Annual Fall Meeting 2018

Connecticut Section PGA - Recap

By Bruce Berlet

NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. (November 19, 2018) – PGA of America District I Director Noel Gebauer sat among 135 Connecticut Section PGA members at the local organization’s action-packed Annual Fall Meeting at Lake of Isles Golf Club.

Gebauer, one of 14 members of the national PGA’s Board of Directors, had the honor of sitting next to and sharing featured speaker’s status with Suzy Whaley, who received a standing ovation when introduced for her first public appearance since being inducted as the first female president of the PGA of America on Nov. 9, in Palm Springs, Calif.

Gebauer represents the Connecticut, Northeast New York and New England PGA sections and attends six meetings annually, plus spends 30 days with the PGA’s Board of Directors. The general manager at the Town of Colonie Golf Club in Albany, N.Y., and other district directors have three-year terms with the mission of serving PGA members and growing the game.

“I’m a conduit between the national board and three sections,” Gebauer said. “I always want to be foremost in golf and all the facilities. I try to be as educated as can be and help with education that’s part of employment.”

Whaley, 51, was named the first female PGA officer (secretary) in 2014, and she and the Section will host the national annual meeting at the end of her two-term term on Oct. 25-30, 2020, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

Connecticut’s Keney Park Golf Course Selected to Host 2019 Boys and Girls Junior PGA Championships

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (November 19, 2018) – The PGA of America announced today that Keney Park Golf Course in Hartford, Connecticut, will host both the Boys and Girls Junior PGA Championships in 2019. The Girls Junior PGA Championship will be contested July 9-12, while the Boys will tee it up July 30-August 2. Each event features 144 players in a four-round, 18-hole stroke play format.

“It is a thrill for both Championships to be held in Connecticut for the first time,” said Suzy Whaley, a longtime Connecticut resident who recently became the PGA of America’s first-ever woman President, a position she assumed at the PGA Annual Meeting on November 9 in Palm Springs, California. “Both Championships continue to reach new heights each year. We are excited to partner with Keney Park, the Connecticut PGA Section and the City of Hartford to showcase the game’s brightest junior players competing at the highest level.”

Keney Park opened in 1927 with a nine-hole course designed by Devereux Emmet; the Robert “Jack” Ross-designed back-nine opened four years later. In 2014, the Connecticut PGA Section signed an agreement to serve as consultants to help Hartford regain operational ownership of Keney Park and oversee a course restoration to enhance the facility’s level of sustainability.

Suzy Whaley Elected 41st President of the PGA of America

Delegates at 102nd PGA Annual Meeting Vote Jim Richerson as Vice President, John Lindert as Secretary

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2018) –  PGA Master Professional Suzy Whaley was elected the 41st President of the PGA of America today at the Association’s 102nd Annual Meeting. Whaley is PGA Director of Golf at Suzy Whaley Golf in Cromwell, Connecticut; and PGA Director of Instruction at the Country Club at Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Succeeding Whaley as Vice President is Jim Richerson, PGA, of Scottsdale, Arizona, who served the past two years as Secretary. 

John Lindert, PGA of Grand Ledge, Michigan, is the newly-elected PGA Secretary. Also, Paul Levy, PGA, of Indian Wells, California, who served as the 40th PGA President, assumes the role of PGA Honorary President. He succeeds Derek Sprague, PGA, who completed his two-year term.

A pioneer in the golf industry, Suzy Whaley, PGA/LPGA, is the first woman to serve as a PGA Officer in the roles of PGA President, Vice President and Secretary. Recognized as one of the country’s top instructors, Whaley previously enjoyed a five-year tenure at Jim Flick Golf Schools, before becoming the Head Golf Professional at Blue Fox Run in Avon, Connecticut, in 2002. From 2004-06, she worked as an LPGA golf commentator for ESPN, and began her own instruction and coaching business, Suzy Whaley Golf, after ESPN.