Jim Meehan: Calling all left-handed golfers: National tourney coming to Avondale in June

I’ve covered, participated or read/heard about tournaments involving golf and clay target shooting, golf and fishing, golf and fastest time to finish 18 holes, glow balls and hickory shaft clubs.

Side note: Tough to beat night golf in Montana and sharing the fairways with deer.

A new one, for me anyway, arrived via email recently that caught my eye: The National Association of Left-handed Golfers’ (NALG) 87th annual national championship is coming to Avondale Golf Course from June 9-11.

If you weren’t aware there’s an NALG or a national tournament for lefties, you’re not alone.

“I hear that from just about everybody I speak with,” laughed Sid Miner, NALG chairman.

So consider me NANALG (Now Aware of National Association of Left-handed Golfers). I write left-handed and kick left-footed, so I’ve heard of International Left-handers Day, but I had to look it up to discover the date is Aug. 13.

My only left-handed experience was hitting four or five balls surprisingly decent on the range and briefly putting left-handed when right-handed was repeatedly producing the wrong results. Years ago I wrote about a Post Falls High golfer who switched from right- to left-handed putting to combat the yips. He promptly won two tournaments.

The NALG was founded in 1936 by a left-handed pro named Ben Richter based in St. Louis, Miner said. The first national tourney drew 147 competitors.

One of the main reasons it was formed was to bring attention to the lack of quality equipment for lefties at the time.

“That is absolutely where this got started,” Miner said. “I’m 64 and I started playing when I was 7 and the idea of finding left-handed clubs just about didn’t exist.”

Back in those days, left-handed players usually just played right-handed when they were introduced to the game. The scarcity of left-handed equipment and to some degree left-handed instructors hasn’t been as much of an issue for decades.

An estimated 10-12% of golfers are southpaws, including roughly 5% on the PGA Tour. Bob Charles, Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir and Bubba Watson are the only lefties to win a major. Mickelson, a natural right-hander, reportedly learned to swing left-handed by mirroring his father’s swing.

The NALG tournament had as many as 250-300 participants at the turn of the century, but those figures have steadily dropped. Miner projects this year’s tourney will draw 40-50.

“If you go back over the last five, 10 years, the growth in lefty golfers is almost double that of right-handed on a percentage basis,” Miner said. “For some reason, our participation started declining. I would say it got to be the same people every year and we only live so long. And we really didn’t get it done in terms of recruiting younger people to play.”

To that end, the tournament is now 54 holes instead of 72 and a weekend event instead of during the week. The goal is to attract more players in their 30s and 40s who don’t want to take extended time off from work.

The NALG offers nine state tournaments, the closest in northern California, but the national tournament doesn’t require qualifying. Interested players only need to complete an entry form, available on the NALG.org website, and they’re in the field.

There are several age-group divisions. The championship division winner typically averages scores in the mid-to-high 70s. Net divisions will be offered for the first time.

The World Association of Left-handed Golfers (WALG) will stage its 28th world championship next April in Vietnam.

A handful of players have competed in 25-35 national tournaments. One has signed up to play in his 38th, but another with more than 40 appearances will miss the June event because of an illness.

“We have one guy that isn’t playing this year but he plays golf both ways, and he’s a 3-handicap on both sides of the ball,” Miner said.

Miner hopes some Inland Northwest left-handers will find the concept and format appealing.

“Our stated (entry) deadline is April 30, but we can go right up to the tournament and accept,” he said. “If anybody has an interest to learn more, reach out to me directly by email or by phone (both listed on NALG.org home page). I’d be all excited to hear from anybody.”

Asked if he’ll be in the field, Miner responded, “Oh yeah, I’m playing. I’ve never won it. It’s hard to run it and take care of everything, but before I leave this earth I’m going to win it.”

Jim Meehan can be reached at jimm@spokesman.com.