Cathy Matthews-Kane, the out-going president of the Colorado PGA Section and the current PGA general manager at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs, has earned the Section’s highest award — the Golf Professional of the Year honor.
Matthews-Kane becomes the third female winner of the CPGA Professional of the Year award since 2016, following Leslie Core-Drevecky (2016) and Alice Plain (2021).
Matthews-Kane’s honor was one of 17 special awards the Colorado PGA announced on Aug. 19. All of the honorees will be recognized at a gala at Cherry Hills Country Club on Oct. 25. Other award winners, including the Section’s players of the year and the recipient of the Vic Kline Award (outstanding leadership and service to the Section), will be finalized and announced later.
Matthews-Kane is just the second female president in the history of the Colorado PGA Section, following Core-Drevecky, who was named to that position in 2014. Matthews-Kane, a PGA professional for more than 15 years after graduating from Iowa State where she competed on the golf team, serves as a board member for the PGA REACH Colorado Foundation, the Finance Committee and the Employment Committee. She’s also on the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame board.
After starting her career in golf in Florida, Matthews-Kate moved to Colorado Springs to become an assistant professional at The Broadmoor. She now serves as the PGA of America District IX Director and is co-chairman of the National Employment Committee. She’s a certified PGA of America Golf Professional in Executive Management.
The Golf Professional of the Year award goes to a Section member for overall performance, including leadership, service and promotion of the game of golf.
Most of the people honored on Oct. 25 will be PGA professionals, but there are exceptions. One of those will be Phil Anschutz, owner of The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, who will receive the President’s Award. That honor recognizes promoting and enhancing the PGA professional, the Section and the game of golf and contributing to the betterment of the golf professional vocation.
Here are the 2024 Colorado PGA awards that have been finalized and announced:
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com