Penn State University announced on June 27 that Kristen Simpson was named the new head women’s golf coach at the university.
Simpson has 12 years as a Division I golf coach and is an LPGA Teaching Class A member and a TPI Golf 2 Certified coach.
She will come to Penn State from Wisconsin, where she worked as an assistant since 2021. Prior to that she coached at North Carolina, Maryland and Old Dominion.
“I am thrilled and honored to be named the head women’s golf coach at Penn State,” Simpson said. “I look forward to continuing to build on the strong foundation coach (Denise) St. Pierre built. I know there are some great young women in the program with outstanding accomplishments, and I am eager to start working with them and help them continue to improve and build on the Penn State women’s golf legacy. I can’t wait to get to Happy Valley and join the Penn State family.”
Simpson played in college at the University of Virginia and graduated with a degree in economics in 2008. She played professionally on the LPGA Futures Tour and the SunCoast Tour from 2009 to 2011.
The Penn State Women’s team will begin play in the 2023 season in September.
Nittany Country Club
The Nittany Country Club just completed play in the second annual Dobson Tip-Off Tournament, held at the Club on June 17-18.
The tournament benefits the Jim Dobson Fund, and this year it raised $7,400, which was an increase of over $5,000 from last year.
The tournament also had many individual and business sponsors, including Gold Sponsors Jersey Shore State Bank and Nittany Beverage and Silver Sponsors First Citizens Bank and GCS & E-Z-GO.
The Dobson Tournament was begun by members Greg Kight, Bill Sieg and Dave Myers in honor of Dobson, an army veteran who has been the long-time head greenkeeper at NCC.
The winning teams were as follows:
Gross Division
First Place, Brad Ftitchman and John Long
Second Place, Scott Gray and Dave Pfaff
Third Place, Greg Knight and Sam Anker
Net Division
First Place, Rodney Benner and Daren Brown
Second Place, Mark Johnson and Mike Taylor
Third Place, Duncan Spence and Robbie Gould
Coming up at the club this weekend will be the annual Fourth of July Tournament, which will be played on July 1, 2 and 4.
The tournament will have men’s and women’s divisions. The men will play better-ball match play, and each player will play 18 holes on July 1, 2 and 4.
Each player in the women’s division will play individual better-ball on Sunday and Tuesday. There will be gross and net winners for the women as well.
Two holes-in-one
There were two recent holes-in-one at the club. Tim Glunt did it on No. 17 using a six-iron for the first hole-in-one of the 2023 season. He was playing with Terry Glunt, Scott McKee and Dave Smith.
Then Scott Gray aced No. 8 with a nine-iron for the second hole-in-one of the season, playing with Dave Pfaff, Chuck Colyer and Mike Aument. It was Gray’s third career hole-in-one.
Philipsburg Elks Lodge and Country Club
The Philipsburg Elks Country Club held its annual Memorial Tournament over the June 24-25 weekend.
The tournament, which honors Elks Club members, had a two-day, best-ball partners format with winners in both gross and net divisions. It had a full complement of players, and the competition in each division was sharp, with close finishes being decided only in the final holes.
The winners were:
Gross Division
First Place, (tie) Nate Lucas and Robert Mitchell, -10, and Jim Dixon and Patrick Brown, -10. Lucas and Michell won in a two-hole playoff.
Third Place, Eddie Myers and Josh Muir, -6
Fourth Place, Carter Fischer and Matt Johnson -4
Fifth Place, AJ Czap and Zack Czap, -3
Net Division
First Place, Andrew Mann and Hayden Hayward, -14
Second Place, Mike Horton and Tyler Martin
Third Place, (tie) Brent Becker and Dave Morelli, -12; Andy Reifer and Zach Reifer, -12; Brad Brown and Jeff Martell, -12; and Jim Dixon and Pat Brown -12.
Upcoming Events at the Elks:
June 30, Osceola Open
July 2, Flag Tournament
July 14, Whitehead Tournament
Pat Rothdeutsch covers golf for The Centre County Gazette. Email him at sports@centrecountygazette.com.
