The Professional

Middle Atlantic PGA

Vol. II - Issue I

The Professional

In This Edition...

Section Awards Senior PGA Champ.

Trillium Rose Tips The Professional

APA Update Tournament Time President’s Letter Page 1

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

MATTHEW SCHULZE, PGA SECTION PRESIDENT

-2017-

Two Thousand Seventeen Even though our Spring Membership Meeting presented by PiMac and Streamsong Resort is next week, with this warm weather it feels like the season has already begun! Hopefully everyone was able to take advantage of the weather and see some golfers earlier than expected.

I encourage all Members and Apprentices to attend the Spring Membership Meeting on Monday, March 6 in Fredericksburg. We are changing our format slightly with guest speakers including Suzy Whaley, PGA of America Vice President and my good friend Alex Miceli, who will have a fireside chat about the industry and golf media. Alex was a former member of mine at Richmond CC. We want our meetings to be special events that encourage our members to attend and network with their peers.

This first issue of the MAPGA Professional (in its second year as an e-magazine) contains a wealth of information for the upcoming season. Please take some time to look through the magazine to see all of the teaching tips, event news and Board updates. I would like to emphasize the Senior PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club. We are in need of approximately 100 PGA Professionals to volunteer during the tournament. Please sign up on our website and support this major championship run by our Association.

Lastly, the Board is continuing to work hard on growing our partnerships with both golf companies and non-golf companies. Please try to support the companies that are partnering with the Section through tournaments, meetings and education. If you are working with a company that is not supporting the Section, ask them what we can do to get them involved. We also encourage you to share some potential leads for non-golf companies that might be interested in getting involved with our Foundation or Section programs.

Please let me know if I can help you in any way this season. I look forward to seeing everyone at the Membership Meeting.

Warm regards,

Layout & Design Ethan Brady Contributing Writers Brian Dix, Sean English, Lynne Hunter, Jeff Maynor,Trillium Rose, Matthew Schulze, Eric Southard, Andy Weissinger

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Matthew Schulze, PGA Page 2

NEWS. EVENTS. FEATURES.

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Professional of the Year Matthew Schulze, PGA

Youth Player Dev. Leader Michael Pius, PGA

Resort Merch. of the Year Brian Alley, PGA

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Teacher of the Year Trillium Rose, PGA

Player Development Award John Oberly, PGA

Asst. Professional of the Year

David Wortman

Jack Var

Scott Shapin, PGA

2017 MAPGA A Page 4

Horton Smith Award Pat Coyner, PGA

Bill Strasbaugh Award J.P. Lunn, PGA

Private Merch. of the Year Jim Schouller, PGA

n Citizen Award

rdaman

Earle Hellen Sports Media Award

William Millsaps

Award Winners The Professional

Public Merch. of the Year Rick Rounsaville, PGA

Salesperson of the Year Britt Sloan

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Teacher of the Year Tips With Trillium Rose, PGA As a full time teacher, I see a lot of swing issues but one of the most common is the inability to maximize ones potential for power – even with club professionals. Granted, everybody has a different physique and swing, but with a few simple concepts you might see a few more yards. Here are three areas for you to check to see if you can recoup some more distance.

1) Using the ground. By now you have likely heard of “ground reaction forces,” because golf instructors and biomechanists are discussing it on a regular basis. The simple definition is the forces that act in an equal and opposite direction. So when you press down into the ground, the ground presses back up.

Although there are exceptions, to maximize your power you’ll need to feel the pressure in your feet early in the transition. Press your trail leg into the ground to push towards the target and your lead leg up to post up. The net effect is a fast rotation of your pelvis to lead off the forward swing.

2) Swing from the inside. If you’re a fader, that’s fine but for longer drives you’ll want to take an inside path and hit on the ball. Tee that ball up high and set up with your torso slightly tilted away from the target. (When you do this be sure you don’t load your weight on the trail foot. Simply bump your hips to the target to evenly distribute the pressure.)

3) Take care of your body. It’s so easy to tell everyone else to stay in shape but what about us? We are standing up or sitting down all day for hours on end. The reality is that as we live on, we don’t get any more flexible or any stronger. You have to work on it. The Titleist TPI screen is a great way to see where you fall on the spectrum of mobility and stability. Find a certified professional in your area and have them run you through the screen. It will be a great diagnostic for you to see what areas are holding you back.

