Assistant’s Special Awards Gil McNally Most Improved Award & Scoring Average Award A fine player for several years in the Metropolitan Section, Tim Puetz, Huntington Country Club, made the leap to an elite player in 2014. Tim’s tremendous improvement was evident before the Met Section tournament scheduled started. On March 1, 2014, Tim teed it up in a Monday qualifier for the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open. The field was dotted with PGA Tour veterans (Arjun Atwal, Jason Allred), amateur phenoms (Peter Williamson) and Met Section colleagues (Danny Balin, Nick Beddow). Staring down the more accomplished field, Tim qualified for the Puerto Rico Open that day spearheading a season to remember. During the winter, Tim focused on his driving, putting and wedge play as the three key areas of his game that needed improvement. He believed he would contend at every event if those three areas remained consistently strong. He was not wrong. In eight Assistants Tour events, Tim finished in the top 6 six times, capping off his season with a win at the Assistants Tour Championship at Old Oaks Country Club. Tim’s impressive play resulted in a 70.56 scoring average and an improvement in his scoring average with relation to par by 4.55 strokes. Those marks earned the Huntington Country Club assistant professional the Scoring Average Award and the Gil McNally Most Improved Player award. In addition to his exploits on the Assistants Tour, Tim earned his first Met Section major championship in May at the Long Island PGA Championship hosted by Muttontown Golf Club. He later added a third place finish at the Long Island Open, a second place finish at the Met Open Championship, an eleventh place finish at the Lincoln Met PGA Championship and a sixth place finish at the Treiber Memorial Tournament of Champions.
TaylorMade adidas Assistant Professional of the Year Award Dennis Dungee of Mount Kisco Country Club has been selected as the 2014 TaylorMade Assistant of the Year. Dennis served as Vice-President of the Assistants Association in 2014 and recently became President with Andrew Bostrom’s move to the head professional position at Green Brook in the New Jersey Section. Dennis has been active for the last three years serving as Secretary in 2013 and 1st Vice President in 2014. A well rounded professional, Dennis focuses an enormous amount of his efforts on junior golf and charitable fundraising. In addition to volunteering with The First Tee and building a Met PGA Junior League Golf team, Dennis has conducted junior golf fundraisers during each of the past four seasons. His devotion to player development within the Section and at Mount Kisco Country Club has earned him a US Kids Top 50 Honorable Mention award. Dennis’s efforts continue beyond the boundaries of his Section and club. He is an active, annual participant in annual Patriot Golf events, runs successful campaigns for Arnie’s Army for Fight Against Prostate Cancer and commits yearly to Play for P.I.N.K. outings. A section leader, a committed junior golf advocate and a devoted philanthropist, Dennis Dungee has rightly earned this outstanding award. Congratulations, Dennis!
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Met PGA Magazine 2014 Year in Review