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East Oregonian
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Green: ‘Golf is a game that can be played by all generations and all people’
Continued from Page A1
The event will be the 17th
stop on the Epson Tour’s 2022
schedule, welcoming profes-
sional female golfers from
all over the United States
and more than 30 countries.
The tournament will feature
between 133 and 144 play-
ers, but the fi nal roster will be
announced a couple of weeks
before the event.
Next year, the Wildhorse
Ladies Classic will be in
August.
Wildhorse is the fifth
tribal venue to sponsor an
Epson Tour event. Circling
Raven and Morongo Golf
Club in California are two
others.
The Wildhorse Ladies
Classic is one of three new
events on the Epson Tour
schedule this season. The
others are in Tuscaloosa,
Alabama, and Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
“The Epson Tour has
the core values we want to
promote,” George said. “We
want to promote the game of
golf in our region, with the
focus on our youth, espe-
cially girls golf. It’s a sport
that really hasn’t attracted a
lot of support in our area. A
lot of high schools don’t even
have a girls team. It needs a
boost, and we would love to
partake in that.”
The 2022 season will
conclude with the Epson Tour
Championship from Oct. 6-9
in Daytona Beach, Florida, at
LPGA International. The top
10 will receive LPGA Tour
membership for 2023.
Recent Epson Tour grad-
uates include Olympic gold
medalist and top-ranked
American, Nelly Korda, as
well as fellow major champi-
ons, Hannah Green and Patty
Tavatanakit.
A top-notch venue
Listed as one of Ameri-
ca’s top casino golf courses
by Golf Digest, Wildhorse
off ers more than 7,000 yards
Principal:
Continued from Page A1
tutelage of former Superin-
tendent Fred Maiocco and
former Assistant Superin-
tendent Wade Smith. Nearly
nine years later, Headings
said he was ready to return
to the top job.
If the board chooses
Headings, he said he plans to
be out and about in schools
and the community as
much as possible.
“I don’t enjoy sitting in my
offi ce,” he said. “I don’t enjoy
offi ce work.”
Bot h St a n f ield a nd
Hermiston have signifi-
cant Latino populations
and Headings was asked
the same question Casey
was about what he would
do to help them in Pendle-
ton. While Headings didn’t
want to implement anything
before further studying the
situation, Headings said
Stanfi eld had some success
with Hispanic family nights
at the schools to increase
trust and participation in the
Latino community.
Uber:
Continued from Page A1
agreed to the deal under
pressure from city staff.
Some city councilors were
skeptical as well, pointing
out the city couldn’t prop-
erly evaluate the program
if both weren’t running at
the same time. Mayor John
Turner eventually cut off
debate and requested staff
return with an ordinance the
council could consider at its
April 5 meeting.
Missing f rom these
discussions was Uber. While
Uber sets some standards
around drivers and vehicles,
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Jim White, of Pendleton, tees off Thursday, March 31, 2022, at the Wildhorse Golf Course, which Sept. 2-4 hosts the Wildhorse
Ladies Classic, the 17th stop on the Epson Tour’s 2022 schedule, welcoming professional female golfers from all over the
United States and more than 30 countries.
of pristine greens with fi ve
lakes and 66 sand bunkers.
The John Steidel designed
course sits at the base of the
Blue Mountains and has been
open since 1997.
Though the course has
a good reputation, Epson
Tour offi cials made a visit
March 23 to check out every
last inch of the course.
“They loved the course,
and said we are ready to have
the tournament right now,”
George said. “That was nice
to hear.”
Mike Hegarty, director of
golf at Wildhorse, said the
course is in such good shape
that they won’t have to close
the course ahead of the event.
“We are fortunate to be
known for good course condi-
tions,” Hegarty said. “Our
golf course superintendent
Phil Lagao does a nice job.
It will be nice to feature the
entire resort. It’s a very cool
thing. We are very excited to
have this event come to our
facility, and excited to show
them Wildhorse hospitality.”
The course also will have
fl ags representing all of the
countries represented at the
tournament.
“It’s a global event and we
will be treating it as such,”
George said. “We will put on
a good show. We want them
to talk highly of Pendleton,
Oregon.”
Wildhorse is the home
course for Pendleton and
Nixyaawii high schools, it
hosts several tournaments
a year and off ers junior golf
clinics in the summer. It also
is open to the public.
“Golf is a game that can
be played by all generations
and all people,” George said.
“They can play together.
That’s a benefi t we see here at
Wildhorse. The Elders with
their grandkids on the course
or on the driving range.”
