On Monday, more than 40 Members within the Kentucky PGA Section will gather at The Club at Olde Stone for the 71st Kentucky PGA Professional Championship. For the Section Membership, this event means a great deal given its history, one of the largest cash purses of the season being up for grabs, and the opportunity to advance to the PGA Professional Championship. These players will compete from the Bowling Green facility on Monday and Tuesday hoping to immortalize themselves within the Section ranks.

John Bachman, PGA - The Director of Instruction at Lake Forest Country Club. Bachman won this Championship in 2012 at Kearney Hill Golf Links and in 2014 at Greenbrier Golf & Country Club. He goes for his third Section Championship and first outside of the Lexington market this week in Bowling Green.

Kevin Childers, PGA – The Director of Golf at the host facility, The Club at Olde Stone. He won the Section’s Bill Strausbaugh Award in 2020, which recognizes a PGA Member who has done an outstanding job with mentoring his/her fellow Professionals. Childers will be the featured guest in the next episode of Golf Pod Kentucky presented by KT Tape which debuts on Friday.

Robert Costello, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Nevel Meade Golf Club. Costello won the Section’s Public Merchandiser of the Year Award in 2021 and 2020 and is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University’s PGA Golf Management program. He went undefeated in the Coomer Cup supported by 2UNDR on Wednesday, helping Team KPGA earn 2.5 points.

Chad Douglas, PGA – An Assistant Golf Professional at the host facility, The Club at Olde Stone. Douglas is at the tail end of his fourth season there after previously working at Louisville Country Club and Oxmoor Country Club. After helping to host a widely successful U.S. Girls Junior in July, Douglas has the opportunity to tee it up himself this week.

Ethan Fisher, PGA – The Director of Communications and Marketing at Golf House Kentucky. Won’t win but will take the photo of the person who does win and write the story about how they did so.

Zach Graves, PGA – The Director of Instruction at Bardstown Country Club. Graves has been on the team at Bardstown for several years and focuses his attention on teaching now after previously being the facility’s Head Pro. He is an alumnus of the PGA Golf Management program at Eastern Kentucky and graduated in 2015.

Josh Gregorich, PGA – An Assistant Golf Professional at Lexington Country Club. Gregorich was part of EKU’s 2018 graduating class within PGA Golf Management. LCC has been his home for quite some time as his second, third and fourth internships with the program were all spent there. He was hired full-time after getting his degree and has become one of the Section’s top assistants in the time since.

Josh Griffin, PGA – The Head Golf Professional at Wildwood Country Club. Griffin won the 2021 Assistant Golf Professional of the Year Award in Kentucky and has had a lot happen in his career ever since. He went to Hurstbourne Country Club to be an Assistant Professional there late in 2021, but returned to Wildwood earlier this summer after receiving the opportunity to become the facility’s Head Pro.

Zach Halder, PGA – An Assistant Golf Professional at Bowling Green Country Club. Halder graduated from Eastern Kentucky’s PGA Golf Management program in 2021 and will be making his Section Championship debut this year. He became quite familiar with the dairy-land during his internships, making stops to work at Blackwolf Run and Sand Valley Resort while obtaining his degree.

Kenton Hobbs, PGA – The Director of Instruction at World of Golf. Hobbs has spent his entire career in the tri-state area, beginning his time in the golf industry at multiple courses with the Indiana Section. He transitioned to Shaker Run Golf Club just north of Cincinnati, where he got his first head pro job. Since then, he’s been in Kentucky, first working at Louisville Country Club before joining World of Golf in early 2021.

David Huffman, PGA – The Head Golf Professional at South Park Country Club. Huffman has established himself as one of the most passionate PGA Members in the state and has become a popular figure amongst his members at the Fairdale facility. Before taking their Head Pro role, Huffman spent several years working as an Assistant Professional at Seneca Golf Course under the tutelage of soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee, Kevin Greenwell, PGA. Huffman serves on the KPGA’s Board of Directors as its District 2 Director.

Daniel Iceman III, PGA – An Assistant Golf Professional at Weissinger Hills Golf Course. Iceman played collegiately for the University of Louisville and is a two-time winner of the ROLEX Assistant Player of the Year in Kentucky, having won in 2016 and 2018. Last week at Wildwood Country Club, he won the National Car Rental Kentucky Assistant PGA Professional Championship which was his fourth time winning that event. By doing so, he is now exempt for the National Assistants Championship which will be in Florida this November.

