Dustin Volk believes he can speak for Zach Johnson and Pete Stone in labeling Davis County’s top golf administrators “all super happy” about the way their jobs have evolved over the past two years.

Having been promoted to a new position as the county’s director of golf, Volk has used his experience as a day-to-day head professional to redefine those jobs for Johnson at Davis Park GC and Stone at Valley View GC. That work fits the evolving description of the Utah Section PGA’s Bill Strasbaugh Award, given to a member who has “created dramatic improvement in employment conditions of PGA golf professionals.”

As Volk said, “The jobs we all have now are different than they ever were, due to me experiencing it all.”

He likes what he’s doing, overseeing both courses with an approach that’s “not a lot of micromanaging, from me or the county (government),” Volk said.

Johnson, Stone and the assistant pro at each course seemingly have just the right amount of autonomy and incentives that have helped produce record revenues the past two years, Volk said.

Volk’s previous Section awards include Professional of the Year (2021), Merchandiser of the Year-Public (2018), Assistant Professional of the Year (2011) and Golf Citizen of the Year (1998).

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

Kevin Connole describes himself as a golf “traditionalist.” That background seemingly wouldn’t translate well to a facility where music is playing, food is being served and golf balls are being launched into an area surrounded by giant netting.

Yet the longtime PGA Professional loves his job at Topgolf Salt Lake City, developing golfers in a venue that clearly has a role in growing the game. Connole’s 2022 Player Development Award is both a tribute to his teaching efforts and an acknowledgment of Topgolf’s place in a changing industry.

Having once thought of Topgolf as “not really golf,” Connole said, “my views have changed.”

He discovered that there are multiple ways of bringing new golfers into the game, and he’s thriving in Midvale. Connole gives as many as 35 lessons per week during the peak season and teaches about 150 junior golfers in summer camps. While some students just want to have more success hitting balls to Topgolf targets, many of them progress to golf courses. “They come here, and they get interested in the game,” Connole said.

Having worked as a pro at courses in Arizona and California, the BYU alumnus moved to Utah and was out of the golf business for five years before the Topgolf opportunity developed in February 2021. Connole quickly embraced his role. “My job is to teach golf, period,” he said.

And in less than two years, he has made a big impact. “We went from very few people knowing that Topgolf had an instructor to Kevin having lessons nonstop,” said Jordan Reese, the facility’s golf services manager. “His approach to each lesson is a testament to his desire to grow the game.”

Connole also uses Fore Lakes Golf Course as a way to helping golfers transition to playing the traditional game, and he conducts playing lessons with high school golfers.

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

The number of students is one way to judge the impact that Stacey Jones and Todd Tanner have made. The improvement of those golfers is another measurement. Yet the most remarkable gauge for the founders of InMotion Junior Golf is that kindergartners who began working with them are now high school golfers.

A lot can happen in 10 years, and InMotion now works with nearly300 students per week. The business “has grown into something that we never could have expected or imagined,” Jones said, “and we love it.”

Jones and Tanner share the Utah Section PGA’s 2022 Youth Player Development Award, honoring their enterprise that’s based at River Oaks Golf Course in Sandy and the Backyard Greens indoor facility in Lindon.

They try to make golf fun for children, although their approach is not just based on entertaining them. “The biggest part is actually seeing improvement from the kids,” Tanner said. “We want the kids to get better at golf.”

Jones added, “I want them to not only have fun, but truly learn the game, and learn the correct way.”

The former Stacey Parkinson grew up in a golf-oriented family and played for Lone Peak High School, prior to the launch of high school girls golf in Utah. She’s known for her patience in working with youngsters. It probably helps that she’s a mother of five children of age 6 and younger.

Jones is proud to be one of the many women whose influence in Utah golf keeps increasing. “We want to show the love of the game to these young girls, so they carry that on throughout their lives,” she said.

Tanner, a former Utah State golfer, was the top-performing Section member in the 2022 Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open. Approaching his 50^th birthday, Tanner said, “I still love to play and compete, to kind of validate your teaching.”

By Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

Some degree of irony framed Paul Phillips’ 2022 Teacher of the Year award in the Utah Section PGA. The coronavirus that redefined his career kept him from competing in the Assistant PGA Professional Championship in mid-November, a few weeks after his award was announced.

While being disappointed to miss the Florida trip, Phillips would have to calculate the effects of the virus on his life as a net gain. Immersed in his job as the tournament and group sales director of Stonebridge Golf Club, Phillips got a jolt in the spring of 2000 when the pandemic halted gatherings such as corporate and charity events, a major component of his 27-hole facility’s operation in West Valley City.

Stonebridge had to adapt and develop new strategies; so did Phillips, a longtime Stonebridge staff member and the Section’s 2016 Assistant Professional of the Year. He realized he could switch his focus to “two things I’ve been missing: teaching and playing,” Phillips said.

