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 NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2008 |
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
April 2008
Dear Minnesota/ North & South Dakota PGA Professionals and Apprentices:
It was great to see so many at our Section Spring Meeting and I hope you found the information from the speakers very informative. For
those that were not able to make the meeting, I am going to recap just a bit but most of the information can be found on our website.
First, "PLAY GOLF MINNESOTA WEEK", April 28 – May 4, 2008. The website looks great www.playgolfminnesota.com, many thanks to the MGA for
all the support in developing it. Your Board of Directors and Growth of the Game committee would love to see 100% participation from all
PGA facilities with this program. This program provides you the opportunity of free advertising on the website and will bring people to your course. Who would turn that down!
The Growth of the Game Committee has had so many meetings this off-season to make sure this week is even better than last year. With
Storyteller Media and Communication on board, Ed Heil and his staff will make sure this week is well advertised and covered by the media.
The week will hopefully jump start this year's golf season and get golfers excited about the sport and also bring new golfers to your facilities.
Just log on to www.playgolfminnesota.com and register your events for the week. If you do not have a user name and password contact Lisa Overum at
the MGA Office (952) 927-4643 to get one, it's that simple. Get on board for the Play Golf Minnesota Week and register your facility and events ASAP.
Next on the list is our very own Minnesota PGA Partners Card. Your Board of Directors would also like 100% participation with this program because
it helps fund many programs in our Section Budget. Every Member in our Section has received the card as a gift from Golf Access Minnesota.
Please activate the card so you can see first hand the diversity of programs this card offers. Not only does the card provide great savings
for playing golf, but benefits also include savings on airline tickets, car rental, hotel, and local businesses like restaurants. Many thanks to
all the facilities and Professionals that have made the choice to support this card, it is the best valued card out there in today's market and we are very proud to have our Minnesota Section PGA name on it.
The Board of Directors has put a Golf Card Committee in place to oversee the card's development and if any Members would be interested in
serving on this Committee please contact Paul Kelley, who is chairing this Committee. Other current Committee Members include Todd Kueppers,
Keith Kalny and Steve Fessler. Thank you gentlemen for devoting your time to this Committee, I know we will make great strides in this area.
Tim Jochim is our PGA Representative for Golf Access Minnesota so if you have any questions about selling the card you should feel free
contact him. Tim has worked hard during the off-season for our Section and also Golf Access Minnesota and he has some great ideas to
help promote the card this year. Please give him a call with any questions (612) 518-8685.
Your Section Board of Directors will be sending out employment verification forms again to select individuals that have been submitted during
the off-season. This is something this Board takes very seriously and proper verification is not only the Professional's responsibility, but
also the supervising Professional that signs off on that person. Remember that playing in Section events is a privilege, not a right. It is
important that players participating in these events are PGA Professionals whose primary employment is in the golf industry.
The Board of Directors and Section Staff are also looking at the design of our Section website and changing the look. It has been discussed
for some time now about making our website more user-friendly to the general public as the place to go for golf information in our Section.
The structure of the current website will continue to be on the Member's side only and viewable when you are logged in. We are only in the
planning stage for this project, so if anyone has thoughts or ideas to make our site bigger and better just contact Jon Tollette at the Section Office.
Please inform all juniors at your facilities about our nationally recognized Junior Golf Program. Keep in mind the deadline date of April
25th for signing up for tournaments through the Tournament Selection Process. Remind the juniors they need to become a member of the association
to take part in the Tournament Selection Process. And for a job well done we give thanks to Bob Bush and Karla Bredlow at the Section office
for all their hard work and also to Junior Golf Committee Co-chairs Steve Fessler and Larry Nelson for leading the Committee.
What's in the future for Minnesota Golf? This year the USGA Women's Open Championship at Interlachen Country Club and in 2009, the
PGA Championship is at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Golf is all around us at a National level so please remember to get your tickets
early. Registration to volunteer for the PGA Championship will be available soon and because positions will fill up quickly you will
want to sign up early. Vice President Jeff Drimel is already planning things out for the 2009 PGA, as he will be President then, and
our Section's socks will be knocked off, but did you expect anything less from Jeff. Nice job!
On the National PGA scene, Sections in District 8 (Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska) have sent letters of support and seconded the
nomination of Mr. Ted Bishop of Indiana for Secretary position of the PGA of America. We feel Ted will do an outstanding job and we look forward to the Annual Meeting in Phoenix this November.
Stay healthy and enjoy your family. For those wondering what my husband Jon is doing now, he has been hired as the Director of
Business Development for MinnCo Credit Union in Cambridge and is enjoying his career change.
I look forward to visiting with everyone throughout this season and remember if you have any concerns or comments please give me
a call, contact a member of the Board of Directors, or call one of the Section Staff.
Kathy Swanson, PGA/LPGA
President, Minnesota Section PGA
Minneapolis Golf Club
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