Nebraska PGA October 2014 Newsletter by David Honnens

To print a copy of the nomination forms: Golf Professional of the Year Teacher of the Year Player Development Merchandiser of the Year Bill Strausbaugh Horton Smith Sales Rep of the Year Facility of the Year Junior Golf Leader Assistant Golf Professional of the Year Nebraska Section PGA | 610 J Street., Ste 10 | Lincoln, NE 68508 | Ph: (402) 489-7760 | Fx: (402) 489-1785 | www.nebraskapga.com

On Monday, October 27, at the 2014 Fall Meeting, the Nebraska Section PGA presented Bob Planansky and Hobart (Hap) Gay, both of Lincoln, awards for their outstanding service to the section. Bob & Hap both volunteer numerous hours to the Section as rules officials at events. We are so grateful for their commitment and passion to helping grow the game of golf. Robert (Bob) Planansky  Served the Nebraska PGA Section since 2008  Nebraska Open, Q-School, Junior PGA Championship, NJGT Volunteer and Managing Director  Board of Directors – Nebraska Golf Association  Member of USGA Junior Amateur Championship Committee  Captain of the Kansas / Nebraska Junior Cup Matches  Over 50 days on course serving as rules official in 2014 Bob is a retired lawyer and government adviser. Over the course of his distinguished career, he has held various positions - including his role as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Labor from 1989-1993. From 1993-2009, he was the VicePresident and Corporate Secretary of Urban Institute, a non-profit policy research and educational organization in Washington, D.C. He is presently a member of the USGA Junior Amateur Championship Committee and serves on various boards throughout the area. Hobart (Hap) Gay 

Served the Nebraska PGA Section since 2008

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Nebraska Open, Q-School, Junior PGA Championship & Monday Qualifiers

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NJGT Site Director since 2012

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Over 75 hours dedicated yearly to NJGT

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Head rules official for National Amputee Golf Assoc’ Championship, NAIA National Championship & UNL -Chip-N-Club

Hap proudly served our country for 22 years in the Air Force. After retiring from the Air Force, he held various jobs including a position as a senior network engineer for Mannington Wood Floors and another as a contract engineer for the US Immigration Service in Lincoln. Now that he is, in his words, “fully retired,” when not playing golf, in addition to his work as a volunteer rules official, he also gives back to the youth in our community by serving on the Foster Care Review Board and by being a CASA volunteer. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in court.

The Nebraska Section PGA was honored to recognize Channel 8 sports anchor Brett Edwards at the 2014 Fall Meeting at Champions Run. We would like to thank Brett for the countless number of hours that he has spent covering and broadcasting the game of golf to the Channel 8 viewing audience. Brett has helped make golf more visible to the viewing area with golf segments including: 

“Breaking 90” – Sports Director Brett Edwards and PGA Professionals

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Twice!

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Nebraska Golf Days

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Nebraska PGA Junior PGA Championships

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PGA Junior Series at ArborLinks

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Nebraska Section PGA Championships

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Nebraska Section Senior Championships

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“Golfing with the Stars” – Bo Pelini, Larry the Cable Guy, Governor Heineman and established “Brett’s -Army” at Jim Ager Golf Course

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TEAM Golf Coverage

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Foot-Golf @ Wilderness Ridge Golf Club

In his spare time you will find Brett on the golf course or "watching and attending any sporting event that I can." You can see Brett Edwards' sports reports, Monday through Friday on the Channel 8 Eyewitness News at 5, 6 and 10.

As the “Experts in the Game and Business of Golf” the power of education is the single most important way to help enhance and transform our industry. Many of today’s thriving industries outside of the golf industry have alluded to the fact that there is a strong correlation between the economic viability of an industry and its education attained by those who work in it. The current MSR cycle is roughly 8 months away from coming to a close and it is a priority of the Section to provide meaningful educational opportunities for you to meet these requirements. To review your current MSR status, please go to www.pgalinks.com and login. Under “your membership data” will be your current credits earned and what is still required. To receive MSR’s for your Player Development Program, please complete the “MSR Report Form” and submit it to Nebraska Section Player Development Coordinator, Joe Canny, PGA at jcanny@pgahq.com or by fax 402-489-1785.

