Ann Luhr had a simple answer when she was asked to capture the essence of the Women's Buffalo District Golf Association.

"A lot of this is about lunch," Luhr said Thursday on the patio overlooking the 18th green at Park Country Club, where the Buffalo area's top women's amateurs are competing in the association's annual two-day stroke play championship.

Luhr, a two-time WBDGA winner and perennial Cherry Hill champ, was kidding. Sort of. The WBDGA has a serious mission, and serious players. But golf is an essentially social game. Two hours after the first round (Julie Murphy led with a 76), women were still congregating on the patio, picking over their lunch and poring over an old scrapbook like a bunch of school girls.

 The WBDGA is celebrating its 75th anniversary. That's a proud history, much of it preserved in the yellowed pages of that scrapbook. Nancy Quinlivan retrieved it from her attic last week. Next Wednesday, it'll be on display, along with videos, restored trophies and other memorabilia, at the anniversary party and scramble at Westwood CC.

"Look," said Nancy Saia, the president. "Even back in 1977, they were still using the man's name."

Back in the day, the newspapers gave a lot of coverage to local women's golf. They referred to the participants by their formal names. It was "Mrs. Maxon (Cookie) Berger" beating "Mrs. L. Wayne Rutter." Back then, Glen Oak was the Amherst Country Club. What's now Bridgewater was known as Erie Downs.

"Some things never change," Luhr said. "Listen to this." Then she read from some old minutes of group meetings from the early 1940s, which discussed one of the eternal issues of women's golf: Slow play.

One other thing hasn't changed with the WBDGA, which broke away from the BDGA in 1935 and has sustained itself for three-quarters of a century. The WBDGA has been a force for local women's golf (albeit at the private clubs only), giving aspiring females the opportunity to compete in a sport historically dominated by men.

There's a palpable sense of pride. You can even detect it in the faded photographs, showing women golfers walking together in the 1930s. They speak of Lancy Smith, a 15-time WBDGA champ and five-time Curtis Cup player, in reverent tones.

Lolly Lenahan and Claire Moeschler, who won 23 Cherry Hill club titles between them from 1965-95, competed Thursday. So did Kathy Hunt, who has won a combined 17 club championships at Brookfield and Crag Burn, but has never won the WBDGA two-day. Hunt, who shot 82, feels it's important to carry on such a long tradition.

 "I consider it a privilege, I really do," she said. "You try to mentor these girls and bring them up, so they know how the game is played and what's expected of them. If they stay in the area, they'll mentor the next generation of girls."

"All those women before, they walked," said Quinlivan, nodding toward the open scrapbook. "They were tough cookies. No carts. They might have had caddies, but a lot of them carried their own bags. When you look at the changes in equipment and so forth, look at the scores they were shooting then."

"It's important," Hunt said, "because women's golf has come a long way. It used to be a men's sport. They broke the barriers for us. We want to keep it going now, because women have worked very hard to get where they are, not only in the workplace but in golf."

The golf gods smiled on them Thursday. It was a gorgeous late-summer day, with bright blue skies, a gallery of puffy clouds and a refreshing breeze. A fine day for golf, and for socializing afterward.

Regardless of skill or gender, any golfer would tell you it's the camaraderie that matters most. It's not just scores and records they're preserving in the old scrapbook. It's fond memories and relationships, and a shared affection for a great game.

"That's why Wednesday's scramble will be so fun," said Vaso Kroto, the group's vice president.

Lunch won't be so bad, either.

jsullivan@buffnews.comnull