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Officers President Tony Pesavento, PGA Omaha Country Club tpesavento@pga.com Vice President Nathan Kalin, PGA Fremont Golf Club nathan.kalin@fremontgolfclub.org Secretary Gil Russell, PGA ArborLinks Golf grussell@arborlinks.com Honorary President Mike Antonio, PGA Happy Hollow Club mikea@happyhollowclub.com

Staff Executive Director David Honnens, PGA dhonnens@pgahq.com Tournament Director Sean Oâ€™Neill, PGA soneill@pgahq.com Director of NJGT/ Player Development Seth Scollard, PGA sscollard@pgahq.com Operations Manager Renee Tyson rtyson@pgahq.com Development Officer Bob Danenhauer bdanenhauer@pgahq.com Junior Golf Coordinator Cassie Trumbley ctrumbley@pgahq.com

The Section will be holding elections at the upcoming Fall Meeting scheduled Monday, November 13, 2017 at Champions Run. If you have any questions or comments, please donâ€™t hesitate to contact Mike Antonio, PGA (402-981-2761) or David Honnens, PGA at the Section office (402-489-7760).

ABSENTEE BALLOTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THOSE UNABLE TO ATTEND. ALL ABSENTEE BALLOTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE SECTION OFFICE BY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH AT 8:00 AM

PGA Employment Services rebrands to PGA Career Services By Cory Fletcher, PGA, Career Consultant, with excerpts from PGA.org “Boots on the Ground”

The PGA of America’s long-term strategic plan calls for the association to serve PGA Members and grow the game of golf. In dramatically adding resources and personnel to its recently repositioned Career Services department, the PGA is working to benefit PGA Professionals and others in the golf industry across the country while improving the business of facility owners and operators – ultimately making the game more enjoyable for players, too. The title change reflects an updated approach to helping PGA Professionals and others in the golf industry pursue their desired career paths, improve their compensation, and prepare them for current and future employment opportunities. The Career Services department also has a new focus on helping employers find the right fit for open positions across the golf operation, including general management roles and non-traditional career paths. In the past, many PGA Professionals interacted with the Employment department when they found themselves needing a new job. But by focusing on education and networking, the revamped Career Services department is geared toward being much more than the “unemployment” department. Expanding the number of PGA Career Consultants from 10 to 18 going forward gives the Career Services department a much greater reach across the country. The inspiration for this increase in boots on the ground comes directly from the PGA Long-Term Strategic Plan and the importance the PGA is placing on leadership and relationships at the local and Section level. In the coming months, I will actively be reaching out and requesting personal one-on-one consultation time with PGA Professionals with the messaging that I want to be part of your career from now moving forward, not just in times of need. Setting a “career roadmap” will be a big portion of my goals with members along with analyzing their current skill set. Providing the resources needed to enhance the skills that individual members are deficient in and focusing on increasing their value in their current position as well. Please reach out to me to schedule our time together and let’s get to work now! Cory Fletcher, PGA, Career Consultant, serves the PGA sections of Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Cory can be reached at: CFletcher@pgahq.com or by phone at 402.906.1215. 5

At the beautiful Pines Country Club, we celebrate the Legends of Golf tournament presented by Jani-King. Pictured above are the participants for the inaugural event. These professionals represent many years of dedication to our 6 organization. Thank you for your service to the Nebraska Section!

2017 MATCHPLAY CHAMPION—RYAN VERMEER, PGA

2017 ASSISTANT MATCHPLAY CHAMPION—JUSTIN HERRON

The Nebraska Section PGA Foundation debuted two SoloRider Golf Carts at Benson Park Golf Course. These golf cars will provide individuals who have lost their mobility and stamina due to injury or illness the opportunity to enjoy and participate independently in the game of golf. For more information about how to access these SoloRider golf cars, please contact Omaha Golf Manager, Bob Baber, PGA at 402-444-5963.

