Northeast – W. Doug Pierce from Middletown, NY, survived a three-way sudden-death playoff to capture the USGTF Northeast Region Championship on June 21 at Mercer Oaks West Course in West Windsor Township, New Jersey. On a wet and very windy day, Pierce, Pete Palmisano of East Windsor, NJ, and Gerard Ecker of Athens, NY, all fired an 18-hole score of 81. Pierce, playing out of the 70+ division, won the title on the fourth hole of overtime.

Lisa Monaco of Stormville, NY, won the Ladies’ division; Matt Maronski of Philadelphia, PA, won the 20-49 division; Tom McCallister captured the 50-59 division, and Ecker captured the 60-69 division. Bob Corbo, Northeast Region director, remarked on the playoff, “This was a very exciting finish to a great tournament.”

For more information on the USGTF Northeast Region and its activities, please contact Corbo at (609) 520-0040 orsimductivegolf@gmail.com.

Central – The 2019 USGTF Central Region Championship, a 36-hole stroke play event, will be held Sunday and Monday, August 4-5, at Pheasant Run Golf Course in Canton, Michigan. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.mogtt.com/central-championship/. Questions can be referred to region director Brent Davies at btkadavies@comcast.net or (248) 701-6843. The Michigan/Ontario Golf Teachers Tour also boasts a complete summer schedule. Please visit http://www.mogtt.com for more information.

www.USGolfTeachersCup.com for more information and to enter.  And this year, for the first time, the U.S. Cup will feature a concurrent pro-am, where USGTF professionals partner with an amateur to vie for team honors. This event is sure to be one that participants will look forward to.

Please be advised that there is a strict limit of 100 total participants (pros and amateurs), and Sedona is a very popular tourist destination, so please make your reservations early to assure your spot.

Professional golf is sports’ ultimate meritocracy. There is no coach or general manager to tell you that you are either no longer with the team or are not going to be given a roster spot, regardless of how well you may have played.  Politics do not enter into the equation. If you’re good enough, you get to play, simple as that.

Nate Lashley, who won the Rocket Mortgage Classic on the final day of June, embodies what professional golf’s opportunities are all about. He was a promising collegiate golfer at the University of Arizona, competing in the 2004 NCAA regional with his parents and girlfriend in the gallery. On the way home by plane, his parents and girlfriend died when the plane crashed. The tragedy affects him to this day. After graduation, he tried his hand on golf’s mini-tours before giving up to sell real estate. Giving professional golf another go a few years ago, he rose through the ranks, played well enough on the Korn Ferry Tour to get his PGA Tour card, and is currently in his second season on the main stage. Lashley’s story of perseverance has resonated within the golf community, and although a late bloomer at age 36, seasoned observers believe this will not be his only victory.

When I was a young teaching pro in 1991, a lady who was a dermatologist was in my golf class. She observed I wore a visor one day and no visor the next. She inquired about this, and I said on the days I didn’t wear a visor I wore sunscreen, but on days I wore a visor, I didn’t think sunscreen was necessary. She informed me that what I was doing was inadequate and that I needed to be wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen, and to do this every day that I was outside.

She made such an impression on me that I went out the very next day and bought a straw hat. Twenty-eight years later, here in 2019, I still wear a wide-brimmed hat and lather on sunscreen before each and every foray into the sun, whether I’m teaching, playing golf, or just spending some time outdoors.

You would think, in this day and age and with all the information we have about skin cancer that this would be the norm, but sadly, I’m an exception. Virtually every male tour player wears only a baseball cap, and it’s all too common to see teaching pros on the lesson tee doing the same thing. As for regular golfers, baseball caps are definitely the predominant headwear.

I’m fortunate to be at lesser risk for skin cancer due to my mom being from southern Italy and I inherited her darker hair and eyes, but I’d like to think I’ve staved off some real damage by taking that advice I received in 1991. The back and sides of my neck are still relatively smooth for someone my age, unlike the leather-beaten skin of some of my baseball-cap-wearing peers. And perhaps I would have had skin cancer by now.

I realize that old habits die hard and that I might convince only one or two people to adapt a new sun regimen, but I won’t quit trying. Please, for your health and the health of your skin, start doing more to cover up.

By Mark Harman, USGTF National Course Director

The USGTF National Office is readily available to assist with all of your member needs, whether providing continuing educational materials such as Teaching Junior Golfers…32 Great Tips, additional copies of the USGTF training manual, How To Teach Golf or simply issuing replacement membership cards and/or certificates. Please view the Member Services feel free to contact our office at (888) 346-3290 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday, or email at info@usgtf.com for your member needs.