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Golf Digest has consistently recognized Jon Paupore as one of Utah’s top golf teachers. In 2025, the magazine’s honors became more specific, and the panel’s selection matched the Utah Section PGA awards committee’s judgment.
Paupore, Director of Instruction at Red Ledges Golf Club in Heber City, is the Section’s Teacher of the Year. And in the first year when Golf Digest named a No. 1 teacher in each state, Paupore was chosen for Utah.
Having first received the Section’s award in 2014, Paupore has widened his influence in multiple ways since then. He built a year–round teaching facility at Red Ledges, developed more expertise in technology and equipment and evolved his scope more toward working with elite players. That includes several members of the University of Utah’s golf program in a rise to national prominence, after Head Coach Garrett Clegg reached out to him.
Even so, one of Paupore’s strengths remains his “teaching style that fits well with every type of player,” said Isaac Brown, a Red Ledges Assistant Professional. John Johnson, the club’s PGA General Manager, added, “His ability to connect with any golfer makes him special.”
In 2025, Paupore supervised 12 junior golf schools at Red Ledges, accounting for 212 participants. That volume reflects how Paupore is “also a great mentor and teacher of teachers,” Johnson wrote in endorsing him for the Section award.
Paupore recognizes that Utah features a lot of excellent teachers. So “to be singled out amongst some of the best instructors in the Mountain West is something special,” he said. “We all go out and try to make the game better and make people better.”
In that sense, as much as he enjoys seeing his elite players win collegiate and professional tournaments, he remembers himself as a 7-year-old kid, hitting a soaring 7-iron shot for the first time. “I was hooked from there,” he said. “When you see someone else have that moment, see the spark in any golfer, it’s kind of cool.”
Justin Gereau can easily see himself in the faces of the young golfers he works with in Logan, UT.
After all, he once was one of them, walking to Logan River Golf Course on summer mornings and becoming immersed in the game. He wants the Cache Valley kids of this era to have that opportunity and create similar memories for themselves.
He enjoyed playing with his father and grandfather, and then his love of golf took hold in the kind of programs he now conducts at Logan River.
“The experience of being around kids my age; that’s what really stuck with me,” said Gereau, the winner of the 2025 Youth Player Development award in the Utah Section PGA. “I’m sure a lot of people that ended up in the profession have the same story.”
That’s true, but their careers have not necessarily taken shape at their hometown facilities. Gereau believes he participated in the second junior golf camp overseen at Logan River by Head Professional Jeff John, the Section’s Past President. Gereau got involved on the teaching side of the course’s summer programs in 2012. He became a lead coach for First Tee Utah in 2017 when Logan River joined the network, and he earned PGA membership in 2022 as a full-fledged assistant professional.
“What sets him apart is his natural demeanor that makes kids feel valued and good about themselves and what they are doing,” said Paul Pugmire, CEO/President of First Tee Utah. “It’s easy to see that they love him.”
Gereau has worked with about 300 children In these eight years, with many of them following Utah’s Junior Golf Road Map into levels of competition. He’s now working with 20 students who hope to play golf for one of Cache Valley’s five high schools. And he loves the feeling of aiding in the growth of Utah golf.
“If I can contribute to a young person finding their love for the game,” he said. “I have done my job.”
Maybe the most impressive part of Matt Baird’s final round of the 2025 Larry H. Miller Utah Open was how his mind was about two holes behind his body as he played.
The explanation is that Baird was intently hoping Kihei Akina, one of his prized students, could complete the victory. Akina followed through nicely. So did Baird, in his own way.
Baird’s 67-71-70 effort made him the low senior at Riverside Country Club in Provo, UT, where he’s a longtime teaching professional. That finish was among the highlights of his first full season as a 50-year-old golfer, helping him become the ROLEX Senior Player of the Year in the Utah Section PGA.
“Being here with my student is something special,” he said after the awards presentation on the 18th green.
In the Senior Player of the Year race, Baird finished with 9.248.75 points to 8,806.25 for runner-up Todd Tanner, the 2024 winner.
Baird secured the title with a victory in the PSS Industrial Vernal Open in September. He also was credited with senior wins in the 2024 Southern Utah Open, plus the 2025 Sunset View Open and the Brigham City Open. He earned the Section’s overall Player of the Year award for the first time in 2024.
In a season when she became a seven-time ROLEX Women’s Player of the Year in the Utah Section PGA, Haley Sturgeon will have a lasting memory of her first appearance in the Section Champion-ship.
Eligible for the event as a Class A PGA member, Sturgeon was thrilled just to play at Toana Vista GC and enjoy the camaraderie among the Section pros. With emotions that she labeled “pure ex-citement and pure bliss,” she maximized her opportunity by shooting 71-69 and tying for fifth place, becoming the first Utah woman to advance to the PGA Professional Championship.
Sturgeon, 32, has more competition than ever among Utah women pros, as evidenced by how Leighton Shosted edged her in the Women’s Match Play final. Yet her volume of tournament play, partly stemming from wanting to help build a women’s field, separates her in the Women’s Player of the Year race. In her 14 events, the assistant pro of The Country Club compiled 7,466 points to 3,551 for runner-up Emily Jones.
Sturgeon was credited with seven women’s victories and finished second in the Larry H. Miller Utah Women’s Open at The Country Club, posting 78-69 with a big rally on the front nine that add-ed intrigue to the final round.
