Michael Cook brings experience to his role as
PNGA President
In January 2026, Michael Cook began his tenure as president of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association.
A longtime volunteer who had also been serving on British Columbia Golf’s board since 2020 and the PNGA’s board since 2021, Michael’s PNGA presidency follows a lifetime of golf and service to his province. He’s spent nearly two decades as a rules official to junior golf tournaments and has also been a course rater. All that goes along with 15 years of junior golf operations experience at Cedar Hill Golf Course on the northern outskirts of Victoria, B.C., and he is also the current chair of men’s golf in BC Golf’s Zone 6.
“It’s an honor to be asked to serve,” Michael said of his PNGA ascension. “I'm very fortunate to be involved with BC Golf and the PNGA. At any event I’ve worked through, we’ve been treated very well, and that doesn’t go unnoticed.”
There’s plenty that he’s already seen, and even more he hopes to still accomplish. He closely observed the PNGA’s recent expansion, which included the Montana State Golf Association and Alaska Golf Association becoming member associations. Michael and other board members are encouraged by continuous implementation of Rules of Golf seminars, as well as general practices to streamline operations.
“I just want to keep the momentum going,” Michael said. “I've always been wanting to do the right thing and put the right foot forward.”
Michael's additional volunteer endeavors extend to his own community. Throughout and after his full-time career in law enforcement, from which he retired in May 2014, the Vancouver Island native volunteered as a youth basketball coach, as well as a Cub and Scout leader.
All the while, he’s maintained a valuable personal relationship with golf. Michael was a fine junior golfer growing up, often playing alongside his father at Cedar Hill and eventually competing at provincial and national levels, before embarking on his full-time career as a corrections officer.
His life is also defined by inspirational resilience. In 1998, while still an avid golfer, he survived a serious accident that left severe burns to about 17 percent of his upper body. In the years since, and during his long rehabilitation process, he became an advocate for burn survivors and was part of the foundation of the Canadian Burn Survivors Community in 2008. He joined the board for that in 2010 and became its chairman in 2022.
Golf was a therapeutic avenue throughout his recovery, and even while his swing had been compromised, his playing resolve never relented, and he won Cedar Hill’s Senior Club Championship in 2013.
Of course, he continues to enjoy more casual outings too, where he still connects individuals under the PNGA umbrella, or even players who remember him from his days running junior tournaments.
Four months into his leadership at the PNGA, his ambitions are plenty and vision clear as to what makes the U.S.-Canadian, six-association alliance profoundly special.
“The laughter and camaraderie that we have as an organization, as a group is second to none, and that really is one thing I'm very proud of,” he said. “There's no border when it comes to this organization. We’re like a family. That's the way I look at it.”