WHAT:

Online Education - Golf 2.0

INFO:

Click Here for Log In

MSRs:

Up to 11 MSRs - Toward PGA Required

WHAT:

Nebraska Golf Summit

WHEN:

November 10, 2014

WHERE:

Hillcrest Country Club

MSRs:

6 MSRs - Toward PGA Required

In 2010 when I arrived at Kearney Country Club, I had a goal to try and get golf instruction in the Kearney Public Schools. With the approval from KPS and with the help of the Keiter family here in Kearney, we were able to host fundraising golf events in 2013 - 2014 to raise the necessary money to purchase SNAG equipment through the Tasha Keiter Golf Foundation to the tune of $25,000. This foundation was set up so that we were able to introduce all the elementary schools to the “Golf in Schools” program using SNAG kits. Last fall we set up two training sessions with the KPS physical education department. The kits were introduced and all the teaching tools, equipment, and curriculum were explained. Following the training session three holes were set up again, using the equipment, for the instructors to actually play. The following spring of 2014 the equipment was used in the classroom setting. I personally went to two schools this past spring and helped the classes out! It is so gratifying to see kids get introduced to the game this way, because in the long run it means customers through not just Kearney Country Club, but Meadowlark Hills, and our other surrounding facilities and communities! Our future goals of the Tasha Keiter foundation are to: 

Be able to fund more kits to elementary schools within KPS and surrounding schools.

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Replace/add more tools for teaching.

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Supply kids with golf clubs so that may go out for high school golf if they choose too.

In August of 2014 we were awarded a $2000 grant from the Kearney Area Community Foundation to help with our purchasing of more SNAG equipment. I would love to see and help the “Golf in Schools” Program expand to more schools within Nebraska so that we continue to grow the game to our most important asset…… “OUR KIDS!”

Matt Shaner, PGA Kearney Country Club General Manager

Way back when, October was the eighth month of the Roman calendar. The name “October” is derived from the Latin “octo” which was the Roman word for the number eight. The challenge for this month’s quiz is to determine whether or not your score for each hole is 8, counting all strokes and any applicable penalty strokes in a stroke play event. 1. You pop your drive straight up into the air and, either in frustration or for comic relief, you catch the ball on its way down. Instead of dropping the ball below the point where you caught and stopped the ball, you re-tee the ball. You then complete play of the hole in four more strokes. 2. Your tee shot on a par-3 sails wide right into an immense area of very tall grass. You attempt to play the ball as it lies, but the tall grass deflects your club and you completely miss the ball. Now realizing the difficulty of making a swing in the tall grass, you deem your ball unplayable. Dropping on a line away from the hole under Rule 28b [Ball Unplayable] is not a viable option because the tall grass extends in that direction. Unfortunately, it takes you five successive sideways drops within two club-lengths each time per Rule 28c to finally get out of the tall grass. After all that, you manage to hole your next shot! 3. You hook your second shot on a par-5 into a lateral water hazard. You correctly estimate the point where the ball last crossed the margin of the hazard. Dropping within two club-lengths of that point is not a viable option due to a large bush in that area. Thus, you decide to drop within two club-lengths of the point on the opposite side of the hazard equidistant from the hole. When you get to the other side of the hazard, you discover that you will be dropping on a slight slope. You determine that you would be better off using the same equidistant point as the reference point for dropping on flatter ground behind the hazard on a line extending from the hole through that point. After dropping on that line, you complete play of the hole in three more strokes. Answers: 1. Your score is 8: 5 strokes + 3 penalty strokes. By catching the ball, you incur two penalty strokes under Rule 1-2 [Exerting Influence on Movement of Ball]. See Decision 1-2/5 [Player Putts with One Hand and Catches Ball in Hole with Other Hand]. Per Rule 19-2 [Ball in Motion Deflected or Stopped by Player ...] and Decision 25-2/8 [Ball Embedded in Teeing Ground], it would be appropriate for you to drop the ball at the spot on the teeing ground below where you caught your ball. However, you are not penalized for playing from a wrong place when you re-tee and play the ball under penalty of stroke and distance. See Decision 18-2a/11 [Tee Shot Wrongly Thought to Be Out of Bounds Lifted; Competitor Plays Another Ball from Tee] which advises that the procedure of playing under stroke and distance can override another procedure. 2. Yet again, your score is 8: 3 strokes + 5 strokes. Once you have made a stroke at the ball in the tall grass, you no longer have the option of returning to the tee. As discussed in Decision 28/5 [Regression Under Unplayable Ball Rule], there may be circumstances where your only alternative is to invoke Rule 28c a sufficient number of times in order to get your ball into a playable position. Each time you inRULES OF GOLF voke Rule 28c, you incur an additional penalty stroke. 3. Catching on? It’s 8!: 5 strokes + 3 penalty strokes. Rule 26-1c [Relief for Ball in Water Hazard] states: “As additional options available only if the ball last crossed the margin of a lateral water hazard, drop a ball outside the water hazard within two club-lengths of and not nearer the hole than (i) the point where the original ball last crossed the margin of the water hazard or (ii) a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole.” When you decide to go over to the opposite side of a lateral water hazard, you do not have the option in Rule 26-1b of dropping on a line extending from the hole. Thus, in addition to the one-stroke penalty for taking relief from the water hazard, you incur an additional two-stroke penalty for playing from a wrong place.

