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Utah Golf Association Awards // Gold Club
By Kurt Kragthorpe
UGA Gold Club : Wesley Ruff
The Utah Golf Association turned a $600 investment into a lifetime of valuable returns.
That’s one way to describe the career arc of sportscaster Wesley Ruff, tracing his contributions to golf in Utah. As the recipient of the 2021 Gold Club Award, Ruff again is being credited for his enthusiastic promotion of the game.
The UGA’s recognition adds to his three Golf Citizen of the Year honors from the Utah Section PGA, which recently renamed the award for him and made him an honorary member of the PGA.
As a sportscaster for the ABC4 Utah television station in Salt Lake City for 36 years, Ruff has used his on-air platform to elevate golf coverage in the state. Beyond that, he volunteers his time and effort in UGA media productions and in UGA and Utah Section PGA celebrations.
It all stems from the UGA scholarship Ruff received as a 1976 graduate of Springville High School, initially enabling him to attend Southern Utah University. Let’s just say he has repaid that $600 grant many times over.
“I decided then that if I could help out the UGA or the game of golf in any way, I would do my best to do that, and help pay them back for the help they gave me,” Ruff said. “I’ve tried to remember that it was because of the UGA that I was able to go to college and get into this business in the first place.”
In nominating him for the Gold Club Award, 2010 award winner Sherm Hatfield wrote, “After giving this much thought, I have settled on one name: Wesley Ruff. He has been extremely supportive of the UGA and of the PGA.”
That statement applies to Ruff both personally and professionally. In any golf setting, his approach personifies the intent of the annual Gold Club Award. It is presented to “an individual who through significant achievement or unselfish service has contributed to the history and tradition of the game of golf in Utah, and whose personal integrity, sportsmanship, common courtesy, loyalty and friendship earn him the love and respect of fellow golfers.”