President's Report

Happy Holidays! It’s that time of year, with Thanksgiving behind us and all of the December holidays in front of us. We also have the Section Board of Directors / Winter Planning meeting right around the corner.

This year’s meeting will be held my home town of Whitefish, Montana. I look forward to welcoming everyone to the Great State of Montana (The Last Best Place on Earth).  The Section Board has a lot of work to do over the three busy days ahead. As we look forward to 2019, we will be focusing on better ways to “serve the member while growing the game”.

Your Section leaders were recently in Palm Springs, California where we saw Suzy Whaley get elected to be the 41st President of our Association. I look forward to seeing the many doors President Whaley will open for the future of the game and our Association.  John Lindert from The Country Club of Lansing in Lansing, Michigan was elected our next Secretary of the PGA of America. John is a great addition to the current officer core along with Seth Waugh, our new CEO of the PGA.  Great times are ahead for our Association.

Cameron Milton from Polson Bay GC was honored with the National Award in Youth Player Development. Cameron did a great job representing our Section on the biggest stage. His enthusiasm and passion for the game of golf and how he conducts himself as a PGA Golf Professional in Polson, Montana was the highlight of the evening awards show.

Congratulation to Rick Blankenburg and the Bellingham-Skagit All Stars for making it to the PGA Junior League National Championship.  The “Scrubbs” as the call themselves will bring back all 10 kids next year, so look out for Team Washington in 2019.

As I stated in my first article, my only goal in 2019 is to serve you the member and grow the game. I look forward to starting this process next week at the Board of Directors / Winter Planning meeting. Our Board will work tirelessly at finding new ways to bring services back to you the member, and also find new ways to grow our game.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. I’m here to listen.

All the best,

Gregory C. Morris, PGA
President, PNWPGA
Head Golf Professional, Iron Horse GC

Foreword Press has an updated format and will now arrive in your inbox twice a month. Watch your email for the December 15th edition, which will include the CEO's article. Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoy the new format.

Back by Popular Demand!

The Section is headed to Ireland in 2019, and we're taking six teams with us! To help you with your schedules, we will moved the event to late September. The Irish courses will be hard and fast while yours have just been aerified.  A perfect time for you to get away!

We will play six rounds on five fantastic links courses, highlighted by Ballyliffin on the far northwest coast:

• Rosapenna – Sandy Hills
• Portsalon
• Ballyliffin – Glashedy
• Carne Golf Club
• Enniscrone

Celtic Golf will once again professionally manage our trip and is happy to help you extend your stay.   Questions – Jeff Ellison 360-456-6496;  Celtic Golf – Greg O’Mahony 561-906-0837

Russell Grove – Jeff Coston – Shane Prante

2018 Player of the Year Award Winners

Congratulations to the PNW PGA Player of the Year award winners! Russell Grove of North Idaho College won OMEGA Player of the Year. Jeff Coston of Semiahmoo Resort won OMEGA Senior Player of the year. Shane Prante of the Home Course won Assistant Player of the Year.

OMEGA Player of the Year Points - FINAL

1. Grove, Russell - 575

2. Prante, Shane - 452.5

3. Inglis, Colin - 355

OMEGA Senior Player of the Year Points - FINAL

1. Coston, Jeff - 515

2. Carranza, Joe - 380

3. Gibbons, Rob - 375

Assistant Player of the Year Points - FINAL

1. Prante, Shane - 662.5

2. Inglis, Colin - 542.5

    Cassidy, John - 542.5

Pros on the Move

by Michelle Parish, Tournament & Membership Coordinator

Employment Changes

• Steven D. Stensland, PGA (A-8) - from Kayak Point GC to Everett G&CC

New Associates

• Blake A. Netter (B-8) - Creekside GC
• Ty J. Stephenson (B-8) - University of Idaho GC
• Bryan K Stevens (B-14) - Club At Snoqualmie Ridge
• Jamie D. Stilwell (B-8) - Tri-Mountain GC

Newly Elected Members

• Joshua A. Grenier, PGA (A-8) - Prairie Falls GC
• Carl J. Nagel, PGA (A-8) - Twin Lakes Village GC
• Margaret M. Simons, PGA (A-8) - The Oregon GC

Transfers INTO the Section

• Jennifer L. Parker, PGA (A-8) to Unaffliated from S. California

Transfers OUT of the Section

• James M. Bader, PGA - from Unaffliated to Unaffliated Section
• Thomas B. Davidson, PGA - from Circling Raven GC to Utah
• Michael Fields, PGA - from Bellevue GC to S. California
• K L Gildersleeve-Jensen, PGA - from Kalispel G&CC to Southwest
• Harrison M. Taylor, PGA - from Village Greens GC to S. California
• Adam J. Ullman, PGA - from Crosswater Club At Sunriver to NE New York
  
• William J. Womeldorf, PGA - from Mt Adams Country Club to Southwest

New Quarter Century Members

• Scott M. Shagool, PGA

Deceased Members

• Joe McLaughlin - read obituary

Foreword Press has an updated format and will now arrive in your inbox twice a month. Watch your email for the December 15th edition, which will include Monte Koch's article. Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoy the new format.

Looking Back This Year in the Markets

Blake Parrish, CFP®

“The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight” – Ben Hogan

Mark Twain once mentioned October as a peculiarly dangerous month to speculate in stocks.  He wasn’t the most successful investor and actually spent his later years traveling the globe paying off debts he owed despite his book royalties and wife’s inheritance.  He spent more than he made, like so many people today.  Mr. Twain went on to mention the other dangerous months to invest his money of November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September.

As bad as things seemed leading into the mid-terms, it’s worth noting the S&P 500 historical 4Q performance going back to 1950.  November and December have historically been good months, with average returns of 4.1 percent in Q4.  We see that when Q3 returned 7 percent or greater (14 out of 14 observations) the average Q4 return has been 5.9 percent.  Note: we saw 7.2 percent in 2018 for those three months. 

 "Certified Financial Planner Boardof Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque design) and CFP® (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements."