TOM ANDERSON, MIKE HAMBLIN, AND VAUGHN JENKINS TO BE INDUCTED INTO ROCKY MOUNTAIN SECTION PGA HALL OF FAME
Tom Anderson, Mike Hamblin, and Vaughn Jenkins will be the fifth, sixth and seventh inductees into the Rocky Mountain Section PGA Hall of Fame. These gentlemen distinguished themselves during their professional careers as PGA of America members within the Rocky Mountain Section and were selected by virtue of their career achievements. The RMSPGA Hall of Fame was established in 2013 by the Section Board of Directors to recognize those members who have displayed exemplary service both to the game of golf and the Rocky Mountain Section PGA.
Tom Anderson, the PGA Director of Golf at Laurel (Montana) Golf Club has served that facility since 1989. In April of 2021 Tom was promoted to Director of Golf after previously serving as Head Professional since May 1989. He was elected to membership in the PGA of America on May 1, 1989.
Among his many accomplishments Anderson was named Golf Professional of the Year in 1993, he was the Bill Strausbaugh Award recipient in 2020 and earned Player of the Year honors in 1995, 1998 and 2016, and Senior Player of the Year honors in 2016. He also won many Chapter awards throughout his career.
Anderson served the Yellowstone Chapter as President, Vice-President and Secretary for the six years between 1991 and 1997. Prior to that he was a committee chair most prominently chairing the Chapter’s Education Committee.
Playing has been a key element in the PGA membership of Tom Anderson. Besides the Player and Senior Player of the Year honors previously mentioned, he has won the Yellowstone Chapter Championship 9 times; the RMSPGA Pro-Assistant Championship 3 times; the RMSPGA Senior Section Championship 6 times; as well as the Nevada Senior Open (2006); the Senior Division of the Idaho Open (2009); and the Yellowstone Open Senior Division in 2003. He qualified for and competed in the 1998 U.S. Open and played in 10 PGA Professional and 11 Senior PGA Professional National Championships. He had the low score in three separate U.S. Open Local Qualifiers and played in the Senior PGA Championship in 2002 and 2010.
He has hosted countless professional and amateur events over the years at Laurel and remains an involved and important member of the Yellowstone Chapter and the Rocky Mountain Section. As a host professional within the Section, he is second to none.
Anderson has been dedicated to teaching the game and was an early mentor to a 4-time individual state champion and many boys’ and girls’ teams and individuals from Laurel that captured state championships.
Tom has also left his mark on the Section as the current Section President and Vice-President worked for him as did the Vice-President of the Yellowstone Chapter. The last two Board of Directors of the Section both contained three individuals who worked for him. He has raised and put forward a generation of leaders.
Tom Anderson is the active elder statesman of the Yellowstone Chapter and the face of Laurel Golf Club and when he retires later this year, he will leave behind the footprints of a giant.
Mike Hamblin, PGA, the Head Professional at Blue Lakes Country Club in Twin Falls, Idaho, has made, and continues to make, an indelible mark on the Snake River Chapter and Rocky Mountain Section. Mike’s record of service to his Chapter and Section is unchallenged in the modern history of the Section. As a son of Don Hamblin, PGA, Mike joins his father in the RMSPGA Hall of Fame. To this date, the only father and son tandem to enjoy such peer recognition.
Mike was elected to membership in the PGA of America on July 1, 1989, while serving at what was then known as Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course, now Twin Falls Golf Club. He was the Head Professional there until 2000 when he became the General Manager and served in that role until the end of January 2011. Since that time Hamblin has been the Head Professional at Blue Lakes Country Club in Twin Falls.
Hamblin has garnered 11 awards during his career. Those awards would be highlighted by twice being named Golf Professional of the Year (2002 and 2009) and earning Player of the Year honors on 4 separate occasions (1991, 1992, 1993 and 1999).
Hamblin’s service to his Chapter and Section includes serving as a Chapter officer between 1992 and 1995 and a Section officer between the years of 1997-2004. Mike served as President of the Section in 2001 and 2002. Combined, Mike has spent over 15 years on the Section Tournament Committee, 4 years on the Budget and Finance Committee and served terms as Chair of the Tournament, Membership, Executive and Past President’s Committees of the Section.
Mike is passionate about the teaching and playing of golf and has a rich playing history in the Section. In addition to his Player of the Year honors he won the Section Championship in 1998 and the Idaho Open 4 separate times and the Senior Division in that event in 2020. He also won the Snake River Chapter Match Play Championship 4 times and Senior Division in that event once. In the Sections’ largest team event, the Pro-Pro Shootout, he has been part of the winning team on 9 separate occasions. He also has set 6 different course records in the Rocky Mountain Section. Mike also has qualified for the PGA Professional Championship 8 times and the Senior PGA Professional Championship 8 times.
Mike’s junior golf program has produced several fine players; many of whom played in college and several who later became PGA of America members. He also spent some time coaching the high school boys’ and girls’ teams in Twin Falls to several Idaho State Championships. Mike was many times the host of the Larry Malone Scholarship Pro-Am; a Rocky Mountain Section PGA Foundation event that has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in the form of scholarships to graduating high school seniors within the boundaries of the Snake River Chapter. He has led by example throughout his career and has vast experience in the business by virtue of his tireless service and working at both public and private facilities. In addition to his Section honors, he was honored by the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce with their Extra Mile Award for dedication to helping young people in 2009.
The Hall of Fame Committee voted unanimously in favor for our current and long-time Executive Director, Vaughn Jenkins, to be added to our Section’s distinguished list of inductees.
30 years ago, Vaughn entered the RMSPGA as the assistant professional, then Head Golf Professional, at Olive Glenn Golf and Country Club in Cody, WY. His tenure at the club lasted 10 years before moving on to work for Bridgestone Sports for 2 years until taking a position with the Section. Vaughn has been serving the members of the Section with passion and commitment for 18 years now and is approaching his 30th year as a PGA Member.
This Section owes a debt of gratitude to Vaughn for leading it to a better place. With hard work and fiscally conservative management, OUR Section is in a great place and only getting better. One Past President commented, “Vaughn needs to be in the Hall of Fame because there’s a good chance we wouldn’t even have a Section if it wasn’t for the efforts he’s made.”
Vaughn has dedicated the better part of the last 2 decades of his life to the Section and everyday continues to strive to, “leave the Section better than he found it.”
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Rocky Mountain Section PGA golf professionals were nominated and selected by a committee composed of the current president, the past presidents and living Hall of Fame members of the Section still residing within its borders. The induction of Tom Anderson, Mike Hamblin and Vaughn Jenkins will occur as part of the Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section PGA on Sunday, May 15, 2022, in Idaho Falls, Idaho.