[Applause] hello everyone and welcome to Indiana Golf Magazine I’m Brian Hammond now we all know that the PGA professional is the backbone of our game whether it’s your Club Pro your golf instructor or the person who fits you for clubs at the local retailer each year the Indiana PGA
Section thanks those hardworking Pros with their annual special awards banquet it was held recently in Muny and that is our top story brought to you by The Chariot Automotive Group the Indiana PGA special awards ceremony recognizes those PGA professionals who excel in their field the top award a PGA club professional can earn is the professional of the year and this year’s recipient is Dave mcy from The hellick Hills Golf of course in Evansville who is also the chair of the
PGA of America rules committee it’s a tremendous honor uh I’ve been a PGA member uh for 24 years now um uh really surprising but I think it’s uh something that we all dream of one day listening to all these great Club professionals that have gone you know and received
Award before you thinking that maybe one day you might might you know get that award but not really but it’s something we always a lot of our members uh Aspire uh to achieve at some point but uh it’s just uh I’m thrilled surprised uh very humble about it the teacher of the year
For 2024 is Scott Barla from the Barla Golf Academy in Noblesville Scott teaches players of all ages and skill levels and has made it his life’s work since 2003 probably the the the satisfaction of seeing somebody come to golf that may have never played or currently plays or
Veterans or Juniors that this is uh we’re building a community when you teach somebody it’s not just golf you’re teaching them life skills you’re teaching them to be a person of uh high integrity honesty and then also too that you can play this game wonderful game for Life
The prestigious Deacon Palmer award is awarded to a person who displays outstanding Integrity character and leadership in the effort to overcome a major obstacle in their life the 2024 recipient Jim P has overcome more than his share of obstacles not only his cancer diagnosis but his wife’s he
Epitomizes what this award is all about first of all it’s very humbling you know anything that’s affiliated with Arnold or Deacon Palmer uh man that’s that’s just crazy so it mean it means a lot and for me to be thought of by anyone in this section I’m so proud of what our
People in our section do Mike David and the whole golf uh staff and and I also understand that man there are so many people uh you know in uh in our state in our section that are dealing with their own issues and I for me to receive it is
Just uh it’s a great honor here’s a look at the rest of the award winners Roger Lundy was awarded the youth Player Development award ously and it was announced that moving forward that award will be named in his honor Crystal Morris of the Morse Golf Academy at the
Legends Golf Club in Franklin added the Indiana Player Development award to her national award that was announced last month Indiana PGA president cat Benson was named the bill strall Award winner congratulations to all our Spotlight this month Shines on the health of our game and as we see in the 2023 graphis
Report put out by the National Golf Foundation golf is in a very good place the annual study shows significant growth in many key areas more and more people across many demographics are playing the game 23 really across the board was a a fantastic year we set another record for Rounds played uh at
Golf courses uh we had growth of a million OnCourse golfers which we haven’t seen since the tiger Slam in 2001 uh we continue to see an evolving customer base um more women playing Green Grass Golf than ever before um more people of color there’s a lot of groups that historically have
Been underrepresented in golf’s customer base who have continued to find their way slowly into in into the fold perhaps the most positive sign for the future of golf is the increase in young people taking up the sport golf in so many respects is becoming a youth sport um
It’s it’s becoming popular amongst the generation that for a long time didn’t View Golf as relevant and so I would say without a doubt there’s numbers we have showing uh an appetite among 6 to 17 year old 18 to 34 year olds uh seeing golf is cool is
Relevant and I would say that that’s probably the most exciting thing that that we see datawise with more people playing the game hopefully more people are maintaining a handicap if you are there have been some changes to the World handicap system that you need to be made
Aware of Indiana golf’s Julia Potter Bob walks us through those changes I mean I would say that there’s there’s three key changes that are happening in 2024 one is is that they have lowered the um minimum yardage for a course to be rated so uh for N9 holes it’s seven
750 yards and for 18 it’s, 1500 yards and so that really is going to allow a lot more short courses to um be posted to their to their handicap um and so for us in the state of Indiana that equals to about 15 more courses that are going to be um on the
System and so we’re really looking forward to that um the other one is obviously nine-hole scores um it used to be that you had to wait until you had two nine-hole scores uh that could be combined together for that score to be posting so I mean a lot of the times you
Know if someone played a nine-hole round in May and then didn’t play another nine-hole round posting until September I mean you were waiting a long time in between to really get um that posted to your handicap and now with the way that it’s set up um with the score
Differential you’re now it’s as long as you complete one full nine holes so that does mean 1 through nine it can’t be like 2 through 10 or anything like that that score will then um allowed to be posted uh to to your account and to to
Your handicap the next day not the most important one but definitely the difference the biggest difference I think people are going to notice is the 10 through 17 so say you play only 12 holes it’s going to use the um expected score differential which is um basically
Your hand cap and then uh obviously the course uh rating and slope of the nine holes that wasn’t completed to finish out that scoring and so you’re able to post that too so not only are you able to do just nine holes but let’s say it’s
Only 12 holes you’re able to get done um that score can still be be posted I think the most important aspect of this and these changes um is you know the the ability to make this game and make the World handicap system you know more inclusive more accessible and more
Equitable and and that’s what these changes are really representing and obviously if our members want to learn more about this um we will continue to Pride information uh in our newsletter monthly as well as you can go to our website and under membership you’ll see 2024 World handicap system for many
Golfers one way to lower that handicap is to get rid of that dreaded slice well as we learn in our correct to compete tip of the month it might just be a simple fix hi this is John Hoover here at correct to compete and tip of the month for this
Month especially as golfers are getting out on the driving range and as we get into the game this year um slice correction and or fade correction in our games most golfers think that slicing the golf ball is by coming over the top could be but not always the case because
The face to the path is really the cause of the slice so the face is open to the path path one of three paths could be left as over the top as we talked about or down the line or even right but the face is still open and the thing that’s
Connecting the golfer back to the face of the golf club is the grip and whether we’re using tin finger grip overlapping grip or the interlocking grip how do we rotate face by whether it’s arms and or hands as the golf club swinging down the target line the fade andle or the
Slice that club fa is open at the time of impact and by strengthening the grip it’s going to allow us to have more face rotation as it’s coming down which in turn is going to square the club face as it works down Target Line This is a quick version on
How to begin taking care of the slice click on the link below and or come in here to correct to compete and we’re going to have much more detailed version and go through a much more indepth process to how we’re going to correct your fade or slice and finally
Let’s look at the calendar for March Indiana Golf will be making their annual trek across the state with their rule seminars they are free of charge and very informative you can see where and when they are being held if you’re interested you can register at indianagolf.org
Coming up on March 4th Indiana Golf will be holding a zoom call parents wanting to learn more about junior golf opportunities and there are plenty of opportunities for juniors in our state if interested reach out to Andrew jent at the address on your screen the boys high school golf season gets underway on
March 11th with their first practice they can start playing their first events on March 25th and that brings you up to speed with everything happening in golf in Indiana I’m Brian Hammond we’ll see you next month on Indiana Golf Magazine
