Back Creek GC's Zitofsky heads nine-hole corporate league

  “A bad day of golf beats a good day of work,” or so the old cliché goes.

Carl Zitofsky

  “It’s better than sitting behind a desk,” League Director Carl Zitofsky, who plays out of Back Creek Golf Club, said. “You leave work early, you play golf and the company pays for it. It’s not hard to sell to a lot of people.”

  For more than 50 years, the WIGL has presented companies with an opportunity to build camaraderie and to meet new people in an after-work and semi-competitive environment. Teams participate in one match per week from Monday through Thursday. Each team consists of six players.

  During a match, teams split into foursomes and engage in match play and stroke play competition. Each hole is worth a point. An individual’s net score is worth two points. That individual and his or her partner’s net score are worth five points, and finally, the overall team’s net score is worth five points.

  “Just in case there ever was going to be sandbagging, it takes it away because if you’re whipping my butt by eight or nine strokes, you don’t know what’s happening in the last group,” Zitofsky, of Middletown, Del., said. “They could be losing by 10. You’re not just going to let up.”

  Last year, two former champions clashed for the WIGL title at Odessa National Golf Club. MTM Technologies (2007) defeated Astra Zeneca (2008), 91-81, in an 18-hole bout.

  WIGL courses include Back Creek Golf Club, Cavaliers Country Club, Chesapeake Golf Club at Rising Sun, Deerfield Golf & Tennis Club, Delcastle Golf Course, Frog Hollow Golf Club, Odessa National Golf Club, The Club at Patriots Glen and Rock Manor Golf Course. WIGL features 36 teams.

  Each venue welcomes weekly matches with open arms.

  “Golf courses, in general, love leagues,” Zitofsky said. “It’s guaranteed revenue and easy work for them. They know it’s an excellent marketing opportunity. They’re going to get players that never played there before, and a lot of them are going to come back. We try to work in partnerships with them.”

  At the conclusion of each season, the WIGL presents an outing and awards dinner. Open to the first 144 players who sign up, the event features a four-man scramble, dinner, raffle prizes and awards presentation.

  “It’s a nice way to wrap-up the season,” Zitofsky, 42, said.

  Zitofsky joined the WIGL in 2003. At the time, he worked for Conde Nast Publications, a company hoping to assimilate into the Delaware area. Rather than pursuing a company softball team, Zitofsky suggested the WIGL, and Conde Nast ownership gave the green light to join.

  “We had fun,” he said. “We had people from a couple different departments and locations, so I got to meet people within my company that perhaps I wouldn’t have met.”

  John Reynolds has played in the WIGL for more than 25 years. He started as a manager of the Hewlett-Packard squad.

  Van Wells, a WIGL board member for 10 years, first became involved with the league as a player in the late 1970s.

  “I just started playing golf, and it was a reason for me to get out and play,” Wells, 71, of New Castle, Del., said. “You get to play in match play. There’s a lot of strategy going on.”

  In 2005, two members of WIGL’s leadership stepped down, leaving openings for league handicapper and secretary-treasurer positions open. The WIGL Board then called an emergency meeting, during which it nominated Zitofsky to “take over.”

  “This was after a meeting where they said, ‘If nobody takes it over, the league will fold,’ so I said I guess I’ll do it,” he said. “I liked the league, and I guess I’d shown from the couple years I was in it that I had a firm understanding of the rules and an interest in the league. It was a situation of everybody else takes one step back rather than somebody else taking a step forward.”

  After his appointment, Zitofsky merged the handicapper and secretary-treasurer positions to assume a role as league director. The transition from player to administrator felt “pretty smooth and seamless” to Zitofsky.

  “Most of the board members had been there a long time, so they were there to bounce ideas off of,” he said. “I didn’t have to re-invent the wheel. The league was here 50 years before me.”

  Since becoming WIGL’s director, Zitofsky updated its golf course line-up and improved its handicapping system. Reynolds believes WIGL will continue to improve under Zitofsky’s leadership.

  “Carl’s played a large part in taking the league to where it is today,” Reynolds said. “He’s grown us tremendously. We’re playing a lot of new courses."

  In 2009, Zitofsky launched an official WIGL Web site, which features league news, schedules, results and apparel.

  “It serves the league’s purpose,” Zitofsky said. “It’s not fancy. It’s not a whole lot of bells and whistles, but it’s a shared place that the players can always go to. It’s actually helped us get a lot of teams.”

  To participate in the playoffs, a player needs to compete in at least three matches during the regular season. Furthermore, to join a team, a player must be affiliated with a company that’s a WIGL member.

  “The people are our greatest asset,” Zitofsky said. “I’ve had the opportunity to play golf with a lot of nice people. It’s competitive. Knowing each week that I play, I’m going to have fun with a different group of six people, to me that’s the best thing. The league has been here long before me, and it will be here long after me, and the reason for it is the people.”

  For more information, visit the WIGL Web site

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