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PGA BUSINESS NEWS

The Golf USA Tee Time Coalition is a joint initiative between the NGCOA and the PGA of America, dedicated to providing solutions to some of the challenges of online tee time distribution. The Golf USA Tee Time Coalition primarily exists to increase awareness and promote adoption of online tee time standards and best practices.

The Coalition can help make sure you are asking the right questions when evaluating your existing relationship with tee time distributors and/or tee sheet/point-of-sale providers. For example: Did you give tee time marketers permission to use your golf course’s name as a keyword in online advertising campaigns?

Do you know when your contract expires? Or when/if it is subject to automatic renewal?

Or maybe you are wondering why tee time marketers, who agreed to negotiate floor pricing on barter tee times, are allowing discount codes to be used on barter inventory?

Were you given multiple options for delivering payment to the online tee time agent?

Is your local rep not responding to your questions or concerns in a timely manner?

The Coalition is currently monitoring trends in the online tee time space. PGA Professionals are encouraged to take the Golf Course Owner, Operator, and Golf Professional Survey when it’s released this spring. PGA members will receive 1 MSR for completing the survey.

After, we will release a first-of-its kind, industry report card detailing the companies that are excelling as well as those that may fail to meet customers’ expectations in a variety of categories. The results of this survey will help guide the golf course in making informed decisions in the marketplace.

The Coalition will release a new set of voluntary standards for online tee time distribution in 2017. If you would like more information or to contact the Coalition you can visit www.teetimecoalition.org or email jwilliams@teetimecoalition.org.

Jared Williams Managing Director

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mapgajrgolf The Professional

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2017 MAPGA Hall of Fame & AwardsBanquet The Jefferson Hotel - Richmond, Va. March 11, 2017 Honoring HOF Inductee Curtis Strange, PGA & 2017 MAPGA Award Winners led by Professional of the Year Matthew Schulze, PGA Register at MAPGA.com

Curtis Strange, PGA

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2017

Middle Atlantic P

2017 Section Schedule April 17

Britt Sloan Scramble

Woodmont Country Club

April 24-25

Match Play Champ. (Rds. 1-3)

The Golf Club at South River

April 26

Senior Match Play (Rds. 1-3)

Various Facilities

May 22

Senior-Junior Champ.

Fawn Lake Country Club

June 12

Club Car Pro-President

Robert Trent Jones Golf Club

June 19

Club Car Facility Championship

Belle Haven Country Club

June 26

NCR Spring Pro-Scratch

The Federal Club

July 10

Delta Dental SOVA “Last Chance” Qual.

Augustine Golf Club

July 10

Delta Dental SOVA PGA Qualifier

Augustine Golf Club

July 31- Aug. 1

NCR Assistant Championship

Country Club at Woodmore

Aug. 7

Women’s Championship

Glenn Dale Golf Club

Aug. 14-16

Professional Championship

Farmington CC/Spring Creek GC

Aug. 28-29

Sr. Champ/Qtr. Cent./Sr. PNC Qual.

Army Navy Country Club (Arlington)

Sept. 18

NCR Fall Pro-Net

PB Dye Golf Club

Sept. 25

Club Car Head Professional Champ.

Univ. of Maryland Golf Club

Sept. 25

Teaching Professional Champ.

Univ. of Maryland Golf Club

Oct. 16-17

Rocky Gap Players Cup

Rocky Gap Casino Resort

Oct. 30-31

Matt Miskelly & Comp.Team Champ.

Salisbury Country Club

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PGA Tournaments

REGISTER

Tournament Time Sean English, PGA Commitee Chair

Happy Spring to our fellow MAPGA Professionals, our winter has been fabulous this year! Hopefully, our spring will be super fabulous with all of us getting out on the links. As we start our 2017 season, your Tournament Committee wants to make sure you are aware of a few changes to encourage you to get out and play this season.

