A shocking package in the mail — and Title IX — brought Cindy Rarick to Hawaii 45 years ago.
It changed her life and though she has not lived here full-time since leaving the University of Hawaii in 1980, Rarick’s heart never left.
It started in West Virginia in the summer of 1977, when she met Hawaii’s Althea Tome and Lori Castillo at the U.S. Girls Junior Championship. Rarick, then Cindy Flom, was born in Minnesota, but the family moved to Arizona in 1970 when her father tired of the “winters and snowstorms.”
He also sold her horse and told her she had a choice of sports — golf or tennis. Golf’s relentless challenges and easy amiability made her choice for her. Like Castillo did at Kaiser, she played on the boys team at Sahuaro High School, becoming the first girl to do that in Tucson.
In that short visit with Castillo and Tome, a Farrington grad, they mentioned that Castillo’s father Ron — both he and Lori are in the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame — coached the UH Wahine team. Lori suggested Rarick send him a letter and she did in the fall.
She heard nothing until, “out of the blue” in February, a manila envelope arrived. It contained a letter of intent and scholarship agreement.
“Coming to Hawaii for an education and golf changed my life,” recalls Rarick. “I had never been away from family for any period of time, or so far away. I learned how to be independent and responsible as a student and young adult as well as propelling me forward in my golf skills and learning how to compete.”
It was never easy. After a successful and extremely enjoyable few years here, which included winning the Hawaii State Women’s Match and Stroke Play, Rarick needed six tries before qualifying for the LPGA Tour in 1984.
Before that, she played on mini-tours on the mainland and in Asia and Europe, taking advantage of private housing, cheap hotels and food and housing allocations on foreign soil.
Rarick went through her savings and had to borrow money from her mother Gloria, a Superior Court Clerk in Tucson who was also a reporter/stenographer at the World War II Nazi War Crimes Trial at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
“I had to pay back every dollar to her,” Rarick says, “and that was one of the best lessons I ever learned.”
By then she knew she loved the game — “still do” — but it took awhile for it to love her back. She might trace that day back to Feb. 21, 1987, the final round of the inaugural Tsumura Hawaiian Ladies Open at Turtle Bay.
Rarick’s four back-nine birdies shot her past Jane Geddes and Alice Ritzman to her first LPGA victory. In tears, she pointed her golf ball at the crowd after she sank her last putt and celebrated with mai tais and the volunteers in the parking lot.
“I had a lot of friends out there and it sure helped,” she said that day.
Ultimately, she enjoyed a rare 24-year career, never giving up her full-time status after needing six tries to get it. She was the tour’s Most Improved Player in 1987 and averaged 30 starts a year much of her career, often adding a couple pro-ams/fundraisers each week.
Rarick finished with five LPGA victories and 48 top 10s while representing Waikoloa much of the time, and returning to visit Hawaii friends on a regular basis.
There was another victory on the Japan tour and a team championship with Jan Stephenson on the Legends of the LPGA Tour, which Rarick helped create. She also captured two Worldwide Championship of Pro-Am Golf titles on Kauai, beating Nancy Lopez for the second.
Rarick was a career-high 10th on the money list in 1990 and crossed the $2 million mark in winnings in 2002. She also made her first tour cut at the Kemper Open on Maui and collected six holes-in-one on tour, the last at the 2007 Fields Open in Hawaii.
No coincidence there. For all the traveling she has done — 27 countries — Rarick has always felt at home here.
“I still and always will love Hawaii for its beauty: the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors,” she says. “Learning about the different cultures and cuisines. And the Aloha spirit shown to me from the local people was very heartwarming. I feel very accepted and loved in Hawaii.”
Now she lives in Arizona and Washington, where in 2009 she and partner Gary Seidler opened Silvara Cellars, a winery in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
After selling his sixth business and “retiring” at 48, Seidler fell in love with the area and winemaking, got his degree in viticulture and enology (study of wines) at UC Davis, and convinced Rarick to join him.
He is the award-winning winemaker and Rarick the winery director, taking full advantage of all those years making lasting friends at pro-ams and fundraisers, and appreciating wine.
“Viticulture and enology is a lifetime education,” she says. “Tasting wines from around the world adds to the fullness of life.”
She also invests in real estate and is on the boards of the Legends Tour — where she still competes at 62 — Golf Academy of America and Sanford Health International. She coaches at the Sanford Golf Academy in Sioux Falls, S.D., and still does clinics and plays in charity events.
And she hopes to bring back the junior tournament she sponsored at Waikoloa for 17 years.
“The impact I’m trying to make is to help people improve their skills, to play better golf so they can enjoy the game for as long as they can play,” she says. “It is a game for a lifetime.”
It has been for her, since just before that manila envelope arrived from Hawaii. In it she found herself, and a remarkably long and successful golf career where her most cherished memories are the wins, particularly that first one on the North Shore.
“The Turtle Bay win was my first,” Rarick says, “and because of it being in Hawaii it was like a dream come true.”
How would Rarick describe golf’s impact on her life?
“Exhilarating, fascinating, frustrating, rewarding and blessed.”
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CINDY RARICK
24-year career on LPGA tour
Education
>> Sahuaro High School (Tucson, Ariz.) 1977
>> University of Hawaii 1978-80
Highlights
>> 5 LPGA victories from 1987-91
>> 48 Top-10 LPGA finishes and career winnings of $2,054,260 from 1985-2009
>> Also won on the Japan LPGA tour (1987 Fuji Sankei Ladies Classic) and Legends of the LPGA Tour (2005), along with Worldwide Championship of Pro-Am Golf titles on Kauai (1987 and ’88)
>> Hawaii State Women’s Match (1978) and Stroke Play (1979) champion
>> Arizona Junior champion (1977)
>> Opened Silvara Cellars winery (Leavenworth, Wash.) in 2009 with partner Gary Seidler
June 23, 2022, marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. To commemorate this watershed event, the Star-Advertiser will publish a series of stories celebrating the achievements of female pioneers and leaders with Hawaii ties.
Click here to view the Title IX series.
