PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Six new members of The PGA of America’s Board of Directors were sworn in Saturday, Nov. 18, at The Association’s 90th Annual Meeting at The Sanctuary in Kiawah Island, S.C.
Ted Bishop of Franklin, Ind., Frank Gumpert of Baton Rouge, La., Randy Hunt of Lenexa, Kan., Mary Bea Porter-King of Lihue, Hawaii; Dennis Rose of Kamuela, Hawaii, and Alan Wooley of Kyle, Texas, will each serve three-year terms.
The PGA Board of Directors is composed of the Association’s President, Vice President, Secretary, Honorary President and 17 Directors. The Directors include representatives from each of The PGA’s 14 Districts, two Independent Directors and a member of the PGA Tour. New District Directors are elected by their local PGA Sections.
Association delegates elected Brian Whitcomb of Bend, Ore., as the 35th president of The PGA of America. Whitcomb previously served as Secretary of the Association from 2002-2004 and Vice President from 2004-2006
Whitcomb, 51, succeeds Roger Warren of Kiawah Island, S.C., who will serve on The PGA Board of Directors as Honorary President. Succeeding Whitcomb as Vice President is Jim Remy of Ludlow, Vt., who served the past two years as Secretary. Allen Wronowski of Bel Air, Md., was elected Secretary. In addition, six new members of The PGA Board of Directors were sworn into office.
Ted Bishop, 52, is a general manager and PGA director of golf at The Legends of Indiana Golf Club in Franklin, Ind., is a 1976 graduate of Purdue University, and was elected to PGA membership in 1985. He has served on the PGA Board of Control from 2002 to 2005, and will succeed Tim Marks of Lenox, Ill., as District 6 Director for the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin Sections.
Since 1989, Bishop has served as either a Board member or Officer in the Indiana PGA Section, and was Section President from 1997-98. During that time, he guided several initiatives and programs that included serving as chair of Operation Sand Save, which raised $40,000 in care packages for Indiana Reserves and National Guard troops deployed in the Middle East; co-founding the Indiana Chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association and serving as co-host of The Indiana Golf Show on ESPN Radio in Indianapolis. He is a two-time recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash, which was presented by the governor of Indiana and is the state’s highest honor bestowed on a private citizen.
Bishop began his professional golf career as PGA Professional and superintendent at Phil Harris Golf Course in Linton, Ind. In 1998, he won the Indiana PGA Golf Professional of the Year Award, and was the recipient of the 1992 Section Horton Smith Award, and the Section 1996-97 Indiana PGA Bill Strausbaugh Award.
Frank Gumpert III, who succeeds Brent Krause of Montgomery, Ala., as District 3 Director for the Dixie, Gulf States and Tennessee Sections, was elected to membership in 1975. Since 1995, he has served as PGA head professional at The Country Club of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, La.
A 1968 graduate of Mississippi State University, Gumpert has more than 20 years of PGA Section leadership. He began his professional career in 1971, as head professional at Brookwood Country Club in Jackson, Miss. In 1975, Gumpert became general manager and head professional at Audubon Golf Club in New Orleans, before joining Sherwood Forest Country Club in December 1978. He remain in the position until February 1991, when he became the head professional at Metairie (La.) Country Club. In March 1995, Gumpert was named head professional at The Country Club of Louisiana.
Gumpert, 59, was a member of the Gulf States PGA Section board of directors from 1978 to 1983, serving as Section president from 1982-83. He was a co-instructor at PGA national teaching workshops from 1979 to 86, a member of the national PGA Education Committee from 1980-86 and an instructor at PGA Business Schools from 1980-87. He was named the 1980 Gulf States PGA Golf Professional of the Year, Section Merchandiser of the Year in 1985, ’91, ’98; Section Teacher of the Year in 1988; and Section Horton Smith Award winner in 1982 and 2001.
Randy Hunt, a PGA member since 1975, became the general manager at Milburn Park Country Club in Overland Park, Kan., in October. He succeeds Jeff Hamm of Benton, Ark., as District 7 Director for the Gateway, Midwest and South Central PGA Sections.
