From All Angles – Nebraska PGA Coaching Culture Sets a High Bar
Written by Bob Denney | Historian Emeritus – PGA of America
Celebrating the Nebraska PGA Centennial isn’t complete unless one pays homage to a progressive coaching culture that flourishes across a variety of successful platforms to develop the next generation of players.
The Nebraska PGA spans unique cross-state boundaries, touching Western Iowa and a portion of South Dakota. Wherever you stop – whether it’s indoor training, surrounded by PGA Junior Leaguers, driving a van to a meet, or stationed on the range for junior or collegiate coaching – it’s a collage of motivated, dedicated PGA Professionals.
We tapped the shoulders of a cross section of Section members:
University of Northern Iowa alum Ryan Norman is the Director of Player Development of the Iowa Western Community College men’s and women’s teams in Council Bluffs.
In April, while busy with his college teams’ schedule, he watched on television as Chloe Perfect, a student he coached for several years, finished runner-up in the age 14-15 girls’ division of the Drive, Chip & Putt national finals at August National Golf Club.
“It was pretty cool to watch Chloe perform so well, and I was cheering from far away,” said Norman.
Norman’s paternal grandfather got him into golf in Council Bluffs, and gave him his first set of clubs, among them a Wilson 2-iron.
“I remember how hard it was to hit that club,” said Norman, a graduate of Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln High School. “I kept it, because it was the one club that I was trying hard to make contact.”
Norman earned a bachelor’s degree in sports psychology in 2005, and five years later was elected to PGA membership.
In mid-May, Norman was warming up a team van in Wichita, Kansas, as the Reivers’ men’s team competed in its third consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Championship.
The women’s team, which he also coaches, was under an assistant’s direction in nearby Dodge City.
Norman’s golf journey after UNI was a shift of climate to Southern California, where he entered the golf business.
“I joke that I have worked about every job you can have in the golf industry,” said Norman. “From mowing greens, taking care of the course, working the bag room, washing clubs, and handling assistant professional duties. I’ve done it all, and that’s because PGA Professionals wear many hats.”
Norman was elected to PGA Membership in 2010, at which time he determined that he enjoyed coaching and teaching, as well as playing. He arrived at GolfTEC in Omaha, and taught for seven years.
He also was a two-time qualifier for the PGA Professional Championship in 2015 and 2025.
In 2017, he left GolfTEC and opened his own business, Ryan Norman Golf Academy at Council Bluffs Country Club.
During this time, he also coached the girls’ team for three seasons at Brownell Talbot College Preparatory School in Omaha. He led the team to the 2018 state tournament and had an individual place ninth overall at the Class C Championships.
He transitioned in 2019 to Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln where he coached the men’s and women’s teams for three years.
The Prairie Wolves’ men’s program has enjoyed a successful heritage, and helped guide the women to turning their fortunes around to finish in the top three of their conference.
This year, Norman led Iowa Western to a third consecutive national championship.
At the national championship, he guided the Reivers to a 17th place finish in 2023, and 18th in 2024. That same year, Norman began coaching the women’s team, and they finished sixth in the national championship.
“It has been a great experience being among the many great members of this Section,” said Norman. “I’ve witnessed good teaching that has really ramped up in the past five to ten years.”
Turning the coaching lens on Jon Petersen, the PGA Director of Instruction since 2012 at Tiburon Golf Club in Omaha. In the fall of 2009, Petersen made a bold move.
He leased a warehouse site of an indoor training program in the southwest sector of the city. There was no branding, just a private coaching program expanded by word of mouth among his students. Petersen leases different locations, including the Gretna area, and he doesn’t spend a dollar on advertising.
Nestled in warm confines during a Nebraska winter, Petersen reports he averages between 38 and 40 lessons per week.
“There wasn’t much focus on competitive golf when I first came,” said Petersen. “I started a little competitive group out of the blue and sent out emails to a dozen kids and some picked up on it. It was expanded ten and twenty-fold.”
“I think there are a lot more younger instructors doing what I’m doing, and the competitive side has grown massively. I did PGA coaching before PGA Coach existed. I’m a competitive player. I watch my kids play and can keep with them at times.”
Born in Carroll, Iowa, Petersen is the youngest of six siblings. He attended Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, and then Iowa State University, where he captained the Cyclones golf team his senior year in 1989.
“Being the youngest of six, my dad said to me, ‘It’s time to move out,’ ” said Petersen with a laugh.
He was elected to PGA membership in 1995, and spent 13 years as assistant and then head professional at Sterling (Colorado) Country Club, before arriving in Nebraska at Kearney Country Club, where he spent four years.
Petersen then took a PGA Teaching Professional post at Omaha’s Miracle Hill Golf Course in 2007, before heading to Tiburon Golf Club in 2012.
“The Tiburon ownership is tremendous and gave me the freedom I wanted, and knew what I wanted to do in golf,” said Petersen, who was named the 2021 Section Teacher of the Year.
He has had an impressive coaching résumé that includes nearly 20 NCAA Division I players, seven of the last 11 Nebraska Junior Amateur champions, and has nearly 15 state boys and girls champions among all of Nebraska’s school classifications.
In 2014, Ryan Vermeer joined Petersen as an assistant PGA Teaching Professional at Tiburon and merged into the indoor program and is still a partner. Vermeer went on to win the 2018 PGA Professional Championship, two PGA Professional Player of the Year awards, and is the PGA Director of Instruction at Happy Hollow Club in Omaha.
When we caught up with Petersen, he was scouting the best four Class A teams in the Metro area at a May meet.
“I don’t wear anything that makes me stand out,” said Petersen. “I just walk around in the trees, take a lot of videos, and watch through binoculars. I am a coach of all my players, and not of a team.”
