Despite their spectacular settings and acclaimed designs, winners of two of the National Golf Course Owners Association's top awards for 2006 say it's their people who really distinguish their facilities.

The Kapalua Resort in Lahaina, Hawaii, received the Jemsek Award, named in honor of the late Joe Jemsek, owner of Chicago's Cog Hill Golf Club, one of the nation's best – and toughest – public courses. The Jemsek Award honors the world's top championship-caliber golf courses that have established reputations as outstanding destinations.

The Legends Golf Club in Prior Lake, Minn., was named the 2006 Course of the Year. The Course of the Year award goes to an NGCOA member facility with exceptional quality and superior management. The course's contributions to the game and support of its community are also determining factors. Legends qualified for the award after being named the NGCOA's Midwest Chapter Course of the Year.

The NGCOA's 2006 awards also recognized golf instructor Jim Flick, as the Award of Merit winner; and European golf course owner Marcel Welling, as the Don Rossi Award winner.

Flick, 77, has been helping high-handicappers as well as PGA Tour pros improve their games for more than half a century, and was singled out for significant and long-lasting contributions to the game of golf.

Welling is the CEO of Amsterdam-based BurgGolf, which owns 30 courses in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain, received the Rossi Award based on his support of the NGCOA and his key role in strengthening the European Golf Course Owners Association. "Marcel has been an enthusiastic ambassador for golf," said Mike Hughes, CEO of the NGCOA. "His business acumen is changing the model for golf course ownership in Europe."

The association of golf course owners and operators this year established the Paul Porter Award to recognize an NGCOA member who left an "enduring mark on a chapter or international affiliate through the highest level of commitment, service and leadership." The honor was given posthumously to Porter, the late CEO of Poppy Holding Inc. and the Northern California Golf Association, who died earlier this year.