CEO's Report

It is So Very Good to Be Here

Frank Talarico

In January 1998, I had the good fortune to be selected by the Southern California PGA Section to start and lead the SCPGA Foundation. Twenty-two years ago, my tenure in the service of golf and golf professionals began.

Since then, I have enjoyed some of life’s highest highs and life’s lowest lows, but the one constant has always been the great game of golf.  Truth be told, as a young and only somewhat experienced candidate, I probably had no business being selected in that search.  No matter, I had a job to do and I would not fail that membership. I am pleased with what the SCPGA Members and I accomplished together. That is my “report card.” I worked for them and for the game.

On September 1, 2020, I had the very good fortune to begin my tenure as your fifth Chief Executive Officer.  This time, I come to the largest and arguably the strongest Section of the PGA.  Over the last twenty-two years I have had the privilege of leading and growing some of the country’s largest organizations.  Over the last four years, I was invited to become Chairman of the same SCPGA Foundation I started in 1998.  While I didn’t play as much golf as I’d like, my passion and volunteer involvement to advance the game and the Member never wavered.  I am very lucky to now be in service to all of you.   I am indebted to the Selection Committee for this extraordinary opportunity.  I am sincerely thankful to Jeff Ellison, not only for his thirty-one years of commitment to the Section, but also for leaving behind a strong organization and an exemplary staff.

I learned a long time ago that life is about making—and especially about keeping—promises.  In the Pacific Northwest Section, we do this by insuring that we are unfailing in our service to the Members and Associates.  Over the short-term, expect us to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on our Members, our events, and our sponsors.  We will do everything permitted by the appropriate authorities on the management of the pandemic, and we will be limited only by our creativity and our desire to innovate as we find solutions to the challenges we are forced to overcome during this time.  Our pivot to a “virtual” Merchandise Show is one such example.

PNWPGA Virtual Merchandise Show

Over the long-term, expect the Section to diversify our sources of revenue.  When organizations put all their proverbial eggs in one basket, they risk finding that basket empty one day.  We will not allow that to happen.   While there are a number of economic realities that we are all facing today, we need to be prepared for when these realities improve.  We need to be ready to again play offense, rather than defense.

Begin to anticipate the relentless and increasingly aggressive promotion of you, our Members.  You are experts in the game and an unrivaled resource for those who play and those who wish to play.  Expect to read more about yourselves, see more about your work, and hear more about what you and your colleagues are doing in and around our Section through traditional and some non-traditional media channels.  The Pacific Northwest Section and its Members and Associates cannot afford, nor do they deserve, to be the best kept secret in golf.

Finally, look forward to an even more coordinated rally of resources around your employment options and career goals.   Ensuring suitable, gainful, and attainable employment was already a promise we must keep.  Covid-19 and the resulting economy makes that promise more important than ever.  Gone must be the days when a PGA Member is forced to leave the industry he or she loves because of money, time, or opportunity.  A “professional” must be treated as such, and you will.

Again, it is so very good to be here.  No matter the challenges, the opportunities make this the best place in the world for us to be, all of us.  There is an often-quoted proverb that instructs: “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”  Let’s go far.

Frank Talarico, CEO
ftalarico@pgahq.com

District 14 Director's Report

Doug Doxsie, PGA

As you have probably heard, the PGA Annual Meeting scheduled for late October will be held virtually this year. While this presents some challenges, the Governance Task Force and Board of Directors have formulated plans to execute the business of our association as efficiently as possible for the delegates. The election for National Secretary will be the highlight of the meeting. As we count down to under 45 days until the meeting, candidates Tom Henderson, Don Rea, Kelly Williams and David Schneider are doing a great job communicating with the delegates virtually during these strange times.

As part of a new Annual Meeting format recommended by the Awards Committee and approved by the Board of Directors, we will be honoring our 2020 National Award Winners at next year’s 2021 Annual Meeting.  The delegates and I will look forward to being a part of this celebration, especially to recognize our own Section winners, Chris Runyan (Patriot Award) and Jacob Lippold (Merchandiser of the Year-Public). Congratulations gentlemen, we are proud of your contributions to our industry and the game of golf!

The PGA Golf Emergency Relief Fund was a resounding success, assisting those affected by COVID in the golf industry. To date, over 7.8 million dollars of grant money was distributed with this program. I have spoken with many of you in our section that applied and received assistance from this program. This is one terrific example of what is good about our association.

