POLLAND, SOMERS AND RIEBER ARE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION PGA 2025 ROLEX PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
On the surface, winning a “Player of the Year” award is very simple. If you earn more points in designated events than anyone else, you’re it! Down deep, it takes dedication, practice, talent, guts, and perseverance. The RMSPGA winners are all of the above. The 2025 Rocky Mountain Section PGA ROLEX Players of the Year are our very best and these awards are a testament to their skills. The Section recognizes its players of the year in three categories: The Player of the Year, Women’s Player of the Year, and Senior Player of the Year. The Section wishes to thank ROLEX for their generous support with our events and recognition of our Players of the Year.
PGA Director of Golf, Ben Polland, from Shooting Star in Teton Village, Wyoming, is the 2025 ROLEX Player of the Year in the Rocky Mountain Section of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. This marks the third time Polland has earned this award in our Section as he adds this to his 2021 and 2024 awards. This time around was a first for our Section in that Polland made 5 of 6 cuts on the PGA TOUR as a working golf professional to earn the majority of his points. Put that together with his victory in our Section Championship and you have a dominant performance. Simply phenomenal… Enough said.
PGA Director of Instruction, Katie Somers, from River Birch Golf Course in Star, Idaho, is the Women’s 2025 ROLEX Player of the Year in the RMSPGA. This is the 8th consecutive time Somers has claimed this award. Her two top highlights in ’25 were her tie for 15th in the Section Championship and her 5th place finish in the season long Pro-Am points race. Even though our Pro-Pro Shootout doesn’t include Player of the Year credit, Somers and her partner, Ben Bryson, won that event convincingly as well. Katie is going to need a bigger wall for her 8th plaque!
Freshly turning 50 years old is often a ticket to excellence when you have a solid game to begin with. Such is the case for the Senior 2025 ROLEX Player of the Year in the RMSPGA. Lance Rieber, a PGA Teaching Professional at Warm Springs Golf Course in Boise, Idaho, earned the honor this year in a tightly contested race. His 5½ point margin is the closest in recent history. Rieber, minted as a 50-year-old in January of ’25, finished 4th in the Senior Section Championship and used his victory in the Snake River Chapter Match Play Championship to seal his Sr. Player of the Year honor.
Polland, Somers, and Rieber will formally receive their Player of the Year awards in May of 2026 at the Rocky Mountain Section PGA Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony.