GOLF: Peninsula’s Chad Wagner joins PGA elite

Peninsula Golf Club’s Chad Wagner is officially a Class A PGA member after wrapping up the PGA Professional Golf Management Program last month.

“It took me three years to get through everything, which was a little longer than I wanted, but I’m glad to be done, that’s for sure,” Wagner said Tuesday.

Potential PGA golf professionals must complete the program’s lengthy list of core requirements within eight years.

Instruction includes courses in teaching and coaching and facilities management and completion of seminars at the PGA’s Knowledge Center in Florida. Knowledge of the Rules of Golf, the PGA Constitution and the History of the PGA also are qualifying level requirements.

Players also have to document their playing ability — something Wagner did early on in the process with a round in the low 70s at Lake Spanaway Golf Course.

“The toughest part about it is you have to hold a full time job [in the golf industry] to be in the program,” Wagner said.

“You have a responsibility to your day-to-day operations and with a full-time job there can be a tendency to put the training on the back burner. But you give yourself timelines to get it done in a reasonable fashion. Just plan it out — I’m sitting down for four hours today, three hours tomorrow.”

Wagner said he’s put to good use in lessons what he’s learned in the teaching and coaching sessions.

“The most enlightening part for me is all the teaching aspects,” Wagner said. “When you are down for levels one through three you receive a full day of teaching instruction where you start with beginniners and progress through intermediate and expert-level players. And you have a top 100 teacher in the nation teach the class each day.

“I’m able to use a lot of that in my lessons.”

Wagner also said another benefit of the process was becoming a part of the PGA membership. Golf professionals in our area are part of the PGA’s Pacifici Northwest Section Western Washington Chapter.

“The membership is always a brotherhood, a brotherhood and sisterhood, with so many opportunities to learn by just networking in our chapter,” Wagner said.

“We have a really, really realiable member base, and as a matter of fact, Bill Shea [Cedars at Dungeness Director of Golf and General Manager] will be elected Monday night as the President of our chapter.”

Wagner thanked both Shea and Cedars at Dungeness head pro Garrett Smithson for all their help in completing the PGA program.

Wagner, a 2006 Sequim High School graduate and former baseball star for the Wolves and Wilder Baseball Club who played collegiately for Lower Columbia and Hawaii Pacific University, worked his way up the ladder to serve as an assistant pro at Cedars.

He’s been Peninsula’s head golf pro since 2016, through a deal that see’s Shea oversee operations of the Port Angeles course.

“Garrett and Bill have been so important for me and the support of 7 Cedars Casino has been incredible,” Wagner said.

He also thanked his wife Justine “for having to deal with so many late nights and early mornings,” Wagner said.

And Wagner said he will continue to grow and support youth golf at the course, including serving as a head coach for the Port Angeles girls golf program.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help grow junior golf on the Peninsula,” Wagner said.

Shea earns spot

Bill Shea has qualified to play in today and Thursday’s Hagen Cup, an annual event that sees the 12 top players from PGA chapters in Western Washington and Oregon compete in a Ryder Cup style competition.

Shea beat out more than 40 other players to qualify for the Western Washington team.

The match will be played at Salish Cliffs Golf Club near Shelton today and Thursday.

Drive for a Cure record

Sunland Golf and Country Club member Janet Real checked in with some great news from the club’s annual Drive for the Cure benefit tournament.

Sunland members recently raised a record $14,860 at the Sept. 15 tournament for the Olympic Medical Center Foundation’s mammogram program for area women who do not have insurance or the means to pay for the procedure.

Since 2011, Sunland has given a total of $51,760 to OMC to support this cause. An anonymous Sunland donor has helped reach this goal by donating via a matching fund since 2012.

Besides entrance fees, funds were raised through a raffle for 24 well-stocked gift baskets, a putting contest sponsored by Sequim Health and Rehab, Windemere Real Estate’s sponsorship of KP contests, sale of mulligans and magic putts, a $500 donation from Sound Community Bank and many other donations from individuals and the business community.

One hundred men and women participated in a modified scramble for nine or 18 holes.

The Lux family — Doug, Mark, Andrew and Christopher of Port Townsend and Lynnwood won the 18-hole competition and a $70 prize per person.

The team of Mary O’Brien, Joan Hartnett, Kris Slack and Sandra Ryby won the nine-hole event and received $40 each.

Hole in one putters on the putting green each won a bottle of wine. All field event winners won $20 each. Crazy Drive winners were Joanne Estes and Ken Orth for eighteen holes and Eileen Leftwich and Jerry Fowler for nine holes.

Closest to the pin winners were: Judy Reno at 10 feet, seven inches; Steve Wilson at 11-6; Betty Gastfield at 5-10, Bruce Mullikin at 5-10 and Cheryl Coulter at 4-3.

“Sunland was delighted to have participation from golfers throughout the Olympic Peninsula,” Real said.

Cedars aces

Two hole-in-one reports have come in from Cedars at Dungeness.

Both aces occurred Sept. 18.

Sequim’s Terry Ellison holed out on the 147-yard par-3 11th hole using a Callaway 5 Hybrid club and a Callaway ball.

It was Ellison’s first-ever hole-in-one.

Witnesses were Al McCombie and M. Caskey, each of Port Ludlow.

Seattle’s Mike Severance tallied his first-ever ace on the 152-yard par-3 17th.

He used a 21-degree hybride and a Vice Soft ball.

Witnesses included James Cooper, Brad Conway and Buckley Jones, all of Seattle.