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2021 UGA LADY AWARD
Pat Dalpiaz believes she owes a lot to the late Joyce Billings. “My golf game is what it is today, because of her patience,” Dalpiaz said.
That’s partly why Dalpiaz honored her friend again in October, staging the Joyce Billings Four Lady Challenge at Sky Mountain Golf Course in Hurricane. Billings never was a self-promoting person, but she likely would have appreciated that honor. And she certainly would welcome Dalpiaz joining her as a winner of the UGA Lady Award.
Created when the UGA merged with the Utah State Women’s Golf Association, the award is designed to “recognize a Utah women’s golfer based solely on what she gives back to the game locally,” while demonstrating “passion, love and respect for the game, teamwork that makes a difference and being a friend, leader and inspiration to your peers.”
Dalpiaz matches that description, as illustrated by her impact in her first year as a member of the Utah Golf Foundation’s board of directors. Her work impressed UGA executive director Jacob Miller, who nominated her for the award by describing her as “a tremendous advocate for women’s golf in the St. George area.”
Miller also cited Dalpiaz’s raising over $7,000 for the Youth on Course program by hosting two tournaments and her working with PGA Professional Kent Abegglen to make Sky Mountain a zero-subsidy participant in Youth on Course, providing discounted rounds.
Asked what drives her to support Youth on Course, Dalpiaz said, “That one’s easy … It has a lot to do with where I came from.”
Growing up in Price, she would have loved to have a program like Youth on Course, encouraging girls like her to take up golf (as she eventually did at age 19, at Carbon Country Club). The opportunity to help kids led her to the Utah Golf Foundation, where she applies the fund-raising skills she developed as a board member of the American Association of University Women’s St. George chapter, a group that provides scholarships. The AAUW named Dalpiaz the 2020 recipient of its Distinguished Woman Award.
Dalpiaz attended the University of Utah, playing for the women’s club golf team, before obtaining two degrees from Westminster College and enjoying a long career in the health care industry.