Last year at the G4 Summit, former USGA president Will Nicholson Jr., announced that Jack Nicklaus had agreed to be the featured guest at the Century of Golf Gala, which turned out to be arguably the highlight of the year in Colorado golf.
Next week at the third annual G4 Summit — set for Tuesday at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs — more significant news is on the agenda. And considering the Summit is all about leaders in the Colorado golf industry joining forces to deal with issues that the game faces, the news is particularly fitting.
One of the first orders of business at the event deals with the junior golf collaboration that was announced last fall by the CGA and the Colorado PGA. Since then, with the help of the CWGA and other golf organizations, the 2016 schedule has been released (CLICK HERE). And on Tuesday, the name of the new junior golf organization will be revealed, along with a logo designed by Adrenalin, a tagline and possibly information regarding a new website. Also, registration for 2016 tournaments will open that day.
In addition, several Colorado junior golfers from years past who have gone on to success professionally will be lending their names to the cause.
The junior organization will have events both for top-level players — including a Junior Tour which will feature four junior majors for both boys and girls — as well as for up-and-coming golfers through the developmental Junior Series. In short, there will be events for players of many ages and abilities.
The inaugural tournaments on the schedule are set for April 16-17 in Colorado Springs at the Country Club of Colorado and Valley Hi Golf Course.
When the new junior golf website is launched, it will feature registration for Junior Tour and Junior Series events, and information on the PGA Junior League; the Colorado PGA Golf in Schools program, which exposes school kids to the game through P.E. classes; the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy; the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship and much more.
All in all, the idea is to streamline, improve and expand the junior golf experience in Colorado.
“We’re really excited,” said Dustin Jensen, the CGA’s managing director of operations, who has helped spearhead the collaborative organization along with Keith Soriano, the Colorado PGA’s assistant executive director/Foundation programs. “It’ll be fun to get things kicked off.
“It’s significant that we’re doing this at the Summit. The Summit signifies unity. That’s what the Summit is, and it’s what the alliance is. It’s a coming together of the game.”
And the announcements at the G4 Summit will be followed in a major way at a further rollout of the junior golf organization at the Denver Golf Expo, set for Feb. 19-21 at the Denver Mart (58th and I-25).
While the junior golf announcements will be a key part of the G4 Summit on Tuesday, there’s much, much more to the event that brings together all the allied golf associations in the state — the CGA, CWGA, Colorado PGA, the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents and the Mile High Chapter of the Club Managers Association — in an effort to address key issues facing golf. There will be speeches given by industry leaders, panel discussions, meetings, a legislative update, social functions and announcements, with the G4 Summit theme this year being “The Changing Landscape of the Game of Golf”.
The speaker lineup certainly doesn’t lack firepower. It includes:
— Dottie Pepper (left), who won 17 LPGA Tour events, including the Nabisco Dinah Shore twice in the 1990s. Pepper served as an assistant captain for the U.S. team at the Solheim Cup matches at Colorado Golf Club in 2013. Since 2005, she’s been a prominent on-course reporter on TV, working for NBC, the Golf Channel, and now ESPN and CBS, where she’ll be part of the Masters and PGA Championship broadcasting teams. Pepper, who replaces David Feherty at CBS and becomes the network’s first female golf analyst, recently spent three years on the board of directors for the PGA of America.
Pepper will also be the keynote speaker for the Colorado PGA’s Teaching and Coaching Summit on Feb. 17 at The Broadmoor, addressing what players look for in a coach.
— Rhett Evans, the CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, who will be delivering the keynote address. Evans was well received as the keynote speaker at the CWGA annual meeting last March.
— Rand Jerris, the USGA’s senior managing director for public services, who is also an author (or co-author) of three golf books, speaking on building a sustainable game.
— David Lorentz, senior research manager for the National Golf Foundation, a trade assocation which provides market research, information and insights about the business of golf. Lorentz will be speaking on “golf and the millennial generation”.
All four of the speakers will also participate in an industry panel discussion.
