Pioneer woman

“Golf has made the world a little smaller,” Kim Gradisek said with a smile.
During a rainy lunch conversation at historic Philadelphia Country Club, the world did, indeed, seem fairly small and quite intertwined. Two women in the golf industry sat at a small booth and watched the water pour onto a premier golf course.
But this connection was not happenstance, luck or chance. Stonewall, a Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) member club, is set to host this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, and Gradisek is a member of the tournament supervising committee.

The 56-year-old seasoned golfer from Wayne, Pennsylvania, has a rich history at Stonewall. A self-proclaimed “pioneer woman” of female involvement in golf, Gradisek first joined the Elverson, Pennsylvania, golf club with her husband, Mike, and kids, William, Alyssa and James. Some family genes might have propelled her to begin asking about ladies’ day at Stonewall, as her mother, Jean Kelly, was the chair of women’s golf at her home club.
When Gradisek went to the Stone...