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By Kurt Kragthorpe, Fairways Media
In the 40-year history of the Utah Section PGA’s Golf Professional of the Year award, one clear trend has developed. Nearly all of the winners are homegrown Utahns, lifelong stakeholders in the success of Utah golf and the impact of the Section.
Marty Bauer is a small-town Pennsylvania native, so he’s a distinctive recipient of the 2025 honor. That background makes his contribution to the Utah golf community and the Section all the more impressive.
Bauer, the Chief Operations Officer/Director of Golf at Glenwild Golf Club in Park City, shares other traits of past winners. Those notably include “a genuine interest in people” in the words of one colleague, and a commitment to helping members of the profession.
And let’s not overlook how Bauer and his wife, Kelly, are about to reach two decades of residence in a state that they have come to love and have no intentions of leaving. They’re immersed in Utah, and are appreciative of being viewed as Utahns, as commended by this award.
In his Utah tenure, Bauer has worked for private clubs in Park City, which have their own demographic of Utah golf. Yet personally and professionally, he has been anything but isolated.
Bauer’s recognition comes after one of his own mentors, Tony Pancake of Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indiana, was named the 2024 PGA of America Golf Professional of the Year. The dots are connectable. The influence of Pancake and others on Bauer’s approach to his job is shown by how he’s always trying to help other professionals advance in their careers.
While serving on the Section Board of Directors in 2020, Bauer received the Section’s PGA Professional Development Award. And in 2024, he earned the Bill Strasbaugh Award, after the definition of that honor was changed to more of a recognition of mentoring.
Clearly, that’s a big part of his game. The Golf Professional of the Year award “simply puts a title on what I’ve known since the day I started working for him,” said Mark Valenti, Glenwild’s Head Professional. “Marty is the kind of leader who shows up for his people in every way that matters.”
Valenti added, “Marty has a unique gift for developing others; he sees potential before you see it in yourself, and he knows how to bring it out with the right balance of trust and encouragement.”
The Glenwild staff directly benefits, but Bauer’s reach is not limited to them. Bauer is a mentor for PGA associates throughout the Utah Section, and he’s proud of the Section’s developmental efforts.
Bauer’s bosses at stops such as Baltimore Country Club and Crooked Stick were so supportive that his attitude about professional development became ingrained, “whether that is (guiding) someone on our team at Glenwild or helping share my experiences with other pros in the Utah PGA and the PGA of America,” he said.
His latest award comes during what Bauer describes as Glenwild’s “busiest year ever.” Amid accommodating the volume of golf played by members, he developed and presented a master plan that was six years in the making to “not only address the infrastructure needs, but also to improve our club,” he said.
The membership resoundingly approved the plan.
It would not be accurate to say that Haley Sturgeon earned the Assistant Professional of the Year award in the Utah Section PGA by bringing the Larry H. Miller Utah Women’s Open to The Country Club in Salt Lake City.
This statement, though, is true: The qualities that made it happen certainly help explain why Sturgeon is being honored.
Whether the task is assigned to her or she develops the idea herself, Sturgeon is becoming known for following through. That’s true on the golf course and in the golf shop
“Our membership thinks the world of her. I believe she is their favorite employee,” Bill Blackett, The Country Club’s Head Professional, wrote in nominating Sturgeon for the award. “I am confident she will go on to become a great Head Golf Professional someday.”
This recognition comes in Sturgeon’s first year of eligibility as a Class A PGA member. She follows 2024 recipient Nyomy Obcemea of Ogden Golf & Country Club as the second woman to be named Assistant Professional of the Year in the award’s 40-year history.
The 32-year-old Sturgeon poignantly labeled 2025 “a year of hard work, personal growth and personal heartache.”
A third miscarriage, amid the joy of witnessing 2-year-old son Jack’s development, was a setback for Sturgeon and her husband, Davis. As she said, “Those losses, they hit you harder every time. … Life still goes on, unfortunately.”
Sturgeon persevered in her job and in her own golf pursuits during a year that will long be remembered in Utah golf for the rise of the Utah Women’s Open in its ninth edition. Sturgeon not only was a driving force of the event, gaining the approval and sponsorships of club members, but she created a final-round stir with a 69 that gave her second place behind Emilee Hoffman.
She’s proud of “helping to elevate the event to a new level of prestige,” she said, resulting in “increased visibility to and support for women’s golf in Utah.”
Sturgeon also thrived in coordinating the club membership’s golf programming. The offerings included 16 major club events, 20 ladies’ events and regular games, conducted four days a week. The club welcomed about 30 new members in 2025, and nearly all of them became involved in competition.
Sturgeon also has served the Section by working on the Tournament Committee and the Business Planning Committee.
With his opening-round 65 in the Larry H. Miller Utah Open, Zach Johnson evoked memories of his victory more than a decade ago. Johnson’s 2025 overall season marked his return to more recent success.
The Head Professional of Davis Park Golf Course became the ROLEX Player of the Year in the Utah Section PGA for a third time, following his 2018 and ‘19 titles.
At age 42, Johnson was credited with five tournament victories and a tie for third place in the Utah Section PGA Professional Championship, shooting 72-67 and qualifying for the 2026 national event. He finished with 6,889.33 points to 5,832.5 for runner-up Matt Baird, the Section’s Senior Player of the Year, earning a title that he described as “a goal I set out to achieve every year and one that I am very proud of.”
Johnson added, “We have a great playing Section and every year, this award goes down to the wire. Most importantly, though, I’ve realized how lucky I am to be able to compete and do something I love.”
Johnson won the Gladstan Open, Security National Palisade Open and the Lifetime Homes Davis Park Open, while tying for first in the Sunset View Open and the Southern Utah Open among the pros.
Spencer Wallace will remember 2025 as a year when he came close to winning consecutive major tournaments on the Utah Section PGA schedule. The what-ifs of those two second-place finishes were offset by a bunch of accumulated points, making the difference for him in the ROLEX Assistant Player of the Year competition.
Wallace posted 4,027.07 points to 3,247.95 for three-time winner Braydon Swapp. The winning margin of about 800 points is almost directly connected to the Larry H. Miller Utah Open and the Utah Assistant PGA Championship.
Wallace tied for low Utah Section pro honors in the Utah Open, posting 67-68-66 at Riverside Country Club and tying for second place overall and finishing first in the Section Sidebar. Noting the strong competition in the Section, Wallace said, “It’s always fun when you can finish on top with those guys.”
He followed that performance with a 67-67 showing at the Utah Assistant PGA Championship. Even though he lost in a playoff for the second year in a row, he clinched the Assistant Player of the Year award.
Wallace, a former Utah Tech University golfer, is now a Trailblazers assistant coach and does other golf coaching and teaching in the St. George area.
