Northern Texas PGA Elects New Board Members, Names David Ovard Honorary NTPGA Member

Molly Rawlins • February 19, 2019

The Northern Texas PGA conducted its annual Awards Banquet, Education Seminar and Business Meeting on Sunday, February 10 and Monday, February 11 at The Westin Galleria in Dallas.

On Sunday night, PGA Members, family and friends celebrated the 2018 Section Award Winners, including Northern Texas PGA Golf Professional of the Year, the Section's highest award, won by Jim Henderson, PGA director of golf at Stevens Park Golf Course.

Monday's event featured an outstanding panel of speakers that included: The PGA of America's Chief Operating Officer Darrell Crall and NTPGA’s Executive Director/CEO Mark Harrison; Founder and Visionary of Beau Welling Design, Beau Welling; PGA Golf Professional Emeritus at Bent Tree Country Club and Past Chairman of The PGA of America's Rules Committee, David Price and PGA Head Professional at Preston Trail Golf Club and 2018 National Bill Strausbaugh award winner, Cameron Doan.

During the Business Meeting, the membership elected two At-Large Directors, Leah Berst, PGA owner and director of instruction at The Golf Institute, and Chris Martinez, PGA general manager at The Lakes at Castle Hills. In addition, Eric Hunt, PGA assistant professional at Grapevine Golf Course, was sworn in as Metro Chapter President.

The Northern Texas PGA also named David Ovard, an attorney from Frisco, the Section's second-ever honorary PGA Member at the Annual Meeting on Monday. Ovard played a very significant and critical role while The PGA of America was making their decision to pursue a move of its headquarters to Frisco. The current and short list of NTPGA Honorary members include, Fin Ewing III, owner of Ewing Automotive Group, and now Mr. Ovard.

Ovard stated, "When Mark announced my Honorary Membership, I was extremely surprised and very humbled. Further, because the NTPGA is such an outstanding organization that does so much for so many people, I am sincerely appreciative of the honor."

"David and I worked together weekly for more than three years on the PGA Frisco project. The project took many different twists and turns over that time; however, one thing is for certain, without David Ovard's considerable contributions, there is absolutely no chance the project as we know it today would have ever happened. The NTPGA is excited to soon call PGA Frisco home, and we are looking forward to David being an honorary NTPGA Member," said Mark Harrison, Executive Director / CEO of the Northern Texas PGA.

About The Northern Texas PGA
The Northern Texas PGA is one of 41 Sections of the PGA of America and its geographic territory includes the State of Texas north of the 31st latitude, or just north of Austin. The Northern Texas PGA is comprised of approximately 850 PGA members and associates employed at more than 300 facilities.

The Northern Texas PGA has 16 full-time staff members and is currently headquartered in Dallas. The Northern Texas PGA will be joining the PGA of America national office relocation to Frisco in 2022 with its own state of the art headquarters on the PGA Frisco campus.

In addition to managing the day-to-day affairs of the Section, the Northern Texas PGA also operates a non-profit and charitable foundation that focuses on five pillars: junior golf, college scholarships, inclusion, fellowships and military and veterans.

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THE COLONY, Texas (March 2) – The team of Robert Bruns, PGA Head Professional at Trinity Forest Golf Club, along with partner Chase Walts, PGM Student at Methodist University who currently works as an assistant at Trinity Forest Golf Club won the 2026 KBS TOUR Shafts Pro-Assistant Championship after a two hole playoff. The two carded a bogey-free, 12-under-par, final score after shooting 64 on Old American Golf Club and a 31 on the back nine of Tribute Golf Links. They bested the team of Spencer Dillard and Alastair Jones from Preston Trail Golf Club. The 27-hole, Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship was hosted at Golf Clubs at The Tribute for the sixth straight year. Teams played Old American Golf Club and the back nine of Tribute Golf Links. Bruns and Walts both had looks inside 10 feet on the second playoff hole, though it was Bruns who poured in the winning putt. “I knew he had it in the bag, so I think that made it much easier for me to just be free and let it go,” said Bruns. Walts recently became an assistant professional at Trinity Forest, and said, “Robert is such a huge mentor to me and my career already. I hope to learn from everything he knows and that goes for golf as well.” “It makes it much easier when you’re in the mix coming down the fairway and you have a great relationship with each other. At the end of the day you’re just having fun,” Bruns said after their victory. This is the first win for both Bruns and Walts in Section Major Championships. The pair earned $3,200 ($1,600 each) out of the record $32,000 total championship purse. The KBS TOUR Shafts Pro-Assistant Championship was presented by Callaway Golf, Club Car, Evolve Golf, Landmark Golf Course Products, Range Servant, THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, and Winston Collection. View the final results HERE . Old American Golf Club Par: 35-36–71 Yardage: 6,770 Tribute Golf Links (Back nine) Par: 36 Yardage: 3,368
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Dallas, TX – (February 23, 2026) The Northern Texas PGA held their President’s Dinner on Sunday, February 22, at Royal Oaks Country Club. The dinner celebrated the 2025 NTPGA award winners, which included Northern Texas PGA Golf Professional of the Year, the Section's highest award, won by Cameron Doan, PGA director of golf at Preston Trail Golf Club. This is the highest honor given annually to a Northern Texas PGA Member, and is awarded for qualities of leadership, strong moral character and a substantial record of service to the NTPGA as well as the game of golf. The complete list of award winners can be found HERE . Congratulations to all. On Monday, February 23, the NTPGA staff then conducted a Professional Development Seminar and the 58th Annual Business Meeting at Dallas Country Club. During the Professional Development Seminar, the PGA of America golf professionals learned new communication skills from Tim Novak, increased their rules knowledge with Jon Drago, PGA, and David Price, PGA, and learned leadership lessons from a group of golf's top PGA golf professionals, including Cary Cozby, PGA, Bill Eschenbrenner, PGA, Bob Ford, PGA, and our very own Cameron Doan, PGA, and Ronny Glanton, PGA. After lunch, the 58th Annual Meeting consisted of the recognition of many professionals including the playing award winners honoring Matt Lohmeyer, Todd McCorkle, Rob Shields and Kim Paez. The 2026 Eva Williams A.C.E. Scholarship recipient, Sean Kim was also recognized. The meeting included comments from the Northern Texas PGA Past Presidents, current officers as well as from Executive Director, Kelly Gilley, PGA and CEO Mark Harrison. New Officers to the Northern Texas PGA Board of Directors were elected by acclamation. They include Ira Molayo as President, Jeremy Langdale as Vice President and Eric Hunt as Secretary. Two At-Large Directors were also elected by acclamation, Trish Holt and Neil Lockie. All were sworn in alongside East Texas Chapter President Tim Lawson and West Texas Chapter President Adam Headley. The current Northern Texas PGA Board of Directors can be found HERE . Before the meeting adjourned, the newly elected President, Ira Molayo, the PGA General Manager at Cedar Crest Golf Course in Dallas, addressed the membership. He stated that it is an honor to serve as the 32nd President of the Northern Texas PGA, using the word ‘serve’ intentionally because this position, like every role in our profession, is not about title. It is about stewardship. He then gave four notes about his commitment in these next two years – to represent all Members, across facilities, across classifications, across backgrounds, to listen carefully, to communicate clearly, and to support the staff and volunteers who carry this Section forward every day. He finished his comments by saying, “I do not intend to reinvent what is already strong. I intend to build on it.” Thank you to all of the PGA of America Golf Professionals in our Section who attended these special and important events over the past few days. Our Board and our staff look forward to a successful 2026.
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