July 8, 2008 editorial: Fore! Incoming tourists

The just-concluded tournament hosted by the Elizabethtown Country Club provided a week of undeniably exciting golf but on another level demonstrated the great potential for this community in being able to put on tournaments in a variety of sports.

The 82nd annual Women’s Kentucky State Amateur Championship wasn’t decided until the 18th hole on the last day of play when the local fan favorite, Elizabethtown resident and Country Club member Beverly Games lost 1-up to University of Louisville sophomore Laura Anderson.

Turnout for the annual state amateur tournament was up a bit this year despite a tightening economy, attributed in part by Judy Lyle, executive secretary for the Women’s Kentucky State Golf Association, to the central location of Elizabethtown. Lyle credited the Country Club, the Elizabethtown Tourism and Convention Bureau, in fact the whole community for making this year’s competition “a great tournament.”

Lyle commended the motel accommodations, which she called reasonable and appreciated the convention bureau assisting competitors and their families to secure rooms. And there’s a lot to do in the community, she said. Lyle said the association would consider returning to Elizabethtown for its state tournament in a few years when the course upgrade is complete and the reworked greens matured.

“We’d love to come back here,” Lyle said.

The resounding success of this golf tournament, added to the statewide reputation of the massively attended swimming competitions hosted by the E-town Swim and Fitness Center, should erase any doubts about the potential of the proposed restaurant-financed Field of Dreams in Elizabethtown. The comments of the participants and their expressed desire to return should be enough to refute the naysayers who would deny the benefits that  baseball and soccer state or regional tournaments could bring to Elizabethtown and Hardin County.

The success of the 82nd annual Women’s Kentucky State Amateur Championship at Elizabethtown Country Club should make optimistic converts out of even the most pessimistic objectors and spur the development of this community’s own sports complex. It showed what can be accomplished by a community working together.

This editorial represents a consensus of The News-Enterprise editorial board.