He’s doing both of them very well lately. In his early 50s, the former University of Utah golfer has become one of the Section’s best players among assistant pros and seniors, and has created quite a niche in teaching. It all stemmed from Phillips’ evaluating how he could become a better player. One answer was improving his short game. So he visited Parker McLachlin, a former PGA Tour player who markets himself as the “Short Game Chef.”

The four-hour lesson at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona was “pretty expensive,” Phillips said, “but it was worth it.”

Especially after he used that knowledge to build a business. “We can become specialists,” said Phillips, who likes how students can improve their short games immediately, compared with full-swing overhauls that can take much longer.

And he’s good at it. One of his fellow Section members said he learned more about the short game in an hour from Phillips than in his previous golfing lifetime. “I can have success with everybody all the time,” Phillips said.

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

With a wife, two children and a monthly house payment, Ryan Colemere left his job in the mortgage industry to wrangle golf carts for $7 per hour.

Any regrets, 22 years later? “I’ve never had a day since then,” Colemere said, “that I woke up and didn’t want to come to work.”

Further validation of Colemere’s value to South Mountain Golf Club is the 2022 Assistant Professional of the Year award in the Utah Section PGA. Accompanying recognition is due to Natalie Colemere, whose approval of her husband’s career move makes her a candidate for Golf Spouse of the Century.

“I don’t like what I’m doing,” Ryan had declared in 2000, before taking on that hourly work at South Mountain. His new path came into clearer view two years later when Head Professional Jerry Brewster made him an assistant, bringing him fully into the Salt Lake County golf division. Except for a four-year stint at Mountain View GC, Colemere has stayed at South Mountain in Draper.

He likes being involved in the management of a golf facility and even enjoys all the routine tasks that come with it, describing his job as “a fun way to spend my day.”

South Mountain Head Professional Brian Schramm labels Colemere “the ultimate assistant” with all the traits of a capable head pro, crediting him with “stepping out on the lesson tee to teach, on top of the long hours in the shop.”

The love of golf stems from his father’s taking him to Fore Lakes GC, where Jay Colemereworked one day a week. Fore Lakes’ Brad Asplund gave Ryan his first job after graduating from East High School and, except for that detour into the mortgage business for the sake of financing his marriage and fatherhood, he has happily stuck with golf.

Colemere is thankful to his Salt Lake County bosses Brewster, Todd Meyer, Wade Olsen and Schramm. “I’ve learned a lot from all those guys,” he said. “I appreciate the teaching and mentoring.”

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

Devin Dehlin has always viewed the Utah Section PGA’s Professional of the Year award as a “bucket list” achievement. That’s not to say the Section’s executive director plans to bask in the honor.

If anything, Dehlin is motivated by the award that comes in his mid-50s, providing the kind of rejuvenation that could carry him another 10 or 15 years in his position. To the extent that it is possible, this plaque will drive that level of commitment even higher.

“It kind of energizes me to want to do even more, and finish off my career strong,” Dehlin said. “I still feel like I’m making a difference.”

That’s evident in the way Dehlin and his staff have steered the Section membership and Utah golf in general through the COVID-19 period. The continuing strength of the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open and the growth of the PGA Jr. Series and other programs are also good gauges.

The Professional of the Year award provides a lifetime reflection point, and Dehlin marvels about how his career has evolved. Taking stock makes him realize “how much I thoroughly enjoy what I do now,” he said, “even though (administration) was not necessarily the goal.”

Dehlin’s trophy case lines his career path as a former club professional in Salt Lake County, with awards spanning the entire 36-year history of the Utah Section PGA. As a University of Utah golfer in 1986, he received the first Golf Citizen of the Year award. Then came three Bill Strasbaugh Awards for club relations (1996, 2000, 2002), a Merchandiser of the Year award in 1998, a share of the Section staff’s Governor’s Golf Industry Service Award in 2020 and the Jeff Beaudry Golf Ambassador award in 2021.

The 10-year-old kid who started working for Ken Clark by picking up range balls at Glenmoor Golf Course has come a long way in the profession. Clark and assistant Chip Garriss nicknamed him “Future Pro,” and they clearly had a knack for identifying talent.

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

Presidents Cup and PGA TOUR officials announced this week, 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir has been named captain of the International Team for the 2024 Presidents Cup, to be contested at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the first time since 2007.

The President’s Cup’s return to Royal Montreal marks a career highlight for the BYU golf alum as the site of his individual win over Tiger Woods in the Singles matches on the final day of the 2007 event. Weir defeated Woods 1up after Woods just missed a chip-in on the final hole.

Weir said, “When I look back, I have so many incredible memories associated with this event whether it be my debut in 2000; winning my Singles match against Tiger in 2007 at Royal Montreal (photo above); witnessing Ernie create the shield in 2019; and then seeing Trevor carry that momentum in 2022. Now as I look with anticipation toward 2024, I couldn’t be more excited to lead the International Team into my home country of Canada for what will surely be the experience of a lifetime.”

