The 2015 PGA of America National Awards Recipients!
Since 2009 I have attended the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. For me, the highlight of the week was Thursday night when the PGA of America presented their twelve national awards. Last year in 2014 that all changed with the decision to present the awards at their annual meeting in Indianapolis. Same thing this year though I was happy that I could attend as it was at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens only four hours from my home.
It is an inspiring affair for sure! Golf Channel’s David Marr III hosted the evening ceremony and interviewed each award recipient. I hope the inspirational videos that chronicle the award recipient’s journey to this high point in his or her career become available online (found one, see below). I learn so much about life and the game of golf through them.
CLICK here for Video Interview with Gus Andreone, Age 104, 80-year PGA Pro with 9 Aces!
With Gus Andreone, what an inspiration!
Though not a formal award, this year’s event started with a tribute to Gus Andreone who is 104 years old, has been a PGA Golf Professional for 80 years and has recorded 9 hole-in-ones, the most recent in December of last year!
Here are my thoughts and comments from the evening on each of the 12 awards (in order of presentation):
New Jersey PGA Section—Herb Graffis Award for extraordinary and exemplary contributions in Player Development. The NJPGA also won this award in 2012 so they have some amazing and successful youth, special needs, and military golf programs. If you haven’t heard of the PGA Junior League Golf where beginners in the game play in a ‘team’ scramble format you will. This section alone has increased the number of teams from 12 in 1012 to over 60 this year bringing more than 500 girls and boys to golf. They also have a charitable foundation that brings “Golf In School” impacting 110,000 kids in K-8th grade.
Bill Castner, Plainfield West 9 Golf Club—PGA Youth Player Development Award for displaying extraordinary and exemplary contributions and achievement in the area of youth player development. Plainfield CC, a private club and host to The Barclays in 2011 and 2015, provided their west nine holes to start The First Tee of Plainfield. Bill loves golf and loves kids and uses the power of trust in a powerful way. He has a strong desire to share the game and sees golf as a lifestyle choice. Plus what other sport offers parents the opportunity to spend time with their kids their whole life trhough?
Tim Krebs, East Potomac Golf Course—PGA Player Development Award for commitment to growing the game of golf at the Section and national levels. In 2014, his Get Golf Ready program, which introduces new players to the game over six weeks of instruction, attracted more than 1,500 participants. Recently Krebs became the PGA General Manager at Butterfield Trail Golf Club in El Paso, Texas. Grow the game, grow your career too was also the message given here.
With Brad Clayton, 2015 Deacon Palmer Award Recipient.
David Windsor, Adaptive Golf Academy—Patriot Award for his personification of patriotism through the game of golf. David is a testimony to the reality that you don’t have to wear a uniform to be a Patriot. You can give service to those that served. It was stated in David’s video that you just never know how a golf lesson can impact a person’s life and there is more than just golf happening at his Adaptive Golf Academy. David referenced an astonishing fact—22 veterans per day are committing suicide. We have to heal those “invisible wounds” too. He also referenced a sentiment from fellow Award Recipient Bill Hughes—” we have to remember the game is more than the game, we are in the people business.” What a perfect tribute and recognition for heroic work well done for this day—Veteran’s Day!
Miles Blundell, Turning Stone Resort Casino, PGA Merchandiser of the Year—Resort Facilities. First of three merchandising awards by the type of facility—resort, public, and private. Miles is the second youngest, at age 30, to achieve the PGA Master Professional designation in 2011. Turning Stone, will be hosting the 2016 PGA Professional Championship. The ‘Boy Wonder’ came out of the Penn State PGA Golf Management program, simultaneously manages five separate golf shops, and credits educating his staff and reducing the number of vendors as the key to his success in merchandising.
Jim Hajek, Fossil Trace Golf Club, PGA Merchandiser of the Year—Public Facilities. Here is a public golf course that dates back 64 million years and where dinosaurs walked holes 11 through 15 before the golfers. Amazingly, Triceratops footprints, as well as other prehistoric creatures’ fossils can be viewed adjacent to the golf courses 12th green. Only 15 minutes outside Denver in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, this is a golf course I want to get to, play and write about on Andy’s Golf & Travel Diary!
