ASHLAND — Golf. To some, it’s bland and boring. To others, it’s frustrating and mentally draining.

But to those who know the game and its intricacies best, golf carries an unmatched mystique.

Tom Cooksey knows golf, inside and out. And, to him, he’ll be forever indebted to it.

You punch 18 holes into a piece of land, and Cooksey will be there.

“It’s a personal relationship with the game of golf,” Cooksey said. “It’s different than anything I’ve ever been exposed to. When you find something that enriches your life, something that you enjoy, you are happy to give back. It seems to come natural.”

In 2008, the Eastern Kentucky Junior Golf Association was a natural creation for Cooksey and his wife of 49 years, Pat.

Since the tour’s inception, the 68-year-old Cooksey has steadfastly driven it to become a staple of the summer.

This Friday’s event at Eagle Trace Golf Course in Morehead will close the book on four successful years.

Jeffrey Meade, an Ashland graduate and Transylvania signee, spent his high school summers on the EKJGA Walmart Tour, which typically consists of 10 events a year.

“I love playing in these tournaments. This tour has helped me improve in bigger events,” Meade said on Monday, when he won at Bellefonte Country Club. “Tom does a great job with everything he does.”

One of Cooksey’s concerns in the earlygoing was establishing particular golf courses as annual hosts.

“With the general public, you don’t know how they’re going to accept giving up their golf course for one day so the kids can play,” Cooksey said. “Now, into the fourth season, the EKJGA has a reputation that we’re welcome wherever we go. Golfers appreciate it, and they’re more than happy to give up the course for a day.”

Tour courses include Sandy Creek, Paintsville, Green Meadow, River Bend, Hidden Cove, Mt. Sterling, StoneCrest, Bellefonte and Eagle Trace.

While Cooksey is happy with the tour’s overall progression, he is even more thrilled with the growth of “his” players — they include boys and girls grades 1-12. He’s formed a special bond with most of them, and he never lets award-winners escape the links without a group photo, which he posts online at ekjga.org. Updated tournament results and player standings are also located on the website.

“I’ve got quite a few kids playing college golf right now,” Cooksey said. “They’ve grown up on this tour.”

Cooksey and his wife currently have a staff of five, two of whom are Division I golfers at Morehead State (West Carter’s Matt Logan and Elliott County’s Jared Flanery).

John Greene’s been a member of the EKJGA staff for two years. He’s been impressed with Cooksey from the start.

“He’s so fair in what he does,” said Greene, who works alongside Logan, Flanery and fellow staff members Jim Wells and Bob Sparks. “He lets the kids know that this is the way the game’s played. He appreciates them more than they know.”

Cooksey prepares sponsor tents, food and drinks, atomic temperature clocks and more for every tournament.

Cooksey sustains his energy throughout each event. He doesn’t stop going until the final names have been etched onto the large leaderboard, the last awards have been given, and everything is broken down and packed up for the next time.

As if the tour doesn’t keep him busy enough, Cooksey also spends a good portion of his time traveling and officiating golf tournaments throughout the state. He headed up the Bluegrass Junior AJGA event at Bellefonte for 16 years, and he’s currently the Kentucky Golf Association Vice President, a volunteer position. He will be promoted to president in January.

“They go darn near all year round,” said Greene of Tom and Pat.

Cooksey’s been administrating and officiating since 1983. He started playing golf as a teenager, but “never was a good player,” he said.

“I’m not going to do this forever,” Cooksey said of the EKJGA, in which his grandson Benjamin competes in the grades 7-8 group. “The EKJGA will eventually have someone else.”

But, Cooksey will always feel like he owes golf.

“The game of golf is totally unique,” he said. “It’s the only game that I know of that requires for the players to police themselves, to play with honesty and integrity and count every stroke. It requires them to be courteous and be respectful.

“Putting kids in that environment and watching them accept that and the values that it teaches them, that is what I get out of it more than anything else.”

AARON SNYDER can be reached at asnyder@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.