Armed
with knowledge of the sport and a strong iron game, Flemming is
completely at home on a golf course—especially Katke. He
just misses birdies on the next two par-fours, talks about the
course and competition and exchanges greetings with Doug McCloud,
Katke’s assistant greenskeeper, who team-taught the turf
grass management class Flemming took as part of his PGM coursework.
Meanwhile,
Back at the Clubhouse…
Before
Flemming and I headed out to the course, I talked with Matt Pinter,
coordinator of the PGM program and director of Katke Golf Course.
According
to Pinter, the golf business has changed a lot since the PGM program
began in 1975.
“In
the mid-’70s if you were going to be a golf professional,
you’d be a guy who gave lessons, played with the members
and ran the clubhouse,” he says. “Today we have graduates
who are general managers of facilities. They not only oversee
the golf operations, but food and beverage operations, and tennis
and the swimming pool for facilities that have those.”
And
the popularity of the game has opened other avenues of employment
as well.
“We
have graduates who work for Titleist, Foot Joy and Polo/Ralph
Lauren. Other graduates manage off-course stores such as Golfsmith
and Golf Galaxy,” Pinter says. “We have a graduate
who runs the Greater Milwaukee Open, and another who runs the
Byron Nelson Classic in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
“One
of the greatest things about the program is that it gives you
the opportunity to do whatever you want to do in the game of golf,”
he adds. “We’ve produced a little more than 1,300
graduates since the program’s inception. Approximately two-thirds
of those graduates are still in the business in some way.”
Breaking
Par
With
a smooth powerful swing and soft touch around the green, Flemming
racks up a string of routine pars while pointing out some of the
things a less knowing eye would overlook about the course.
“The
women’s golf team is playing a tournament here tomorrow,
so they’re verti-cutting the greens,” Flemming notes.
“What that does is it cuts up the thatch. The first cut
makes it stick up, and the second cutting removes it. A little
thatch is good, but too much makes a green spongy. Verti-cutting
makes the ball roll truer, and speeds them up a little bit, too.”
Without
ever being in trouble, Flemming cards what seems like a truly
effortless one-under-par 35. His bogey-free round featured a birdie
on the par-five 15th hole after just missing the green to the
left with his second shot.
While
it’s a humbling experience to play with someone of Flemming’s
caliber, being paired with a good player makes the average player
better. Despite starting out with a double-bogey, I play well
enough to shoot a 43 and feel pretty good about staying within
a stroke per hole of Flemming, who already has his sights set
on bigger challenges.
Let
the Big Dawg Bark
After
completing his last two internships this summer (the PGM program
requires students to do five of them), Flemming plans on heading
to Florida to try his hand at playing professionally.
“I
want to try to improve my game enough to win some tournaments
and turn some heads,” he says.
Other
Ferris PGM grads have turned heads with their playing. Last year
Al Morin competed in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National
Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. Morin also qualified to play in the
1998 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. 1992 PGM
graduate Scott Hebert has dominated the Michigan Open, winning
the event for an unprecedented fourth straight year in 2002.
Hebert
and other Ferris graduates have played on the Buy.com tour, which
is one of the ways a player can break into the Professional Golfers
Association Tour. The top 15 money-winners on the Buy.com Tour
earn exempt membership status on the PGA tour for the following
year. Even the Buy.com Tour is stiff competition, but Pinter thinks
Flemming has the potential.
“Not
too many guys hit it longer than Mitch does—nearly Tiger
Woods-long,” Pinter says. “He’s a great player
who has a good head on his shoulders. He’ll be very successful
in the business.”
With
a PGM degree as well as a loft wedge in the bag, Flemming and
other PGM grads know a lot of different ways to play this game.