At our September meeting, the National Board of Directors approved final design plans and investment funding for our new PGA National Headquarters in Frisco, Texas. You can view the design and plans on pga.org. It is an amazing building that will showcase our association to all of the golf world. PGA Frisco will feature our headquarters, two championship golf courses, a short course, practice areas, clubhouse, and a 500-room Omni Hotel and conference center. It will become the home to our national player development and coaching programs. Included will be a world-class Education Center designed for both the professional development of PGA Golf Professionals and player development. The Center will also feature state-of-the-art classroom and teaching facilities.  The golf courses under construction are proceeding nicely, again you can find images and information about these terrific new courses on pga.org. I think you will be as excited as I am for the opening of this project, slated for early 2022.

Finally, I want to send best wishes for a healthy and speedy recovery to my predecessor as District 14 Director, Don Rea from the Southwest Section PGA. Don has been in the hospital with appendicitis and some complications but seems to be on the mend finally. With typical Don dedication, he was conducting Section delegate calls for the election from his hospital room when I last spoke with him!

As always, reach out if I can be of service to you with anything PGA of America, I am just an email or phone call away.

Regards,

Doug Doxsie, PGA
Seattle Golf Club
PGA District 14 Director
425-681-8889
doxpga@msn.com

PGA Jr. League

Branden Thompson, PGA - Regional League Manager

For most of you, the season is beginning to wind down. Aerification is beginning. Hunting season is around the corner and daylight hours are shrinking. I’m sure you will all stay busy this fall. Here are some things to keep in mind as you start to turn an eye toward 2021.

• Develop a vision of what you’d like for your 2021 PGA Jr League season. Is it developing an in-house league, adding 17u, or simply garnering more players? Whatever it is, this is the time to get a good picture of what you want to do. Write it down and let’s talk about it.
• Take advantage of the resurgence of golf into our kids’ lives. This is probably the biggest year we’ve ever seen for kids being exposed to golf. Make their experience a positive one. Offer wintertime coaching programs that they can participate in with friends. I’m not talking about a series of group lessons. Think bigger than that. Have a weekly practice time and day and as specific goal that this “team” is working towards, i.e. driving the ball massive distances. An 8-week schedule gives you time to make an impact on the players (skill) and yourself (revenue).
• Stay engaged with all of your students. Most of them have more leisure time available now. Keep yourself and golf top of mind by regularly reaching out to them. Call them to see how they are doing. Listen, pay attention to any common themes among them and offer a coaching class to address them. RETAIL TRIBE is a great engagement tool that you get an unbelievable deal on via the PGA. They take the engagement process and make it really easy for you. Ask me if you are interested and I’ll connect you with that team. Everyone who gives it a shot loves it.

Thanks for working so hard this spring and summer and making a huge impact on people. Golf is healthier now for it. Let’s keep that momentum going into 2021.

Let me know how I can help you,

Branden Thompson, PGA
561-293-2585
bthompson@pgahq.com

Building Blocks of Your Career Series

Monte Koch, PGA of America Employment Consultant

Part 1: Finding Your Passion & Purpose

Fact: This is a hard business...and there will be hard, long and sometimes difficult days with a career in golf. It’s your passion, your purpose that will “power you through” on the tougher days.

“If you don’t design your life (career) plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” - Jim Rohn

Building a career is a continual process, it is not something that starts when you’re in your 20’s and ends once you’ve climbed a few steps or many steps “up the ladder.” Many of our PGA peers have come to be golf professionals in a “second career” or similar.

Even though you may be in your 40’s or 50’s, there is still opportunity to “build your career” (or at least expand the impact you’re making with it.) A good mentor of mine, Ron Hunt once shared this with me and I believe it applies here. He said, “It’s a sad and terrible thing to realize that, after climbing up part of the corporate ladder, your ladder is on the wrong wall.” I agree with this, as the understanding from it is this: If your ladder is on the wrong wall, you have to stay there or you have to move it. How do you move it without first getting off the ladder? Getting off the ladder is most often very difficult due to tangible and intangible factors.

If you’re still in the early stages of your career, this question of “having your ladder on the right wall” really matters. At this point, you can make career path choices about which of the three PGA career paths you want to take:

• Golf Operations
• Teaching & Coaching
• Executive Management

If you’re in the middle of your career, you’re still not stuck if you are willing to make the right decisions based on your professional why (what you’re passionate about) and your purpose (the reason you want to get out of bed in the morning, and why anyone else would care if you don’t get out of bed). The questions are:

