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ON THE FIRST TEE... With Nick Dietzen

appy New Year! Whether you are reading this on 1/1 or days later after ringing in the new year, we’re glad to have you as members of the Montana State Golf Association. In the year ahead, perhaps you have some New Year Golf Resolutions. Our team does that exercise in advance of the active season on April 1st, but you can be an over achiever, now. If you haven’t already, take a look at your GHIN App and view your GHIN Rewind. It’s a great year-in-review of your year in golf. The USGA has worked hard to improve and deepen the analysis and those of you who enter scores hole-by-hole will see even more analysis. In the year ahead we look forward to several exciting announcements and added member benefits. We are continually investing in the growth of Montana’s golf community, from our juniors and competitive golfers, to the weekend warriors and newcomers to the game. As we turn our attention to 2026, we are looking for a few additions to our great team through the P.J. Boatwright Jr. Internship Program in partnership with the United States Golf Association (USGA). If you or someone you know might be interested in learning about golf administration, read on. Not for you? We advertise and market broadly, but word-of-mouth is important so share and spread the word if you know of someone you think might be interested! ABOUT THE P.J. BOATWRIGHT JR. INTERNSHIP PROGRAM Established by the United States Golf Association in 1991, the P.J. Boatwright Jr. In-

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ternship Program has supported amateur golf for more than three decades. The program is designed to give individuals interested in golf administration meaningful, entry-level experience while assisting state and regional golf associations across the country. Today, former Boatwright Interns can be found throughout the golf industry, including leadership roles within Allied Golf Associations and at the USGA itself. In fact, the MSGA has three current staff members who were once Boatwright Interns. FROM INTERNSHIP TO CAREER PATH One of the things we’re most proud of at the MSGA is how often our interns become long-term contributors to the game. Katie Fagg (2023–24) is in her second year as a staff member with the MSGA and leads our marketing efforts in addition to her tournament management experience. Ty Sparing (2022-23) is in his fourth sea-

son as a staff member as our communications manager and senior writer for 406golf Magazine. Nick Dietzen (2012) is in his fifth season as Executive Director, but started his career in golf administration as a full-time Boatwright Intern at the Minnesota Golf Association. WHAT MAKES THE BOATWRIGHT INTERNSHIP SPECIAL? Does traveling to some of the most scenic communities and having your office on Montana’s fantastic golf courses sound appealing? The Boatwright Internship provides a handson, well-rounded introduction to golf administration. Here’s how Katie & Ty described their time as interns at the MSGA:

The MSGA is one of many AGA's that employ former Boatwright interns.

“My experiences as a MSGA Boatwright Intern were nothing short of amazing. The internship offered opportunities in graphic design, tournament operations, and working directly with the Montana golf community. I was exposed to every part of the association, while still being encouraged to focus on what I enjoy most—especially creative work.” — Katie Fagg “Being a Boatwright Intern in Montana means traveling the state, working at top golf courses, meeting great people, and learning the game from the inside. The MSGA is committed to helping interns achieve their goals, whatever those may be. There’s flexibility to pursue areas of interest while still gaining a broad understanding of the golf industry.” — Ty Sparing OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE MSGA

As seen with the four former Boatwright Interns here, the program offers exceptional career development and job placement.

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For 2026, the MSGA is offering three Boatwright Internship positions. Interns will have defined focus areas while gaining exposure to a wide range of golf administration responsibilities, including:

Tournament Operations: Event preparation, on-site operations, logistics, and learning the rules and traditions of competitions firsthand. Communications & Social Media: Storytelling, social media, photography, writing, and capturing the people and places that make Montana golf special. Playing ability is not required, an interest in golf will enhance the experience, however. Applicants from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Eligibility highlights: •

Must be 18 or older

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Minimum internship duration of 3 months.

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Ability to work as part of a team as well as independently motivated are strong traits exhibited by past interns.

•

Curiosity, initiative, and a willingness to learn go a long way, too.

Ready to Apply? If you—or someone you know—are curious about a career in golf administration and want a front-row seat to the Montana golf season, we encourage you to apply and help us spread the word. This internship isn’t just about a summer on the road—it’s about building skills, relationships, and a foundation for a career in the game. We’d love to meet our next Boatwright Interns. Note: Golf professionals and PGM students; USGA employees or their relatives; USGA committee members or their relatives; and association or organization employees and officials (or their relatives) are not eligible for hire.

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ABOU T US BOARD OF DIRECTORS - OFFICERS PRESIDENT................................................... Peter Benson VICE PRESIDENT.................................. Ron Ramsbacher TREASURER....................................................... Bill Dunn PAST PRESIDENT......................................... Mary Bryson EXEC COMMITTEE......................................Joe Rossman BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ross Bartell, Peter Benson, Carla Berg, Marshall Bettandorf, Mary Bryson, Brandon Davidson, Bill Dunn, Cheri Ellis, Lisa Forsberg, Marcia Hafner, Susan Haskins, Jeri Heard, Katy Peterson, Ron Ramsbacher, Joe Rossman, Rod Stirling MSGA STAFF Executive Director......................................... Nick Dietzen Tournament Director...................................... Tim Bakker Membership Operations Director............... Emily Hulsey Member Services Coordinator......................... Ian Hulsey Communications & Tournament Manager.... Katie Fagg Communcations Coordinator.......................... Ty Sparing Partnerships & Business Development...... Nick Dietzen USGA PJ Boatwright, Jr. Intern................ Dean Hendrix USGA PJ Boatwright, Jr. Intern...................... Ella Prigge USGA PJ Boatwright, Jr. Intern................ Stella Claridge PARTNERSHIPS Nick Dietzen.............................. 1 (800) 628-3752, ext. 6 406GOLF STAFF Editor in Chief............................................... Nick Dietzen Consulting Editor........................................ David Bataller Senior Writer..................................................... Ty Sparing Graphic Designer................................................Katie Fagg Contributing Writer......................................Emily Hulsey Contributing Writer.........................................Tim Bakker Contributing Writer......................................Shanda Imlay Contributing Writer.........................................Shane Rene Contributing Writer.................Logan Groeneveld-Meijer Contributing Writer......................................Ross Niewola Montana State Golf Association P.O. Box 4306 Helena, MT 59604 1 (800) 628-3752 www.msgagolf.org

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GHIN REWIND How did you do this season?

