Former Tour Pro Adds Her Own Touch to LPGA Event

By Lisa D. Mickey

It wasn’t that long ago that Karen Dennison was doing the same thing that all other touring pros are doing at this time of year – putting the final touches of preparation on a new competitive season.

Dennison still has her eye on the calendar, but her preparation as the event operations manager for the LPGA’s Ginn Open now requires more time on the telephone and attention to details that she never dreamed would cross her mind. Like figuring out where corporate tents, signage and parking will be positioned for the tournament pro-am, and having all phone and Internet lines installed.

Rather than the usual pre-season routine of lining up her swing coach, mental coach and soliciting sponsorship, equipment and apparel deals, these days, she is managing a group of 700 tournament volunteers, working with private housing and overseeing the set-up and execution of the tournament’s entire pro-am event.

“It helps knowing how golf tournaments work,” said Dennison, 25, of Madison, Ind., who played on the Duramed FUTURES Tour in 2005 and 2006, posting a career-best finish of second at the Tucson Duramed FUTURES Classic behind winner Charlotte Mayorkas. “Using my golf knowledge with a business background is a great combination.”

The fact that she left competitive golf came as a surprise to many, especially when Dennison seemed to be stepping up as one of the Tour’s top players. Mayorkas, now playing on the LPGA Tour, remembers the 2006 tournament when Dennison took her to a two-hole playoff before Mayorkas finally grabbed her first professional win.

“When you hear about anyone deciding not to play professional golf after you have competed with them, it is surprising,” said Mayorkas. “Karen was a great competitor – one of those players who is a naturally talented athlete and always expects the best out of herself in anything she does.”

But that level of expectation was part of the reason that Dennison began thinking outside the ropes of competition. After her runner-up finish in Arizona in 2006, Dennison went back to her home in Orlando and suddenly realized she didn’t have the desire to practice at the level she needed to practice. And once she went back out on the road with the tour, she found herself counting down the remaining weeks on the tournament schedule.

“I’d think, just four more weeks, then, just three more weeks,” she said with a laugh. “I was counting down until we were done. That’s no way to be out there. I tried it for two years, enjoyed it, but learned that it wasn’t what I wanted to do for my career.”

It wasn’t lost time, however. A former All-American who won six college tournaments while playing for Indiana University and who went on to earn her master’s degree in athletic administration at IU, found that she had made a lot of mental notes during her two seasons on the Duramed FUTURES Tour. She knew all about playing in pro-ams, dealing with corporate sponsors and learning how to please fans at tournaments. She wondered if she could parlay the experiences she’d had as a player into a corporate environment.

“You make so many contacts within the golf industry and then when you apply for jobs, they know you have knowledge about the game,” she said. “Playing professional golf opens a lot of doors. Everyone I talked to job-wise loved the fact that I had played college and professional golf.”

Dennison knew she wanted to find a way to stay in the game and having earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees made entering the business of golf easier. The fact that she had competed professionally gave her the courage to walk into the offices of the Ginn Open at Reunion Resort and apply for an internship with the tournament. As luck would have it, she walked in with her resume on a Monday and the office was interviewing potential intern candidates two days later.

Dennison got the job and interned from January through June last year. She did “anything and everything” she was asked to do for the tournament. By July, she was hired as a staff member for her current role.

“I have a lot of respect for Karen on and off the golf course,” added Mayorkas. “She seems very happy with her choice and I think it’s great to have people like Karen in positions helping to run tournaments because she has a huge understanding about tournament golf. This is why it’s important for players to get their college degrees -- to have options if they decide that professional golf isn’t for them.”

A number of Tour members have taken their past experience as playing professionals and moved on to other aspects of the golf industry. Several Duramed FUTURES Tour players recently have entered college golf as assistant coaches, such as Kathy Choi-Rogers (Wake Forest), Salimah Mussani (Stanford) and Laura Myerscough (Arizona). Some have gone to work for smaller golf tours, while others have turned to teaching golf, working for state golf associations or golf equipment and apparel companies. Still others, such as former U.S. Women’s Open champion Jane Geddes, returned to school, earned a law degree and went to work for the LPGA. All put their playing knowledge to use in a different setting.

By her own admission, Dennison is still making the transition of being behind the scenes, rather than hitting the shots. And she is still learning to be happy playing “bogey golf” now that she has joined the work force and no longer hits thousands of practice shots.

“I’ve had to learn that it’s OK not to hit it solid, not to hit it straight, and that the five footers might not go in,” she said. “And sometimes I look out the window and say, ‘If I were still playing, all I’d have to do is go practice.’

“But I like the steady paychecks and I don’t have the stress of having to go out there and shoot in the 60s,” added Dennison, who fired rounds of 67-67-65 to finish second to Mayorkas in Tucson. “People think you get to play golf all the time in the golf business, but that is not the case.”

Dennison calls her new role “a really good transition” between playing professionally and going into the business world. She added that the staff she works with at the Ginn Open is competitive enough collectively that there is “a lot of pride” in producing a world-class tournament in even the most mundane of their daily tasks.

“My biggest surprise is how much work goes into putting on such an event,” she added. “It’s hard for most people to imagine that a staff works year-round on a week-long tournament, but we do, and we work very hard to get everything accomplished in one year.”

And while she has plenty of experience as a player, Dennison describes herself as “a rookie again,” and is learning that it’s OK not to have all the answers. The other aspect that directly transfers from the course to the office is keeping a level head during those demanding moments.

“It really helps to be calm in the office, just like on the course,” she said. “There’s always a lot going on and sometimes, there’s a lot going wrong. You just have to keep a cool head and maintain that same old one-shot-at-a-time mentality.”

It also helps to know how it feels to be a player in a competition. Both Dennison and Ginn Open Tournament Director Linda Chen are former tour players. Both understand how pros must balance preparation for the event with time spent with fans and media.

“Professional golfers have set schedules, and routine is a big part of that preparation,” said Dennison. “We are always putting ourselves in the shoes of the players.”

But is there a parallel between winning and playing well, with working on the operations side of a $2.6 million tournament on the LPGA Tour?

Maybe it’s not quite the same as draining a clutch putt or pocketing a big paycheck, but Dennison said she has learned fairly quickly the satisfaction of running a successful event.

“I was an intern last year and I learned a lot, but now that I am the operations manager, my responsibilities have multiplied,” she said. “I get to see every little piece of running a professional golf tournament. Our tournament staff and the Reunion staff rely on each other to get the job done and we really do pride ourselves on putting on a premier golf tournament.”

That, of course, makes both the former and current players very satisfied that all the careful preparation for 2008 certainly will pay off.