2009 grad Dodge Kemmer reports on his golf pro activities

A couple of weeks ago 2009 graduate Dodge Kemmer updated the coaches about recent activities in his young professional golf career.  Dodge was co-captain of the 2009 team and a human biology major, one of the most demanding of all majors so he took his studies very seriously.  Dodge was a member of the 2008 national runner-up team, and after a solid senior season with the golf team returned for another school year to complete his degree.  Dodge continued to work on his golf game and had solid success on the amateur circuit and decided to turn pro after school ended.

Here is Dodge's recent report:

Much has happened since the year 1 review that I am excited to report.  In early August, my dad and I flew to Atlanta for PGA Championship week to meet with Chubby Chandler of International Sports Management (ISM). After meeting with Chubby Thursday at the PGA and Friday evening over a Guinness (or two), we made a deal to work together to advance my golf career domestically and internationally.  Chubby and ISM (http://www.sportism.net/) are based out of Manchester, England and deal with administration issues such as sponsors exemptions / invites into tournaments and corporate sponsorship.  They have an office in Palm Beach, FL as well, where my player manager is based.  She organizes all tournament and travel logistics in the US and can take care of just about anything I can think of here.  More on how this affects my immediate future below.

After my unsuccessful bid in Lawrence to qualify for the Kansas City nationwide, I flew to Canada to play in the Canadian Tour Championship at Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor, Ontario.  Ambassador is a links-style course used to strong winds, which, if blowing in certain directions make the course play very difficult.  Sadly, however, what wind was blowing was from the opposite direction, making the course as easy as possible; effectively changing the par from 71 to 68 (on sunday I hit pitching wedge, 5 iron, and 7 iron into the three par-5's).  Round one I hit every green until my last, missed a lot of putts early, and was even through 12 holes. Then I went birdie-birdie-par-eagle-birdie to get to -5 only to bogey my last hole and finish at 67 (-4).  This put me in a mediocre t17, 4 shots behind two guys who shot 63.  The next day I hit the ball a little worse but made more putts and despite bogeying the par-5 13th (which is more like a double-bogey), I shot 66 (-5) and moved into t8.  The weekend didnt see any improvement: I started hitting it poorly and not knowing where to expect a miss, which makes it hard to pick a safe line and shot. However, I had fewer three-putts and missed short putts on the weekend which somewhat made up for my ball striking. I recorded a pair of 69's (-2 but effectively +1), and finished t10, good for $4,800. I finished the year in 17th on the order of merit with $22,937.50 in 6 events.

Yesterday morning, after just arriving home, I received a call from my player manager, Andrea, informing me that they had been able to acquire an invite to the European Tour's KLM Open in Hilversum, The Netherlands (http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011065/index.html).  I will be flying from San Fransisco to Amsterdam this Saturday afternoon and begin the event Thursday. I havent seen the TV schedule but I would imagine there is a good chance it is on the golf channel! I will then play the European Tour QSchool 1st stage in Manchester England September 20-23.  I'm still waiting to hear about Midland, TX nationwide and the Fry's.com Open PGA exemptions, which would be my next stops in the states.

Dodge