BY EMILY HULSEY

MSGA MEMBERSHIP OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Congratulations on another great year! How did you do? Open your GHIN app or log into ghin.com to view your highlights from 2024. You’ll find your personalized GHIN Rewind in the “More” menu. Or, check your inbox for an email from the USGA, with a link to your 2025 GHIN Rewind. Immersive Experience: A dynamic, multislide story-like experience. Comprehensive Highlights: See your Handicap Index changes, total rounds played,

best and most challenging rounds, courses played, and more. Shareable Moments: Each slide is designed to let you celebrate and share your accomplishments with friends and fellow golfers. If you need help logging in to GHIN, please contact us at support@msgagolf.org. Join us in celebrating the success of golfers nationwide! Note: You need a current active Handicap Index and a minimum of three 18-hole scores posted this year to view your GHIN Rewind. Manual score entries are not included.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF MINI-GOLF BY TY SPARING

MSGA COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

In 1928 on the historic Lookout Mountain near the border of Tennessee and Georgia, a hotel proprietor named Garnet Carter was searching for a way to provide some entertainment for his guests at the Fairyland Inn for a few months while they waited on the construction of a nearby 18-hole regulation golf course. Worried about finances and trying to prevent the whole enterprise from going under, Carter’s innocuous thought to add one more activity on the hotel grounds was a monumental one that caught on like wildfire and changed his life forever. He called the big idea “Tom Thumb Golf” as he rolled out the very first modern miniature golf course. While the novelty of smaller courses had been around for some time, those previous attempts were generally modeled as regular courses – just smaller yardages. What Carter had in mind was much different. As he got to work building putting greens littered with hazards and tunnels, “everybody laughed and scoffed at the idea,” he later recalled, “some of my friends jokingly inquired if I was building a playground for children.” Tom Thumb Golf was no joke indeed, in fact it became the number one “fad” of 1930. After noticing how popular the mini-golf course at the Fairyland Inn had become, the District of Columbia soon after commissioned Carter to design another Tom Thumb course for one of its parks, and from there the quirky new game grew exponentially. As one Chattanooga newspaper wrote, it turned out people everywhere “liked to putt through hollow logs and sewer

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pipes and around rocks as well as those in Tennessee.” By the end of that year, there were 25,000 Tom Thumb operators that sprouted up across the nation, which the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated their total value at $125,000,000. Known previously as the site of a couple historic Civil War battles, with Carter’s invention of Tom Thumb Golf, Lookout Mountain was on its way to becoming a regionally famous tourist destination that remains popular in our present day with attractions like Rock City and Ruby Falls. Considering the time frame, it’s something of a minor miracle for the area, given the decade of economic woe that was set to hit the United States during the 1930s. For Garnet Carter it turned out that patenting Tom Thumb Golf was his ticket out of the Great Depression. Despite the zenith of it’s popularity coming in 1930, just one year after the famous Stock Market crash of 1929, the introduction of the game came at a fortuitous moment of cultural transition. Among other things, the roaring twenties are known for the dramatic rise in leisure activities. Reaping the rewards of the industrial revolution, regular folks finally started spending less time on chores, and more time traveling, cultivating hobbies, and enjoying new forms of entertainment. Following the enormously popular trends of mahjong, flagpole sitting, yo-yo’s, dance marathons and many more, the singularly unique Tom Thumb Golf fit in quite well within the broader evolution of fads in the 1920s. Along with people’s burgeoning interest in leisure activities during the preceding decade, the Great Depression was ironically a suitable

environment for Tom Thumb Golf to succeed. With it’s low overhead cost, and plenty of space available throughout the United States due to a rash of bankruptcies, the game proved resilient as financially strapped citizens still desired their leisure time, albeit in a slightly more cost-conscious way than in years previous. Just like everywhere else in the nation, the Tom Thumb craze hit the Treasure State with a full head of steam in 1930. From Dillon to Glendive and everywhere in between, these tiny little courses that resembled a children’s playground kept popping up in Montana, accompanied by much enthusiasm. The Daily Missoulian even compiled a list of humorous

alternate names in which to call Tom Thumb Golf: miniature golf, pee-wee golf, premature golf, shrimp golf, dinky links, Kindergarten golf, midnight golf and lilliputian golf. Over the years the popularity of Tom Thumb Golf has waxed and waned, but it never went away. In the 1950s there was another boom in the newly developed suburbs around the nation, except this time the game was permanently rebranded “Miniature Golf.” The 1980s and 1990s shopping mall era saw the popularity of mini-golf rise once again. In our own neck of the woods a 1987 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine featured photos of

A 1987 Smithsonian portrait of the Valley View Miniature Golf Course in Great Falls.

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several popular mini-golf courses throughout Montana as being some of the most unique in the country. The Valley View and Benny’s courses in Great Falls, Putter’s Paradise in Missoula, and CC’s Mini-Golf in Glendive were all profiled on the national stage. After a decade of slumbering interest in the 2010s, according to the National Golf Foundation (NGF) miniature golf is going through

another renaissance in the 2020s. According to a 2022 report, it was found that 18 million people played at least four rounds of miniature golf in 2021, compared to the 25 million that played regulation green-grass golf. Interestingly 45% of those mini-golfers were female, which as the NGF states are “demographics many would love to see in the traditional game.”

Classic windmill fixture at the Valley View Miniature Golf Course in Great Falls, cirque 1987.

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A barn hazard at Benny's Miniature.

Along with the old-fashioned courses of yesteryear, complete with windmills, clowns, and all the rest, part of the resurgence in recent years is due to new high-tech places that are taking a page out of Topgolf’s popularity like Urban Putt, Puttery, Puttshack, PopStroke and others. “The demand is real,” NGF claims, “which is why Puttshack, created by the twin brothers who founded Topgolf, recently landed a $60 million investment for development of its indoor concept,” which is essentially a “family-focused during the day and [ ] an adults-only, high-end nightclub vibe at night.” Even Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are in on the action, with McIlroy having invested heavily in the development of Puttery, while

Woods similary has a strategic partnership with PopStroke, both of which have locations scattered in major cities throughout the U.S. While the National Golf Foundation does not count mini-golf as “off-course participation,” which is a category “restricted to experiences that involve launching a golf ball into the air with a traditional club,” they do believe however that it does “contribute in a meaningful way to golf’s latent demand pool by raising awareness and interest in a fun, non-threatening way.” With so much new technology in place and plenty of heavy hitters currently invested in the space, it appears that once again, the future of miniature golf has never looked so bright.

