Mark Felder announces his pending retirement from the OGA

Felder plans sunset ride

after 21 years guiding OGA to new heights

by ken macleod

After providing 21 years of stable leadership and growth, Mark Felder has announced he is retiring as executive director of the Oklahoma Golf Association effective next April.

Felder, 63, has been a PGA professional in Oklahoma since starting his career at Kickingbird Golf Course in the late 1970s. After working as an assistant at John Conrad in Midwest City throughout most of the 1980s, he became the head professional at Twin Hills Country Club in Oklahoma City from 1989-92 before taking the job at the OGA.

Under his leadership, the OGA worked to enhance and strengthen its GHIN handicap offerings and course ratings with member courses throughout the state. But Felder’s joy was in providing superior tournaments for competitive players from juniors through seniors.

He had the OGA work closely with Morri Rose on the development of the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour, which has led to hundreds of college scholarship opportunities for Oklahoma youth. In his second year, he added a girls division to the OGA Junior Amateur and two years ago added a women’s stroke play event to give the college girls an additional summer tournament in which to compete.

Under his leadership and working closely with his fellow PGA professionals, the OGA State Amateur Championship has traditionally been held at the finest venues in the state, including Southern Hills, Oak Tree National, Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, The Patriot, Cedar Ridge Country Club and others.

“I need to thank everybody that has helped us – and me – along this journey, opening their doors and letting us bring the guys out,” Felder said. “Our pros have been very good at understanding the heritage that Oklahoma has with amateur golf and helping us build it.”

Running OGA events and watching the juniors grow from tykes into world class players have been Felder’s passions. He usually awards the trophies at the major amateur events and the Oklahoma Open, but there are times it’s been difficult.

“I remember when Cameron Meyers won the State Amateur at Meadowbrook (2011), I didn’t think I could get through it,” Felder said. “His dad (A.G. Meyers) used to walk him down on horseback to my house when he was just a few years old. Then when Max McGreevy won the Oklahoma Open and Cody Burrows was low amateur, I couldn’t get through it. I had to have Jay (Doudican), do it.”

David Thompson, an advisory member of the OGA Board and former top rules official, is heading up the search committee and said a national search is being conducted for Felder’s replacement, with the ideal timing to have someone on board by this fall to work with Felder for several months.

“Mark came to the OGA when we were in a tenuous financial situation and now it is in a better place than it’s ever been,” Thompson said. “He has done a lot of things to improve the whole organization. Of late, bringing Bob Phelps on as tournament director has been a real boost for the organization.”

Editor’s note: Felder was instrumental in the transition of this magazine from its original incarnation as South Central Golf, covering the South Central Section of the PGA of America, to Golf Oklahoma, the official publication of the Oklahoma Golf Association, a move that was certainly a life saver for the future of the publication and hopefully has benefitted golf in the state through our evolution with not only the magazine but the online coverage, newsletters, social media, radio shows and podcasts that have followed, as well as our work with the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, of which he is also a supportive board member.

Felder brought us together with A.G. Meyers, who was crucial in building the sales and business foundation for Golf Oklahoma. Felder has championed all of our efforts without fail and we can’t thank him enough for that. He has made our job covering OGA events in particular and golf in the state in general fun and certainly more interesting and he should be given great credit for helping push the state to where it is today, a national leader in junior, amateur and professional golf. We will miss him, but hopefully he will have a role at least in OGA tournaments for years to come. Thank you Mark Felder!