U CCS Co l le ge o f Bu s i n e s s
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I N AU G U R A L P G A G O L F M A N AG E M E N T A L U M N I N E W S L E T T E R By Ed Kelbel, PGA Director, UCCS PGA Golf Management Program It is with great pleasure that I am launching our alumni newsletter, The Back Nine! Our goal is to stay in touch with you and keep you informed about what is happening in our program. INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Incoming Class of 2014
2
A Special Visitor
2
Ethics, Golf and CoB
4
Careers/Placement
4
Stay Connected
4
We currently have 115 students and 54 graduates. Of those 54, 42 of you have gone on to become PGA members for an outstanding rate of 78% that makes us all very proud. One exciting event on the horizon is a yearly challenge match with Arizona State and UNLV during our March spring break week. Stay in touch to learn the results. Our first annual PGM/Boys and Girls Club Fundraiser was a great success, with the Broadmoor and El Pomar Foundation as the major sponsors for the event! All of our students on campus
The score card: • 57 alumni • 115 students • 28 2011 graduates • 28 Fall 2010 freshmen
Jacob Anderson ‘10 prepares to putt at Kissing Camels Golf Club. participated and were paired with guests supporting this worthy endeavor. A nice awards luncheon was held at the Broadmoor Mountain
course where we played immediately afterward. (cont. on p. 3)
P G A G O L F M A N AG E M E N T S T U D E N T SOCIETY NEWS By Daniel Ferg President, UCCS PGA Golf Management Student Society This fall we welcomed 28 new intro students to campus to embark on the magical journey known as the UCCS
PGA Golf Management Program. Our program has 28 Level Three students ready for their final internships, and graduating in August or December 2011. The students of the program are enjoying a recent upgrade
to our swing lab. In addition to the Golftec software that many of you are familiar with, we have installed a Golf Achiever simulator, which was purchased at minimal cost to the program. The simulator (cont. on page 3)
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I N C O M I N G C L A S S O F 20 1 4 This year, we admitted our eighth incoming class since we launched the program in August 2003. We have come a long way since then, as you know, and we aspire to keep getting better and better. It might be a bit bold, but we think it can be said that we’re earning a reputation as one of the top PGM Programs in the country. As far as the number of new students, we had a slight decline, which is only reasonable with the condition of the economy in general and the golf business in
“Pretty amazing person doing some very important work, yet finding time to indulge her humanity while helping others escape from the day-to-day grind.”
particular. Although it makes sense there would be some retrenchment, I think there will be increased demand for our graduates when the economy turns and the older generation of current PGA members start to retire in the next several years. With that said, we are very pleased with the people we have added. Eighteen out of the 31 are from Colorado, with the other 13 coming from Alaska, Arkansas, Bolivia(!), California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
We have a new high with fully 45% of the class being transfer students, including one from a sister PGM school and another who is returning to the PGM after having dropped out several years ago for medical reasons. We have also been receiving applications for the class of 2015, including students from California, Illinois, Nebraska, and, of all places, Gibraltar in Europe. Of course, if you have any prospects in your area or working with you, please send them a link to our new video or put them in touch with us.
Stay in touch! Do we have your up-to-date information?
While doing research on weight shift during the swing, Dr. Jeff Broker observes junior Steve Ermisch hit a drive in our swing lab.
Current Mailing address Current Email address Current Phone Number Current Job / Company Name Recent accomplishments/ certifications Tell us how your experience at UCCS played a part your career.
A SPECIAL VISITOR By Dr. Paul Miller Academic Advisor In May, a special visitor dropped into the office. Stephanie Mann, class of 2007, and one our first graduates, came by within a matter of days of having left Iraq and Afghanistan. Stephanie is now a warrant officer in the U.S. Army working as a specialist in weapons maintenance and repair. It was great to see her and spend time with her (over
lunch at Sheldon's), and learn about the seriousness of her work while on deployment, and share more than a few moments of levity. It turns out that Stephanie was able to set up a very small but active Golf Academy in the desert where officers and enlisted personnel alike came to hit golf balls off Astroturf into a net while she offered instruction and tips. A p-retty amazing person doing some very important work, yet finding time to indulge her
humanity while helping others escape from the day-to-day grind. Exactly what golf has been doing for at least 600 years, right? Stephanie left shortly afterwards for her next duty station at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. We would love to see you when you’re nearby. Call or email so we know you’re coming!
