Occoneechee Women's League
(OWL)
History of OWL
Kay Gruninger:
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"Sometime between 1994 and 1996 a group of women tennis players at Chapel Hill Tennis Club decided that we would take some golfing lessons and try our hand at golf as a fallback for when we got too old to play tennis. We started taking lessons at Finley and playing at the nine hole course at Twin Lakes.
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This group included Kay Gruninger, Kay Richardson, Susan Gibson, Bunny Wheeler, and others no longer living locally. (Diana Santilli, Leigh Fincke, Marion Schneider, and Judy Blake who is deceased.). If I remember correctly, Ceece Abrahamson, Betty White and Mary Guckes joined us pretty early on.
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Diana and her husband had begun playing at Occoneechee so at some point we started playing there every Thursday, taking turns at organizing. I don't know exactly when that was but I finally joined Occoneechee in May of 1997 so this year marks my 20th year of membership. (I found the paper telling me I had been approved for membership!)
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Barb Dupre moved here in 1999 and when she inquired at Occoneechee looking for a women’s group to play with, they put her in touch with this group. We were so happy to have her and eventually gave her the reins for organizing us. I still have a certificate from July, 1999 for taking my job of golf monitor leadership role seriously so don't think Barb was here then. It is funny what I have kept!
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We would never have dreamed that our group would have grown to be the large, wonderful group that it is today. Thank you to all you young'uns who have grown the group! I am happy to still play with you all!”
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Barbara Dupre:
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“I moved to Durham, NC in 1999. By June I had
found the ladies group at Occoneechee. At that
time it was a small group of ladies that had played
tennis together in Chapel Hill. And as a group they
decided to learn how to play golf and played at
OGC. When I called the course to see if they had a ladies league I was told of the group (not a league, just friends playing together) which was organized by Diane Santilli. Two or three years later Diane and her husband moved to Pinehurst so I took over organizing. It was very loose organizing. We met every Thursday at a certain time and went off in foursomes decided on the spot. All I had to do was secure the tee times.
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I did that for 5-6 years. By then I was playing in EWGA and FWGA (as were many of the regulars) and then TAIL. I no longer wanted to be that involved. Betty White agreed to be the organizer of the organizers, meaning someone took a month and secured tee times and sent out the email. Betty only made sure every month was someone else’s turn and they were ready to take over. That continued for 3 years. At the Christmas Party Betty sent around the signup sheet for the next year. There were no tournaments or fun events or even money involved during any of these years.
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I then stopped traveling with the FWGA and EWGA groups and only did the TAIL events so I announced at the Christmas party in 2011 that I would take over the group again starting in 2012. And I have organized ever since that point. I don’t remember dates and or years Betty or I were the organizers.
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From the original group Kay G, Kay R, Betty White, and Susan Gibson are the only ones left. Kay R. Susan, and Betty only come on occasion. Kay G is the only regular left of the group.
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A side note: in the early years we did not have a golf pro. All we had was Kevin who has since passed away waiting for a kidney. Kevin was a super nice guy that ran the pro shop and tried to promote our group. Around 2008-9 The course then hired Brian
as the pro. He left in 2014 and Jim Schwab
became the pro. Jim has been a great promoter
and partner for our group and has helped us to
grow both in our numbers and in our golf game.”
Original OWL members (L to R): Susan Gibson, Kay Richardson, Bunny Wheeler, Kay Gruninger,
Betty White (standing)
Jim Schwab