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TOURNAMENT TALK Notes from Tournament Director, Tim Bakker

ooking back on the year at the MSGA, we crowned some great champions and played some amazing golf courses. There are so many people who make that happen for us. To the clubs and their members: Thank you for the time you gave up for the MSGA to come in and host events, it is greatly appreciated. The guys and gals behind the scenes, the course superintendents and their staff. Your work with using our custom flags, tee markers, helping with hole locations, all of the attention to detail you put into your golf courses is amazing. Thank you to our Superintendents. To the professional staff and clubhouse staff, thank you for your added effort when the MSGA visits. From helping guide players around your facility to making everyone

feel welcome to be there, it is greatly appreciated. Finally the players, our attendance was outstanding in 2025. We saw a growing number of players in many of our events, with new championships, and new playing opportunities for our Champions in 2025. The MSGA Junior Championship continued to provide great golf and new opportunities this year. Brady Powell won the boys championship in a playoff over John Gilbert. Brady continued his summer representing Montana at the Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines, in La Jolla,CA. Brady, John, Colin Jensen, & Max Milton represented Montana at the Junior Americas Cup in Portland, OR. All four boys had amazing golf seasons with John & Collin winning class A & AA state championships and Max winning an AJGA event at Palouse Ridge. Katie Lewis continued her run through the MSGA record book winning her 3rd MSGA Junior Girls Championship. In 2025, the MSGA Junior Girls Champion was given an exemption into the USGA Junior Girls Amateur Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club in Atlanta, GA. Katie also won her 3rd straight MHSA Class A championship. Katie, Hanna Boyd, Cate Leydig, Kira Connell represented Montana at the Girls Junior Americas Cup in Scottsdale, AZ. Payton Taylor and Kade McDonough both earned a spot at the USGA US Amateur Championship at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, CA. Payton earned his spot through winning the MSGA Men’s Amateur Championship. Kade earned his spot by advancing through local qualifying at The Ranch Club in Missoula, then advancing through final stage qualifying.

MSU Golfers Norah Seidl and Maddie Montoya earned a spot at the 2026 USGA Four-Ball Championship.

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Montana State Bobcats, 2023 & 2024 Match Play Champion Scarlett Weidig partnered with

2025 Match Play Champion Maddie Montoya to qualify for the USGA Women’s Four Ball Championship at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club. MSGA Senior Men’s Amateur Champion Jerry Persall, qualified for the USGA Senior Amateur through local qualifying in Las Vegas, NV and competing at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, TX. It is great to see Montana being represented at the USGA Championships. We look forward to more opportunities in the future for Montana players to shine on the national stage. Sean Ramsbacher, Kade McDonough, & Liam Clancy were selected to represent Montana at the Pacific Coast Amateur at Eugene Country Club. Sean Ramsbacher made the cut in the Elite Amateur Series field of 96 players finishing in 51st position. We look forward to 2026 and the great opportunities our Montana golfers will have again. Some will chase the dream of a US Open through qualifying at Missoula Country Club. Some

will look to earn their spots through the MSGA Championships again in 2026. MSU Bobcats, Maddie Montoya and Norah Seidl have already punched their ticket to the 2026 USGA Women’s Four Ball Championship at Daniel Island Club in Charleston, SC. New in 2026 will be Montana’s entry into the PNGA’s Lamey Cup. 10 players will represent Montana at Victoria Golf Club in Victoria, BC, April 27-29th. The team of 10 will consist of 6 men and 4 ladies competing against the top players from Idaho Golf Association, Washington Golf, Oregon Golf Association, British Columbia Golf, and Alaska Golf Association. We look forward to inviting and announcing our 2026 team soon! As we get ready for the journey of 2026, mark your calendars, MSGA Championship registration opens on March 15th. Champions will be crowned, new opportunities will be redeemed. Thank you to our clubs, members and players for all you do.

Left to right: Ron Ramsbacher, Sean Ramsbacher, Kade McDonough, Liam Clancy, and Nick Dietzen enjoying themselves at the Pacific Coast Amateur.

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POPPY RIDGE TO HOST 59TH PACIFIC COAST AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY LOGAN GROENEVELD-MEIJER PCGA STAFF, MEDIA DIRECTOR

Livermore, Calif. – The Pacific Coast Golf Association (PCGA) has announced that the 59th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship will take place July 21-24, 2026, at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, Calif.

host the top amateur golfers of the world. It also makes use of new Santa Ana Bermuda fairways and Prestige Bentgrass putting greens, combining to form an exceptional, water-efficient playing surface any golfer is meant to enjoy.

This marks the first time Poppy Ridge – owned and operated by the Northern California Golf Association – will host the Pacific Coast Amateur. Its sister course, Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach, previously hosted the championship in 1996.

“It was imperative that the new course be a wonderful home for all NCGA members,” explained Blasi, via an NCGA Q&A. “One that would challenge the best while also being enjoyable for players of all abilities. To me, that was one of the exciting and challenging aspects of the project.”

