If you were lucky enough to be at Niakwa last Friday, you may have noticed a bunch of robust young men pounding the ball around the course. Our Club was fortunate to host a group PGA of Manitoba professionals competing for a purse of several thousand dollars in the Cobra Puma Fall Final. The tournament was a great success and the pros were very impressed with how our course has rebounded after the awful winter we had. There also many positive comments from these golfing mavins about our four new greens. Here’s a link to the Manitoba PGA website https://pgaofmanitoba.com
Most golfers don’t know much about the PGA of Manitoba and the good work that’s done by this organization. Our own Wade Nybakken just happens to be President of the Board of Directors and Niakwa has five PGA members helping us to be better golfers. Read More>>
One of the ways Manitoba’s PGA pros give back to the game, and to the community, is through the “Future Pros Program”. https://pgaofmanitoba.com/golf-professionals-of-manitoba-foundation-inc/ This program is designed to create opportunities for disadvantaged and at risk youths to get involved in the game of golf. The idea is that giving an interested kid a break could change his or her life.
The pros, through the Golf Professionals Foundation Inc. provide golf memberships, with full junior privileges, in clubs close to the kids’ homes. They also equip the kids with clubs, balls, shoes and, most important, instruction. The objective is not to provide broad exposure to the game through one day clinics, but rather to create “core” golfers who will take up the game for life and become part of the golf world.
Funding
Original funding to get the Future Pros Program off the ground was provided by the pros themselves. Now they also rely on donations and various programs run at the club level. Proceeds from many of the on course promos at our Men’s or Ladies Openings, such as buying “a drive from the pro,” go to the Future Pros Program. One major fundraising activity this summer was the Brooke Henderson clinic, sponsored by Ping and by our colleagues at St Charles.
Brooke Henderson Day at St. Charles
The young people being helped under the Future Pros Program are great kids. The PGA pros have a goal of eventually having 200 juniors enrolled, including rural Manitoba. That would be fantastic for the kids, the community and for the game of golf. The national Professional Golfers Association would like to take the program national.
Our pros will be doing some type of on-course fundraising activity at next Saturday’s Members Closing. If you provide your support you can be sure it’s going to a good cause – and maybe you’ll get a long drive or a ball closest to the pin in return.