SEMINAR AT THE FALL MEETING

Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation

ZYWIEC CAPTURES LASER LINK GOLF PRO-AM

VERMEER CLAIMS 2014 HARRIS GOLF CARS MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

Fremont, NE. – Council Bluffs, IA – Shane Zywiec, PGA Ryan Vermeer capof Highlands G.C. tured his first Harris capitalized on near Yamaha Golf Cars perfect scoring Match Play conditions to blister Championship by the par 71 course defeating Ted layout at Fremont C.C. with a bogey free seven-underDiGiacomo, PGA par 64. Zywiec started his round off hot birding his 5&4 in the final match first two holes and added another birdie on hole #7. at Dodge Riverside Zywiec continued this momentum on his inward nine G.C. Vermeer proved by posting three birdies to cruise to the Laser Link tough to beat as he did Golf Pro-Am title. Finishing two strokes back at not make a single five-under-par 66 was Ryan Vermeer of Tiburon G.C. bogey in the final match. Vermeer got off to an easy Click here for full article. start by making par on the first hole only to have DiGiacomo make an unbelievable up and down from CHRIS THOMPSON CAPTURES THE 23RD the trees to keep the match at all square. Vermeer NEBRASKA OPEN would birdie the second hole to go 1 up. Vermeer would birdie holes 6 and 8 and would find Columbus—NE, himself 4 up after the first nine holes. Click here for Chris Thompson of full article. Lawrence, KS EICKHOFF & HEARN CAPTURE INAUGURAL continued his great ROOKIE/VETERAN CHALLENGE play and birdied his opening hole and Gothenburg, NE- The team grabbed four more of Ross Eickhoff, PGA of along the way to win Kearney Country Club (NE) the 2014 Nebraska and Tom Hearn, PGA of Open presented by PGA TOUR battled the Wells Fargo. Thompson’s impressive total of 17breezy conditions to capture under-par total 196 was also a Nebraska Open record. the inaugural 2014 RookGrant Doverspike of The Woodlands, TX made a run ie/Veteran Challenge hosted at Thompson with a closing round seven-under-par 64 at Wild Horse Golf Club. to finish three strokes back. Ryan Vermeer of Oak The field was split in half Hills C.C. was the low Nebraska Section PGA and one “rookie” was paired Professional at seven-under-par and good enough for a with one “veteran” based on 2014 scoring average. Eickhoff & Hearn tied for seventh finish. Click here for full article. finished at 2-under-par which was good enough for a two shot victory in the 18 hole best ball format. Click here for full article. Nebraska Section PGA | 610 J Street, Ste 10 | Lincoln, NE 68508 | Ph: (402) 489-7760 | Fx: (402) 489-1785 | www.nebraskapga.com

LPGA launches new Teaching HER online course Self-paced instructional course created to help golf professionals better understand how women learn and how to teach them the game for greater success and enjoyment. The LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals announce the launch of the new online Teaching HER course, created to educate teaching professionals about how to comfortably and successfully teach the game of golf to women. The LPGA partnered with Pearson, the world's leading learning company with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries, to create the course. Pearson is headquartered in London, England. Because of the traditionally male-dominated culture in golf, the majority of the teaching methods currently in use in the golf industry were based on models of the swings of male touring professionals. There has been little research conducted within the golf industry on whether or not these methods are the same ones that should be used for women, or whether these methods should be adjusted when working with women. However, research in other sports and in other fields suggests that women can benefit from gender-specific modification to instructional techniques. The purpose of the LPGA Teaching HER online course is to address this need. “Teaching has always been an integral part of the rich and vibrant history of the LPGA,” said Nancy Henderson, Chief Teaching Officer. “In 1959, nine years after the LPGA was founded, the members established the “Teaching Division” for the express purpose of encouraging people to learn how to play golf. To meet the unique needs of teaching women the game of golf, the LPGA has developed an online instruction program customized to the physical capabilities, the communication skills, and the equipment needs of female golfers.” The LPGA Teaching HER Course consists of (4) one-hour, online modules with knowledge checks, interactive video segments, and a final knowledge assessment. The course fee is $395. LPGA and PGA professionals completing the course will receive Continuing Education credits (8 LPGA CUs/4 PGA MSRs), the right to use the LPGA Teaching HER Approved Instructor logo, and will be listed on LPGA.com as an LPGA Approved Teaching HER Instructor in the LPGA’s “Find a Teacher” database. Click here for more information or to register and begin the course.