Jason Epstein, The Club at Las Campanas, PGA Merchandiser of the Year—Private Facilities. Talk about a new perspective to solve an old problem, here is a guy that eliminated the merchandiser position and won the merchandiser award. Grooming his staff to one day run their own businesses, reducing the number of vendors from 25 to 7, he “enlivened the member experience” in dramatic fashion. Golf and the golf business continues to be all about relationships, giving and likely getting more than given in return.
Wit Russ Libby, 2015 Horton Smith Award Recipient.
Russ Libby, Hidden Hills Country Club, Horton Smith Award for exhibiting exemplary contribution towards the education of PGA Professionals. I can’t tell you exactly which PGA Show I first met Russ but it seems like I have always known him and his passion for the game of golf, the business of golf and PGA Golf Professionals!
CLICK here for a Video Interview with Russ Libby
Brad Clayton, Puzzle Duck Golf, Deacon Palmer Award for his special display of integrity, character and leadership, in an effort to overcome a major obstacle in his life. I think his video interview says it all—here is a humble, kind, big-hearted PGA Master Professional in Teaching that had something bad (shirt caught in an auger and lost his right hand) happen to him but it only enabled him to do more good in life. That’s why I called him an inspiring catalyst. I think he was like a duck and learned to adapt and overcome but he had the puzzle of life already figured out before his accident.
CLICK here for a Video Interview with Brad Clayton
With Bill Hughes, 2015 Bill Strausbaugh Award Recipient.
Bill Hughes, TPC Sawgrass, Bill Strausbaugh Award for his outstanding display of integrity, character and leadership in his commitment to mentoring others within the PGA of America Association. It seems whenever I stop by to visit Bill Hughes in his office at TPC Sawgrass I always meet a young PGA Golf Professional, coach or player either coming or going.
CLICK here for a Video Interview with Bill Hughes
A PGA member for 32 years and a Master Professional since 1995 he has served as the General Manager at TPC Sawgrass for the past 9 years. But it’s not the position, it is the person and people who come to play the Stadium or Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass and meet him, know that immediately when you meet him. When I first met him in 2008 he immediately got me and what I was trying to do even before I really knew. I remember his acronym for how he manages—TEAM —Together Everyone Activates the Magic! What a respected and lovable guy as you can see in this video that helped kick off the 100-day, 14-country, 18,471-mile ‘Journey to Olympic Golf.’ You are magical Mr. Hughes!
CLICK here for the Kickoff Video for the 2013 ‘Journey to Olympic Golf’
Cameron McCormick, Brook Hollow Golf Club, PGA Teacher of the Year for his work with a high-profile student who has excelled on the game’s biggest stage—Jordan Spieth—for the past 9 years as his exclusive instructor in all aspects of the game. McCormick’s mantra is the same as his mentor Jerry Smith’s—”how you do anything is how you do everything.” When 12-year old Jordan Spieth told him he wanted to win The Masters, he “looked into his eyes and believed it.” At age 19, Cameron came from the upside-down world of Australia, traveled the country and learned from the best instructors. Jordan, at age 21 went down under last November to win the Australian Open and then came home to the United States and turned the golfing world upside-down.
Tom Henderson. Round Hill Club, PGA Golf Professional of the Year, the Granddaddy of all the PGA of America National Awards. Tom’s father died at age 51 when he was 24 years old and that taught him how to pay attention to detail and button things up. With his first job at Seminole he is the poster child for the old adage that “if you work at a great club, you will end up at a great club.” His management philosophy is to “try to hire overqualified people, give them direction and let them go.” From the always impressive Metropolitan New York Section, Henderson gave Olin Browne his first golf lesson and told him to quit the game. At Round Hill Club for almost three decades they consider Henderson “their guy,” but in reality, with the presentation of this Award, he is “our guy and the guy,” the Golf Professional of the Year for the 28,000-strong PGA of America.
CLICK here for Henderson’s Award Video
It was a packed house in the Grand Ballroom at the PGA National Resort & Spa.
Congratulations to Gus Andreone and all the recipients of 2015 PGA of America National Awards.
What an Inspiring Affair!
