The weather has finally turned and the golf season is upon us – full speed I hope! You have heard me say that PGA Junior League Golf is the very best program rolled out by the PGA of America, well another local example just surfaced. Check out this segment on the Golf Channel highlighting one of Kevin Story’s kids at Eagle Crest.
Local Qualifying for Drive Chip and Putt starts on June 11 at The Golf Club at Hawks Prairie with another six events in June and the final four in July. The complete schedule can be found here. Please help us promote this FREE event to your juniors and their parents.
A big thank you to Muckleshoot Casino, Meridian Valley CC and our golf industry sponsors of Perfect Drive, TaylorMade adidas, Golf Genius and Haas-Jordan for a very successful Muckleshoot Casino Washington Open Invitational. Thanks to the commitment of our sponsors and players, the event raised $61,000 for the Folds of Honor! That’s an amazing $160,000 in just three years.
Speaking of Folds of Honor, we are supporting our professionals in Alaska with a Folds of Honor Scramble on August 12 to raise funds for the Folds. Also, each of you has the unique opportunity to support this tremendous need by hosting a Patriot Golf Day event. While Labor Day weekend is the traditional time, you may host an event any day of the year. It’s easy, the format is 100% up to you, just make it fit your facility. If you need ideas, give me a call.
Entries are out for the 30th …that’s right, the 30th Rosauers Open Invitational on July 14-16. We are indebted to the fine folks at Rosauers Supermarkets who have been with us every step of the way to make this not only a successful event for Section professionals but also a fundraiser for the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. This event truly is a partnership between the people of Spokane, Rosauers, the Nursery and PGA Professionals. Thank you all for making it successful. I’m happy to say we will return to ‘the Canyon’ for this important anniversary. Click here to enter.
Entries are out for the PGA Professional Championship, September 19-21 at Circling Raven Golf Club. Always a popular spot for this championship with the fine Gene Bates-designed golf course and on-site hotel/casino, you don’t want to miss this one. The old common deadline is gone and we now enjoy a more normal entry close of September 6. For this championship we use our standard major championship entry fee ($320 plus $25 for skins). This year with Circling Raven GC being a cart facility, we added in a cart fee into the entry to get to our $375 total. By going with our normal entry fee, we are able to add an additional $23,500 to the purse and we will pay up to 50% of the field. Thanks to using our normal entry fee we’ve averaged well over $70,000 the last five years and with your participation we expect this year to easily top that mark. Click here for more information.
We’ve added two new sponsors recently. GT Golf Supplies and Darrell Livingston will support the Northwest Open and Birk Nelson with Orange Whip will be part of the Oregon Open, Rosauers and Northwest Opens. Please welcome them to the Section!
The 2017 Bunny Mason Scholarships have been awarded to Samantha Thurston – $1,000 and Eva Knowles – $500. These scholarships were established by the late Hall of Famer Bunny Mason and are additionally supported by your 1% Club donations and the Tickets for Charity program at the Winco Foods Portland Open.
June also means our PGA dues are due. Please don’t miss the June 30 deadline. If you have not seen an invoice…it’s not coming. National sends all but a handful of notices via email. Just log into PGA.org or call 800-4PGA-PRO. Each year, those of you who have your employer pay your dues end up with late fees as they try to mail the check with their AP run on July 10. Please walk your dues through accounting to avoid the late fee. One useful feature is that you can visit PGA.org and create proxy access for your employer to access your account and pay your dues. This should help your employer pay with a company credit card and simply get it done!
The Special Olympics North America Golf Championship is being held June 26-28 at Willows Run Golf Course in Redmond, Washington. The folks from Special Olympics are in need of PGA Professionals to serve as Rules Officials for this championship. While a working knowledge of the Rules of Golf is important, the right approach and a willingness to help are most important. The golfers are skilled players of all ages from kids to seniors. Ideally, officials will work all three days but there will likely be a place for you if you can only work a couple of the days. This is a volunteer position so no funding is available for your expenses. If you are available these dates please contact Steve Jubb, PGA at National Alliance for Accessible Golf 772-233-1879 or steve@accessgolf.org.
Finally, be sure to follow Scott Erdmann, Tim Feenstra, Russell Grove, Ryan Malby, Brent Murray, Corey Prugh, and Bryan Tunstill at the PGA Professional Championship, June 18-21 at Sunriver Resort. Coverage is provided on Golf Channel, why not have it on in the shop and share with your members that each year you enter the qualifier for this championship as well…..and you are going to make it next year.
Jeff Ellison, PGA