GOLF IS (NOT) MY ONLY GAME...

No one will ever accuse Elk City Golf & C.C. member,  Ann McLachlan Cowan, simply known as "Ann" of not playing to win. She is well known, many times to a fault, for being a person who acts, preaches, expects, and feels that the only way to play anything is by doing your best effort to never come in second place.

If there is "any fun" in playing anything, it comes from always giving the best effort to see how high she can finish. She is one of those people who always wins, not because of the results -not always coming on top of the list of competitors-, but because of the attitude, where winning is the effort to play as hard as you can, to give it your best shot and see how well you can do. There is never the "this is good enough", it is always, "good, but it can get better", which some people may even resent. That is the only way those who like to win act at all levels. Whether you win or lose, you give your best and can always sit together and have lunch with those you competed against.

Those who know her, do not realize that this is the way she has been from her youth, neither does anyone realize that we have experienced a "mellowed down" version of Ann. Hard to imagine, uh! But it is true, particularly considering the reason for this particular post: Ann just came back from a trip to her hometown of Danbury, Connecticut, where, after a little over four decades of leaving high school, she was inducted, in her high school's Athletic Hall of Fame. Her list of accomplishments is long and little of it, if anything, was unknown until this moment.

Danbury, CT.,  is a nice big and cold town of 83,000 in western Connecticut, just a wedge shot from the state line with New York on I-84. Ann was accompanied by her brothers and sisters, most of whom still live in the area, and her grandson Cooper. So, consider this: if she is known to be so "intense" now, just think what she was like when she was competing in several different sports as a teenager, where it is easy to imagine that no one wanted any "part of her".

The 2014 Induction Booklet (on it's 8th anniversary of recognizing previous athletes), mentions that Ann competed in basketball, field hockey, javelin, and softball among others. Even though there was no golf team in her high school, the induction makes mention of her golf abilities by winning the junior championship three years in a row at Ridgewood C.C., and her successful participation in the Women's Southern Amateur, where three years ago she won the second flight playing against women half her age!

In basketball, during her senior year, she made it a goal to personally outscore the competition (Ann? Figure that out!), and she did, averaging 30 points per game and never once missing a free throw! no wonder the team went undefeated that season.

A year earlier, she had decided she wanted to do something different during the summer, so she signed up for track and  taught herself on how to throw a javelin.... you could say she learned well enough, since she went on to win the state championship two years in a row! She was also in the swimming team. In short, if there was something to compete in, she tried it. But, the biggest listed accomplishment is her fourteen (yes, 14!!) varsity letters!

The list goes on, which, given the nomination eligibility, which is rather strict, as it should be for any Hall of Fame, Ann's nomination may have come at few years later than it should have (the first item is that the inductee must be out of high school at least ten years), but, perhaps in at least one (selfish) way, very timely since we all can share the enjoyment with our 2012 and 2014 Women's Club Champion! (Note: Ann was approached last year, but the induction was scheduled during the week of the Women's Southern Amateur, in which Ann competes every year, so her induction was delayed to this year).

THANKS FOR SHARING THIS AWESOME MOMENT AND,

CONGRATULATIONS ANN!