It was that year – 1996 – when what is now Poppy Ridge originally opened as a 27-hole facility with three 9-hole layouts. In May 2025, a 13-month total redesign and rebuilding of the course was completed, under the design of Jay Blasi, who had worked right beside Robert Trent Jones II to design Chambers Bay in Washington, which itself has hosted the Pacific Coast Amateur on three occasions (2017, 2021, 2024). The new Poppy Ridge course offers playability, variety, and flexibility throughout its wide, undulating fairways, making it a prime location to

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The Pacific Coast Amateur and NCGA share deep ties, and the 2026 championship will mark a significant milestone. “The Pacific Coast Am is the main reason the NCGA exists,” said Lance Parker, vice president of the NCGA Board of Directors. "In 1901, the NCGA was created specifically to send a team to the Pacific Coast Amateur. We are celebrating our 125th anniversary this year and will showcase the new and improved Poppy Ridge. Hosting some of the best amateur golfers in the nation is a true honor, and doing

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so on one of our two courses makes it even more special.” The Pacific Coast Amateur is one of seven prestigious amateur championships comprising the Elite Amateur Golf Series (EAGS), where players accumulate World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points and vie for the Elite Amateur Cup. It remains the premier amateur championship on the West Coast and is circled on all amateur golf calendars in North America. It consistently receives a strong “Power” rating from WAGR, as assessed by The R&A and USGA. Jaden Dumdumaya is the current champion, having won at Eugene Country Club in 2025. Other recent champions include Doug Ghim (2017), Isaiah Salinda (2018), Quade Cummins (2019), Devon Bling (2021), James Leow (2022), Tyson Shelley (2023) and Chaz Aurilia (2024). Noteworthy past champions who have gone on to achieve success on the PGA TOUR include Will Zalatoris, Aaron Wise, Andrew Putnam, Jason Gore, and Billy Mayfair, among others. Much of the championship’s recent success can be directly attributed to the exceptional quality of the venue, and in 2026, Poppy Ridge will continue this proud tradition.

“The newly redesigned Poppy Ridge is an exceptional championship venue that will attract the world’s top amateurs and deliver a rigorous, fair test to determine the most deserving champion," said Troy Andrew, executive director of the PCGA. “We are thrilled to bring the Pacific Coast Amateur to this outstanding venue for the first time.”

Canada also represented in the field. ABOUT POPPY RIDGE Located in Livermore, Calif., Poppy Ridge Golf Course is one of two golf courses owned and operated by the Northern California Golf Association

(NCGA), the other being Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif. The course officially reopened on May 31, 2025, after a 13-month construction and grow-in process, where an 18-hole golf course has been created with completely new routing and stateof-the-art infrastructure. The

That championship test will present challenges like elevation changes and potentially strong wind, all on a 7,300yard track that plays as a par 70. “Players should have the opportunity to play every club in the bag,” said Brett Armstrong, COO of Poppy Holding, of the layout. “The green complexes have a lot of short grass around them that will either feed a ball to the hole or away from the green. Thinking about and utilizing the ground contours on approaches and recoveries will be important.” Past host sites for the championship have included premier venues in the western U.S. and Canada such as Chambers Bay, The Olympic Club, Eugene Country Club, Seattle Golf Club, Capilano Golf and Country Club, and Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, among others. The NCGA will be the host association for the 2026 championship, with 15 other member associations from the western United States and

Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, CA will host the 2026 Pacific Coast Amateur Championship.

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2026 will mark the 59th Pacific Coast Amateur Championshp.

new championship-caliber venue hosted a multitude of NCGA championships in 2025 and is set for nine more in 2026. A newly renovated practice facility and short game area are complemented by an executive nine-hole course, appropriately named “The Ridge 9.” ABOUT THE PACIFIC COAST GOLF ASSOCIATION The Pacific Coast Amateur Championship is one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur golf championships in North America. The first tournament was held on the

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links of San Francisco Golf Club at The Presidio in 1901. After being played until 1911, the Pacific Coast Amateur then ceased to exist, only to be reconstituted at Seattle Golf Club in 1967. Today, 15 member Pacific Rim golf associations comprise the Pacific Coast Golf Association. For more information visit, pacificcoastamateur.com. ABOUT THE ELITE AMATEUR GOLF SERIES Launched in 2022 to challenge the best of the best in amateur golf, the Elite Amateur Golf Series brings

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together the top amateur championships in a collective series of competitions, the Elite Amateur Cup. In addition to hosting the best players, Elite Amateur Cup events are contested at the best sites and have the longest history of successful champions. The Elite Amateur Golf Series maintains a proven track record that prepares elite players for the toughest competitive tests, making the championships the majors of amateur golf. Visit eliteamateurgolfseries.org for more information.

INSIDE JOB - WHAT IT IS LIKE VOLUNTEERING AT THE RYDEER CUP BY LOGAN GROENEVELD-MEIJER AN ARTICLE FROM THE PNGA

Anyone who’s ever considered attending a Ryder Cup likely knows what they’re signing up to see and hear, not least of which are high level golf, crowd noise equivalent to a jet engine in volume, and adult beverages that flow like water. Understandably then, a similarly sought-after capacity to be part of the biennial international golf spectacle is that of volunteering, for which about 4,000 were chosen from a long list of 50,000 applicants. Patricia Domine, a Northwest resident who serves as a board member of Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., was one of them. No stranger to being part of large-scale golf events, Patricia had also volunteered at the 2016 and 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championships, both of which were held at Sahalee.

Volunteering at Sahalee’s major championship last year indirectly led Patricia to Bethpage Black, site of this fall’s Ryder Cup. She worked extensively at the former with Zach Ruley, a fellow volunteer and on-the-ground representative of the PGA of America. Ruley pitched her volunteering for either the subsequent Women’s PGA in Frisco, Texas, or the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. Patricia chose the latter, to politely bypass the heat of a Texas summer. A brief sign-up process followed online, and Patricia soon received the coveted call, telling her she had been one of the few selected to work the Ryder Cup. At Bethpage, located on Long Island in New York, a state she had not been to since her college days, Patricia’s volunteering responsibilities varied. Primarily, she helped the lucky ticket holders scan into the event early in the

As Patricia will tell you, she and her brother have volunteered for “a lot of things” over the course of several decades, due largely to their parents having heavily done the same. An example of that is seen through her service with the Washington State Hunter Jumper Association (she’s a lifelong equestrian). Whether for such an organization, or a globally significant golf championship, Patricia sees plenty that is noble in the act of volunteering. “It always feels good,” she explained. “It’s rewarding. You get to see the ‘back’ of everything. It feels good for my heart when it’s something that’s really an emotional thing.”

