purpose of participating in the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship. These ten clubs are the oldest in Northern California:

Aetna Springs – 1892
Mare Island – 1892
Burlingame - 1893
San Francisco GC - 1895
Presidio - 1895
Old Del Monte – 1897
Claremont – 1897
San Jose CC – 1899
Sunnyside – 1906
Menlo – 1906

From that humble beginning, the NCGA has grown to an association consisting of 400 regular clubs and more than 850 associate clubs with a total membership approaching 180,000 members. Today, members spread from the Oregon border to central California and east into Nevada allowing the NCGA to become one of the largest regional golf associations in the world.

The NCGA conducted its first championship in 1903 and now has the most extensive amateur tournament calendar in the nation offering more than 50 championships each year. An estimated 50,000 members attempt to qualify for NCGA team events at the club level while an additional 15,000 members participate in individual events. The NCGA also provides officials for the Northern California High School Championships, the Northern California Community College and California Community College Championships, as well as selected major college events. Taking pride in being a service organization, the NCGA endeavors to offer a tournament schedule conducive to players of all ages and abilities using various formats and opportunities to allow anyone the chance to participate in championship golf.

The championships offered today are possible in great part because of the 50-year contract signed in 1965 with the Pebble Beach Company, which entitled the NCGA to the complete use of Spyglass Golf Course for 30 days per year. In 1986, the NCGA opened its own members course, Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, which was the first course in the United States to be owned and operated by an amateur golf association. Poppy Hills has played host to several prominent tournaments, including the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and is consistently ranked among the top courses throughout the United States. The association continued to grow with the addition of a second course, Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore in 1996. Poppy Ridge is easily accessible to NCGA members as approximately 90,000 of the nearly 180,000 NCGA members live within a 65-mile radius of the course.

The NCGA offers many services ranging from Handicapping and Course Rating to Communications and NCGA Golf magazine to Rules and Competition. A permanent staff of 35 is located at Poppy Hills, but the association would not be where it is today without the 18 current directors and all past directors who have represented various areas of Northern California along with the multitude of volunteers who have served selflessly throughout the years offering many hours of their time without compensation.

NCGA Member Services

Environmental and Water Resources

By board approval in 1998, the NCGA added a staff turf advisor to provide a new service to its clubs. The name of this department was changed in 2007 to better reflect the duties of the staff turf advisor.

Provides a timely and accurate consultation and diagnostic service to Northern California golf course superintendents (primarily via onsite visits). The visits would cover turf grass diseases and other pest problems; turf maintenance; and design, construction and renovation issues as they relate to plant health and control of pests.
Conducts cooperative research protects with, or in support of, a turf grass facility or facilities. This includes disease and pest control problems; evaluation of new or experimental agents to control pests or other turf problems. Also evaluates new turf grasses and other innovations that affect golf turf maintenance.
Participates in educational and extension turf grass activities to include teaching and learning. The advisor attends local, regional and national conferences, seminars and workshops as well as writes research summaries, reports, and magazine and newsletter articles to keep superintendents abreast of the latest developments related to the production of healthy golf turf; and organizes and conducts the NCGA Green Seminar and other educational meetings.

Course Rating and Handicapping

Golf is popular, in large part, because of its unique and equitable system of handicapping. Accurate hole measurements and course ratings serve and ensure the issuance of fair Handicap Indexes. The NCGA follows USGA principles to rate and measures each of its courses through the direction of staff and well-trained course raters.
The Handicap System relies upon “peer review” whereby individuals have an opportunity to review the scoring records of fellow members.
Post Where You Play! is a motto of the NCGA. In order to accomplish this goal, the NCGA supplies regular clubs with a computer system on which all NCGA members can post their scores.
The NCGA subscribes to the Golf Handicap and Information Network (GHIN), a nationwide handicapping network operated by the USGA, serving more than 1.8 million golfers. Through GHIN and the International Golf Network (IGN), NCGA members can post their rounds in more than 40 states and have the scores routed to their home course.
NCGA members receive monthly index updates that can be attached to plastic membership cards.

Rules and Competitions

The NCGA conducts more than 50 championships each year, the most extensive amateur tournament calendar in the nation, including the California Golf Association (State) Championships in conjunction with the Southern California Golf Association. More than 60,000 members participate annually, starting with club and sectional qualifying through the championships proper.

Competition is provided for all skill and age levels with golfers playing “for the gold.”

Medals—gold, silver, and bronze—are the sole but coveted prize in each of the tournaments. Many NCGA tournament championships are conducted at Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills and Poppy Ridge.

The NCGA also depends on member club golf courses for hosting NCGA, USGA and CGA qualifiers and championship locations. The tournament season begins in mid-March and ends in mid-December.

The NCGA is committed to developing tournament officials who are well trained in the Rules of Golf as established by the USGA and Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

A special certification program has been adopted by the Rules Committee to provide tournament participants with trained and certified tournament officials working at all NCGA events.

Rules Education

Rules education is the core of all training for NCGA tournament officials. All tournament officials attend a multi-day NCGA Rules Seminar at least once every three years. A rules certification program is available to those individuals who attain extensive rules knowledge. This program provides qualified rules officials and referees for all NCGA championships.

