News

April happenings at the AGA

The Arizona Golf Association is keeping busy serving you. Read below about what we’ve been up to over the past month.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & OTHER HAPPENINGS
On April 13 the AGA honored PING as the fourth recipient of the Champion of Golf Award. Read the article and watch the video.

AGA Executive Director Ed Gowan was invited to the Golf 20/20 summit held at World Golf Village in St Augustine, Florida as a representative of amateur golf associations. GOLF 20/20 is a unique collaboration of all segments of the golf industry, from the associations and manufacturers to golf course owners/operators and the media. It was launched in 2000 and is designed to galvanize the industry around strategic initiatives and grass-roots activation to ensure the future vitality of the game. GOLF 20/20 is managed by the World Golf Foundation, which also oversees World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL and The First Tee, a preeminent youth-development organization.

TOURNAMENTS
The Arizona Stroke Play Championship was held at TPC Scottsdale and this year’s champion, 15 year old Peter Kyo Won Koo, made history as the state’s youngest amateur winner ever, a title Bob Goldwater had held since 1926. Read about his accomplishment and get the full field results. The San Tan Amateur was held at Las Colinas GC where Dustin Semenza took home the title of overall champion.

Pat Geare, Grant Cesarek, Erik Nielsen and Charlie Horn represented Arizona at the XXIII Campeonato Internacional de Aficionados held in Lima, Peru. This annual championship which includes both an individual and team competition, is hosted by Lima Country Club. It continually draws top amateurs from around the world including the US, Canada, Uruguay, Argentina, Asia, Spain, England, Guatemala, and Brazil. Our team received first class treatment and was impressed with the difficulty of the golf course and the quality of the field.

The rules and competitions staff and volunteers assisted with several high-profile collegiate championships including the Pac-10 Championships and ASU/PING Invitational for the women and Mountain West Conference Championship and ASU Thunderbird Invitational for the men.

COURSE RATING
Course rating teams rated Western Skies GC, Encanto Nine GC, Aguila GC, Quintero G&CC and Camelback CC’s Padre Course. The AGA’s license with the USGA requires that existing golf courses be re-rated at least every ten years in order to remain current. Course rating is a free service provided to member clubs.

WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS
Members of the USGA Course Rating Committee Warren Simmons (Arizona CC and Forest Highlands) and Lorraine Thies (AGA staff member) were instructors at the USGA’s Calibration Seminar held in Colorado Springs. These seminars include rating teams from associations across the country and abroad and are conducted each year to ensure that ratings are consistent from region to region. The AGA’s Derek McKenzie, Michael Shoaff, Mike Saladino and Bill Burgesser attended the seminar.

The AGA conducted two handicap seminars, one in Tucson at Tucson National and the other in Tempe at ASU Karsten. Does your club have a certified representative? If not, sign up for a handicap certification seminar through the AGA website or by contacting Derek McKenzie at 602-944-3035.

If you’d like to schedule a seminar or speaking engagement for your club, email Ginger Monroy at [email protected]