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Patricia and husband Dan (left) met up with Isabel Vela (middle) the PGA assistant pro at the Sahalee Country Club.

week, which gave her the opportunity to take in the scene around her. “I was shocked at all the costumes,” Patricia said of what she found most memorable, having seen a group of people in star-spangled overalls cut into shorts. “Some of them had corn cob pipes, a lot of them had straw hats. They were hysterical.” She also recalled how some European fans were clad in kilts they claimed were from Amazon.Beyond the fans’ getup, other indicators of the pomp and circumstance were present. Big-name spirit brands like Tito’s and Jameson had their own tent setups, to go with the much bigger one that sold official Ryder Cup merchandise.

Yeah, the type of stuff that made a crack-ofdawn (if not earlier) alarm worthwhile. At the conclusion of the week, and with her connection to Ruley intact, Patricia began to ponder next year’s KPMG Women’s PGA, which will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota. A Midwest native, the time-generous Patricia is already pondering if she’ll lend her services. “I’m thinking about it, we’ll see how it goes,” she said. In any case, Patricia will always get to keep and wear her fancy Ralph Lauren volunteer gear from this year’s Ryder Cup, the prominent logo of which she says turn heads when worn in public.

Patricia got to see the U.S. and European star players of the show, too, albeit only from a relative distance as they practiced and spoke strategy with their caddies.

“I wore [the volunteer jacket] to the grocery store, and I had about three or four people say, ‘That’s a really cool jacket, where’d you get that?’”

“It was a wonderful experience,” she said, “And the amount of work put into it, I couldn’t believe.”

Just another perk of helping with something cool.

Patricia has volunteered for the two KPMG Women's PGA Championships held at Sahalee, in 2016 and 2024.

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What would Shanda do? You ask, Shanda Imlay answers. “Hey Shanda. During our club championship, my ball was on a cart path. I marked it, picked it up, and took relief. After I dropped, the ball rolled a little but stayed in the relief area. While I was backing away to get ready to play, a gust of wind moved the ball a few inches. I didn’t touch it, and it was still in the relief area but now it was a bit closer to the hole. Do I have to replace the ball, redrop it, or just play it from where the wind moved it? Is there a penalty?” - Kevin R. Kevin, we have several Rules to look at: First Rule 14.3c(1) Player Has Completed Taking Relief When Ball Dropped in Right Way Comes to Rest in Relief Area and Rule 9 Ball Played as it Lies; Ball at Rest Lifted or Moved. Under 14.3c(1) If the ball comes to rest in the relief area, the player has completed taking relief and must play the ball as it lies. When a player’s ball at rest has moved it must be decided what caused it to move under Rule 9.2b. This determines whether the player must replace the ball or play it as it lies.

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Since the ball was moved by a gust of wind we will proceed under Rule 9.3 Ball Moved by Natural Forces. The correct procedure for a ball moved by wind depends entirely on where your ball was resting on the course. Since this wasn’t on the Teeing Area or on the Putting Green where 9.3 exception 1 would apply. It did not move to another area of the golf course or out of bounds so 9.3 Exception 2 does not apply. The ruling would be your ball was at rest and moved by natural forces, you play it from its new spot without penalty.

"So I was playing in a stroke-play tournament and had this really tricky chip shot just off the green. While I was reading the shot, another player in my group casually said, “That’s a tough one. I’d land it short and let it release.” I didn’t ask for advice, but I definitely heard it. I ended up playing the shot anyway. Is that considered advice under the Rules of Golf? Should there have been a penalty, even though I didn’t ask for it?" - Sally G. This is a great question Sally! We need to look at the definition of advice in the Rules of Golf which states: Any verbal comment or action (such as showing what club was just used to make a stroke) that is intended to influence a player in: •

Choosing a club,

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Making a stroke, or

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Deciding how to play during a hole or round.

But advice does not include public information, such as: •

The location of things on the course such as the hole, the putting green, the fairway, penalty areas, bunkers, or another player’s ball,

•

The distance from one point to another,

•

Wind direction, or

•

The Rules.

The player receiving the unsolicited advice gets no penalty unless they don’t try and stop it, at which point they also would receive the General Penalty. The key to answering the question is “intent” - if the comment wasn’t meant to influence it is not advice, but if it was intended to help choose a club or make a stroke, its advice. So who gets penalized? The giver: If Player B offers unsolicited advice, such as I’d

land it short and let it release, to Player A, Player B gets the Two Stroke Penalty immediately for giving advice. The receiver: Player A would receive no penalty initially, but they must try and stop the advice or they are considered to have asked for the advice and would receive the General Penalty too. In summary, if your words or actions could reasonably be seen as guiding another player's strategic or technical decision, you're giving advice.

Yes, there can be a penalty, under Rule10.2a but it depends on intent and the receiver’s action: The player giving unsolicited advice gets the general penalty (two strokes in stroke play/loss of hole in match play).

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RYGGS JOHNSTON BEGINS SECOND YEAR ON THE DP WORLD TOUR After an exciting rookie season in which he won the Australian Open and made the cut at The 153rd Open Championship, Libby’s Ryggs Johnston hit the ground running in his second season with a series of tournaments to close out 2025. Johnston’s first event back was in early December for the Nedbank Golf Challenge

at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa. It was an auspicious start to the new season as he played well, finishing in 33rd place with a final four round score of even par 288. In his last round Johnston was paired with three-time major championship runner up Will Zalatoris and Aldrich Potgieter who in 2024 became the youngest competitor to ever secure a win on the Korn Ferry Tour at age 19. Johnston earned just under $52,000 for his efforts A week later Johnston was in the money once again with a 68th place finish at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, played at the Royal Johannesburg Club in Johannesburg, South Africa. Playing just three rounds, he finished up at -2 (212) and added $3,500 to the coffers. Over the course of this past year, Johnston has set the bar pretty high for future Montana golfers, and was even recently named the male athlete of the year by MTN Sports. For full results of the DP World Tour events, click here

WE HAVE NEW MSGA MEMBER BENEFITS! There’s so much to be excited about in 2026 and for our 23,000 members the perks keep growing! A couple new items to be rolled out in the new year will provide a little bit more entertainment for all the golf fans scattered across the Treasure State.

