By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The Lake Monticello Ladies Golf Association (LMLGA) celebrated 50 years of competitive golf on Aug 21. With 25 plus women golfers and the Fluvanna County golf team in attendance as guests, the LMLGA heard a talk by UVA women’s golf coach Ria Scott. Scott’s presentation was impressive, as she detailed her highly successful coaching career and explained how she came to be a lover of competitive team golf. Golf is usually seen as an individual sport and on the professional level it is every player for themselves. However, on the high school and college levels it is played as a team sport with the combined scores of multiple teammates determining the match outcome.
Scott explained that as a youth, she was involved in a number of sports but eventually chose golf. She walked on to the women’s golf team at University of California – Berkeley and eventually moved up through the college ranks to become a pro, playing in Asia including some events in her native Philippines. She came to the U.S. at the age of six.
She started her college coaching career at the University of San Francisco, taking the job almost by accident. After working the USF team into the top 25 in the national rankings, she was offered the women’s coaching job at the University of Oregon. She coached at Oregon for eight years, with considerable success. She was the first foreign born coach in the U.S. She then moved to UVA, which she described as her “favorite place.” She has coached the Cavaliers for seven years and has continued to have considerable coaching success. She explained that she currently has six scholarships to give out as full or partial grants.
Before Scott spoke, Regina York the current president of the LMLGA presented a short history of women’s golf at Lake Monticello. She noted that there are now approximately 80 women golfers on the association’s membership list. She also explained that the association roster includes women of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. She pointed out that the Lake Monticello women have been consistent winners of the annual Jefferson Cup competition, which pits women from numerous central Virginia golf courses against each other. It was also noted that a number of former LMLGA presidents were in attendance, including 98-year-old Doris Gardner.