Grover Justice, PGA - A Director of Instruction at Bluegrass Golf Academy. Justice captured this tournament in 2020 at Valhalla Golf Club in what was a dominant seven-shot victory. He won the ROLEX Larry Gilbert Player of the Year Award three straight times from 2017-2019 and was a top-ten finisher of the 2021 Kentucky Open. This past spring, he was the recipient of the Section’s Teacher & Coach of the Year Award.

Andrew Lardner, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Polo Fields Golf & Country Club in Louisville. He spent nearly a decade before joining the Polo Fields team working at Seneca Golf Course. Lardner is an alumnus of Butler High School and St. Catherine University.

Matt Love, PGA – The Head Golf Professional at Hunting Creek Country Club. Last winter, he accepted that role which brought him back to Kentucky for the first time since going through the PGA Golf Management program at EKU. He competed in this summer’s Kentucky Open at Persimmon Ridge Golf Club.

Myles Mahan, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Woodhaven Country Club. Mahan is a graduate of the EKU PGA Golf Management program and has previously worked at other facilities in Kentucky like World of Golf and Hurstbourne Country Club. Mahan and the rest of the Woodhaven staff and its members are looking forward to the completion of a massive new putting course that is near its finish line.

Jesse Massie, PGA – The Director of Instruction at Woodhaven Country Club. Massie was thrice the winner of the Section’s ROLEX Assistant Player of the Year, including consecutive times earning it in 2019 and 2020. In his debut in this tournament last year, he finished T12. At his last KPGA tournament, Golf Channel’s Shane Bacon recognized him for having a #PsychoScorecard.

Brad Maynard, PGA – A Golf Professional at Canewood Golf Course and a member of the Callaway Golf team. Maynard was elected to PGA Membership in the summer of 2020 and is a former golfer at Shelby County High School and Kentucky Wesleyan University.

Chris McCue, PGA – A Director of Instruction at the host facility, The Club at Olde Stone. A stout list of clubs appear on his resume, with Baultusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, Essex Country Club in Massachusetts and Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey among the facilities preceding his hiring at Olde Stone. He completed the PGA Golf Management program at Penn State University.

Aaron McDowell, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Lakeside Golf Course. McDowell finished in the top-five at this tournament in 2019 when it was held at nearby Indian Hills Country Club. He has been a preeminent name appearing on Kaiser Cup rosters for multiple years, helping the Member Team win that event each of the last few years.

Mitchell Moore, PGA - A Director of Instruction at Hopkinsville Golf & Country Club. Moore has finished in the top-three of this tournament each of the past two years, which has earned him trips to the PGA Professional Championship in 2022 and 2021. If he clinches a third straight appearance this week, it’s very possible he could also lock up the ROLEX Larry Gilbert Player of the Year title in the process. He enters this week leading that race which would gain him an exemption into the 2023 Barbasol Championship. This past spring, he won the Section’s Player Development Award.

John Mullendore, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Indian Hills Country Club. He qualified for the 2019 PGA Professional Championship thanks to a top-five finish in the 2018 Section Championship at Kearney Hill Golf Links. Despite being hit hard by last December’s tornadoes, Mullendore and his team hosted a phenomenal debut of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur earlier this summer.

Keith Ohr, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Lake Forest Country Club. Ohr is the 2013 and 2015 champion of this event, with the 2015 victory occurring right here at Olde Stone. He nearly won it for a third time last year, but finished runner-up to eventual champion Andrew Stephens, PGA instead after a sudden-death playoff. Ohr is also twice a champion of the Kentucky Open, earning that hardware in 2001 and 2012.

Bruce Oldendick, PGA – The Head Golf Professional at Pendleton Hills. Oldendick won the Kentucky Senior Open earlier this summer at The University Club at Arlington and is also a past champion of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur. He has won the ROLEX Senior Player of the Year title three of the last four years, including each of the last two.

Chris Osborne, PGA - The General Manager at Bardstown Country Club. This year marked twenty years since he first joined the team at Bardstown. Before doing so, he won the Kentucky Open in 1995. He served as President of the Kentucky PGA in 2012 and 2013 and was Golf Professional of the Year in Kentucky in 2018.

Barry Payne, PGA - A Director of Instruction at Hopkinsville Golf & Country Club. Payne has been at Hopkinsville for nearly a year now after previously spending half a dozen years with Golf Business Solutions, LLC. If he wins on Tuesday, the press release’s headline will be “Feel the Payne.”

Ryan Sanders, PGA – The Director of Golf at Hunting Creek Country Club. Sanders moved to Kentucky early in 2021 to assume his new role after spending the previous several years working in Florida. He was a participant in the 2021 Kentucky Open at Persimmon Ridge Golf Club.