Your New Access to the Office Depot Platform

We’re happy to announce that the PGA’s transition from OfficeMax® to the Office Depot® platform is here! You’ll receive the same custom discounts you expect, PLUS broader capabilities, greater flexibility and more choices – with no disruption to your day-to-day routine. Here’s what you need to know now!

Welcome to Office Depot®. You take care of golfers, so we take care of you.

Logging in To Place Orders:

You can now login and start placing orders on business.officedepot.com, by using the below *temporary user ID and password Username: PGA27588590 Password: Welcome1 *You will be prompted to change your password and can begin placing orders 10

PGA LEAD Accepting Applications for 2018-2019 Founded in 2016, PGA LEAD is designed to identify, mentor and progress PGA Members along a guided path into volunteer leadership roles at the Chapter, Section and National levels of the Association. The ultimate goal of PGA LEAD is to establish a deep bench of diverse PGA Members who are prepared to ascend to and through the volunteer leadership ranks of the Association. This two-year program, comprised of in-person and digitally delivered activities, includes a variety of topics:         

Board Governance Conducting Effective Board and Membership Meetings Pillars of Leadership Developing Your Leadership Presence Public Speaking and Presentation Essentials Social Media and Developing Your Digital Brand Personal Branding and Promotion Diversity & Inclusion StrengthsFinder® and Fascination Advantage® Methodologies

2016 Player Development Award Phil Palmer, PGA Miracle Hill Golf & Tennis Often times I thought I knew what golfers wanted when they visited my facility; good weather, good course conditions, to feel respected, be welcomed by name, and hope nothing goes wrong. When asked I am sure many of us would have these items on our list of importance, when in fact these are items they expect. When asked, golfers want to make more good shots than bad, have a chance at their lowest score and to have fun with friends. Those things golfers want can be directly enhanced by a PGA professional, what they expect on their visit are items that definitely donâ€™t need a PGA professional. This was a very eye opening statement that I was told at a player development seminar, and it changed the way I looked at operations and programs. Golfers want great golf experiences, we were just offering tee times. I adopted a very basic theory of Learn, Practice & Play, these three words were the building blocks I used to institute change. The first step was to hire a talented instructor to administer our lesson programs. Mike Fauver, PGA was our guy. I choose Mike based on his teaching style and techniques and his ability to instruct a wide variety of players and skills. We keyed in on 3 distinct groups we wanted to grow and develop: Junior Golfers, New Golfers and Latent Golfers. We then created vehicles to not only introduce players to the game but to our facility. Our learning building block focused on Get Golf Ready where we have had over 450 students in the last 3 years. We offer 3 different levels of GGR as well as a short game component. We have grown our Jr. Golf program each of the last 3 years, kids from 5-15 take part in in our 3 levels of SNAG, Development camp and our Instructional league. Above and beyond our summer camps we offer spring and fall leagues and instruction and currently we are holding SNAG classes on our tennis courts throughout the winter. This past year we added a new short game area to our driving range to expand our practice facility. By doing this we were able to increase range memberships as to use the short game area you have to be a range member. We also offer an indoor option, from October to April we turn our multi-purpose room into our indoor learning and practice center. It is outfitted with 2 10x10 hitting bays, Skytrack launch monitor and training aids, this allows our range pass members to get a full year practice area. The Play part is important as it connects golfers to the game and keeps them engaged. We do this by finding ways to get our Get Golf Ready students on course through events designed to be fun and social. We embrace Jr. play and host U.S. Kids events in the spring and fall, team golf during the season and host our own parent-child tournaments through-out the year. While it is important to connect our new players to the course it is equally important to protect our core players, we look at those things they expect and do our very best to meet those expectations. I feel as though we have been successful because as a staff we make it a priority and we have a good time promoting player development.

Call Corey Landrie, Executive Director clandrie@janikingks.com / 913-232-0883, to get started today with a free cleaning quote for your facility.

