Ridley, Bolduc Named USA Captains For 2010 World Amateur Team Championships

Ridley, Bolduc Named USA Captains For 2010 World Amateur Team Championships

Fred Ridley (left) and Roberta Bolduc have been chosen to captain their respective USA men's and women's teams at the World Amateur Team Championships this October in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo illustration by Kim Barney/USGA)

Far Hills, N.J. (Feb. 24) – Past USGA President Fred S. Ridley of Tampa, Fla., and former USGA Women’s Committee Chairman Roberta Bolduc of Longmeadow, Mass., have been named men’s and women’s captains, respectively, of the USA Teams for the 2010 World Amateur Team Championships, to be played this October in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Being named captain of the USA World Amateur Team is a great honor and an experience I am very much looking forward to,” Ridley said. “With golf in the Olympics now a reality, international interest in the game is at an all-time high. The World Amateur Team Championships represent international amateur golf at its highest level.”

Ridley served as USGA president in 2004 and 2005 and was a member of the Executive Committee for 12 years. He was also USGA treasurer in 1998 and 1999 and vice president from 2000-2003.

He has had a distinguished career in amateur golf. Six years after losing in the first round of match play of the 1969 U.S. Junior Amateur, he won the 1975 U.S. Amateur. That earned him a berth on the 1976 USA World Amateur Team.  One year later, he was named to the USA Walker Cup Team. He also served as a non-playing captain of the USA Walker Cup Team in 1987 and 1989.

Ridley also served as chairman of the Championship Committee, the group responsible for the conduct of all USGA competitions, from 2000-2003 and has chaired the Amateur Status and Conduct and the International Team Selection Committees.

An attorney, Ridley is a partner and a member of the management committee of Foley & Lardner, an international law firm of almost 1,000 lawyers. He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Florida and a 1977 graduate of the Stetson University College of Law.

He and his wife, Betsy, have three children:  Maggie, Libby and Sydney.

The World Amateur Team Championship, for the Eisenhower Trophy, will be played Oct. 28-31 at Buenos Aires and Olivos Golf Clubs.

Bolduc was a member of the USGA Women’s Committee from 1997-2008 and served as its chairman in 2007 and 2008. She was chairman of the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship Committee in 2003 and 2004 and served on the USGA Handicap and Women’s Handicap Procedure committees. She served as chairman of the 1995 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Longmeadow Country Club, where she is a former member of the board of governors and where she served as the club’s first female president, from 1998-2001. She has served on the Women’s Trans-National Golf Association Executive Committee and the board of directors of the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts (WGAM) and is a past president of the Women’s Eastern Golf Association.

"I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to captain the Women’s World Amateur Team for the USA and I look forward to a great experience with three of our finest women amateurs,” Bolduc said. “Just as we have seen with the Olympics, it is amazing to see athletes of all cultures come together in friendship and good will to share the love of a sport. The World Amateur Team Championship highlights the appeal of golf throughout the world.”

She played in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in 1987 and has played in nine USGA Senior Women’s Amateurs. In addition, she was the 1999 and 2000 WGAM Senior champion and the 1995 Women’s Eastern Senior champion.

Bolduc and her husband, Bob, have one daughter, Kathleen, and three grandchildren. In addition to her numerous golf activities, she serves on the board of trustees for Bay Path College and the Baystate Health Foundation, and is a founding director of the Ronald McDonald House of Springfield (Mass.). She is a 1965 graduate of Marymount College of Kansas.

The Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, for the Espirito Santo Trophy, will be played Oct. 20-23 at Buenos Aires and Olivos Golf Clubs.

The World Amateur Team Championships began in 1958, with the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship starting in 1964. The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded in 1958 to encourage the international development of golf through friendship and sportsmanship. Today, the IGF consists of more than 120 national governing bodies of golf and is recognized as the international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee. As one of its main functions, the IGF conducts the World Amateur Team Championships for women and men on a biennial basis.

The World Amateur Team Championships were last played in 2008 in Australia. Scotland claimed the men’s title and Sweden won the women’s championship.

For more information, visit www.igfgolf.org.