What an exciting time for the Minnesota Golf Association. We have been busy! With summer behind us, there is time to reflect on our accomplishments and plan for the future.
At the beginning of the summer, we welcomed Holly Noble as our new women's golf manager—so, look out for enhanced experiences at our women's championships and programming.
Our tournament program remains strong. We are proud to conduct best-in-class amateur championships that are the envy of association peers. Nearly every single MGA staff member volunteered at the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National and the Chaska Town Course. Also, just to brag a bit, we had nine local rules officials working championship week, including three MGA staff. And a shoutout to Joel Comstock, who worked inside the ropes with USGA staff on the U.S. Amateur setup at Chaska.
Great strides have been made toward our goal of making golf accessible for everyone. Our Youth on Course program has grown to nearly 20,000 kids, making Minnesota the second largest YOC chapter in the U.S. We've supported adding caddie programs at Keller, Hiawatha and Columbia golf courses. We continue to award an average of three women's scholarships annually, and, courtesy of the Mendesh family, we've added the Jim Mendesh Memorial Scholarship. We hosted two adaptive golf clinics at The Loop in Chaska, where we also conducted two community days during the U.S. Amateur week.