Rules of Golf seminars are attended by members of the Northern California Professional Golfers Association, the Pacific Women’s Golf Association, local USGA committee members, the California Women’s Amateur Championship Committee, the Sacramento Golf Council, SAY Golf and directors from the Junior Golf Association of Northern California. The seminars provide a dialogue for individuals interested in providing quality golf programs for amateur golfers.

Two Tournament Administration Seminars are offered annually to NCGA volunteers. These include information on local rules, course setup, conforming and non-conforming golf balls, tees and grips.

In 1998, the NCGA Rules Committee began offering club rules seminars. Each attendee receives a copy of the Rules of Golf and the club receives a Decisions of the Rules of Golf, published semi-annually by the USGA and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Open to both regular and associate clubs, the seminars are free of charge. The NCGA asks only that a club have a minimum of 35 members present.

Rules Books

Looking to get better informed about the Rules of Golf? Start by buying a copy of the rules from the USGA (908-234-2300). For more in-depth learning, purchase a copy of the Decisions on the Rules of Golf, published every two years by the USGA. Decisions are official proclamations from the USGA and/or R&A, who expand on or, in some cases, modify The Rules of Golf. Decisions come from real-life situations, and the book gets larger with each revision. Both rules publications listed above, as well as a third, The Rules in Brief, are available for reference at the USGA’s usage guidelines: Copyright restrictions prohibit downloading and re-assembling either of the manuals, The Rules of Golf or Decisions on the Rules of Golf, either in whole or in part. However, you are welcome to download the USGA Rules in Brief.

Communications

NCGA Golf Magazine

NCGA Golf, the official publication of the Northern California Golf Association, is the largest and one of the most respected regional golf magazines in the United States. The magazine is mailed to the more than 180,000 members of the NCGA, along with each of the more than 375 member golf clubs. NCGA Golf has evolved over the past two years to include more travel features and departments reflecting the interests of the entire membership.

NCGA Golf is widely considered one of the finest golf association magazines in the country. In fact, the Bluebook Edition was honored by the American Society of Association Executives as the No. 1 directory of its kind.

NCGNA Golf is published four times a year (January, April, July and October) and regularly features stories on golf courses, resorts, travel destinations and tournaments, along with its regular features on instruction, the Rules of Golf and other golf-related items. More regular features have been added in the last two years including a member spotlight, associate club focus and a spotlight on the various regions throughout Northern California.

The Bluebook, which is mailed in January, includes listings for member golf courses (including detailed maps) throughout Northern California. Also provided is tournament information for all NCGA events.

Non-NCGA members interested in purchasing a Bluebook may send a check for $18 (along with a return address) to the NCGA at P.O. Box 1157, Pebble Beach, CA 93953. NCGA members can purchase a replacement Bluebook for $5.

NCGA Website

The NCGA’s website—www.ncga.org—was launched in early 1998, establishing another first-rate service for NCGA members and other golfers. The site debuted a new look in 2006.

The website, which is administered entirely in-house, includes numerous helpful features and has information that is vital for NCGA members. Among the site’s most popular features is the Handicap Index Check, where members can view their current index, along with the posted scores that contributed to it.

Other popular features include up-to-date tournament results, a golf course directory, information on Poppy Hills and Poppy Ridge and updated NCGA news and information.

NCGA Foundation

The NCGA Foundation’s mission seeks to promote life skills and values through the game of golf to deserving youth in communities throughout Northern California.

There are many ways to support the Foundation. The Foundation accepts donations in the form of cash, stock, real estate, securities and other forms of property as tax-deductible contributions. Individual donations of $20 and over are automatically enrolled in Foundation membership. While we have many members that will donate individually, there are numerous other ways to support the NCGA Foundation. These include: the Club Enrollment Program, corporate donations, planned giving, and numerous others. For more information contact us.

Last year the Foundation developed a new program with the help of a generous donation from the Morton Foundation. The Youth on Course Program, while still in the beginning stages has grown tremendously over the past year and is designed to give thousands of kids access to local golf courses across Northern California, in turn increasing the probability of youth becoming life long golfers.

The NCGA Foundation Pro-Am, is held annually in August in conjunction with the NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship at Spyglass Hill. The event will continue to evolve and add to its stature in the coming years.

Our newest fundraising initiative is the One Man Scramble. This event, which allows participants a mulligan on each shot and holds its regional championship in October, shares proceeds with the Foundation.

Almost all administrative expenses of the Foundation are paid by the NCGA, ensuring nearly 100% of all monies donated are dedicated to youth. In the upcoming year, the Foundation continues to commit itself to further increasing the endowment. Another major focus of the financial plan is the Morton Fund and all monies donated to this fund will be appropriated to the Youth on Course Program.

Founded in 1989, the Northern California Golf Association Foundation, Inc is a non-profit IRS 501(c) (3) charitable organization. The NCGA Foundation operates under its own volunteer Board of Directors separate from the Northern California Golf Association, while continuing to maintain strong links to assure continuity of purpose and performance.

Strict auditing and accounting guidelines have been a staple of the Foundation for years and we will continue to keep a watchful eye to insure donated funds continue to help improve the lives of youth at junior programs, schools and other organizations.

Other Member Services