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