greg morris

President's Report

Happy New Year!  2019 here we go… WOW!!!

We all got into this business because of our love for the game of golf and playing golf. Everyone’s New Year’s resolution should be to find away to get out and play, if it’s playing in more tournaments at the Chapter or Section level or it’s just playing more at your home club.  Fall in love with playing golf again.

The start of the Section Tournament Program is right around the corner. First up on the list of great events this year is the Hawaii Pro-Am presented by State Farm Jim Ostrander Agency, January 10th – 17th at a new venue this year, Kaua’i Marriott Resort. Section Professionals will get a chance to play Hokuala Ocean Course & Poipu Bay GC.  Have a blast in the sunshine and drink a Mai Tai for me.

Congratulations to Pat Fitzsimons of La Quinta, CA and Dan Hill of Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle, WA.  Both of these gentlemen will be formally inducted into the Pacific Northwest Section PGA Hall of Fame on April 26th during the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame induction at Inglewood GC.  I had the pleasure of informing both of these gentlemen last month. Both of their careers speak for themselves. Pat Fitzsimons’ distinguished playing record includes winning many Section Majors  in fact only three Northwest Professionals hold more titles than Pat and they are all in the Hall of Fame. Welcome to the club, Pat. Dan Hill has given back so much to our Section Professionals and has also represented us on the National level.  Dan is a model PGA Professional and is personally someone I have looked up to for many years.  Thank you for your service Dan, and for always picking up the phone to help us out.

The PNW PGA Special Award Winners were also announced. Congratulations to this extraordinary class of PGA Golf Professionals who represent the best of the best of our Section. Check out their bios here. These outstanding golf professionals will be honored at the Pacific Northwest Section Special Awards Ceremony on March 17th, 2019 at Seattle Golf Club in Shoreline, WA.  Congrats again on an outstanding 2018, I look forward to hearing all about your best practices at the awards ceremony.  Special thanks to Sean Fredrickson and the Awards Committee. Sean has chaired this committee for the last two years and under his direction the process keeps getting better.

Please be on the look out for the Yamaha Adult Player Development and Youth Player Development grants coming out soon.  Section professionals will have the chance to apply for grants that can directly increase your bottom line in 2019.  If you haven’t applied for one of these grants in the past, you are missing out on one of the ways the Section is giving back to professionals to help increase business and programs at YOUR home club. View past Yamaha grant award winners and their best practices here.

As always, please don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions or concerns about our Section.  I’m here to serve and help the best way I can.  Here’s to a great 2019, and finding more ways to serve the members and grow the game.

 

All the best,

Gregory C. Morris, PGA
President, PNWPGA
Head Golf Professional, Iron Horse GC

Check out the digital annual, our 2018 Year in Review!

2018 Year in Review
molly cooper

Tips on Learning the New Rules of Golf

#1 How to Get Started

Molly Cooper, PGA
Director of Tournament & Member Programs

Welcome to our monthly Rules article to help guide you to a successful 2019 season and beyond! As many of you know, the Rules of Golf recently were revamped with the biggest changes any of us have experienced during our golfing careers.  Every month in our monthly publication of Foreword Press, I will contribute an article to help you better learn the new rules and/or changes to the Rules of Golf.  I’m hopeful these articles will help you not only learn the new changes, but help you so you can better teach your membership…..correctly!  I know the articles will help me learn everything better.  There is a lot to learn!

First, get the new books!

Get your hands on The Rules of Golf and also the Official Guide to the Rules of Golf.  The Rules of Golf replaces the Rules of Golf book and the Official Guide to the Rules of Golf has replaced the Decisions Book.  There is also a Player’s Edition of the Rules of Golf available but use The Rules of Golf instead as it covers the full version of all playing Rules.

Get the Books Here

 

Consider purchasing these books in bulk (you need to set up an account to do this).  Order enough for your members to help them learn the new rules!  I have spare books at home and in my car for when one of you call me when I am out of the office.  Just a thought of where you could have extra books stashed!

The Official Guide to the Rules of Golf is incredibly helpful on providing guidance on officiating and administrating events, rules interpretations, and committee procedures.  This book is great on helping you write your local rules, how to mark your golf course and so much more. 

Key changes in the books:

You need to recognize that the two books above are very different from what they have been in the past.  The layouts have changed and the way you use them. The definitions are now listed in the BACK of the book.

  • The old Rules of Golf had only 50 definitions, the 2019 version has 74.
  • There are now 24 Rules of Golf.  This is 10 Rules less than we had in 2018.  
  • Besides learning the new Rules of Golf, you will also need to:
  • Update documents used at your club such as any Notice to Competitor Rules Sheets. At the Section Office, we are currently working on revamping our PNW PGA Supplemental Rules of Play (Hard Card), scorecard back, every Notice to Competition Rules Sheet written plus reviewing every document that we used for tournaments in case we listed any specific rules.
  • Be aware that there are many Rules changes that have not been highly publicized. Do not assume that anything is the same!
  • With so many changes to the current Rules of Golf – you should never make a ruling in 2019 without having The Rules of Golf in your hands.
  • I suggest downloading the USGA Rules of Golf 2019 App on your phone as well.  This way you are never without help!

