MARIETTA, GA – In a year that included a pair of victories and many other dominating performances, Brenda Pictor of Marietta was selected as the Tommy Barnes Award winner for the second consecutive year, signifying the Georgia State Golf Association’s overall player of the year for 2011. Pictor was announced as the winner and honored at the GSGA’s Players of the Year Luncheon, held at Cherokee Town Club in Atlanta on January 21, 2012.
During the 2011 GSGA competitions season, Pictor distanced herself from the rest of the field, earning an impressive 550 more points than the next-closest competitor in the Senior Women’s Player of the Year race.
In the inaugural Georgia Senior Women’s Match Play Championship at Doublegate Country Club in Albany, Pictor topped Maria Johnson of Jesup in the 19-hole final match to win the first senior women’s GSGA event of the year. Later in the year, Pictor made it to the quarterfinals of the Georgia Women’s Match Play Championship at Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton, before falling to Lauren Court of Lawrenceville, 2 up.
At the Georgia Top 60 Women’s Classic at The Brickyard at Riverside in Macon, Pictor finished in a five-person tie for 12th. Finally at the GSGA Senior Women’s Championship at Brookstone Golf and Country Club in Acworth, Pictor dominated the field and won by 12 strokes. The win was her third consecutive senior women’s championship and fourth overall (2007, ’09, ’10, ’11), and the 12-stroke margin of victory is believed to be the largest in event history.
In the Georgia Women’s Golf Association (GWGA) Amateur Championship at Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee in Eatonton, Pictor earned the Burns Cup, awarded to the senior golfer with the lowest 36-hole score.
Pictor qualified for and competed in a number of national championships in 2011. At the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Bayville Golf Club in Virginia Beach,Va., she earned medalist honors in the stroke-play qualifying round before falling to the eventual champion in the quarterfinals. Next up was the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, where she advanced to the round of 16 before falling to the eventual runner-up at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn.
The award’s namesake, Tommy Barnes of Atlanta, was one of Georgia’s legendary amateur golfers. Among his many accomplishments, Barnes captured the 1941 Georgia Amateur Championship, won the 1947 and ’49 Southern Amateur titles, qualified for 16 consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships and played in the 1950 Masters Tournament. In 1989, at age 73, Barnes shot 62 to break Bobby Jones’ 67-year-old record at his home course, East Lake Golf Club. He also had a long history of service to GSGA and other golf associations, and was a member of numerous Halls of Fame. Barnes passed away in 2007 at age 91.