The Passion of AlRuth Toney

Spanning part of seven decades, the City Park regular’s love of golf has known no limits

Elizabeth J. Wheeler

Smartly dressed in a pink outfit, one of the numerous golf ensembles she color-coordinates down to her shoes, AlRuth Toney stands over a five-foot knee-knocker on City Park Golf Course’s ninth green. “One time, baby,” she cajoles the ball, which quickly obeys and dives into the hole. Pleased with her par putt, Toney shares a smile with Bernice Hatter, one of the 15 members of the Monday women’s group at the 104-year-old Denver public course.

For the last 63 of those years, Toney has held a leadership position in the City Park Women’s Golf Association (CPWGA). In 1953, at a time in Denver’s history when African-Americans could only live in certain neighborhoods, ride in back of streetcars and could not belong to country clubs, she thought nothing of taking the reins of an organization that had basically existed in name only since 1930.

“I just wanted to play golf and so did a few other ladies,” the 85-year-old Toney remembers. “And then with recruitment by word-of-mouth and seeing us on the golf course, others joined us. I was the contact and became the person people approached if they wanted to play.”

Although City Park until 1981 had two clubs—the African-American East Denver Club and the white-only City Park Men’s Club—Toney says she never established the CPWGA “solely for black women.” The diverse racial composition of the current Monday group serves as testament. Women who have played in the group for years and newcomers welcome Toney in the course’s parking lot each Monday morning as she parks her 2004 gold Cadillac Seville. She alights with an agility that belies her eight-plus decades and greets each one.

“I’ve played with AlRuth’s Monday Group for five years,” says Carole Pedotto. “I get a kick out of it. There’s lots of laughter, and I really enjoy and respect all the women I play with.”

Born in Mississippi, Toney came to Colorado from East St. Louis, Illinois. She first started a women’s league at the golf course on Lowry Air Force Base because the men at the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center, where she worked as an accountant for 42 years, told her to start her own instead of joining their league.

“A dozen of us played on Tuesdays after work at Lowry,” she remembers. “It was great fun!” The group of government employees also played at Denver’s Army military golf course, Fitzsimons, because the racially diverse group found itself unwelcome at other area golf courses. City Park welcomed her.

Toney had a slew of golf trophies she had won over the years at various golf courses and events. “Trophies were not my main concern,” she says. “I just loved to play golf and be outside, and quite a few of the women that play now on Mondays are of that opinion. We use it for exercise. I gave a box of trophies I had won to the City Park youth group. They remove the name plate and reuse them.”

Toney had a hole-in-one at City Park’s twelfth hole. “I was in league play at the time, and there were witnesses, but heaven only knows the exact date.”

She also got to see Tiger Woods play twice: first when he was a 10- or 11-year-old at City Park and his dad, Earl, who was stationed at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, brought him; and at Park Hill when Tiger was a pro.

AlRuth's legacy brick outside of City Park.

“She was a regular and a big supporter of Denver Golf,” remembers former City of Denver Director of Golf Tom Woodard, a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer who grew up playing at City Park. During Woodard’s 10-year directorship, City Park erected its current clubhouse, and Toney takes great pride in her brick along the Legacy Path leading to its entrance. Laid in 2012, it commemorates her 60 years of golf.

Although she ended the 2015 season playing nine holes instead of the usual 18, Toney can’t wait to tee it up with her group in April. “I still so enjoy golf and hope it never ends,” she says. “I’m going as long as the Lord allows.”

This article appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

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Lifelong golfer Elizabeth J. Wheeler writes for numerous magazines, newspapers, and on her blog, ladiesofacertainage.com. She focuses on telling the stories of incredible Colorado women such as AlRuth Toney.

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.