Retiring Ross will miss MSGA job; Lawton joins Florida tour

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For a golfer whose part-time job requires working almost every weekend from mid-April to the end of October, getting done with that job would seem to be a joy.

For Pittsfield’s Roger Ross, Central Division scorer for the Maine State Golf Association for the past six years, it’s not so cut and dried.

“I’m sort of dreading it,” said the 66-year-old Ross, whose last tournament will be at Sugarloaf Golf Club in Carrabassett Valley the first week of July. “It’s kept me active, kept me involved. I’m a people person.”

Aspects of the job can take their toll, though, and that’s why Ross is getting done.

“The only problem now, at my age, is the long hours, the travel, and the responsibility,” said Ross. “I had to leave the house at 5:30 [a.m.] to be at the course by 7 to be able to set up, so the boys can be ready to go at 7:30.”

The opening leaves a void for Nancy DeFrancesco, executive director of the MSGA, in more ways than one.

“It’s going to be a really difficult change for me,” said DeFrancesco. “He is so much more than a scorer; he’s been a true ambassador for the game in Maine.”

Ross said that one aspect of golf that he particularly enjoyed was the friendships he built.

“I’ve totally enjoyed [scoring] the tournaments. They’re a great bunch of guys,” said Ross.

Through golf, Ross became friends with Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers, former New York Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry, paraplegic pro Dennis Walters, University of Maine men’s hockey coach Shawn Walsh, and philanthropist Harold Alfond.

Ross let DeFrancesco know at the beginning of the season when he would be getting done.

“What I figured was I would let Nancy or Romeo [Laberge, the MSGA tournament director] have a chance to train a new person,” said Ross.

DeFrancesco appreciates that she will have time to find a successor because the MSGA at that time will be in the shared sites portion of its schedule. Southern scorer Dave Richardson will handle all of the summer events after Ross gets done.

“We won’t need anyone until the week after Labor Day,” said DeFrancesco, who is taking applications for the position.

“I have a couple of people interested,” she said. “I would like to get a couple of applications from people farther north.”

The job does require some computer literacy, according to DeFrancesco, and Ross has been involved in the changeover from hand tallying to letting the computer do the work – most of the time.

“I had it shut down on me one time,” said Ross of the computer. “I had to come home right after [the tournament] with 200-300 players.

“I had to have my wife read in all the scores [as he typed]. It took five hours.”

He will get to play more of the tournaments he’s had to miss in recent years such as the member-guest and Masonic tournaments at J.W. Parks Golf Course in Pittsfield, where he is a charter member.

He will also get to spend more time with his family, which is growing fast. He and his wife Ramona are now great-grandparents.

Lawton to play Florida tour

Bangor native Brian Lawton has signed up to play in the Montgomery Sports theGolfTour.com in Florida.

The series of 16 tournaments, including four major events, runs June 5 through Oct. 5 with a total purse of $2.4 million.

First place in each of the major events pays $52,000, and the player of the year earns a 2001 Ford Explorer.

The season entry fee is $16,500, which had to be paid by March 1.

Lawton was a standout golfer for Bangor High School and the University of Maine. He won the 1992 Bangor Daily News Amateur Golf Tournament and the 1996 Greater Bangor Open.

The other attractive aspect to the 3-year-old tour is that all of the events are relatively close by, within 53 miles of each other.

Dave Barber is the NEWS golf writer. The Golf scene will appear each Wednesday through September. He can be reached at 990-8170 or by e-mail at dbarber@bangordailynews.net.