2015 PGA/USGA RULES OF GOLF WORKSHOP Online registration for a 2015 PGA/USGA Rules of Golf Workshop has begun. You can register via phone beginning Monday, Oct. 27. More information

PGA Winter Championships PGA Golf Club – Port St. Lucie, FL January-February 2015 2015 Schedule & Entry Deadlines Deadline - 5:00 p.m., EST- Wednesday, December 17, 2014 Quarter Century Championship - January 7-8, 2015 Senior Stroke Play Championship - January 13-15, 2015

ATTEND THE 98TH PGA ANNUAL MEETING IN NOVEMBER

Deadline - 5:00 p.m., EST - Wednesday, January 14, 2015 Senior-Junior Team Championship - January 27-30, 2015

PGA members, apprentices and university students are invited to attend the 98th Annual Meeting of the PGA of America, at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, Indiana. There is no cost to attend. Members who attend will receive a total of seven (7) MSR credits in the PGA Required Category each day for attendance on Nov. 20 (Thursday) and Nov. 21 (Friday), and will receive a total of eight (8) MSR credits in the PGA Required Category for attendance on Nov. 22 (Saturday). To register to attend the 98th PGA Annual Meeting, please click here. Note: You can choose any or all of the three days to attend.

Deadline - 5:00 p.m., EST - Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Women's Stroke Play Championship - February 3-5, 2015 Stroke Play Championship - February 3-6, 2015

COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE VIDEOS FOR MSR CREDIT The complimentary videos that are currently on pgalinks.com were from the January 2013 Member Business Center Theatre sessions. As of the end of October/early November, the 2013 videos will be replaced with the 2014 Member Business Center Theatre sessions. There will be 11 new seminar topics which will have a value of either 1 or 2 MSR credits after successful completion of the assessment. The same 70% passing score will be required with only one (1) re-take allowed.

SELF POST YOUR MSR’s ONLINE AT PGALINKS.COM Members are now able to self-post selected MSR activities directly online via PGALinks. The pre-determined activities available for Members to self-post are Service to the Industry (M06), Golf Coach (M07) and Media Related Articles (M09). Click here to self post your MSRs.

Deadline - 5:00 p.m., EST - Wednesday, January 28, 2015 Match Play Championship Qualifying - February 9, 2015 Match Play Championship - February 10-13, 2015

PGA OF AMERICA TRANSFORMS PGA COUNTRY CLUB INTO ST. LUCIE TRAIL GOLF CLUB PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. --Unveiling a unique and special focus on the local community, PGA Country Club will transform into the open-to-the-public "St. Lucie Trail Golf Club" beginning Nov. 1. The facility and golf course, originally designed by Jim Fazio in 1988, will continue to be owned and operated by the PGA of America, upholding the same maintenance standards as nearby PGA Golf Club. St. Lucie Trail Golf Club has undergone a tremendous revitalization program to its tee boxes, fairways, greens and landscaping over the past 18 months, under the direction of Superintendent Dick Gray, a protégé of Pete Dye. Click here to continue reading.

ARE YOU ON TRACK? MSR Cycle Ends 06/15/2015

See Where You Stand: Log into PGALinks.com to see your current MSR status

Lawrence Davies, PGA Thomas Erlandson, PGA Tyler Rolf, PGA Kent Lyons, PGA John Morrison III Douglas Bengston, PGA Gil Russell, PGA Wade Foreman, PGA Kevin Sullivan, PGA Timothy Sheridan, PGA William Schellen, PGA Troy Harder, PGA Larry Romjue, PGA Clayton Anderson, PGA Douglas Dunbar, PGA Robert Baber, PGA

11/1 11/2 11/2 11/3 11/3 11/5 11/5 11/6 11/6 11/7 11/8 11/9 11/9 11/10 11/10 11/12

Jared Kalin, PGA Joseph Sutter, PGA Derrick Ceder, PGA Shane Zywiec, PGA William Jacobsen, PGA Timothy Rowland, PGA Michael Brown, PGA Brian Bussinger, PGA Brandon Wedding Todd Anderson, PGA Timothy Nelson, PGA Carly Ulrich, PGA Chad Gill, PGA Kevin Drew, PGA Sonya Freese, PGA Bob McCormack, PGA

11/12 11/12 11/14 11/15 11/16 11/17 11/19 11/19 11/19 11/21 11/21 11/21 11/22 11/25 11/26 11/29

STAFF David Honnens, PGA Executive Director dhonnens@pgahq.com

Sean Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill, PGA Tournament Director soneill@pgahq.com

Joe Canny, PGA Junior Golf Director/ Player Development Coordinator jcanny@pgahq.com

Renee Tyson Operations Manager rtyson@pgahq.com