History

ATAG History

The origin of what today is the Ansley Tuesday Afternoon Golf Tour (“ATAG”) actually began in the late 1970’s when a few Ansley Golf Club members made it a point to try to get together two teams every Tuesday after work to play a nine hole match for a beer and then convene to the Men’s Grill. There was no organized structure—just show up if you can. Over the years, those original participants left the Club but the custom was continued by some other Ansley Golf Club members including Danny Morris, Mike Gaddis, Marty Arnold, and Don Nichols.

Interest began to wane, however, so much so that on the first scheduled match of 2001, only Mike Gaddis and Don Nichols showed up on the first tee. This prompted Nichols to send an e-mail to the other players describing—hole by hole—a close match between Gaddis and Nichols. (Nichols won it on the last hole after sinking what he described as a “breath defying” downhill birdie putt. For some reason, this simple chronicle of a two man match served to ignite interest by the other players who asked Nichols to continue his write up each week. Before long, the e-mail “write up” evolved into a newsletter (later dubbed the Nickelodeon by Mike Gaddis), and the field expanded to over 30 players as word of mouth resulted in more and more Ansley Golf Club members showing up on the first tee. “ATAG” was later coined by Danny Morris to describe the group, “ATAG Tour” was then coined by Bill Meagher to characterize the competitive nature of the friendly weekly matches, and then Don Nichols unwittingly found himself being named the Commissioner simply by virtue of his chronicling the matches and adding a satirical slant to some of the players behavior.

So, today, this ATAG Reporter Blog has been formed to pick up the reins and continue to promote the ATAG experience as a special fraternity of Ansley Golf Club members who take the time to meet each week in a friendly 9-hole round of golf competition and then stay to have a couple of beers and enjoy a camaraderie that has continued to build over the years.