• Do you know what Your Why is? Do you know what you’re passionate about?
• If you don’t know, ask yourself these questions:
• What activities or work do you do that you feel “recharged” by? (Even when you’re tired?)
• What activities or work do you do that seem to come innately to you?
• Do you truly feel fulfilled by creating and executing an exceptional golf event? Or designing and building a beautiful golf shop retail experience?
• Do you truly feel great fulfillment when you help a golfer “flush a 7-iron” for the first time? Does helping someone learn how to hit a bunker shot well or some other recovery shot inspire you?
• Do you enjoy the challenge of strategic decision making, leading and developing others, or developing leaders? Do you enjoy managing big projects, resources and similar?
• Based on your answers above, your gut reactions to these questions, you can see where your passion is. No particular answer is right either. This is the beauty of it too. The answers that are right for you, will be right. Period. It is how you are wired, how you’re designed.
• If you do know, what then? How can you make your passion your purpose? (Go to the next question.)
• Do you know what your Noble Cause (your purpose) is?
• If you don’t know, consider these concepts:
• Once you know Your Why, look at it as Your True North. Like a compass, it will help you make small and big decisions that affect your steps on your career path.
• Look back at your answers to the previous section of questions. Where did you feel like you “lit up” and where did you feel you did the opposite?
• Once you know your passion, that is the time to work with one of your trusted mentors/friends or with a PGA Career Consultant (like me) to help you find the opportunity (or create one) that you can use your passion to work daily on toward your purpose.
• There really is no stock answer that works here, it’s like custom fitting a set of irons. It fits them, not everyone else. If you work with me, I will help you discover Your Why (passion). Based on what inspires and recharges you, what your innate talents are, I am betting we can help you see “where the right dirt is for you.” If we can discover that, you can then make decisions about your career that will help you end up in that particular “dirt” or you can find ways to “create your own dirt.” Even if it takes a few months or years to get to that “perfect dirt,” you’ll be encouraged and inspired as you make your way there. In the process, you’ll have a chance to grow, to flourish and produce results (like a healthy plant produces good fruit). Good fruit is another word for value. Value to your customers/members, value to your employer through topline revenue and customer engagement. That value then translates into good results like better compensation, more job stability and more. (And that is my why for helping you with your career.)

In closing this article on Part 1 of 9 on the “Building Block of Your Career,” I would like to have you consider this advice: “Follow Your Why…It knows the Way.”

Based on your passion and your purpose, what is your True North? Are you in “the right dirt” already? Or are you tracking today toward the right dirt where you can flourish as you hoped for when you started your career path? If yes, help someone else discover their passion and purpose this coming year. If not, let’s connect to work on how you can discover or rediscover your passion and your purpose so you can get more out of your career, and have less of a job in the future. You only get one career, so make it count.

Monte Koch, PGA Certified Professional/Player Development | Career Consultant
PGA Career Services | PGA of America
Serving PGA professionals, employers in the Pacific NW & Rocky Mountain PGA Sections
Email: Mkoch@pgahq.com Cell: 206/335-5260

Career Planning and Coaching

Employment Opportunities

Monte Koch, PGA of America Employment Consultant

These are primarily “PGA Professional” only positions posted on the PGA Career Services Job Board:

https://jobs.pga.org

Internship, non-PGA positions, strictly retail and “franchise” ownership positions will not be listed here.Please visit jobs.pga.org to see these types of opportunities.

ASSISTANT GOLF PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS (Full-time, not Internships)

Listed in order of most recent first. Note: these are listed as of 8 AM, September 15, 2020. Positions listed here are not guaranteed to be available. Visit jobs.pga.org to see the most current listings.

Job Title	Facility	PGA Contact (if applicable)
ASSISTANT GOLF PROFESSIONAL	Lake Spanaway GC, Puyallup, WA	Brian Petoletti, B1
PRO-AM ASSISTANT, CENTRAL WA PGA CHAPTER	PNWPGA Section

TEACHING & COACHING GOLF PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

Job Title	Facility	PGA Contact (if applicable)
DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION	TOPGOLF-Hillsboro, Hillsboro, OR
CERTIFIED PERSONAL COACH	GOLFTEC-Bellevue, Bellevue, WA

MANAGEMENT POSITIONS (HP, DOG, GM or similar) 

Note: not all positions like these will be posted here; instead, postings will generally be at the request/approval of the employer.

Job Title	Facility	PGA Contact (if applicable)
HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL	Bend GC, Bend, OR
HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL	Meadow Lark CC, Great Falls, MT
HEAD GOLF PROFESSIONAL	Oswego Lake CC, Lake Oswego, OR
GENERAL MANAGER/HEAD PROFESSIONAL/INDEP CONTRACTOR – RFP	Port Townsend GC, Port Townsend, WA

It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Your CareerLinks Profile

CareerLinks is Phasing Out Soon! Take just afew minutes and update your Job Preferences today. If you want to see current job opportunities, you need to update your Job Preferences on PGA.org. Unlike the old CL profile, this just takes 2-3 mins (not 20+.)

By updating your "Job Preferences" on pga.org, you'll start to see open positions similar to your preferences listed on your PGA.org dashboard (see picture below.)

