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The 2021 National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship gets underway on Thursday, November 11. This year’s championship returns to PGA Golf Club for the 26th straight year. The 72 hole tournament will take place on the Wanamaker Course and feature 132 assistant professionals. 41 PGA sections and 40 states will be represented by the participants.

Hometown Milwaukee-area resident Rob Elliott, PGA, was among four PGA Members elected to three-year terms on the PGA of America Board of Directors today during the 105th PGA Annual Meeting at the Wisconsin Center. Joining Elliott as new Board Members are Eric Eshleman, PGA of Birmingham, Alabama; Derek Gutierrez, PGA, of Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico; and Barry Howard, PGA of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

On the evening of November 2 the 2020 PGA of America National Awards winners finally received their just honors during a rousing ceremony to kickoff the 2021 PGA Annual Meeting. Delayed a year by the global pandemic, the PGA paid tribute to a class of 12 influential PGA Members at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Included in the honorees was Wisconsin Section member Josue’ Reyes. The PGA director of retail at Kohler Golf was recognized as the national resort merchandiser of the year for the second time in his career. A big congratulations goes out to Josue’ and the team at Kohler Golf.

Michael O’Reilly was elected as the 32nd Wisconsin PGA president on Monday morning at the association’s fall board of directors meeting. The PGA director of golf operations at Kohler Golf is taking over the reigns from Jeff Ellingson of Edelweiss Chalet CC. Ellingson wrapped up a modified 2 1/2 year term as president, which was extended to include the 2020 Ryder Cup. O’Reilly is approaching the start of his 19th year as a PGA member and has served on the association’s board of directors since 2012. He has been honored by the section in the past with the golf professional of the year award and player development honor.

The 33rd Senior PGA Professional Championship presented by Cadillac and supported by the GOLF Channel will kick off on Thursday, October 21 at PGA Golf Club in St. Lucie, FL.  The event features 264 PGA Professionals who are at least 50 years of age, representing 42 different states. Leading the way for the Wisconsin Section PGA is Kurt Mantyla, Michael Crowley, John Freeman and Jim Schuman. The foursome will be led by Mantyla, as he earned his spot in the field with a victory at the 2021 Wisconsin Senior PGA Professional Championship back in July at Morningstar GC.

Mother Nature delivered a great fall day as the Wisconsin PGA closed out the tournament season with the Fall Pro-Pro Bonus Better Ball on Monday. The late addition to the calendar brought together a field of 48 professionals to enjoy the Ponds and Woods course at Kettle Hills GC. The two-player team event would feature four-ball stroke play as the main contest. The bonus portion of the event had teams blind drawing a fellow twosome, and then taking the two four-ball scores to create the bonus game score.

It was another eventful Monday on the WPGA tournament calendar, as the season continues to wind down. A nice field of forty-four twosomes teed it up at Rivermoor GC in the always fun Fall Pro-Pro Scramble. Between the storm dodging, a nice lineup of sponsors, and a few side contests, there was plenty to grab the attention of the attendees.

The 2021 WPGA four-player pro-am season came to a close on Monday, with the playing of the 6th annual Oliphant Golf Management Pro-Am Championship. A full field of twenty-nine teams would make the voyage to The GC’s of Lawsonia, to enjoy a day on the top 100 rated Links Course. Once again the field would be made up of teams that had earned their spot at the eight regular season pro-ams in the six months leading up to the championship.

The final WPGA tournament of September came to a close yesterday with the annual competition for the Premier Golf & Utility Vehicles Pro-Assistant title. Over 90 players from throughout the Wisconsin Section gathered at Ozaukee Country Club to enjoy a great day of golf, camaraderie and competition. For the second straight year the field was faced with a gusty day, which was accompanied by another set of undulating fast greens. The combination of the two made for some tough scoring in the 1 better ball of 2 format.

The WPGA wrapped up the regular season of its 4-player pro-am series on Monday. The eighth and final event brought a field of 27 teams up to Door County to enjoy the challenging and scenic Horseshoe Bay Golf Club. The fescue lined fairways and greens were in terrific shape, and the only negative to the day was the windy and rainy conditions that accompanied the players at times.

Navigating the weather and the golf course the best was the foursome of Brian Brodell, John Lukas, Joe Dias and Paul Kundinger.