STAFFORD, VA-Liz Cooper, PGA, has been awarded the 2018 Middle Atlantic Professional Golfers’ Association (MAPGA) Player Development Award for her outstanding work as the Director of Player Development at Army Navy Country Club (ANCC) in Arlington, Virginia.
Cooper received the award at Washington Golf & Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, during the 32nd Annual MAPGA Hall of Fame Banquet.
This is the first Section award that Cooper has received. However, she received the 2014 and 2016 LPGA T&CP Northeast Section Professional of the Year and is a 2017-2018 Top 50 LPGA Instructor.
In 2015, Cooper switched career paths from being Mount Vernon Country Club Membership Marketing Director and took a job as Player Development Coordinator with the MAPGA Section office.
In 2016, she earned her certification in Player Development and Teaching & Coaching. Shortly after receiving her certification, she accepted her current position as Director of Player Development at Army Navy Country Club.
One of the first things Cooper did when she took the Director of Player Development position at Army Navy was survey the membership to find out what programs they would be interested in participating in.
What came from those results was a Player Development Pathway for both Adult and Junior Golf Programming at ANCC. The player development pathway would provide a road map for the membership to progress in their golf journey and members could start at any point of the pathway and work their way up as far as they would like to go.
Cooper has been a huge proponent in creating opportunities for new golfers or lapsed golfers to move from the driving range to the tee box.
She accomplished this through instruction opportunities such as her Get Comfortable with Golf (Get Golf Ready) program.
In the program Cooper offered three levels of Get Comfortable with Golf culminating with 100 percent on course play and instruction in level three. This approach created more golfers and helped form bonds between the participants.
Also, during the spring of 2015, she was fortunate enough to play in a Former Member of Congress charity event benefiting Disabled Sports USA.
Cooper was paired with a group of three women that had been injured during their active duty tour who indicated they were uncomfortable playing with a male professional because the injuries they sustained.
This gave Cooper alongside fellow MAPGA Member Troy Beck and the team at PGA HOPE the inspiration to create one of the only all-female Veteran Wounded Warrior Programs taught only by female professionals in the country.
The six-week program was a tremendous success and allowed female veterans the opportunity to feel comfortable enjoying a sport that they loved.
In 2017, Cooper created the first All-Girls PGA Junior League Division in the country. Four different clubs in the Northern Virginia area participated in the inaugural division. ANCC had sixteen girls ages 13 and under on the team and there were over sixty girls playing that participated in the All Girls Division.
She coached the All-Girls All-Star team made up of girls from Army Navy, Washington Golf & Country Club, First Tee/Ft. Belvoir and Springfield Golf and Country Club. The inaugural season was a success and she plans on growing the All Girls Division of PGA Junior League Golf in 2018.
Cooper attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on a swimming scholarship and then attended the Golf Academy of America in Orlando, Florida. Upon moving to Florida, Cooper took a series of lessons with a local PGA & LPGA Professional, Jen Cully. Cully not only helped Cooper with her golf swing, but she encouraged her to get into the golf business.
Since then Cooper has served as a committee member for the Virginia State Golf Association Growth of the Game committee and is currently LPGA Northeast Section Vice President and serves as a MAPGA Central Chapter Regional Director within the Section.
Contact:
MAPGA Communications
Jeremy Beale, jbeale@pgahq.com
