Jerry Courville, Sr. (1975)

In 1975, 40-year-old Jerry Courville, a father of five and a steel salesman, was honored with the Distinguished Service Award.Few athletes in America have made a more courageous or remarkable comeback from radical cancer than Jerry Courville.

After weeks of recover and doubt following surgery, Courville fought back and regained the form that won him a record six MGA Ike titles, four WGA Tournament of Champions, the Northeast Amateur, the Connecticut Open and Amateur, and made him the only amateur (at the time) to ever win both the Metropolitan Open and Amateur Championships.

Jerry’s brave comeback, combined with his impressive golfing record, certainly figured prominently in earning him the DSA. But the recovery only dramatized certain personal qualities in Courville. According to the 1975 MGA Annual Report, the Selection Committee “could not have chosen a finer representative of golf’s valued standards and honored traditions. Off the course as well as on, Jerry has demonstrated himself to be a staunch and persistent competitor, a model sportsman, and a man of uncommon personal warmth and charm.” The same year he was honored, friends and family showed support by hosting a fundraiser at the Mill River Club. Besides himself with gratitude for their friendship and concern, Jerry donated the entire proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

In 1997, the MGA Executive Committee voted unanimously to re-name the Player of the Year Award in honor of Jerry Courville Sr., one of the Met Area’s most accomplished and beloved golfers. Beyond his incredible talent on the course, Courville Sr. set the highest standards of sportsmanship and fair play. It is those traits as well that should serve as a model for all golfers and especially should be embodied by any player worthy of being considered the MGA Player of the Year.

Courage, sportsmanship, a concern for people, and a love of golf – these were the qualities that made Jerry Courville a champion and the 1975 Distinguished Service Award recipient.