First, the schedule (can be found on page 10 & MAPGA.com) has been finalized. We have been able to schedule some premier sites in the MAPGA including, Woodmont Country Club to open the season with our Britt Sloan Scramble, the Pro-President at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, and the premier event of the year, the MAPGA Professional Championship being played at Farmington Country Club and Spring Creek Golf Club.

Next, we want to remind the membership last year the MAPGA Board waived the fee associated with the Tournament Request Form in a good faith effort to get more MAPGA members/apprentices playing in Pro-Members, Pro-Am, Pro-Invites, etc. Any facility can host an event if the form is filled out in advance and all MAPGA rules and regulations are followed. Your committee is still working to add in a Pro-Am series of 4-5 events this season with the purpose to provide you opportunities to get out to some different facilities and play with your members. Details to follow soon in this regard.

Lastly, the Sponsorship Committee, chaired by Jay Dufty, PGA and Greg Scott, PGA, and with the help of Thomas Hutton, PGA, have worked to provide the membership with more sponsorship dollars throughout our Section/Chapter events. We continue to work hard to provide you with the best facilities, formats, and value to encourage your participation. We would like to remind our membership part of our sponsorship dollars is determined by the number of players we have playing in our events, especially our MAPGA Professional Championship. Please mark your calendars for Aug. 14-16 to participate in this event.

As always, we encourage your feedback on how we can make our Tournament Program better. Feel free to contact myself or any of the committee members.

Thank you for your time and let’s go make some birdies!

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TOURNAMENT DEPARTMENT UPDATE -ERIC SOUTHARDThe MAPGA Tournament Department and Committee is always looking to improve, and filling out surveys after events is the best way to help us help you. We started this in 2016, and the surveys were a great resource for us to use for the future. We cannot perform our function to the best of our ability without your ideas and feedback. Please be on the lookout for these surveys in 2017.

The Tournament Committee voted to allow seniors age 70 and over to play from a forward set of tees in several of the individual stroke play events that have optional Senior Divisions.

The events are the Pro-Scratch (amateurs too), the Pro-Net, the Head Professional Championship, the Teaching Professional Championship, and the Players Cup. 70+ year-old men will move to the same tees as the women’s Regular Division and women will move up approximately 8 percent from the Women’s Senior Division yardages. Any 70 year-old who moves up will still be part of the Senior Division 60 and over sub group (or 50 & over if no 60 & over sub group exists) in terms of prizes. These players will be eligible for Senior and if applicable, Women POY points.

In 2016, a similar initiative was introduced with four of the team events, the Scramble, Senior Pro-Junior Pro, Facility Championship and the Team Championship.

On a more informative note, listed on our website on the POY Points page, is an additional link to point schedules for every POY event in 2017. This information has always been listed on the Tournament Information Page of the event, however, we will have the events grouped together for easy review.

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THE APA

Brian Dix, PGA APA President As the 2017 golfing season approaches, even though the winter has not really been a winter, we look forward to a successful season.We have already hosted a successful education event at Caves Valley Golf Club. A huge thanks goes out to Mark Russo, PGA; Bernie Najar, PGA; and Sean English, PGA for providing the APA with a wonderful day of learning about the golf swing and the business of golf. It is wonderful to have PGA Professionals in our section that our willing to donate their time to enriching the lives of assistant professionals. Keep an eye out for more education seminars this spring and fall.

We are looking forward to a wonderful tournament schedule for 2017. Currently we The Professional

have four sites scheduled and working on the final few tournaments. We do everything we can to have a diverse schedule, geographically friendly sites that accommodate each chapter, and a rotation of sites that have accommodated us in the past. If you ever have any leads or ideas on where we should host a tournament, I encourage anyone to reach out and let us know so we can see if it works with the schedule.

2017 is the year of elections at the chapter and section level. If you are a PGA Member and have interest in serving your association, feel free to reach out to me or your respective chapter directors to see what is expected.

There will be an election Assistants Directors and If you are not a PGA M interest in serving you are other avenues of se on various committees, reach out to the Board the appropriate contact

Lastly, if you are, or know are not members of the you to be an APA memb the AHEAD Scholarship.

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2017 APA SCHEDULE

n for all three Chapter d for Section Director.