One last tip, LEARN the new language and then USE the new language!  It’s a big change but if you start making the effort to learn now, you can really make yourself valuable to your membership in playing correctly.

Let’s make 2019 our most successful year yet and let’s help our membership play under the 2019 Rules of Golf!  To go to a resource that the PGA of America created to help PGA Professionals learn the new Rules of Golf and educate their membership, visit: https://www.pga.org/articles/resources-new-rules-golf

Visit www.usga.org (which is also open to the public) to start reviewing the new Rules of Golf today while you wait for the new books you are ordering.

Good luck!  


tanner kelley

Holk's Highlights: Tanner Kelley, PGA

This month we interview Tanner Kelley, winner of the 2018 PNWPGA Assistant Golf Professional of the Year award! He stepped up during managerial changes at his facility, upgrading the club-fitting program and playing a key role in the development of the club’s new indoor teaching studio. He is also highly involved in the Central Washington Chapter PGA and in junior golf. Read below to learn more about Tanner Kelley and his junior golf program.

Facility: Walla Walla CC

Hometown: Okanogan, WA

PGA Member Since: 2015

Tell us a little bit about your career before this point. Who or what inspired you become part of the PGA?

My grandpa was my main motivation for becoming a PGA member. I would spend my summers with him in Lake Chelan. He would take me to the municipal course where we would either practice or play nearly every single day. The connection I was able to cultivate with him through golf encouraged me to become the golf professional I am today. Even though he passed away, the memories we shared golfing stay with me and that is what I love about golf; the memories and experiences shared with others never fade.

I played four years in high school and then enrolled in the Marketing & PGM program at the University of Idaho. While at the University of Idaho I was required to have three (3) Month Internships (Bear Mountain Resort GC, Desert Canyon GC, and Walla Walla CC) and one 7 Month Internship (Walla Walla CC). I enjoyed working with the members and my co-workers at Walla Walla CC, and I consider myself fortunate to have gained a permanent position here after my internship.

You excelled in player development at Walla Walla CC in 2018. Can you tell us a little bit about your player development efforts/programs?

This year our Junior Golf Program, which runs for a week in June, was extremely popular with a turnout of 38 kiddos. This week consists of putting challenges, chipping challenges, full swing mechanics, and on course etiquette. Due to the number participants, I discussed with my Head Professional and Course Superintendent about the possibility of setting up special junior tees on the golf course for young golfers, with the idea to get them to come out and play with their parents.

We created a special Junior Scorecard with yardages ranging from 205 yards to 50 yards. Along with this, we set up a designated hour time slot on Sunday afternoons specifically for families. This has been a big hit and the time slot is usually filled with junior golfers with their parents/grandparents. Our effort is to make golf as simple and enjoyable as possible for our junior golfers. I believe with the changes we adopted into our player development this year, we have achieved that.

antigua

Pros on the Move

by Michelle Parish, Tournament & Membership Coordinator

Employment Changes

  • Mark W. Nelson, PGA (A-9) - from Circling Raven GC to SKYiGOLF
  • Luke T Yocum (B-8) - from Unaffliated to Bear Creek CC

New Associates

  • Jeffrey R. Mitchell (B-8) - Manzanita Golf Course

Transfers INTO the Section

  • Ward H Sutton, PGA (A-13) to Yakima CC from Northern California
  • Adam R. Swenson, PGA (A-1) to Club Green Meadows from Wisconson

New Quarter Century Members

  • Harold Bluestein, PGA

New Half Century Members

  •  Robert D. Johns, PGA
parrish

You Are Responsible for Your Own Retirement

Blake Parrish, CFP®

In golf, a bad shot may ruin your otherwise perfect plans to make birdie. In life, an unexpected illness can throw off our work and personal lives. You are responsible for your own retirement.  You are responsible for your own pension plan.  You have to be concerned.  You have to be focused.  You have to have a plan.

We all practice and fine-tune our golf games.  The good intentions to practice and work hard is not enough, the practice must have a purpose.  This holds true for retirement as well. We can't just work for a living, we have to have a plan which involves managing our debt and investing wisely with a purpose.

There are issues that will get in our way from time to time and we have to be aware of them so that we continue to make smart decisions with our money and improve on our daily habits with our money. Following are the four main obstacles we've seen with our clients and how to solve them.

The first obstacle is simply misunderstanding retirement.  Goals.  Dreams.  What does it mean to retire anyway?  Too many people in their twenties, thirties, forties, and even fifties think that retirement is way off in the future and irrelevant to their lives today.  Others may think retirement is an age, something that magically happens on their sixty-fifth birthday.  Both assumptions are off base.  Retirement is much, much bigger than any of that, and your retirement depends 100 percent on what you are doing today.  Habits, throughout your lifetime, with your money are more important than market returns on your investments.

 

Read More

 

"Certified Financial Planner Boardof Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque design) and CFP® (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements."

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