‘I Just Wanted To Play Golf’

At 85, Longtime Women’s Club Leader and Champ AlRuth Toney Never Tires of the Game

By Elizabeth J. Wheeler

Special to the GPHN

AlRuth Toney recalls what happened when, back in the 1950s, she asked the men in the all-male golf league if she could join.

“They told me to form my own league,” said Toney. So she did.

“We played on Tuesdays after work at Lowry Air Force Base Golf Course. We had about a dozen ladies. It was great fun!”

AlRuth Toney was named after her two aunts – Alberta and her Auntie Ruth. Now 85, she has lived in the Park Hill area for about 60 years. The women’s golf champ has been a leader in the City Park Ladies Golf Association (CPWGA) since 1953. For 42 years, she worked in the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center, before retiring as an accountant. She, along with a racially diverse group of government employees, played at Denver’s other military golf course, Fitzsimons. The group of women would not have been able to play at most golf courses.

In fact, in Denver in that era, blacks were restricted where they could live and go and what they could participate in. Five Points and the Cherry Creek area, then the site of the Denver dump, were the two neighborhoods where most non-military blacks lived.

Keeps her clubs in the car

In 1952 a spokesman from City Park Golf Course came to the Finance Center to encourage people to come to the Denver course and learn how to play golf. Toney jumped at the invitation. The following year she took up the reins of the CPWGA, which had been in existence since 1930. Interest had lagged and the organization basically existed in name only.

“I just wanted to play golf and so did a few other ladies, and then with recruitment by word-of -mouth and seeing us on the golf course, others joined us,” she said. “I was the contact and became the person people approached if they wanted to play. It was never established solely for black women.

“I think the ease of ‘starting’ and taking charge came about mainly because City Park was managed by a Hispanic family,” Toney continues. “The two Chavez brothers were managers, and their wives worked as starters on the course. We never had a problem getting on the course. We bought a year’s pass. I don’t remember if there were locker rooms for women at City Park. We wore our golf clothes and changed into shoes with cleats in the parking lot. Of course, cleats are now banned. I kept my clubs in my car both winter and summer – just in case I wanted to play – anytime.”

Toney identified two goals of interest. 1. To encourage young black girls to play; and 2. To encourage women who at one time played and were still interested as well as beginners who wanted to learn golf.

These were lofty goals, then and now. The Ladies Professional Golf Association had just been organized in 1950. This year, two 24-year-old African-American golfers, Sadena Parks and Cheyenne Woods, are only the fifth and sixth black women golfers to be admitted to this prestigious group.

And, while interest in golf has definitely increased since the 1950s, only about 4.7 million women play, a decline from 6.5 million in 2006, according to the National Golf Foundation. About 16 million men currently play golf.

Important life lessons

The 1972 Title IX, educational amendments to the Civil Rights Act, allowed girls to play on sports teams previously only open to boys. However, high school girls’ golf teams did not automatically spring up across the country.

In Denver, East High, along with West, North, South, Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, have girls’ golf programs, according to Justin Saylor, manager of athletics for Denver Public Schools. East Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Lisa Porter says about 30 to 35 girls sign up for the program at her school each year.

City Park Golf Course is one of several Denver courses that offer the “First Tee” program, which teaches children to golf along with learning important life lessons. Toney is a strong supporter of this program. A brick with her name on it is on the path to the clubhouse. She has donated clubs to the program and encourages others to donate equipment and money as well.

For the past several years, Toney has headed up the Monday group of the CPWGA. Women who have both played in the group for years and just joined, often greet her as she parks her 2004 gold Cadillac Seville, complete with gold rimmed tires, in the parking lot. She alights with an agility that belies her 85 years and greets each one.

She is soon on the golf course, belting a drive or coaching a ball on the putting green. “One time, baby,” she cajoles the ball.

Banter on the course

Toney seems to play best when her long-time friend Fannye Evans is in the foursome. “I’m still aspiring to match her golf skills. When I tell her I want to out drive her, her response is always, “OK, but it’s the second stroke that counts!’’ If the other members of the foursome happen to be Augusta Hardy or Bernice Hatter, they just shake their heads, having heard this banter for years.

Bobby Jackson is another player, having returned to the group this year. Previously, she played with Toney and her group in the 1970s and 1980s. “AlRuth is wonderful. She has done so much for so many women, some of whom have now passed.”

Molly Leamon, who is new to the Monday group, praises her mentor.

“I contacted AlRuth to say that I was very much a beginner and wanted to learn to play golf. She was so welcoming by email and then even more so in person, as she is one of those women who is larger than life because there is so much depth and compassion to her.

“When playing with her,” Leamon continues, “she is always thoughtful in her words and actions, as she says encouraging words and provides treats to keep you going emotionally and physically. I am in awe that she is 85 years young … she never complains and is grateful for all that she has both on and off the golf course.”

Janet Griffith, who has played with the group for three years, concurs. “She always encourages every one and is gracious to all. She is fun to be around. I like hearing about her earlier days of playing golf. She is not afraid to speak about her faith. She is a light to all who know her. I admire her and want to be more like her. I’m so blessed to have met her.”

Toney is helpful to the women in her group on and off the course. Helen Ridge, who played with her in the late 1990s, recalled how her friend was there for her during her recovery from brain surgery. She reminisced when Toney received a putter from the CPWGA as the top player and how happy everyone was for her.

At times, Toney recounts some of the hard lessons of golf she has learned, beginning 62 years ago when she was a young woman of 23.

“When you push, you lose your sync, and it is too hard to get back into the game.”