One of the more important things that the PGA Head Professional must do prior to conducting an event at his or her facility is to inspect the course and make sure that it is properly defined. The PGA Head Professional, who fails in this responsibility, may very well find himself or herself facing an embarrassing predicament of having to penalize a player who, but for the inaccurate or incomplete course marking, would not have incurred the penalty! The responsibility to define the course is clearly set forth in Rule 33-2a [Defining Bounds and Margins] which states, The Committee must define accurately: (i)

the course and out of bounds,

(ii) the margins of water hazards and lateral water hazards, (iii) ground under repair, and (iv) obstructions and integral parts of the course. Let’s begin this discussion with a couple of “defining moments” pertaining to establishing the course boundary. As you know, the vast majority of out of bounds is defined by using white stakes. It is important to make sure that the direct line between adjacent stakes is free from any undergrowth that would make it difficult to determine whether or not a ball is in bounds. It is also important to inspect the course boundary on a regular basis to make sure that none of the out of bounds stakes has gone missing. Decision 33-2a/19 [Boundary Altered by Unauthorized Removal of Boundary Stake] presents the situation involving a missing boundary stake during a tournament. As a result, some players played from an area that was actually out of bounds, whereas other players recognized that the area was out of bounds and proceeded under penalty of stroke and distance. This Decision advises that, if the inconsistent treatment of the area could significantly affect the result of the competition, then the entire round should be canceled and replayed! When it comes to defining the margins of water hazards, Decision 33-2a/4 [Where to Place Lines or Stakes Defining Margin of Water Hazard] advises that lines and stakes defining the margins of a water hazard should be placed as nearly as possible along the natural limits of the hazard, i.e., where the ground breaks down to form the depression containing the water. Decision 26/2 [Ball Within Natural Margin of Water Hazard But Outside Stakes Defining Margin] describes a situation in which the stakes defining the margin of a water hazard were improperly installed, i.e., they were below the natural boundaries of the water hazard. However, a player’s ball came to rest in water within the water hazard that was outside of the stakes. As a result, a player mistakenly assumed that his ball was in casual water, and incorrectly took relief under Rule 25-1 [Abnormal Ground Conditions] when he should have proceeded under Rule 27-1 [Relief for Ball in Water Hazard], thereby playing from a wrong place. Another “defining moment” is to take into account any tall plants when establishing the margins of water hazards. If you position the margin too close to tall plants within the hazard, you could very well be forcing the player to contend with a restricted backswing (see adjacent photograph), in addition to the player incurring a one-stroke penalty for taking relief from the hazard. Normally, you would not give any thought to defining your putting greens, would you? After all, by Definition, “The “putting green” is all ground of the hole being played that is specially prepared for putting or otherwise defined as such by the Committee.” However, course designers sometimes want the height of the grass on the fringe to be virtually the same height of the grass on the putting green! This can be penalizing to a player who concludes that his or her ball is on the putting green when, in fact, it is not. This exact situation occurred during the first round of the 2017 KB Financial Star Championship held at the Black Stone Golf Club near Icheon, South Korea. This event is one of the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association’s major championships. Two players, one of whom was the first-round leader, were penalized for incorrectly marking and lifting their balls, when they mistakenly thought that their balls were on the putting green. When it was subsequently determined that four other players had made the same mistake, the Committee decided to rescind the penalties already imposed on the first two players, and to not apply any penalties to the other four players due to the “ambiguous” boundaries between the fringe and the greens on the course. This decision led to a total uproar among the field of players such that the Committee decided to cancel all scores of the first round and reduce the event to a 54-hole competition! As shown in the adjacent photograph, this unfortunate dilemma could have been avoided had there been a “defining moment” of simply using small, blue dots of paint to effectively outline the boundaries of the putting greens.

