August 2013 Official Newsletter of the Northeastern NY PGA Well it s August already! That means Championship month for the NENY PGA Section tournament schedule. A hearty congratulations to Frank Mellet, PGA Director of Golf/Head Professional at Colonie G&CC for a dominating win of the Section s Professional Championship Presented by Club Car, Mercedes-Benz and Omega and Supported by Nike, Taylormade Golf, Titleist & FootJoy and the PGA Tour. The event was held the end of last month at Berkshire Hills CC with Mellet turning in rounds of 66 and 71 for a 137, 7-under par total on the two day tourney which was highlighted by a hole in one on the par 3, fifth hole. He then turned around and also won the Senior Professional Championship Supported by Southworth Development that was held a week later at Westport CC by a decisive five shot lead in the 36 hole Championship. Joining Frank in the lone two qualifying spot s out of the Section s Professional Championship and into the 2014 PGA Professional National Championship hosted by Dunes Golf & Beach Club and Grande Dunes Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C. will be Steve Vatter of Capital Hills at Albany. Mellet will however, first advance to the 2013 PGA Senior Professional National Championship to be hosted by Creighton Farms in Aldie, VA and River Creek Club in Leesburg, VA this October. He will be joined by Brian Lowe (Windham CC) in Virginia as the other low qualifier out of the Section s Senior Professional Championship. There is one remaining qualifying spot into the PGA of America s Senior PNC who will be determined out of the Section s 2013 Senior Stroke Play Championship field which will be held at CC of Troy on August 21st. Thanks to Clough Harbour Assoc. and Morgan Stanley for their support of the Section s Senior Stroke Play Championship. Most recently the NENY PGA Section s Stroke Play Championship was just contested at Albany CC. Due to extreme amounts of rain and course conditions which rendered the course unplayable for the second round the event was reverted to 18-holes which allowed Scott Berliner (Cobleskill G&CC) to earn the Stroke Play Championship title from his lead after round one. Berliner was the lone player in the field to manage an under par score of 71 with Tom Sullivan (Wyantenuck CC) on his heels to finish in second place with an even -72. Special thanks to our Presenting Partner, TaylorMade-adidas Ashworth along with our Supporting Partners of the PGA Tour and EZ-Go/Five Star Golf for their support! Tracie Warner NENY PGA Executive Director In every issue Section News p. 2-4 PGA News p. 6 Sponsors p. 11 Birthdays p. 13 Highlights Letter from the ED p. 1 Beginners Golf Experience p. 3 Golf with a Mission p. 7 Tracie Warner NENY PGA Executive Director
Express. Don t forget to recommend our Junior Golf Association & Tour to your junior members and customers for next year s program!! The month of August also saw the conclusion of the Section s Junior Golf Tour Series this year. We would like to congratulate all of our Junior Players of the Year in their respective age divisions. Girl s Ages 12 & Under: Juliette Melita of Niskayuna, NY Girl s Ages 13-15: Madison Braman of Loudonville, NY This year s Junior Association was a huge success reaching the second highest number of junior members since the Association s beginning 10 years ago. We ended the season with 215 junior members which was an increase from the 199 membership total last year. The section staff conducted 11 junior tour events (averaging 100 players per event!) in addition to a handful of other specialty junior events including the season-beginning Open Junior Event and the season-ending Junior Tour Championship with the Adult-Junior tourney and the New York State Junior PGA Championship being conducted. Out of the 215 junior s, 22 were girls and the remaining 193 were boys with great participation numbers in our varying age divisions as you can see below: Girl s Ages 16-18: Natalie Squillace of Slingerlands, NY Boy s Ages 12 & Under: Boy s Ages 13-15: Harry Thorp of Tanner Donovan of Glenmont, NY Loudonville, NY Ages 16-18: 88 juniors Ages 13-15: 75 juniors Ages 12 & Under: 31 junior s Special thanks to all of our host facilities for their hospitality this year as well as our partner, Cleveland Golf s Kids Need Golf (KNG) Program and American Boy s Ages 16-18: Devin Delisle of Brushton, NY
Congratulations to NENY PGA Section Member, Rudolph Napora for his recent election into the PGA s Quarter Century Club. Rudolph works at the Dick s Sporting Goods in Kingston, NY and joins an elite group of members who have served the Association for 25 years. Cobleskill Golf & Country Club s, Scott Berliner s recent victory in the Section Stroke Play Championship has catapulted him over the previous leader Frank Mellet (Colonie G&CC) by a slim lead of 30 points in the NENY PGA Section Player of the Year points. There are only two Player of the Year point events remaining on the schedule: Class A Championship and Match Play Championship! All new models of clubs manufactured on or after January 1, 2010 must conform to the groove and punch mark specifications described in Appendix II 5c. However, Ping Eye2 irons manufactured before March 31, 1990 with a groove spacing to groove width ratio of 2.3 to 1 are permitted for play under the Rules of Golf, even in certain competitions when the Condition Requiring Clubs Conforming with Groove and Punch Mark Specifications Effective January 1, 2010 is in effect (see below). A Committee that wishes to limit players to clubs manufactured with grooves and/or punch marks that conform to all aspects of the Rules of Golf, including those that are effective from January 1, 2010, may adopt the condition of competition. The Tournament Committee wants to announce that the Condition of Competition for each event will have the Grooves Policy adopted. You have one year to ensure your clubs meet the required specifications to compete in NENY PGA Events. Section Staff will be reminding you of this policy during the 2013 season to ensure a smooth transition into the 2014 season. Click HERE to view the complete points list along with the Assistant Player of the Year; Senior Player of the Year and Vardon Stroke Play Average Standings. We are looking for a sale agent that is well connected with high end golf facilities for Glenbrae. Glenbrae offers a wide selection of colors and styles of knitwear sweaters in lambswool, merino and also beautiful cashmere. Glenbrae classic styling also incorporates some of the best of modern technologies such as: Seamless (3d knitting) and Spirol (yarn spinning technology). All the sweaters are machine washable (except for cashmere), manufactured and hand finished in our century old factory in the UK. Glenbrae brand of natural wool fiber sweaters has a solid grounding in golf history across the British Isles and is the featured cool-weather outerwear at many storied sites across Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland. The Glenbrae knitwear line of products is targeted to high end golf facilities. Glenbrae knitwear is distributed in the USA by Agency Normand Yelle Agency Inc. For more information and interested individuals please check out www.glenbraegolf.com and contact Normand Yelle at normandyelle@videotron.ca or 514.894.6021
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. Returning to its roots, The PGA of America will establish a New York office that will serve as a footprint in the region that gave what is now the world s largest sports organization its birth in 1916. The office will be established within the Golf Central site of the headquarters of both the Metropolitan PGA Section and the Metropolitan Golf Association, in Elmsford, N.Y. Click here to read the full press release. Aime, who will oversee all financial and information technology matters, brings 20-plus years of experience in top multinational companies in North America, South America, and Europe. Click here to read more. These apprentices have less than one year remaining to attend a PGA PGM 1.0 Level 3 Checkpoint in order to be able to continue working toward membership in the PGA PGM 1.0 Program. These apprentices (647 as of this writing) have been sent a letter on July 29, 2013. The final PGA PGM 1.0 Level 3 Checkpoint is scheduled for June 19-20, 2014. Any apprentice failing to attend a Level 3 Checkpoint by June 20, 2014, will follow Acceptable Progress as it relates to being dropped. As a reminder, these Apprentices are still required to follow the Acceptable Progress Guidelines and could be terminated at any earlier date. Additional communications are planned for these apprentices throughout the next year via email, PGA PAK and direct mail letters. Pursuant to a recent Board of Directors decision, the guidelines for Acceptable Progress will be changing as of July 1, 2013 as follows: Successful completion of Level 1 Two (2) years (24 months) from Level 1 Start Date; suspended until completed; terminated after four (4) years from Level 1 Start Date. Successful completion of Level 2 within two (2) years (24 months) from Level 2 Start Date; suspended until completed; terminated after four (4) years from Level 2 Start Date. Successful completion of Level 3 and Election to PGA Membership within eight (8) years (96) months from Level 1 Start Date; No further suspensions for Level 3, remain in program until terminated at eight (8) years from Level 1 Start date. There are numerous programming reports and processes to be amended, forms to be revised and PGALinks links to be updated, all of which are currently being reviewed and undergoing revisions in preparation for implementation with a July 1, 2013 effective date. Once the new policy is implemented, there will be some currently suspended apprentices who will have their suspension lifted. The delegates to the 2012 Annual Meeting adopted a policy change under Resolution 6 that allows apprentices to have a grace period of a minimum six (6) months if they become ineligibly employed through no fault of their own. Therefore, apprentices who became Ineligibly employed between July 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012 will be dropped from the active rolls as of June 30, 2013. As an example: Ineligibly Employed 10/15/2012 will be dropped 6/3/2013. As a reminder, Apprentices who are ineligibly employed do not earn work experience credits.
Name Employer Class Peter A. Catalano, PGA Ausable Club A-4 Kevin C. Pokorski, PGA Ausable Club A-1 Name Date Class Kevin J. Burnsworth, PGA Dicks Sporting Goods A-15 Name Employer Class Clayton J Callan Saratoga National Golf Club B-8 Timothy C. Leach 8/6 Robert Q. Booth, PGA 8/7 Jeff B. Estes, PGA 8/14 Gerald Fitzgerald, PGA 8/25 Bradley J. Gardner, PGA 8/26 Peter N Tavares, PGA 8/27 Joseph D. Bove, PGA 8/28 Northeastern New York PGA Town of Colonie Golf Course 418 Consaul Road Schenectady, NY 12304 Phone: 518-438-8645 Fax: 518-438-8670 Email: neny@pgahq.com Web: http://www.neny.pga.com