Mark Ohrenschall

JPMGC 2024: A Year of Growth and Service, 

by Mark Ohrenschall, 
President, Jackson Park Men’s Golf Club. 

As the 2024 golf season concludes (although many of us diehards will keep playing during the cold, wet months into 2025), it’s a good time to look back and assess the year soon ending.

For Jackson Park Men’s Golf Club, I view 2024 as a year of growth and service.

Tournament Director/Handicap Chairman and data maven Jeff Schoening recently compiled and shared figures illustrating our club’s growth.

For 2024 through Nov. 14, JPMGC total membership tallied 1,181–the fifth consecutive year of increase, and more than doubling since 2019, when the overall number was 481. Our regular membership has likewise more than doubled since 2019, from 237 then to 499 in 2024 (that excludes a smattering of junior, super senior, upgrades to regular, allied and honorary members). Our total membership now prominently includes associate members, also more than doubling since 2019, from 241 then to 666 this year.

The rate of growth in these membership categories has slowed since 2021, but the overall rising trend persists. This undoubtedly owes partly to the pandemic-fueled golf boom. As most of us have found in recent years, tee times at local courses, especially during peak season, are increasingly harder to get–including in our club competitions.

I think this growth also shows members value what they find in JPMGC.

Tournament participation is a key indicator. In 2019, according to Jeff’s data, we had 1,119 tournament players. That number more than tripled in 2024, to 3,493. Total payouts in club competitions have followed a similar trend line, rising from $26,624 in 2019 to $78,932 in 2024. It’s a pretty simple formula: More participants lead to more payouts for more players (see Jeff’s tournament report in this issue for more details).

Growth poses challenges (did I mention tee-time availability?) but it also reflects popularity.

To help us better understand what members like (and would like to improve) about our club, we plan to send out a membership survey in early 2025. Look for more information on that coming soon.

A second aspect of 2024 worth highlighting, IMHO, is our club’s commitment to service.

JPMGC co-sponsored two benefit tournaments at Jackson Park this year, in June and July, which raised a total of about $14,000 for local organizations: $9,700 for Harvest Against Hunger and $4,300 for the First Tee of Greater Seattle. Kudos to Lee Jones and Jeff Schoening for their central roles in organizing these highly successful events.

We also conducted the 15th Annual Jackson Park Junior Golf Classic in late August, giving 55 boys and girls an opportunity to experience tournament golf in a lower-key setting. Dan Puetz Sr. is our club’s ringleader for this truly special event.

JPMGC member (and immediate past president) Walt Dickhoff constructed a sand/seed bottle rack to facilitate members and other golfers filling in divots at the course.

You can read about these (and more) elsewhere in this newsletter; together they represent our club’s spirit of service to the course, the game and to larger communities.

We also serve when we play by the rules of golf and follow golf etiquette; when we play at a reasonable pace; when we fix ball marks on greens and fill in divots on fairways; when we show good sportsmanship regardless of outcomes; when we support our fellow golfers through the trials and triumphs we all experience, with empathy, humor and/or trash-talking, as appropriate for the occasion; and when we take other positive actions that help make golf the greatest game of all.

Thanks to all who helped create a memorable 2024 for Jackson Park Men’s Golf Club: members, tournament participants and guests, tournament organizers, board of trustees, Jackson Park staff and others who joined our golfing paths this year.

Happy Holidays, and here’s a toast to another great year in 2025.