Here’s something for you to work on after this Halloween while you are sitting in your Lay-Z-Boy munching on all of your surplus “trick or treat” candy. See if you can identify the “trick” (incorrect) statements versus the “treat” (correct) statements in the following Rules situations: 1. You may position your caddie so that the sun is not bothering you while you play a stroke. 2. You may always remove a loose impediment from the putting green. 3. Once you have played two or more strokes with a provisional ball, you must continue play with the provisional ball. 4. Having putted your ball on the putting green, you must cancel and replay the stroke if your ball is deflected by a worm crawling across the green. 5. If there is no Local Rule allowing the use of distance-measuring devices, you will not be disqualified the first time you use such a device during your stipulated round. 6. If your ball comes to rest on the red line of a lateral water hazard, but there is interference to your stance outside the hazard by a burrowing animal hole, you may take relief without penalty from the burrowing animal hole. Answers: 1. Trick Per Decision 14-2/3 [Caddie Shields Player from Sun During Stroke], this would be a breach of Rule 14-2a [Physical Assistance and Protection from Elements]. 2. Trick According to Rule 23-1 [Loose Impediments: Relief], when a ball is in motion, you must not remove a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball. See also Decision 231/10 [Removal of Loose Impediments Affecting Player’s Play] which describes a special situation wherein a player, facing a downhill putt, has instructed his opponent or fellow-competitor not to pick up loose impediments behind the hole. In this case, it the opponent or fellowcompetitor refuses to comply with the request, he or she would lose the hole in match play or would be disqualified in stroke play. 3. Trick According to Rule 27-2b [When Provisional Ball Becomes Ball in Play], you may play your provisional ball until you reach the place where your original ball is likely to be. 4. Trick Rule 19-1b [Ball in Motion Deflected or Stopped by Outside Agency] states, “If a player’s ball in motion after a stroke on the putting green is deflected or stopped by, or comes to rest in or on, any moving or animate outside agency, except a worm, insect or the like, the stroke is canceled. The ball must be replaced and replayed. [Emphasis added] 5. Treat The penalty statement for Rule 14-3 [Artificial Devices and Unusual Equipment; Abnormal Use of Equipment] advises that the first offense is a loss of hole penalty in match play and a twostroke penalty in stroke play. For a subsequent offense, the penalty is disqualification. See also Decision 14-3/20 [Player Uses Artificial Devices on Separate Occasions]. 6. Trick Your ball is in the water hazard since it is touching the red line defining the margin of the hazard. See Definition of “Lateral Water Hazard” which states, in part, “When the margin of a lateral water hazard is defined by a line on the ground, the line itself is in the lateral water hazard. … A ball is in a lateral water hazard when it lies in or any part of it touches the lateral water hazard.” Since your ball is in the lateral water hazard, you are not permitted to take relief from the burrowing animal hole even though the abnormal ground condition is situated outside of the hazard. Rule 25-1b [Abnormal Ground Conditions: Relief] states, in part, “Except when the ball is in a water hazard or a lateral water hazard, a player may take relief from interference by an abnormal ground condition ….” 17

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Name

Class

Current Facility

Previous Facility

Previous Class

Brent A. McGrew, PGA

A-8

Quail Run Golf Course

B-8

Name

Day

Lawrence D. Davies, PGA

Eddie G. Carpenter, PGA

Thomas H. Erlandson, PGA

Kent Lyons, PGA

Andrew M. Storm

Douglas Bengston, PGA

Jack A. Kaupa, PGA

Gil T. Russell, PGA

Wade E Foreman, PGA

Kevin P. Sullivan, PGA

Timothy S. Sheridan, PGA

William R. Schellen, PGA

Troy B. Harder, PGA

Larry Romjue, PGA

Clayton W. Anderson, PGA

Douglas Dunbar, PGA

Robert R. Baber, PGA

Joseph E. Sutter, PGA

Casey W. Hefner, PGA

Derrick D. Ceder, PGA

Shane L Zywiec, PGA

William K. Jacobsen, PGA

Timothy L. Rowland, PGA

Michael R. Brown, PGA

Brian P. Bussinger, PGA

Brandon J. Wedding, PGA

Justin M Herron

Todd D. Anderson, PGA

Carly K. Ulrich, PGA

Chad M. Gill, PGA

Justin S. Henry, PGA

Kevin R. Drew, PGA

Sonya L. Freese, PGA

Adam M. Brandow, PGA

Bob G. McCormack, PGA

DON BRUDNY â€” (402) 466-6222