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Local golf professional wins national award

Amanda Minchin, head professional at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club, has been honoured with the 2017 PGA of Canada Jack McLaughlin Junior Leader of the Year award.
Minchin Award Photo
Amanda Minchin is presented the 2016 PGA of Saskatchewan Junior Promoter of the Year award by PGA of Saskatchewan president John Greenough earlier this year. Minchin will accept the 2017 PGA of Canada Jack McLaughlin Junior Leader of the Year award on Jan. 26 at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida. PGA of Saskatchewan photo.

Amanda Minchin, head professional at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club, has been honoured with the 2017 PGA of Canada Jack McLaughlin Junior Leader of the Year award.

The award recognizes PGA of Canada members who are leaders in junior golf, reflect the qualities and ideas of those who work with youth and provide opportunities and experiences for juniors to learn the game. Minchin was picked to receive the award by a national selection committee that evaluates application submissions of zone award winners from members of the association, industry members and the general public.

“To be recognized out of all of Canada amongst the PGA is pretty amazing,” said Minchin, who won the 2016 PGA of Saskatchewan Junior Promoter of the Year award two months ago. “I'm excited and I'm humbled and like with my PGA of Saskatchewan award it's a team effort and none of this would be possible without the course that we work at, the volunteers and my staff and the board that allows us to run all these programs.”

This is the first time that Minchin has been honoured with a PGA of Canada award. She has been recognized by the PGA of Saskatchewan four times since receiving her PGA of Canada card as an assistant professional winning Assistant of the Year in 2012, Teacher of the Year in 2015 and Junior Promoter of the Year in 2013 and this year.

Minchin said teaching the game to junior players has been a love of hers since her time working at the club's Golf Shop. She said even before she received her PGA of Canada card, she would help former head professional Brian Dueck teach the junior lessons and once she saw Rick Rohatyn running the junior program she knew she had to be a part of it as well.

The Souris River flooding of 2011 that demolished Woodlawn Regional Park and Campgrounds as well as TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club resulted in the loss of some of their grassroots programs and the decline in participation of their junior players, noted Minchin. But once they were able to rebuild, it became a mission of her's and the club's to come up with some new programs they could run.

“That's when we started the family golf nights and the schools and restarted our junior days and we just started a high performance program this year, so it's like building on top of rebuilding,” she said. “That is something you have to do regardless of how strong your junior program is. You always want to be coming up with new ideas, new things and I just think it's really important to introduce kids to golf.”

Minchin said the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club high performance junior team that they kickstarted this year is a program that will introduce the kids to different coaching lessons on top of general golf instruction such as techniques on how to improve their swing or hit different shots. She said the coaching aspect will allow her to work with the young athletes on areas of the game including mental training, physical fitness and nutrition.

Receiving this award will serve to further motivate Minchin to keep going with these junior programs and come up with new ideas to get more kids interested in the game. She said the recognition may also help open up new opportunities for the athletes she trains.

“Hopefully with this it should lead to a little bit of getting our juniors recognized more-so on the national stage with Golf Canada and the PGA of Canada,” said Minchin. “I'm hoping that will help them further their golfing careers as well.”