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GOLF Magazine As some of you may have noticed in your inbox this past December, we formed a partnership with GOLF Magazine in which MSGA members will have a FREE, no strings attached subscription to the digital issues, which will be distributed to your email every two months. Since 1959, GOLF has been a standard bearer for excellence in journalism. GOLF is for golfers and the game they love – to inform, educate and entertain golf’s largest audience through a commitment to making the game more fun. The goal in every issue is to celebrate the attraction, vibrancy, history and never-ending possibilities of this joyous game. A premium experience that, first and foremost, caters to the readers’ passions.

Libby's Ryggs Johnston begins his second season on the DP World Tour.

Between MSGA’s own monthly 406Golf Digital Magazine that covers all things Montana, GOLF provides a national focus and will keep you more informed on the game of golf than ever before! (*Note: To manage email preferences, scroll to the bottom of any GOLF correspondence) Majors Challenge Fantasy Golf We know there’s a lot of fantasy sports enthusiasts out there and this year for the first time ever the MSGA will offer our members a chance to play fantasy golf. Having recently partnered up with the highly regarded fantasy golf website, Majors Challenge, the MSGA will host contests all season long where members will have a chance to win a bevy of great prizes! Whether it’s a season long competition, or if you just want to participate in one event, there will be a range of options in which to pursue. It’s a great way to compete with friends off the course and enhance the viewing experience during professional tournaments. We’re excited to get started! More information on MSGA’s fantasy golf will be forthcoming, stay tuned.

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Dispatches from our neighbors at the Idaho Golf Association

iGolf A Lot: what simulator golf has taught us about time BY SHANE RENE IGA, ADMINISTRATOR OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

When Kyle Weeks and Nicole Rutledge left the IGA office for lunch last Thursday, they had a big trip planned. First, they stopped for nine holes at Barnbougle Dunes — Tom Doak and Mike Clayton’s Tasmanian masterpiece — where the weather was much kinder than the early-winter inversion that hung over Boise. Then, with a hop, skip and a click, Weeks and Rutledge hustled north for nine more holes at Lofoten Links, the widely photographed but seldom played gem of the Norwegian archipelago. I was feeling blessed to join them for lunch that day — and even more delighted to be back in the office before 2 p.m. — but part of me was disappointed by TrackMan’s presentation of the famous par-3 second hole at Lofoten. It was a bland Scandinavian summer's day. Blue sky. Sunshine. The corner of the screen indicated a gentle breeze. But there was no sign of the northern lights that Instagram had promised me. Still, the afternoon was a welcome reprieve from the encroaching frigidness of Southern Idaho’s non-golf season. And that’s precisely why Weeks and Rutledge are competing in a simulator league this winter. For two long-established green-grass golfers — whose love of the game morphed into a career — the simulator experience is a way to welcome winter without bowing to springtime rust. And it’s a growing part of the industry that may come to

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inform the future of more traditional outdoor golf options. I, too, am an established green-grass golfer. And I, too, am among the six-million people who hit golf balls in a simulator bay last year, according to the National Golf Foundation. But I’ve come to think of simulator golf the way some people think about GMO foods. Our grocery stores are full; golfers have never been more stuffed with opportunities to swing a club. But it’s worth wondering how far removed these products are from the real thing. When you cut corners growing a tomato, is it actually a tomato? Would your Italian grandmother use them to make a sauce? Or would she shake her wooden spoon, accusing you of inviting some blush-red imposter into her home? Is simulator golf actually golf? How might it come to change our relationship with the game? Weeks has grown especially fond of simulator golf in 2024, and he says the answer to that question is yes. He’s the father of two young girls, a husband, and a golf-industry professional who knows all too well that playing golf is not always in the cards. Ever since the IGA’s manager of rules and competitions left his role as director of golf at Eagle Hills Golf Course, he often returns to his old stomping ground to make use of their TrackMan bays. It’s a resource that allows him to compress a life-long passion into bite-sized chunks that don’t ask for as many sacrifices from his loved ones. Rutledge agrees. For her, the social element of golf has always been a priority, and time in a simulator with friends and family is equally

rewarding. Golf is something to be shared, exposed to the elements or not. But neither she nor Weeks will tell you that they prefer digital golf to the “real” thing, admitting that spending time outdoors was among the original potions that made them fall in love with the game. But it’s an activity that contains enough of golf’s essential elements with one added virtue: time. Time, just behind cost, is golf’s most cumbersome barrier to entry. An 18-hole day often calls for upwards of six hours after travel and a warmup, which can be especially daunting for new players. As the industry enjoys a flood

of new participants, that problem has only intensified. If you go to almost any golf course in the world, pace of play is an increasingly common talking point. Over the last few years, the USGA has revised its handicapping infrastructure to accommodate people looking to play nine holes. And according to USGA data recapping the 2024 season, golfers are playing more ninehole rounds than ever before, up 48% since 2020. A record 13.8 million nine-hole rounds were posted this year. This is a trend that fits into other trends within the industry. Short-course play is also

Simulator golf is more popular than ever. For cold states like Idaho and Montana, that means players can keep their swing sharp throughout the winter.

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up (another recent addition to USGA handicapping), and popular architects like Tom Doak are building shorter 18-hole courses that take less time to play. Doak’s par-68 Sedge Valley and Sand Valley Golf Resort opened this year, immediately finding its way into top-100 lists. Guests at places like Bandon Dunes, like myself, are gobbling up short-course options during their stays. This year, my group played 32 holes in roughly the amount of time it takes to play 18. It was every bit as stimulating as a full course experience. Even professional golf is dipping its toe into digital waters, looking for TV products that fit more neatly into digestible TV windows. Next month, the PGA Tour will launch TGL — “TMRW Golf League” — which features the world’s top talent competing in what is essentially a massive simulator. Even LIV Golf innovated for the sake of time, using shotgun starts to compress their product into some-

thing much tidier than their PGA competitors. Simulator golf has taken the world of golf by storm in the last handful of years, with more and more companies bringing more and more digital golf products into the market. And the technology will only continue to improve. In turn, more and more golfers are squeezing more and more golf into what little time they have. The covid golf boom, as IGA Executive Director Caleb Cox noted to me, was made possible by the fact that people had so much time on their hands in the summer of 2020. As new and established golfers returned to their normal lives, that time has gone but the appetite to play has hung around. With more options to compress golf into more manageable chunks than ever before, our sensitivity to time is likely to shape the future of the game.

