| Page 12. From Fall 2008 Florida Golf Magazine ©Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved. Subscribe at floridagolfmagazine.com/subscribe | |
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The
Senior Committee of the South Florida Section PGA is pleased
to announce that Dr. Gary Wiren has been selected as the 2008
Florida State Senior Honoree. Elected to PGA membership in 1966,
Dr. Wiren has made significant contributions to the game of golf
and the PGA of America throughout his career, and is recognized
as both a talented player and educator.  Dr.
Wiren graduated from Huron University in South Dakota and went
on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Michigan
and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. His educational background
shaped his career as a lecturer and writer on a variety of subjects
in the world of golf. He has written or participated in the writing
of over 200 magazine articles and 11 books, many of which have
received accolades. He has 13 film credits to his name, four
videos on the market, and has been featured in television programs
for networks such as ESPN and The Golf Channel. Additionally,
Dr. Wiren has taught, privately, in groups, at seminars and stage
performances, over 250,000 people in 34 countries. During the twelve years he served the PGA of America, he founded its National Academy of Golf and served as a featured speaker for the PGA Teaching Summit for many years. Wiren was the 26th PGA Professional in the country to earn the rank of Master Professional and was among the first to be recognized by the PGA of America as a Master Certified Teacher. As a player, Dr. Wiren was a collegiate conference golf champion, a three-time national winner of the Golf Collectors’ Society wooden-shafted tournament, has won the South Florida PGA Seniors title, the South Florida long-driving championship, and has played in the USGA Sr. Open and the PGA Sr. Championship. Dr. Wiren has received numerous awards, among them the national Joe Graffis Award for educational contributions to golf from the National Golf Foundation, the LPGA’s “Wind Under Wings” and Rolex Ellen Griffin award, Distinguished Service Awards from the Swedish Golf Union and Italian Golf Federation and the National Merit Award from the Golf Course Owners Association of America. He is an honorary member of the New Zealand PGA, was educational consultant for the Japanese PGA and has an honorary doctorate from Ferris State University in Michigan. In 1987, Wiren was selected by the PGA of America as its “Teacher of the Year” in the USA, and has consistently been picked by Golf Magazine as one of America’s 100 Best Teachers and by Golf Digest as Top 50 (currently ranked 9th). He is honored in six golf halls of fame in the United States. In December of 2006, Wiren was inducted into the PGA HALL OF FAME, and in January 2007, into the GOLF MAGAZINE WORLD GOLF TEACHERS HALL OF FAME (one of sixteen in its history). He is one of only two (Manuel De La Torre the other) PGA professionals in the world inducted into both Halls. Wiren is married, the father of four and lives in North Palm Beach, Fla. His current activities include chairman and founder of Golf Around the World, Inc.; Sr. Director of Instruction at all Trump Golf properties and consultant at The Kingsley Club (Michigan); is on Golf Magazine’s contributing teaching staff and represents Mizuno Golf USA. Upon receiving word of his being named the 2008 Florida State Senior Honoree, Dr. Wiren was elated and humbled. A question and answer session was conducted with Dr. Wiren as follows: Q: How does it feel to be honored as the Florida State Senior Honoree? What does it mean to you? Dr. Wiren: Florida is the Mecca for senior PGA golf professionals, more so than any other state in America. The list of previous honorees is a proud and historic one. To be included with these great professionals who have served the game throughout their life is indeed an honor. Q: You have had many successes throughout your career. Please describe what the game means to you. Dr. Wiren: Having grown up on a dirt tee, 1,950 yard nine hole golf course, with no practice areas, no watered fairways, and no sand bunkers, where the cost for adults was $1.75 and for kids 35 cents, the rewards of just having that opportunity have been great. Because of that initiation to golf, the game has brought me the opportunity to visit 36 countries around the world to teach and play, to meet and have in my home world famous people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, while bing able to spend time with other business successes like donald trump and wayne huizenga. But even more important it has given me the opportunity to play a great game with countless people, many who became good friends. Q: Who are your mentors and why? Dr. Wiren: My mentors were my coaches and teachers during grade school, high school and college, not necessarily in golf but in the classroom and on the playing fields. And of course my mother (who read to me) and my father who got me started in golf. Q: You have been a PGA member since 1966. Why do you feel a passion for the Association and secondly, how have you seen it evolve over the years? Dr. Wiren: One can be a teacher of golf, or call themselves a professional, but having PGA attached to your title gives you credibility. The Association has progressively upgraded all aspects of its service to the members as well as its ability to serve the game. The training for membership is better, as well as communications to all members, its public relations has improved and now the big push is toward world class teaching. Q: Please name a favorite experience/memory from your time as a South Florida PGA member. Dr. Wiren: Some of my greatest experiences in my South Florida career came as the founder and director of the PGA National Academy of Golf. It was a program whose motto was, “We train future leaders of America through golf.” It was a values based program (honesty, perserverance, responsibility and sportsmanship) 20 years before The First Tee, which is doing a fine job in providing this kind of learning through golf today. Putting together a PGA Professional teaching/counselor staff that served as fine role models for youth was a personal joy. And then adding PGA Tour Players as guest performers (Ben Crenshaw, Larry Nelson, Dr. Gil Morgan, Tom Kite, Andy North and others) only further made a positive influence on these youth. Q: What do you still want to accomplish with regard to the game? Dr. Wiren: My primary focus now in my career is to bring more of the pure enjoyment of the game back into play. We have veered off track by making courses too hard, raising the cost of play, and increasing the time to complete a round. Bigger is not better and more is not always positive. I also wish to spearhead a task that will identify the total amount of money golf makes for charity over the course of a year in this country. In so doing we can show the world that golf can be one of the most significant contributors toward worthwhile causes in America. Q: How did you get your start in the golf business? How do you feel that you’ve made an impact on the game in terms of promoting / your leadership, etc. and finally, what accomplishments are you most proud of? Dr. Wiren: My start to playing golf was at ten years of age at the little nine hole course already mentioned. By age twelve I was working there as the night watering-the-greens-boy. High school golf, college golf, followed by teaching it at the University of Michigan as a graduate assistant in the required Physical Education classes, and then getting a job as the assistant pro at the fine Meadowbrook Country Club in suburban Detroit. The next year I taught at a small resort in South Lee, Massachusetts. But my big move was when I went to the University of Oregon in Eugene and took a job as the professional at a local daily fee golf course while also working on my PhD. I created the largest golf school on the West Coast and possibly in America teaching some 14,000 people (by myself) during the time I was there. Serving also as the education chairman for the Pacific Northwest PGA lead me to being asked by PGA President Leo Fraser to come to Palm Beach Gardens and be the National Director of Education for the PGA. That was what we might call today THE BIG BREAK. We had the chance now to influence golf nationally, so we created PGA certification, the Club Relations Department, the workshop program, Research and Learning Dept., the Probst Library and many other museum artifacts, apprentice school testing, the National Academy for Juniors, and with Don Perne and along with Dr. Robert Ewigleben the Professional Golf Management program which now has some 18 colleges and universities on board. But one of my favorite contributions was writing the PGA Teaching Manual. Dr. Wiren was honored as the 2008 Florida State Senior Honoree during festivities at this year’s Florida State Seniors’ Open Championship at The Naples Beach Hotel and Club, October 10th - 12th, 2008. |
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| Page 12. From Fall 2008 Florida Golf Magazine ©Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved. Subscribe at floridagolfmagazine.com/subscribe |