Montana Golf Hall of Fame
Roger Wallace
by Ty Sparing, MSGA Marketing & Communications
Roger Wallace has a distinguished history as a player, professional, and organizational leader throughout his career in golf. A three-time champion in both the Stroke Play and Match Play Championships held by the Western Montana Chapter (WMC) PGA of America, Wallace has had his share of success on the golf course, including over 100 victories at Western Montana Chapter PGA Pro-Am events.
Along with his outstanding playing abilities, Wallace has also reached the upper echelons of the golf industry, working 36 years for Polson Bay Golf Course and having been elected to leadership positions across every level of PGA of America.
As MSGA Executive Director, Nick Dietzen, stated recently, “Roger’s contributions in golf are numerous, but his ‘golf tree’ of PGA professionals, apprentices and players coming out of Polson Bay have roots that spread far and wide and is as impressive as anyone in the Treasure State.”
Originally born in Whitefish, Wallace spent much of his youth in Washington where he was a standout high school golfer for Ephrata and later Eisenhower High School in Yakima. Upon graduation he went on to star for the Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University golf teams, where over a three-year period he won seven invitationals.
In 1980 while at Spokane Falls, Wallace was the season medalist and part of a talented squad that won the NWAACC Conference Tournament. He was eventually the first male golfer inducted into the Community Colleges of Spokane (CCS) Hall of Fame for his achievements at the two-year institution. Likewise, while at Eastern Washington, Wallace earned the PNW Golf Coaches Association 1981 Division II Player of the Year award.
After graduating from EWU in 1982, Wallace made his way back to Montana where he worked for a few years as an assistant professional at Meadow Lake Golf Course in Columbia Falls and head professional at Buffalo Hill Golf Club in Kalispell. Almost immediately upon being hired at Buffalo Hill, Wallace told a local newspaper about his intention to build up junior golf programming in the area. “The future of golf is with the juniors,” he said. “If we neglect them now, they won’t be playing later.”
Those words about giving back to future generations have proven to be one of the defining features of Wallace’s life in golf. In 1987 he went to Polson Bay Golf Course where he spent over three decades making his mark with junior programs and helping mold the small town into one of the premier golfing communities in the state. As the Pacific Northwest Section PGA remarked thirty years later upon his induction into their Hall of Fame, “Roger Wallace has been the driving at Polson Bay Golf Course for the past 30 years. He has been instrumental in raising funds for local organizations, and together with his staff has built a junior program in which over 400 kids participate annually.”
Wallace’s numerous accolades earned while he was a youth and college golfer compounded as he got older, with six WMC PGA “major” victories, over 100 wins at WMC PGA Pro-Am events, two Lake City Open titles and he is a 19-time qualifier for the MSGA-WMCPGA Montana Cup. His playing career alone is Hall of Fame worthy, and yet as Wallace said recently, “Make no mistake, none of that is possible without the success we’ve achieved at Polson Bay.”
Indeed, Polson Bay Golf Course went through some dramatic transformations in the years since Wallace was hired. In 1989 the picturesque 9-hole course on the south end of Flathead Lake added nine more holes, and then 10 years later they added nine more, making it one of the few 27-hole facilities in the state of Montana. As he told former Great Falls Tribune sports editor George Geise back in 2000, “The operation of our new course is everything we thought it would be, and more.”
While Polson Bay tripled in size in a decade, under Wallace’s direction so too did Junior Golf, Tournament Operations, and Instructional Programming opportunities expand along with it. “We’ve built a culture of excellence in golf operations along with a culture of value, fun and inclusion for our pass holders and guests,” he says. “We’ve grown from hosting zero MSGA and MHSA events to being a sought-after venue for both associations. We are leaders in affordable public golf and extremely proud of that.”
Wallace’s influence also extends beyond the shores of Polson Bay and even the boundaries of Montana. He served as a founding member and past president of the Pacific Northwest Section PGA Junior Fund, as well as serving on the National Board of Directors for PGA America.
He’s collected many accolades along the way, including the 2014 PGA of America’s National Bill Strausbaugh Award which is designed to recognize PGA Professionals who exhibit exceptional leadership abilities and dedication to their local communities. Along with the National Award, Wallace has collected four Pacific Northwest Section Bill Strausbaugh Awards along with being named the section’s Golf Professional of the Year four times.
As MSGA’s Dietzen stated, “Roger is respected, admired and has been recognized by his peers locally, statewide and throughout the Pacific Northwest. His leadership has extended well beyond Polson where he’s been synonymous and instrumental in the growth of one of Montana’s favorite facilities.”
Given such a background both playing and in various leadership roles at Polson Bay and PGA of America, Wallace carries with him many great memories. The victories on the course were always nice, as were his triumphant moments in golf operations. He even had the good fortune to officiate three PGA Championships at Oakland Hills, Hazeltine and Whistling Straights, along with officiating two Ryder Cups at Valhalla and Celtic Manor.
“But far and away,” Wallace said, “the moments that stand out the most to me have been my children’s success in golf.”
His daughter Erin was an All-State golfer for Polson High and went on to play collegiately at the University of Puget Sound. Wallace’s son Robbie meanwhile is a 12-time Special Olympics State Golf Medalist. As Wallace said, “Our game has given a 29-year-old Downs Syndrome man the confidence and interpersonal skills to truly succeed in life. Coaching them and seeing their hard work pay off has been easily the most rewarding experience for me in golf.”
When asked for what type of advice he would give to the youngsters out there looking join the Montana Golf Hall of Fame someday, “Do not begin, nor live your career in golf with the goal to be inducted into any Hall of Fame,” he said. “Put in the work and be your absolute best version of you at everything you do. Be a ‘Hall of Fame’ human being first, do that hard work and know in your heart that you’ve done as many things as possible the right way, the first time, every time and the Montana Golf Hall of Fame will find you.”