Sally Pini passed away on November 12, 2004 after a five year battle with cancer. Sally’s name is synonymous with the Junior Golf Association of Northern California (JGANC) where she began her volunteer work in 1973 and soon after that turned a spare bedroom into a JGANC office. She handled the office operation in her home until 2003.

Sally served on committees too numerous to mention while serving on the Scholarship Committee, ran her own junior event called the Pasatiempo Junior Invitational and was tournament chairman of the JGANC’s Tournament of Champions.     However, her favorite task was her involvement with the Boys Junior America’s Cup Team Matches and serving at the JGANC’s team captain.

The JAC’s first introduction to the Pini family was with Bryan Pini on the 1979 JGANC JAC Team hosted by British Columbia in Vancouver at the Capilano G & CC.  Sally made her first appearance as JAC Team Captain for N.Cal in 1983 at Sahalee, and was in the background for some years prior to that. Sally ensured that our distinctive JAC medals, and later, plaques, were arranged during that time. In 1984 at Edgewood Tahoe for the JAC, Sally introduced the idea of having our own JAC Flag and the motion was passed unanimously.

Sally was host chairman for the 1989 JAC at Pasatiempo and was confirmed as the first JAC Executive Director in 1993 in New Mexico when they hosted the JAC and held that position until her passing in 2004.

Previous to that, Bob Norquist of Oregon, who hosted both the 1975 and 1992 JAC, acted as secretary/treasurer from year to year.

It was at the completion of the 1992 JAC that Bob Norquist (one of the original founders of the JAC in 1972), passed on the financial records of the JAC to Sally. In 1995, Sally, in  collaboration with Idaho’s Joe Marmo and others, introduced our JAC ‘letterhead’ that is available for annual JAC host associations to use. Thence forward, Sally became known as ‘mother superior’ in many of her letters to JAC Teams, reminding JAC Captains to follow the JAC Handbook and call her for help if needed.

Sally’s diligence in upholding and enhancing the traditions of the JAC was always in evidence, with her crowning touch, perhaps, being the instigation of the ‘Junior America’s Cup Oath’ at the 2000 JAC in Seattle at Sahalee.

Individual honors were never recognized as she held true to the concept of the JAC to be a truly team event. Upon her passing the JAC Executive Committee felt that it was important to continue the legacy of Sally and introduced the first medalist awards at the 2006 tournament in Ogden Utah at the Ogden Golf and Country Club. A perpetual trophy is named in her honor and the medalist winners are engraved on the trophy.