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F E RG , C O N T . (cont. from page 1) can be used in conjunction with our Golftec software and allows us to simulate shots with amazing accuracy. This new addition affords us the ability to virtually play courses around the world and will allow us to experiment with a match play league this winter. The program is now more community service-oriented. Students complete two community service projects per semester. The Community Service Chairperson identifies local projects and charities to which we can donate our time and efforts. It is my hope that these additional opportunities will help us project a more positive image to the local community, and in turn help us generate sponsorships for our Family and Friends Tournament. This summer, many of our students helped the March of Dimes, a PGA-recognized charity event where the students got sponsorships to play 100 holes of golf in one day. The money raised supported medical care for premature infants. When it comes to charitable donations, however, perhaps none have been more generous to the program than
Junior Jeff Wilcinski and his dad enjoyed the Friends and Family Tournament. the scholarship fund started this year by Justin Palermo and his family. The $500 scholarship is awarded annually to the student who improves his or her scoring average the most from first semester to second semester. In doing this, the student demonstrates a dedication to practice and shows the work ethic needed to succeed as a PGA professional. Other criteria for the award include a GPA requirement and good standing with the program.
Nevada—Las Vegas. The inaugural event will be held in Las Vegas during the end of the student’s spring break. The format of the tournament is a modified Ryder Cup involving best ball, scramble and alternate shot. The hope of this tournament is to promote competition, rivalry, and camaraderie between the schools. Thank you for your time and I hope this message finds you well.
As a personal venture I have pursued an intercollegiate PGM tournament in conjunction with Arizona State and The University of
KELBEL, CONT. (cont. from page 1)
improve future issues.
If you are going to the PGA Show in late January, please stop by our PGM booth to visit and arrange a time to meet while we’re in Orlando.
We’d like to include news about our graduates, so be sure to send us your news so we can know where you are and what you’re accomplishing in your career.
After you have a chance to read the newsletter, be sure to send me your comments and feedback so we can
I would like to say how proud I am of each and every one of you for successfully making it
through our rigorous program with your business degree and PGA Certification in your hip pocket. I would really like to stay in contact with you via email or phone calls and hope to visit many of you at your facilities over the next few years.
“I am proud of you for successfully making it through our rigorous program with your business degree and your PGA Certification in your hip pocket.”
U CCS Co llege o f Bu s i n es s P G A G o lf Ma n a gem en t P r o gr a m
CAREERS /PLACEMENT
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway Colorado Springs CO 80918 Phone: 719-255-3923 Fax: 719-255-3494 E-mail: ekelbel@uccs.edu
By Mollie Sutherland, PGA Assistant Director/Internship Coordinator
Check us out on the web: http://www.uccs.edu/~pgm
Seeking a new job opportunity? Looking for career advancement or different responsibilities? Moving to a new area and joining a new PGA Section? Did you know that www.pga.com/employment posts 5,000 jobs annually? You can utilize your PGA Membership by contacting your section PGA Employment Consultant and frequently visiting www.pgalinks.com to review the Job Board and post your resume on JobFinder!
We are in the business of building successful futures.™
PGA officials conduct a mock interview with one of our students in the PGMT 3000 class.
Stay connected!
Listed below are several other websites that you can visit daily to see the new opportunities: www.troongolf.com www.obsports.com www.kempersports.com www.billycaspergolf.com www.tpc.com www.kopplinsearch.com www.coleandscott.com www.golfjobs.com www.payitforward.com www.marriott.com www.fourseasons.com
PGM Alumni Page
College of Business Page
College of Business Alumni Group Check out the PGM subgroup!
Coming next issue…the PGA Certified Program!
ETHICS, GOLF
AND THE
The College of Business was selected for a $1.25 million grant from the Daniels Foundation in Denver to bring more ethics into the business curriculum. We will also participate in a consortium of eight Rocky Mountain universities on ethics, seeking to advance ethics education and research.
speaker at a faculty retreat in the spring who challenged us to think about ethics, specifically our own, our students’, the university’s, and the business community’s as a whole. He started off his comments with a clip from The Legend of Bagger Vance showing Capt. Junuh (Matt Damon) facing the situation when his ball moved on the final hole of his exhibition match with Bobby
We bring this point up because we had a special
COB Jones and Water Hagen. He has absolutely no dilemma over what to do, even though everyone is urging him to compromise. This example kept coming back up during the discussion, so it appears that golf and its ethics may have quite an impact as we move forward with this initiative.
Share our new video! We recently created a new video about the program. Take a look for yourself and then share the link with prospective students, internship managers, and employers.