Idaho Golf Association employees working on their swings during the cold winter months.

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1. Who introduced you to golf? My dad gave me a cut-down 7-iron when I was three, and we’d hit balls into a five-gallon bucket in the yard. Not long after that, I was out on the North Course at Whitefish Lake Golf Club (the Woods/Lake 18 back then), playing with him at four or five. I don’t really remember a time when golf wasn’t part of my life. My dad was always asking me to watch his swing—whether we were in the living room or out in the yard. He’d always tinkered with his swing (still does), and little did I know then that helping analyze his golf swings was preparing me for my eventual career. 2. Who influenced you most in your golf life? Aside from my dad, my high school coach, Terry Nelson, had a huge influence on me. He’s a champion for women’s golf and always made me feel important as a player. He knew how to get the best out of me, and there are swing thoughts I still go back to today that he taught me. As a player, I often leaned on Harvey Penick’s quote, “Take dead aim,” even writing it in my yardage books to remind myself to fully commit to each shot. Later, as a teaching professional, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book became the foundation for many of the principles I still teach. I’ve probably read it dozens of

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times. He had a gift for simplifying complex mechanics into one clear thought or feel— that’s how I like to play, and how I like to teach. 3. This past year you won the Western Montana Chapter PGA Teacher of the Year and Player Development Awards and most recently the Pacific Northwest Section Player Development Award. What does that mean to you, and what do you like most about your job? I’m very honored to receive awards voted on by fellow PGA Professionals. The Western Montana PGA Chapter is full of great professionals who are also exceptional people, and I feel lucky to be part of that group and recognized for my efforts in teaching the game. At Whitefish Lake Golf Club, I get to work with my close friend and colleague, Christine Newton, PGA, where we create and teach a variety of group lessons and Junior Academy classes—easily the most fun part of what we do. I love my job for many reasons—working at the course I grew up on, alongside an incredible staff—but what I enjoy most is building relationships with people who want to improve, from beginners to plus-handicap players, and from high school golfers to seven-year-olds holding a club for the first time. No two days are ever the same, and I’m constantly challenged to keep

learning—about the golf swing, the mental game, and new technology and AI in golf. It’s motivating to work in an industry that continues to evolve while still respecting its traditions. 4. Outside of Whitefish Lake Golf Club, what is your favorite course in Montana and why? Whitefish Lake Golf Club—especially North Course—will always be my favorite because of the memories I have growing up there. As kids, if you hit it past the big tree on the left from the first tee, you knew you had really crushed it. I also loved playing at the Stock Farm Club in Hamilton. It’s everything I love about Montana golf: mountain views, beautiful and interesting terrain, and a sense of space that makes the round feel quiet and unhurried. It’s a truly special place.

5. What is a dream golf course you’d like to play once? The Old Course at St. Andrews, on a mild, sunny day specifically. I’ve watched so many tournaments on tv played there that I’d love to experience it in person. I also love hitting punch shots and bump-and-runs, and the Old Course requires some different looks that would be fun to try. 6. What is your dream celebrity foursome (living or dead)? Why would you choose them? Arnold Palmer, Annika Sörenstam, and Freddie Couples. If you had asked me this question 20 years ago, my answer would have been the same. Arnold Palmer was the first golfer I fell in love with watching as a kid—we even had a golden retriever named Arnie. I admire Annika for her incredibly solid game and for the way she elevated women’s golf; her book Golf: Annika’s Way is a classic book I think any golf addict should read. And Freddie—because of his effortless swing, his personality, and because he’s just Fred. All three were close friends, and if nerves weren’t a factor in this dream scenario, playing with them and observing them would be a dream. 7. What’s your most memorable moment on a golf course? Winning the individual State Championship my senior year of Highschool playing for the Whitefish Bulldogs.. I had come close twice before and really wanted that win before heading off to play college golf. Walking up the 18th hole at Laurel Golf Club knowing I had done it was one of the most satisfying moments of my golf career—knowing I had prepared well and executed my game plan.

Lyndsie Sebby, PGA Teaching Professional at Whitefish Lake Golf Club.

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8. If you could change one thing about the game of golf what would it be? Free relief from fairway divots. Golf is hard enough. 9. What advice would you give to beginner golfers? Start with three or four lessons to learn the fundamentals and build good habits early. If your course offers group instruction, that’s a great way to learn and connect with your golf community. There are so many great PGA Professionals across the state that are looking forward to getting you into the game, just reach out! It’s also important to get out on the course and play. I meet a lot of people who are hesitant to do that, so I often suggest starting from 100, 150, or 200 yards out (rather from the full tee box) to

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learn pace of play, the flow of the game, and how to score. I think most golfers care far less about your score as a beginner and are much more interested in whether you can keep up with the pace of play. Golf has plenty of highs and lows—even the best players hit shots they wish they could take back, so be kind and patient with yourself. I think anyone who has played golf for any amount of time appreciates the effort it takes to start up the game from the ground level and will be the first to acknowledge that you’ve chosen to play the hardest, greatest game there is. Bonus: Lay up or go for it? I’ve always wanted to be a “go for it” player, but 99 percent of the time, I’ll lay up and try to hit a wedge close.

FIRST TEE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT IN MONTANA FROM PNGA MAGAZINE Each August, dozens of First Tee youth golfers from the organization’s numerous national chapters are invited to its Leadership Summit, an event held over two sessions in August. The session aims to articulate participants’ personal leadership statements, demonstrate adaptability, and seek out and leverage feedback to motivate, inspire, and empower themselves and others, according to its webpage.

This year, West Creek Ranch in Emigrant, Mont. Served as the summit’s setting, providing participants with unforgettable activities best enjoyed in Big Sky Country. Among the series of developmental and positive challenges was a few holes of golf at the Rising Sun Golf Course at Mountain Sky Guest Ranch, whitewater rafting, and fly fishing on the Yellowstone River, and horseback riding, to name a few.

First Tee youth golfers assembled at the Rising Sun Golf Course in Emigrant, Montana.