Hunt, 56, had served as general manager from 1999 to September 2006 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. A 1972 graduate of Chadron State College in Chadron, Neb., Hunt began his professional career in 1985 as director golf and head professional at Alvamar Country Club in Lawrence, Kan. In 1988, he became director of golf at Overland Park (Kan.) Golf Club, and remained in that position until 1996. He served as general manager at Falcon Ridge Golf Course in Lenexa, Kan., from 1997-98, and was vice president of operations from April 1997 to September 1999 for Midwest Daily Free Public Courses for Kemper Sports Management of Northbrook, Ill.
Hunt served on the Midwest PGA Section Board of Directors from 1988-93, and was Section president from 1990-91. He has been a lecturer in professional development since 1991, including classes at Kansas State University in hospitality management, tourism, golf course management and career and employment services.
Mary Bea Porter-King, who is completing her fifth year as a member of the United States Golf Association Executive Committee, will replace Leslie Greis of Cambridge, Mass., as independent director. She is the third woman to hold a position on the PGA Board of Directors.
Porter-King, 56, served from 1994 to 2000 on the USGA Girls’ Junior Committee, and has officiated at various USGA championships, including the past three U.S. Opens and past seven U.S. Women’s Opens, along with the U.S. Girls’ Junior and Junior Amateur Championships. She is the co-founder and president of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association, as well as the junior golf representative for the Hawaii Women’s State Golf Association.
A 1973 graduate of Arizona State University, Porter-King joined the LPGA Tour that same year. She left the circuit from 1981 to 1986 and rejoined the Tour in 1987 and played until 1998. She has devoted the remainder of her career to educating juniors in the game of golf. In 2001, she was the recipient of the LPGA Budget Service Award for her work in junior golf. She was inducted in 2004 into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.
Porter-King was honored by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association as the recipient of the first Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award. In 1988, Porter-King – while in a qualifying round for the Standard Register Turquoise Classic – climbed a fence and administered CPR to save the life of a three-year-old boy who was drowning in a nearby pool.
Dennis Rose, the director of golf and general manager since 2002 at Francis H. I’i Brown Golf Courses in Kohala Coast, Hawaii, replaces Tom Sargent of Costa Mesa, Calif., as District 11 Director for the Aloha, Northern California and Southern California PGA Sections. A PGA member since 1975, Rose is a 1971 graduate of San Fernando Valley State College and who began his career as an assistant professional between 1971 and 1981 at Mauna Kea Beach Resort in Kamuela, Hawaii, Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Monterey, Calif., and at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, Calif.
He has served on the Aloha PGA Board of Directors since 1981.Rose, 58, became director of golf and head professional at Waikoloa Beach Resorts from 1981-93; as vice president of resort operations and director of golf at Waikoloa Development Company from 1993 to May 2000.
Rose became owner of DJR Golf Consulting in Kamuela in June 2000 and in November of that year was named director of golf at Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku Oahu, Hawaii. Rose remained in that position until December 2002, when he joined the Mauna Lani Resort as director of golf and general manager of the Francis H. I’i Brown Golf Courses.
Alan Wooley, the director of golf at Plum Creek Golf Course in Kyle, Texas, replaces Grant Dalpes of Alamogordo, N.M., as District 12 Director for the Northern Texas, Southern Texas and Sun Country PGA Sections.
A PGA member since 1989, Wooley has more than 20 years of experience in positions ranging from municipal to private courses. He began his professional career serving from 1985 to 1995 as an assistant at the Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City, Okla. From 1985-92, Wooley was assistant at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, N.M., at Oaks Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.; and Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, Texas. He became head professional in 1993 at Victoria Country Club in Victoria, Texas, and remained until May 2000.
He became general manager, director of golf and superintendent in June 2000 at Colony Creek Country Club in Victoria; and since January 2005 has been general manager and director of golf at Plum Creek Golf Course in Kyle, Texas.
From 1995-98, Wooley was chair of the Southern Texas PGA Employment and Club Relations Committee; and also chaired the Section PGA Tournament Committee (1998-99), and since 2004, has headed the Section Rules Committee.
Wooley, 45, served as president of the Southern Texas PGA Section from 2001-02, and was the 2002 recipient of the Southern Texas PGA Golf Professional of the Year. He is a three-time recipient of the Section Bill Strausbaugh Award.
Celebrating its 90th anniversary, The PGA of America was founded in 1916, and is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the game of golf while continuing to enhance the standards of the profession. The Association is comprised of more than 28,000 men and women PGA Professionals who are dedicated to growing participation in the game of golf.
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