Read more from Fairways Photo Journal, CLICK HERE.

One reason why Mark Owen is an exceptional senior golfer is he still thinks of himself as a regular guy.

Being older than 50 made him eligible to win a second consecutive Rolex Senior Player of the Year award in the Utah Section PGA, and that honor is really a by-product of his overall play. Owen’s fifth-place finish in the overall Player of the Year competition says just as much or more about his 2022 performance.

As he observed, “I don’t know if I’ve had too many three-win seasons in my career.”

Owen’s victories in the Section Championship and the Gladstan Open, plus a share of low-pro honors in the Salt Lake City Open, headlined his season. Mountain View Golf Course’s Head Professional also was the low senior in The Oaks Open and tied for first among seniors in the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open. For the season, he posted 7,962.5 points to 6,038.5 for runner-up Ryan Rhees.

Owen appreciates how Salt Lake County’s Golf Division supports his playing interests. “I still love it; that’s the thing,” he said. “I probably don’t practice as much as I should, but I played as much as I could.”

Rol Owen’s 68-65 performance at Toana Vista GC in September made him the Section champion by one stroke over Player of the Year Casey Fowles, thanks largely to a 2-3-3-2 sequence early in the final round and a timely eagle on his second nine.

“Just to get in contention was really fun,” Owen said. “The wins prior to that helped me finish that off.”

Owen and Fowles each shot 10 under par for two rounds at Bonneville GC in the SLC Open in August, finishing two strokes behind amateur Justin Shluker. A couple of late birdies helped him win the Gladstan Open with a 70 in May and he shot 70-72 to tie Steve Schneiter in the 36-hole senior competition within the Utah Open in August.

Written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe.

Braydon Swapp shares at least one trait with PGA Tour star Justin Thomas: He’s not afraid of declaring a goal and making himself accountable.

The former Utah State golfer and 2017 State Am runner-up wanted to become the Utah Section PGA’s Rolex Assistant Player of the Year in 2022. That’s exactly what he did, and decisively so. Swapp posted 2,938.5 points in the season’s competition to 1,701.5 for runner-up Haley Sturgeon.

Swapp’s victory in the Section’s Assistant Championship sent him to the Assistant PGA Professional Championship in Florida in November, where he tied for 37th place in a big field. That was another step in the career arc of the assistant pro at The Barn GC, near his hometown of Ogden, and his Section award is more proof of progress.

“It’s starting to come together, and that’s nice,” Swapp said. “The cool thing for me is just setting a goal and accomplishing it. … If I say that and don’t follow up on it, then that’s on me.”

Swapp earned big points in the Assistant Player of the Year race by finishing first in the Palisade Open, tying for second in the Gladstan Open and placing third in the North Salt Lake Open. In the Section’s Assistant Championship, he shot 70-72 at the Talisker Club at Tuhaye and outlasted Clint Godfrey in a playoff.

Written by Fairways Media Senior Writer, Kurt Kragthorpe

One of Haley Sturgeon’s most memorable performances of 2022 didn’t even count toward her fourth straight Rolex Women’s Player of the Year award in the Utah Section PGA.

Sturgeon’s showing in the Utah PGA Match Play Championship, ending with a 23-hole semifinal loss to eventual champion Matt Baird, was another example of her ability to compete. Playing an 85-percent course length in those matches, she defeated the likes of Zach Johnson and Mark Owen.

“Any tournament, any field I can get in, I want to play,” said Sturgeon, an assistant pro at The Country Club in Salt Lake City who finished second in the Assistant Player of the Year rankings. 

In the Women’s Player of the Year competition, Sturgeon was credited with first or second place in all seven events. She posted 4,275 points to 2,750 for runner-up Xena Motes after winning the RMT/EZGO Winter Classic, the North Salt Lake Open and the Valley View Open. In the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Women’s Open, she shot 71-70 at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club to tie for third place overall and finish second among the pros.

The Women’s Match Play victory also highlighted Sturgeon’s season. As the No. 4 seed, she needed only 44 holes to win her three matches, including a 3-and-2 victory over Carly Dehlin-Hirsch for her first title in the event since 2019. Sturgeon labeled it “redemption for last year,” when she lost to Sue Nyhus in the final match.

Sturgeon credited her father/caddie, Mark Dunn, for his help that week. They also teamed up during her second appearance in the Epson Tour’s Copper Rock Championship in Hurricane via a sponsor exemption.

Playing is “still a high priority,” said Sturgeon, who appreciates the way her bosses and the members of The Country Club support her pursuits. Sturgeon intends to play some Cactus Tour events in Arizona this winter.

Feature written by Fairways Media Senior Writer, Kurt Kragthorpe