Fall 2017 FROM THE DIRECTOR by Jerry Hogge Wow!! We are now officially in the fall season of the year when golf courses are in the greatest shape, mornings are cool, and evenings come earlier. Why is it that so many golfers stop playing until spring? As golf professionals normally say, with the turning of the leaves, state fairs, and fall festivals, another season is in the books. Can you believe it is only 86 days from October 1 until Christmas? To me it just seems like I put all the tree decorations away. I hope each of you have had a great golf season and can now enjoy a little rest, with exception of our southern friends who are gearing up. Please PRAY for our friends in Florida, Texas, and the Islands who face enormous challenges with the massive destruction of multiple major hurricanes. The school year is off and running at full speed and so are the students. After a summer of internships, they cannot wait to share their stories and what they have learned. To all the PGA professionals that mentored them – a big THANK YOU! Thanks to the generosity of several donors, the Professional Tennis Management Program has moved out of the Player Center and into the new Gene Clayton Tennis Center. With this move, a space has opened up for us to provide a brand new putting studio and golf library for the students. I am grateful for the generosity of Bob Koshman, who donated 50 years of Golf Digest magazines. In addition, through donations and years of collecting, our students can now utilize a rich library of golf books and video resources. Special thanks to Bettinardi for their donation of the lie/loft putting machine. Check out the article in this newsletter highlighting the new SAM PuttLab. Many thanks to Bob Bruns and Brock White for spearheading this effort. We are blessed by many who have invested in our program over the years and provided an even better experience for our students, and this year is no exception. We recently received a generous donation of lumber and Quikrete from Greg Parks from Parks Lumber & Supply to replace all the water cooler enclosures on the course. If you are in a position to help us expand our golf program, I welcome your input and ideas – give me a call. After 30 years we are finally hosting a golf tournament Downback on Sunday as part of the Homecoming festivities for our alumni with caddies!! The tournament will follow a Saturday evening alumni reunion banquet that should be a blast. So many things have changed since you were on campus and I hope many of you will make Homecoming weekend a priority. Again, I want each of you to say a prayer of thanksgiving for the many blessings the great game of golf has given you. Currently, many of you have gone into other careers but the one catalyst each of you have is the bond of Methodist University and Downback. I hope to see you at Homecoming October 28 and 29 for a fun filled weekend! You can find a complete schedule of events here http://www.methodist.edu/pgm-alumni. INTRODUCING SAM PuttLab & Library By Brock White As we continue to strive for the best facilities for our students, we recently converted one of our offices into a Putting Lab and Library. Within this new facility, we have a library of every Golf Digest from 1956-current, many books, videos, and other reading material for our students to use. These books are everything from mental game, to golf club repair/design, teaching, and everything in between. Along with the library, we created a full putting lab with both left and right hand stations for our SAM PuttLab. Hung on the wall are two new 42” monitors to display both SAM PuttLab reports and video analysis of each putting stroke. Bettinardi and Scotty Cameron demo putters are on shelf displays for students to use for fitting and to test. Bettinardi also graciously donated a digital lie/loft putting machine for the lab. I feel this is a great addition to our already ranked Top 50 Private Ranges in America and another way we are continuing to improve our facilities for our students. MU Homecoming OCTOBER 28-29 Join us for our special alumni reunion event to honor Jerry Hogge’s 30-year career at MU. The reunion and dinner will be in the Versailles Room at the Ramada Plaza in Fayetteville, N.C. For your convenience, a block of hotel rooms have been reserved for Methodist University PGM alumni at $82/night. Call 910.323.0111 to make reservations and ask for the Methodist University rate. The address for the Ramada is 1707-A Owen Drive, Fayetteville, N.C. 28304. PGM Homecoming Events Saturday, October 28 Sunday, October 29 Ceremonial Tee Shot and Breakfast | 8 a.m. MU PGM Alumni Golf Tournament | 9 a.m. MU Alumni Association Awards | 10 a.m. Candlelight Memorial Service | 11:30 a.m. Tailgate Luncheon | Noon Homecoming Football Game | 1 p.m. MU PGM Reunion & Dinner | 6 p.m. For tickets visit www.methodist.edu/pgm-alumni methodist.edu/homecoming For more information, call 910.630.7148 or email [email protected]. 2017 Internship Experiences Taylor Woods and Ben Wescott at the Golf Channel Taylor Woods and Ben Wescott were the first PGA Golf Management students from Methodist University to intern with Golf Channel. Before the summer of 2017,Taylor Taylor and Ben with fellow interns and Ben became interested in learning more about the corporate side of the golf industry. Although they very much enjoyed and learned from their previous internship experiences they felt expanding their horizons beyond green grass facilities would enhance their skills as future golf professionals. They both worked alongside multiple departments at Golf Channel and grew an understanding of how the top rated single sport network operates. Together, they worked on a project called the world time guide, which is used by the president of Golf Channel to determine what tournaments around the world will air on the network. They had a wide variety of tasks such as clipping assets for promotions, updating databases, generating competitive landscapes, and working on live shows with the Japanese production team. Taylor and Ben learned a lot more than they expected and are very glad to have had the opportunity to intern at Golf Channel. If you speak with them, you will be able to see the excitement on their faces as they describe their summer living at the intersection of golf and technology. by Nicole Triano, Class of 2020 This summer I completed my first three-month Internship at Sunset Ridge Country Club. Sunset Ridge CC is a private 18-hole club located in Northfield, IL., a North Shore suburb of Chicago. I had a great time! What I loved most about working there were the people. Everyone, from the staff to the members, was extremely welcoming. It was a family oriented atmosphere, which is why I looked forward to going to work each and every day. Not only did I feel welcomed, but I learned a lot. I was exposed to many parts of the golf operation. My boss, PGA Head Professional Bill Reid, always asked me if there was anything I was interested in getting involved in that he had not yet assigned to me. Because of him, I had the experience of working in the golf shop performing daily tasks and merchandising, controlling the bag room and range, carrying out tournament operations, re-gripping clubs, preparing score boards using calligraphy, coaching the PGA Junior League, teaching Junior Golf Camp, assisting with Women’s Clinics, conducting Monday outings, and even giving private lessons. In doing these tasks, I was guided by one of Methodist’s Alumni, 1st Assistant PGA Professional Ryan McGinnis ’10, along with Assistant PGA Professional Anthony Salerno and Assistant Professional Ian Rakowski. In addition to all the work experiences, I had the opportunity to caddy for the first time. While Sunset Ridge has golf cars available, it is predominately a walking club. The major success of this caddy program is due to their outstanding Caddie Master, Greg Kunkel. Kunkel was a PGA tour caddy who was inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame in 2015. He uses his knowledge and expertise to train young people and mold them into the professional caddies they are today. He serves as a mentor and a friend to every caddy and member that walks through the caddy shack. He’s kind of a big deal in the North Shore! While I worked a lot of hours, 40+ hours a week, I was able to find time to work on my game. When I wasn’t working, I had access to the range, short game practice facilities and the course. In addition to playing at Sunset Ridge, there were a lot of other great courses in the area I had the opportunity to play. The caddies would always include me on trips to different courses L to R: PGA Head Professional Bill when we had the day off. My favorite trip was when we went to Hawk’s View Reid, Nicole Triano, and Caddie Golf Club in Lake Geneva, WI. We played the regular 18-hole course in the morning followed by the par 3, 18-hole course in the afternoon. The caddies at Master Greg Kunkel Sunset Ridge are very fun and competitive! I would highly recommend an internship at Sunset Ridge CC to anyone that is willing to work hard and is eager to learn about the many aspects of the golf profession.