Member but still have ur association, there erving. You can serve all you need to do is of Directors and get information.

w any apprentices that e APA, we encourage ber to be eligible for It is an opportunity if The Professional

APRIL 10

APA OPEN

SPRING CREEK GC

MAY 9

MATCH PLAY DOMINION VALLEY

MAY 16

APA EVENT

SUBURBAN CLUB

AUG. 28

APA EVENT

MOUNT VERNON GC

Visit APA Page

you complete one of your levels to be awarded with a $500 scholarship.The requirements are simple and worthwhile. All of this information and more can be found on the MAPGA APA page.

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2017 NCR CHARITY PRO-AM at the

SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

BENEFITING

The 2017 NCR Charity Pro-Am will be held the day after the final round of the 2017 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship on Monday May 29.

Participants will be able to experience playing on a premiere course in tournament conditions while paired with a PGA Professional.

The tournament which benefits the MAPGA Foundation and PGA Reach, will feature teams of three Amateurs and one PGA Professional.

We encourage PGA Professionals to share this opportunity with their membership at their facility. The cost for one team is $2,250 ($750 per amateur) and includes breakfast, golf, caddie, lunch, and much more! Registration is open today.

Full Details The Professional

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CHAPTER PRESIDENT UPDATES Northern Chapter

Cen

Jeff Maynor, President

Lynn

I hope everyone had a great off season and you were able to complete many of the items on your “to do” list. Before you are knee deep in the 2017 season, I encourage you to take advantage of a couple of opportunities to network with your fellow professionals.

On March 13th, a Professional Development Day will be held at the Elkridge Club, topics include teaching, player development and marketing through the use of social media. A second opportunity is our Chapter Spring meeting at Rolling Road Golf Club on Monday, April 3. Past MSGA President and current USGA Rules Official, Jay Duffy will join us to share stories from the tour, an update of recent changes in the Rules and the “Top 10 Rules Every Professional Should Know”. Both are events are chances for you interact with fellow PGA members, share thoughts, ideas and best practices.

We are never too old, to knowledgeable or too busy to ask questions!

Please do not hesitate to give me a call if there is anything I can do to help you!

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The Central Chapter Board is loo the Spring Meeting and Tournament Club. We will have long time suppo new sponsors in Martin-Fennec and membership to support our partne shop. Please remember we will be ha

Be on the lookout for more info regarding an education seminar abou representing the Central Chapter at a great year for the MAPGA.

I recently took part in an analysis reg I believe to be an exciting opportun grow this great game, and be posit encourage our Professionals to give b Foundation as we look to produce a

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ntral Chapter

Southern Chapter

ne Hunter, President

Andy Weissinger, President

oking forward to seeing everyone at t on March 27 at Evergreen Country orter Callaway on hand, as well as two d Destination Kohler. I encourage our ers and welcome them into your golf aving a Food Drive prior to the meeting.

ormation from the Central Chapter ut budgeting and finance. I have enjoyed the section board and look forward to

garding the MAPGA Foundation, which nity for our organization to give back, tive role models in the community. I back and get involved with the MAPGA a roadmap this coming year.

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The Southern Chapter kicked off its 2017 with a Board of Directors Meeting on Feb. 21. There are many great things in store for the 2017 golf season for our Southern Chapter members.

The first full membership event will be on Monday, March 27. This will be our Spring Membership Meeting followed by our Pro-Pro Tournament. At our meeting we are going to have Michael Walder, Director of Handicaps for the VSGA, as our guest. Michael will be leading an educational session on setting up a golf tournament using the new Golf Genius software . We are all getting access to in 2017 as part of our VSGA/USGA Handicapping services.

We will also have some time to hear from you, our Southern Chapter Member, on how we can all improve ourselves and our industry in 2017.

This is important in helping the Section better serve its members every year. Please come with some great ideas and plan to have a fun time playing golf with friends in the afternoon.

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2017 KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

100+ VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

LEARN MORE The Professional

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2017 MAPGA Section Partners The MAPGA would like to thank our section partners for their support as we head into the 2017 season. Please continue to support our partners as they support us. A current list of all sponsors can be found on mapga.com

Gold

Silver

Bronze

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If you are interested in contributing to The Professional, contact Ethan Brady at ebrady@pgahq.com

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