Montana Golf Hall of Fame
Shanda Imlay
by Ty Sparing, MSGA Marketing & Communications
Missoula’s Shanda Imlay said recently, “Fifty-some years ago, a kid from a small town in Montana stepped onto a golf course with hopes and dreams. It was my desire to not only play the game to the best of my ability but to be able to give back to others, especially junior players.”
That small town kid eventually grew up and not only fulfilled those early golfing aspirations but did it so well that she can now call herself a member of the Montana Golf Hall of Fame.
Over the course of Shanda Imlay’s wide-ranging career both playing and working in golf, she has consistently exemplified what it means to be a Hall of Famer, whether that was winning tournaments or guiding others in the industry with her vast knowledge of the game.
As MSGA Executive Director, Nick Dietzen, states, “Shanda’s amateur playing career was exemplary and her accomplishments are impressive in their own right, but her commitment to growing the game as an instructor and champion for junior golf has created a legacy that extends well beyond her individual playing prowess.”
If you have played at a state golf championship in recent years, you’ve likely seen Shanda riding around in her Rules cart solving problems one at a time. She currently serves as a Rules Official for the MSGA and contributes the always informative rules column for 406GOLF.
For those of us who work with her, it’s easy to appreciate Shanda’s sincere love for the game and outstanding work ethic. Patient and thoughtful, her years of accumulated wisdom often shine through, a defining trait with origins that go back a handful of decades to the Bitterroot Valley in southwest Montana.
Growing up in Hamilton, Shanda started playing the sport at the age of 10 and was immediately hooked. As she recalls, “At the time, I was the only girl playing Little League Baseball. My mom and dad found out the new golf professional at Hamilton Golf Club, Jimmy Wallinder, was giving free junior lessons and they asked if I wanted to give golf a try rather than play baseball.”
Wallinder instilled in junior golfers not only how to play the course and get the job done but also focused on why a person plays the game in the first place. “He showed me that golf is a game and playing can be fun,” Shanda said of her early mentor. “Jimmy was also the one that introduced me to the love of teaching.”
Under Wallinder’s direction, and later another Missoula Country Club professional, Dan Desmond, who taught her the finer points of tournament operations and rules, Shanda started showing a serious knack for golf, and it wasn’t long before she was knocking on the door as one of the Treasure State’s best golfers.
At age 13, Shanda entered her first Montana State Women’s Amateur Championship in Billings, intent on proving herself as one of the top golfers in the state. “That was Alice Ritzman’s last before she went on to a pro career,” Shanda recalls, “and I told my parents that I’m going to be in the championship flight and make the top 10. They go, like most parents, ‘We’ll be happy with however you finish.’” Sure enough, she made the championship flight and ended up finishing in seventh place.
The championship flight became a comfortable place for Shanda over the next decade as she competed and succeeded against many legendary women golfers in Montana. She was a high school state golf champion for Missoula Sentinel in 1975, along with winning the former Big Sky Open that same year.
Shanda also won the Women’s State Amateur in 1977, among a bevy of other runner-up and top five finishes. That was no small feat, considering she was playing against fellow Montana Golf Hall of Famers like Alice Ritzman, Jane Hibbard, Jewell Lee, Mona Clark, Cathy Studer, and of course one of Shanda’s favorites, Helen Tremper, who won a record 15 State Amateurs and was runner-up five times. As Shanda describes it, “Growing up seeing a woman playing competitive golf and being able to play with Tremper was one of my favorite moments.”
But she wasn’t just competing against those greats of the game, she was learning from them as well. “When I was a junior player competing with adults,” Shanda said, “the best advice given to me was to be a person of integrity, no matter who you are or who you know, leaving a positive legacy starts with being kind to others.”
Part of Shanda’s fuel during this period was a love for the game and an awareness that she wanted to make a career out of it. “I knew it from the age of 10,” she explained, “Jimmy would let me sit on the range bucket and I’d watch him teach and I go, ‘This is what I want to do.’” In fact, she started working at a young age at the Hamilton Golf Club cleaning clubs, raking bunkers, irrigation and eventually working in the pro shop.
After earning an accounting degree and showing off her multi-sport talents by playing basketball at the University of Montana, Shanda began what became a rich and varied career in golf.
Over the course of her life, she has gone from youth golf phenom to working in every capacity one can think of in the golf industry. She’s been a golf assistant, golf pro, teacher, coach, owned a golf business, worked in club repair, volunteer, was the executive director, tournament director, and director of junior golf for the Oregon Golf Association (OGA), and then of course her most recent role as a Rules Official and magazine contributor for the MSGA.
In 1982 when Shanda made her way to Oregon, she became the first woman ever elected to membership in the Pacific Northwest PGA. She went on to work in her various director roles with the OGA, along with co-owning the FUNdaMental Golf and Learning Center for close to two decades. The FUNdaMental Golf and Learning Center provided a variety of programs, among others a four-week clinic to help husbands and wives play together, working with veterans who suffer from PTSD, and educating juniors.
Many of Shanda’s favorite memories of her career in golf she says is “not about me but the opportunities the game was able to provide.” Whether it was her time working as a golf coach for Cleveland High School in Oregon, working with juniors at the OGA, or serving in her role at the FUNdaMental Golf and Learning Center, so many of the great memories are about having watched so many young people thrive and go on to big things in life. For her efforts, in 2017 she was awarded the prestigious Pacific Northwest PGA Player Development Award which added to an already illustrious resume.
Through her deep love of golf and a philosophy of doing things that make her smile, we look back on the career of a person with no regrets. “The best advice that I was ever given was find your passion and follow it,” she explained when discussing the advice she gives to people trying to break into the golf business. “I started out teaching, then went into the merchandising side, and then from there it was tournament operations. Of anything I can say about the golf business, it’s there for whatever direction you want to take it. It’s just finding something that you enjoy.”
One thing that becomes clear when talking to Shanda is how much she has appreciated working in golf. “I liked everything in my career and one thing about working in the golf industry is I was never bored,” she said.
Shanda maintained a strong connection with Montana while working in Oregon and several years ago decided to move back to Missoula. When asked what is unique about Montana golf, as compared to other places that she has worked, she says, “Montana is my home, and this is still the small-town country, neighbor helping neighbor feel. It’s not really a big business yet, like you go to a place like California – it’s big business.”
As one of the newest members of the Montana Golf Hall of Fame, Shanda says it “feels surreal,” and that it represents the “countless hours, the personal sacrifices to be the best version of myself and the relentless pursuit of excellence in my profession.”
But with the honor comes gratitude. “It goes beyond personal achievement,” she said. “It represents every person who believed in me, every head professional who took a chance on me, especially being a woman, pushing me to excel within the PGA. And every student who trusted me to introduce them to playing this great game.”
Starting as just a kid with hopes and dreams of carving out a life in golf, to spending decades playing and working in various aspects of the golf industry – through it all one of the most impressive lines of continuity in Shanda’s career is her integrity and the sincere desire to make the game more enjoyable for everyone.