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The summit is done in collaboration between First Tee and the PGA TOUR Superstore. Participants are selected from application pools of those from the latter’s markets. Making their way to Montana this year were First Tee youth golfers of their North Florida, Greater Philadelphia, Tennessee, Rocky Mountain and Silicon Valley chapters, among many, many others across the U.S.

LONGEST PUTT EVER? UNOFFICIALLY IT’S DUFFY’S BY HUNKI YUN

WRITTEN FOR THE USGA

Brian Duffy holds the unofficial record for the longest putt ever. In 1996, during NASA mission STS-72 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Duffy putted a ball that covered 20 miles.

head, which he jury-rigged onto a lunar sample scoop that served as the shaft, Duffy didn’t know he would be making golf history when he stepped aboard Endeavour for his third shuttle mission, his first as commander.

Duffy’s friend and frequent golf partner Tim Terry, a space-flight-training instruc“The ball traveled for four tor, had enlisted Houston seconds from the putterface clubmaker Mike Gibson to to the hole [the interior cardbuild the putter, which has a board ring of a duct-tape roll], mallet head and a shaft that which was four feet away,” separates into three pieces so explained Duffy, the mission’s it could fit into the locker of commander. “Since the shuttle the Endeavour’s pilot, Brent orbits at 5 miles a second, the Jett. Several days into the ball traveled 20 miles.” mission, Jett surprised Duffy With his zero-gravity stroke by retrieving a black cloth bag Duffy became just the second that held the putter parts and person to play golf in space, 25 a ball. years after Alan Shepard made “I had no idea what it was,” two one-handed swings on the recalled Duffy. “I heard tinmoon with a modified 6-iron kling sounds in the bag before during the Apollo 14 lunar I opened it up and looked inmission in 1971. Both Shepside. I saw some silver pieces, ard’s club and Duffy’s “Shuttle then what looked like a putterPutter” are on display at the head and grip. USGA Museum. “I put the club together, While Shepard plotted his golf outing prior to liftoff and had to smuggle into his space suit the balls and 6-iron club-

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but I still didn’t know where it came from. Then I looked at the ball and saw the initials imprinted on it: TJT.”

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Duffy, who started playing golf in his native Massachusetts when he was 10, quickly found out about the difficulties of putting in space. “You’re putting in three dimensions instead of two. You not only miss a putt left or right or long or short, but you can miss one up or down.” In addition to playing golf during his mission, Duffy enjoyed looking for his favorite courses from an altitude of 200 miles. “Pebble Beach is very easy to see,” Duffy said. “Other famous courses like Augusta National are tough to identify.” Several days after Endeavour touched down, NASA returned the putter to Duffy, who kept the club in his office. He was never tempted to use it on Earth, and eventually wrote a letter to the USGA, resulting in its donation to the Museum. Duffy commanded another mission in 2000, and the former astronaut, now 58, lives in Houston and works for ATK, an aerospace company that is working on successors to the space shuttle program,

which will come to a close following the touchdown of Atlantis on July 21. “Personally, it’s sad to see the shuttle program end,” said Duffy, a former Air Force pilot who was selected as an astronaut in 1985. “I absolutely

loved it. It was a chance to live out boyhood dreams, be part of a great effort that’s so much larger than any single person, and to represent the Air Force and the country to the rest of the world.” Although Duffy’s place in

golf history is secure, he expects others eventually to join the exclusive club of extraterrestrial golfers. “All programs have starts and ends,” he said. “The plan is for the human exploration of space to continue.”

Brian Duffy showing up his famous, "Shuttle Putter," one of just a handful of golf clubs that have ever been to outer space.-

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CONNECTED TOOLS, CONNECTED TEAMS BY ROSS NIEWOLA

USGA AGRONOMIST, WEST REGION

Walkie-talkies changed golf course maintenance because they let everyone hear the same message at the same time. Today, we are surrounded by a new generation of connected tools – moisture meters, GPS sprayers, telematics on equipment, shared apps and cloud storage. The real value of all this technology isn’t just the data collection and sharing; it helps ensure that everyone is on the same page. A mechanic can receive an update about a reel not spinning while the operator is still on the machine. Moisture readings from different greens can upload to the cloud so every person involved with hand watering can see priority areas before they even leave the shop. Shared task lists and job boards let assistant superintendents update progress in real time, so adjustments are easy. When information moves quickly, people can too. Smart boards and e-notebooks are becoming the new “front of the room” for many

Click Here for more from the USGA Green Section Record ‒ including the latest articles and videos on sustainable management practices that produce better playing conditions for better golf. 54

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teams. Instead of crowding around a paper map, you can pull up an aerial image of the course, zoom in to a single fairway, and sketch mowing patterns, traffic routes, or no-go zones directly on the screen. Those drawings can be saved for a future meeting or shared to phones and tablets. These tools also help bridge language barriers. A picture of a green with arrows, circles and color-coded notes is easier to understand than a verbal explanation in a second language. For new employees, being able to visually follow the day’s assignments on a map can build confidence and reduce mistakes. The good news is that you don’t need a huge budget to start connecting your team. Many facilities already have a television in the break room – a simple USB internet stick or streaming device can bring that screen online, and in many cases you can link the phones, tablets, TVs and other devices you already have. Most newer TVs are “smart” right out of the box and can mirror a phone, tablet or laptop. Affordable tablets and e-notebooks can join the same network, allowing staff to view maps, photos and job boards wherever they are on the prop-

Using a smart board to zoom in on a course map allows the entire crew to see assignments, mowing patterns and priorities at a glance. It can also help with overcoming language barriers and keeping everyone aligned.

erty. Additionally, e-notebooks allow staff to capture field notes, document moisture checks and record meeting minutes in the moment and quickly sync them to the cloud for the whole team to access. The smart board takes the smart TV to the next level. It can be more immersive than a smart TV because it combines an interactive whiteboard with an online display for maps, photos and job boards. Equipment managers should also be part of your plan; make sure

they can receive photos, service histories and parts lists right where the repairs are happening. The goal isn’t to chase every new gadget, it’s to find a simple set of connected tools that fit your operation and keep everyone on the same page. The walkie-talkie was great because it connected the crew’s voices. Today, we can connect their screens, data and decisions. Advancing staff communication with technology will pay you back with fewer surprises, less mistakes and a more efficient, confident team.

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