George said he hopes the
Epson Tour will generate a
little more interest locally
in the sport.
“Having this event, which
is comprised of young ladies
who have graduated from
college, is positive for our
area,” George said. “If you
look at it, there are a lot of
young ladies who want to be
professionals. To even qual-
ify for the Epson Tour, it’s
very competitive.”
It takes a village
Just like with the Pendle-
ton Round-Up, events of this
size depend on volunteers to
make sure everything runs
smoothly.
The Wildhorse Ladies
Classic is looking for about
150 volunteers to help with
a multitude of tasks during
the event.
Volunteers will assist with
scoring, help with parking
and ticket distribution, and
act as marshals and spotters.
One of the biggest chal-
lenges will be to fi nd volun-
teers to provide housing for
some of the tournament play-
ers.
“We haven’t really
launched anything,” George
said. “We still have a lot
to do. We are looking for
volunteers, and community
members to host players to
help them defray costs for
housing. These are young
ladies and travel can be
expensive.”
Interested volunteers can
visit www.wildhorseresort.
com/resort/golf/tournaments
for information and to regis-
ter.
Wildhorse off ers 300 hotel
rooms and has a full-ser-
vice recreational vehicle
park and teepee village, but
public relations manager
Mary Liberty-Traughber
said the resort will not be
able to accommodate all of
the expected 2,000 players,
volunteers and fans. They are
working with other proper-
ties to arrange housing.
“It is something we
are working on,” Liber-
ty-Traughber said. “This
will benefi t the entire city.
We will need hotel rooms
around the city for the volun-
teers and people coming in to
watch the tournament. There
are clear guidelines we have
to follow. This is a pretty big
deal. We think it will draw in
a lot of people, and they will
fall in love and want to come
back. This is the fi rst time for
us. We are still learning.”
Local eateries and shops
should also see an infl ux of
business during the week of
the tournament.
“It won’t have the impact
of Round-Up or Whisky
Fest,” George said, “but it
will still be nice.”
The runner-up
Casey spent the early
parts of her introduction
spotlighting her rural bona-
fi des.
She said she grew up in
Ellensburg, Washington, in
a farming family that spent
plenty of time on horseback
and in the combine.
“You can solve a lot of
things with baling wire and
baling twine,” she said.
Casey started her career
in business, including a stint
working in Chrysler’s Port-
land office, but switched
tracks to education after
getting a divorce. Casey said
her career move encouraged
other women in her family
to go back to school and was
hoping she could “break the
cycle” with students in Pend-
leton.
Casey said she could get
creative in recruiting and
retaining teachers, having
hired a math teacher through
a job ad on Craigslist and
working hands-on with fi rst-
year teachers to fi nd them
housing in Grandview.
“We really need to think
outside of our box,” she said.
Grandview High School
all Uber drivers are indepen-
dent contractors rather than
employees. That meant the
aspiring ride-hail drivers
were acting independently
rather than at the direction
of Uber.
W hatever objections
Uber had with the proposal,
the city is staying mum
about it. Kerns declined to
say if Uber took issue with
the city’s day-night split
between taxis and ride-hail-
ing services.
At the meeting, the
council also will consider
establishing the Pete Wells
Aquatic Scholarship, a
swimming lesson discount
program named after the
former Pendleton city attor-
Antonio Sierra/East Oregonian
Kevin Headings, a principal from Hermiston, gives a speech Thursday, March 31, 2022, during a public interview at the Pend-
leton School District administrative offi ces. The school board the morning of April 2 announced it hired Headings as the
superintendent of Pendleton schools.
is a majority Latino school
and an audience member
asked what she did to serve
that student population and
she might implement those
ney and municipal judge.
Wells died late last year
from complications from a
head injury. In a report from
Parks and Recreation Direc-
tor Liam Hughes, he wrote
that Wells volunteered at the
aquatic center and with the
local swim team. Hughes
wrote the aquatic center
has a program for low-in-
come families that provides
discounted season passes,
but nothing similar for swim
lessons.
The council meeting
begins at 7 p.m. at the coun-
cil chambers in city hall,
500 S.W. Dorion Ave. The
meeting also will be avail-
able online live via Zoom
at bit.ly/3iaPLbo.
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ideas in Pendleton, where
Latinos are a small but grow-
ing population. Casey said
it’s not just about translating
school messages into Span-
ish, but also about under-
standing Latino culture and
incorporating it into how the
school approaches students
and families. She said a
similar, culturally-sensitive
approach also could be used
for students from the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
2022
I
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