Not only do our rules officials display professionalism at our local and state events, they are continually making a difference at the national and international level by officiating some of the most prestigious United States Golf Association events. In 2025, Tim Brand, Sue May, Rusty Beckel and Tim Quinn repped the SNGA in grand style.
The events that one or more of them officiated included U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Women’s Amateur, U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Senior Women’s Open and the World Amateur Team Championships.
Brand is the SNGA’s assistant executive director and director of rules and operations and appreciates the efforts of each rules official and knows what it means for them to be recognized on a national scale.
“We are on the smaller side of associations, yet we always seem to have at least one official at all of these events each year,” Brand said.
“I know for a fact that is not the case with a lot of other even larger associations. We have a big impact at these national events, and it means a lot to us and to the SNGA to have that respect in our knowledge and ability.”
Not only is Brand organizing the operations of the SNGA, but he had the opportunity to hit the road this year and be part of the national championships for the first time. He was at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open and the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
“First off, it was really cool to be at the Senior Women’s Open, and the women were very happy to be there,” Brand said. “The senior women don’t have a large senior tour like the men do, so they don’t have a lot of opportunities to play, so it was nice to see how important it was to them. That was my first Open, and it was cool to see Annika Sorenstam, Julie Inkster, Laura Davies, and so many big names in the history of women’s golf.
“As for the rules officiating part of it, I was in the scoring tent for one of the days and got to meet a lot of the players. And, typically, that’s the Open event that a rules official starts at right before the USGA moves them on to a U.S. Women’s Open or a men’s Senior Open, and eventually a U.S. Open.”
Brand also found it interesting with how accurate the women were and how that limited the rulings as compared to the U.S. Men’s Mid-Amateur.
“As an example, each time a referee has to make an official ruling, we log in it in the system so that if there are any issues, the USGA has all the information,” Brand said. “I think for the entire U.S. Women’s Open there were about 65 rulings among the entire group of officials, whereas at the Men’s Mid-Amateur, there were probably 65 rulings in the first two hours of the first day. So those women, they hit it dead straight. They don’t miss fairways. They are great players. We spent a lot of our time doing some of the other kind of stuff you do as a rules official like watching pace of play and helping people out with certain things.”
Tim and his team are on the job. Locally, regionally, nationally … and internationally, And we thank them.
