It's a great accomplishment for a golf club to be the home of a city champion.
But Rainier Golf and Country Club, newly annexed into Burien, can not only boast of having the 2010 Seattle Women's Golf Association city champion but also the runner-up who matched her shot for shot until the very end.
"It was absolutely a nail-biter," Leslie Folsom declared, referring to the finale in the April tournament held at Meridian Valley Country Club.
The tourney brings together the best female golfers from 13 private clubs in King County.
Folsom, 42, held on for a 4-and-2 win over fellow Rainier golfer Mimi Racicot.
This was Racicot's first Seattle championship tourney. Racicot, 52, played the previous 21 years with Everett Golf Club.
"Mimi is a great player," Folsom noted. "Mimi had the momentum and I needed to stay focused."
Folsom is pretty good, too.
This was her third straight city championship and fourth win in the past five years.
Does she want to make it four in a row and five out of six?
"Absolutely," Folsom answered. "That's a great goal. It would be a thrill but it won't be easy."
Growing up in what ESPN dubs "Title Town USA," Folsom had to be a great athlete.
"(Valdosta, Georgia) is a very sports-focused town, "Folsom recalls. "Whatever sport you chose, you needed to be the best."
She started playing golf in high school but she thought basketball would be her main sport.
Folsom played collegiate golf at Memphis State from 1985 through 1989 on a scholarship.
"I thought I would get an education through golf," Folsom noted.
Working in Information Technology after college, she lived all over the United States, even joining Ross Perot's first I.T. venture.
She came to the Northwest and lived in Poulsbo for 16 years. Folsom said she "felt like it made a real good home."
Eventually she gravitated to the Eastside and took a job with the Salaom Co.
In October 1999, some friends introduced her to Rainier.
"It was a great match for me and I loved its history," Folsom said.
She thinks the private club at Des Moines Memorial Drive and South 112th Street has a great course to play.
"It's a demanding course." Folsom explains. "You have to manage it well.
"But if you can play well at Rainier, you can play well anywhere."