We are asking PGA Members and Associates to make these updates, even if you aren't an active job seeker: Click here to get started

 

Coston Wins PNW PGA Senior Professional Championship

by Molly Cooper, PGA - Director of Tournament & Member Programs

Jeff Coston of Semiahmoo won his ninth PNW Senior PGA Professional Championship in a one-hole playoff against Mark Keating of OGA Course.  Coston previously won this event in 2006-2011, 2013 and 2019.  In 2006, he also won the National Senior PGA Professional Championship.

Comparing this victory to his other Senior PGA Professional Championship wins, Coston said, “Tournament wins are all different conditions, courses, weather, etc. I enjoy the opportunity to overcome interference, compete, take dead aim, trust myself and play a game worth playing.”

He added that there were “many wonderful players in the field so it feels super! Don’t tell anyone, but I’m not a senior yet!”

Coston was inducted into the PNW PGA Hall of Fame in 2013 largely due to an impressive list of credentials throughout his career. 

Click here to read Coston's entry in the PNW PGA Hall of Fame wiki

When asked parts of Royal Oaks CC pair well with his game, he responded, “Every golf course demands a plan, preparation and purpose.”

He was also quoted as saying, “Royal Oaks is an amazing place. It’s difficult, takes patience, sticking with a proper strategic game plan and proper placement on the greens.”

In addition to Coston, Bob Rannow of Ocean Dunes, Tony Robydek of Meadow Parks GC, Todd O’Neal of Riverside G&CC, Jeff Marsh of Vancouver, WA and Tom Sovay of The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge all earned spots to the 32nd Senior PGA Professional Championship, to be played October 15-18, 2020 at PGA Golf Club (Wanamaker & Ryder Courses) in Port St. Lucie, FL. 

Winning the Senior Division was Steve Reuhl of Marysville, WA while Don Otto of Portland, OR won the net competition in the senior division.

Jeff Coston also captured the Hugh Starkweather award, which goes to the low player for both rounds that is 60 years and older. 

The PNW PGA would like to thank PGA Professional Scott Leritz and the rest of Royal Oak CC’s staff for a wonderful week.

Final results

PNW PGA World Mastercard® Credit Cards

 

Great news!  When you apply and get approved for a Pacific NW Section PGA World Mastercard® credit card between September 1 - September 30, 2020, you will receive a $50 statement credit*. Plus, you’ll enjoy some of these benefits and more.

• Earn 20,000 bonus points when you spend $2,000 in the first 3 months
• Earn 2 points per dollar on net purchases
• No cap on points earned and points don’t expire
• Zero Fraud Liability & Fraud Monitoring
• Email & Text Fraud Alerts
• Cell Phone Protection **

To learn more about the card benefits and to apply, click here

*Receive a $50 statement credit when you open a World Mastercard® or Mastercard Platinum credit card from September 1 to September 30, 2020, subject to credit approval. Mastercard Platinum card is only available as a counteroffer during the application process. Statement credit will be applied to your Account by October 31, 2020. To be eligible for this offer, your Account must be open and in good standing (i.e., not cancelled, terminated by either party or otherwise not available for your use). Offer valid only for the World Mastercard® or Mastercard Platinum credit card issued by TCM Bank, N.A.
 
** Certain terms, conditions and exclusions apply. In order for the coverage to apply, you must charge your eligible cellular wireless bill to your covered TCM Bank-issued card. To learn more about this benefit visit the FAQ section at www.cardbenefitservices.com or call 1-866-894-8569.
 
See the card application’s Important Disclosures for current terms, rates and fees. This card is issued by TCM Bank, N.A. Subject to credit approval.

Open Events

COVID-19 Return to Play Policy

PNW PGA Virtual Merchandise Show

We are excited to take the PNW PGA Merchandise Show, Fall Education and Annual Meeting online on October 20-21, 2020!

Virtual Exhibit Hall - Stop by our virtual exhibit hall and support our vendors. Each vendor will have a "booth" you can visit where you can find out more information and communicate with them in real-time during show hours.

Education - This event is a huge opportunity for MSR credits as well, with FREE education webinars presented by Chris Runyan on October 20 and Keith Bennett on October 21.

Annual Meeting - Get important updates from your Board and Association (and MSR's for attending). More details coming soon!

Register Here

PNW Hawai'i Pro-Am

• Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa
• Kaanapali Golf Courses
• January 14-21, 2021

We are excited to return to Maui for the 46th Pacific Northwest PGA Hawai’i Pro-Am. We will stay at the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa and play the Kaanapali Kai and Royal Kaanapali courses.

Online Entry

Pricing & Schedule (pdf)

Learn More

Check out the rest of the 2021 schedule below!

2021 Tentative Schedule