PGA Donates Another $100K to Golf: For Business & Life Program

After the 2006 Ryder Cup, LSU Alumnus David Toms donated $100,000 to the Golf: For Business & Life program, an initiative of The Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA). The program is designed to teach and improve the golf skills of college juniors, seniors, and graduate students through instruction provided by PGA Professionals. The program also suggests ways in which students can use golf as a business tool as they enter the professional world. PGA golfers competing in the Ryder Cup team donate a portion of their earnings to a charity and university of their choice, usually their alma mater.

As part of the program, LSU employs a PGA “Class A” professional golfer who is classified as an expert instructor, skilled businessperson, and community leader, qualified not only to teach the game of golf but also to conduct the business of golf as well. Since the program launched in 2004, LSU has hosted PGA Class “A” professional golfers Chris Burkstaller, Emily Hanchar-Heroman, and Tim Brown, who has worked under Jim Flick and Jack Nicklaus.

The class rotates venues between the LSU Golf Course and the University Club located off Nicholson Road. Brown works at the University Club with local clients who pay more than $100 per hour for his expert instruction on how to improve their golf game. The University Club venue also exposes students to sports technology such as the V-1 software by Interactive Frontiers that allows geometrical analysis of PGA professionals’ golf swings via computer video monitor.

“It is an illustration of LSU’s commitment to bringing top-notch teachers to work with our students and to collaborate with our faculty,” said Roy Hill, a 33-year veteran of LSU and long-time instructor with the Department of Kinesiology.

College of Education Dean M. Jayne Fleener commented that, “Golf: For Business & Life incorporates the nature of our college. It is interdisciplinary; it incorporates technology into the classroom; it encourages lifelong fitness and wellness activities; and it extends our classrooms beyond the campus, out into the community.”

The program has been in operation since 2004 following the PGA’s initial donation of $100,000 by Toms and a $20,000 donation by Chris Riley.