Jacob Schakat, PGA - An Assistant Golf Professional at Indian Hills Country Club. Schakat is a past runner-up of the National Car Rental Kentucky Assistant PGA Professional Championship, which earned him a place in the National edition of the premier Assistants competition late in 2020.

Chris Schuler, PGA - The Co-Head Professional at Louisville Country Club. Schuler has previously worked at Oxmoor Country Club and Nevel Meade Golf Club after being elected to PGA Membership in 2015. He finished T8 in this tournament one year ago.

Steve Shafer, PGA – The Director of Golf at Persimmon Ridge Golf Club. Shafer is a Past President of the Section having served in 2010 and 2011. He has won multiple Section awards throughout his career, including Golf Professional of the Year in 2007.

Kyle Sheffer, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Oldham County Country Club. Sheffer took this position early in 2021 after spending the previous three years as an Assistant Professional with Wildwood Country Club. He is an alumnus of the PGA Golf Management program at Eastern Kentucky University. He and his wife welcomed their second child to the world earlier this year.

Jeff Smith, PGA – A Director of Instruction at Benton Golf & Country Club. Smith recently hopped over to Benton just joining their staff earlier in the summer. Prior to that, he held the same job title at another facility in Western Kentucky when he was at Paxton Park Golf Course.

Daniel Soehren, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Bowling Green Country Club. This is Soehren’s third year in Kentucky having previously worked at clubs in the Mid-Atlantic Section and at the Mississippi State PGA Golf Management program. He is an alumnus of the PGA Golf Management program at Campbell University.

Nicholas Spath, PGA – A Sales Representative for Golf Genius. Spath is a product of Eastern Kentucky’s PGA Golf Management program and completed a notable collection of internships by working at Congressional Country Club along with The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Andrew Stephens, PGA - The Director of Instruction at Stephens Golf Center. He is the defending champion after winning in 2021 at Bowling Green Country Club, which came as his second career victory in this tournament after winning it for the first time in 2018 at Kearney Hill Golf Links. He and his wife Sara were recently featured on a CBS special showcasing PGA Members across the country.

Carson Stone, PGA - A Director of Instruction at Bluegrass Golf Academy. Stone graduated from Eastern Kentucky’s PGA Golf Management program and worked in both the Southern Ohio and Tennessee Sections after graduating. He has been with Bluegrass Golf Academy since the spring of 2021.

Dan Utley, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Owl Creek Country Club in Louisville. He has worked there since 2016 after spending the early years of his time in the golf industry coaching. Utley won the 1994 Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur at Country Club of Paducah.

Eric Voss, PGA - An Assistant Golf Professional at Bowling Green Country Club. Voss was born and raised in Decatur, Alabama where he did internships at golf courses which directed him in the direction of obtaining PGA membership through the Mississippi State PGA Golf Management program. He joined the staff at Bowling Green early in 2021.

Tom Walters, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Summit Hills Country Club. He chairs the Section’s Tournament Committee and is Kentucky’s District 1 Director. He relocated to Kentucky to take his position at Summit Hills in 2018 after spending several years in the Southern Ohio Section and worked in Florida before becoming a PGA Member. He comes into this tournament fresh off being the low pro at the 2x2 Pro-Am supported by ahead and Sun Mountain.

Blake Watts, PGA - The Head Golf Professional at Hurstbourne Country Club. Watts has won this title four times previously, obtaining victory in 2010, 2016, 2017, and 2019. If he wins this week, he will join the legendary Larry Gilbert as the only players to win this trophy at least five times.

Charles Whelan, PGA – The Head Golf Professional at Hillcrest Municipal Golf Course and Ben Hawes Golf Course. Whelan will be competing in the Section Championship for the first time as an Officer of the KPGA after being elected as the Section’s Secretary last winter. He will assume the role of President in 2026 and 2027.

Darren Wittenburg, PGA – The General Manager at Hopkinsville Golf & Country Club. Wittenburg has worked at that facility for nearly two decades now, with most of it being as General Manager while a small fraction of it was as Head Pro. Last month, he finished T7 in the Kentucky Senior PGA Professional Championship at Frankfort Country Club.

Nathan Wolfe, PGA – An Assistant Golf Professional at The Golf Complex. Wolfe has spent much of the last decade working at the Paducah facility and preceded that with work at Country Club of Paducah. His playing partners for next week are recommended to howl any time he makes a birdie.

Colby Wollitz, PGA - The Director of Instruction at Hurstbourne Country Club. Wollitz has won multiple awards within the Kentucky Section, including the 2021 Teacher of the Year Award and the 2020 Player Development Award. He graduated from Methodist University’s PGA Golf Management program in 2008.