Petersen and Vermeer have a new addition to the coaching staff: PGA Associate Carson Schaake, a former University of Iowa standout, who competed in four U.S. Opens, and is a Korn Ferry Tour member.
In 15 seasons, Petersen has coached nearly a hundred collegiate golfers.
“I love watching these kids get better and moved on in their life. I would say most people might think I’m a little stern on my kids, but I’m close friends with a lot of my parents,” said Petersen. “I got to hold them accountable to reach their goals.”
There are a few things that have bothered Petersen about golf coaching, and he assured his students that he wasn’t about to be a leader going through the motions.
“I never quite understood this one,” said Petersen, “That if a basketball or a football coach could get on their players for a lack of effort, why couldn’t a golf coach do that?
“You have a kid tell you what they want to do, and you hold them accountable. If you want to play at this level, I’ve been around a long time. This is what you’ve got to be able to do.”
Petersen said that the motivation for improvement in his students starts at home.
“Change isn’t easy,” he said. “I think it’s easier to teach kids who want to be good, who have good parents that hold them accountable, and when I got on their tail a little bit they don’t run away.”
Petersen said he is encouraged by “unbelievable leadership in the Section. David Honnens (Section Executive Director) is exceptional.”
“They are not afraid to change and listen to the membership,” said Petersen. “Our leadership is phenomenal, and honest. They want the game to grow. Our members aspire to do great things. They want to do great things. We don’t have a lazy membership.”
Some 141 miles north of “The Big O,” in Sioux Center, Iowa, Karrie Van Ravenswaay, the PGA Head Professional of the Ridge Golf Club, is a modern-day pied piper.
That’s a fair assessment for someone who last year guided 378 youngsters in the PGA Junior League – representing 4.6% of the population of Sioux Center. The program already has more than 300 entrants this season.
Oh yes, Karrie also is an assistant coach since 2011 at the biggest educational institution in town — Dordt University – which raises the city population to 10,000.
Last year, the Nebraska PGA boasted three of the largest PGA Junior League programs among the top 10 in the nation, led by The First Tee of Omaha under PGA Life Member Jeff Porter Jr. with 534 participants. PGA Junior League has two age divisions – ages 5 through and 13, and ages 14 to 17.
The First Tee of Fort Worth, Texas (466) was next, followed by Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois (384), Ridge Golf Club, and Pine Lake Golf & Tennis Club of Lincoln, led by PGA General Manager Dave Malone, shared eighth (321).
“Junior golf has grown immensely over the past few years in our Section,” said Van Ravenswaay, a native of Vermillion, South Dakota, a part of the Nebraska PGA Section.
“Historically, PGA Professionals were more one-on-one lessons, standing on the driving range and working on your swing. Over the last 10 or 15 years, we have developed a lot more with younger people and programming, developing them as athletes, not just as golfers.
“The PGA has an initiative with the ADM (American Development Model) that develops athletes first and not just learning the golf swing and more game play. It is making things fun and not just golf drills.”
Few amateur golfers can say that they began their varsity golf experience as a 12-year-old, but it happened to Karrie Plate, her maiden name. She grew up in a state that had traditionally smaller size athletic programs.
When a friend asked her if she was going to tryout for the track team, she had a quick reply.
“I don’t like to run,” said Karrie. “I chose golf.” She went on to become a six-year letterwinner, a member of state high school champion teams her junior and senior years, and was a state runner-up and third-place individual finisher in those years.
Karrie attended the University of South Dakota, playing golf there, and after graduation taking a position at Dakota Dunes Country Club. Three years later, in 2011, she joined The Ridge Golf Club. In 2018, she was named PGA Head Professional.
Having been a six-year member of the Section Junior Golf Committee, Karrie has one son, Kaden, 11, who is in the PGA Junior League. Her husband, Dan, is an amateur golfer and in a men’s league.
“The Section having influence and control of the Nebraska Junior Golf Tour (NJGT) has made a huge difference,” aid Karrie. “It makes for a lot more competitive golfers, and it develops into adult players as well.”
Meanwhile, the PGA Junior League in Sioux Center continues to build from the halls, and success stories are emerging.
“The difference-makers for us is that we spend time volunteering in the winter months in the elementary schools, teaching golf and physical education class,” said Karrie. “You kind of build a relationship with the kids, and they find out what golf is and get excited about it. They trust you, and I see little kids around town and they say, ‘Oh, that’s my golf coach!”
Last year, Karrie and her team began a PGA Junior League program for a local summer camp for children from lower income families — Rising Arrows.
That program was tied with summer school, and yielded 60 youngsters among second and third grade. They arrived weekly at the golf course for instruction.
“About 58 of them had never golfed before,” said Karrie.
“We’re getting there. Eight years ago, there was probably one girl on the high school golf team, and this year, we had 24 in the local public schools.”
Being a college golf coach has its perks; University of Nebraska Coach Judd Cornell also has some bittersweet days. Cornell, who completed his fourth season during the Section’s Centennial, has had to juggle collegiate coaching and a personal playing career.
In 2024, Judd won the 2024 Nebraska PGA Section Championship, earning a berth in the 2025 PGA Professional Championship.
Due to the Huskers competing in the Big Ten Conference championship, he couldn’t make the trip to the PGA club professional’s showcase event in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
The 2004 Nebraska Amateur of the Year and a three-year captain and four-time letterwinner at the university, (2003-06), Judd preceded his PGA of America career by competing in the U.S. Amateur, Western, and North and South Amateur.
He also competed on multiple mini tour circuits, including the Adams Tour where he was named 2007 Rookie of the Year and finished among the top 20 on the money list.
“I grew up in Omaha and from day one was surrounded in a really good environment,” said Judd, the son of PGA Professional Mike Cornell, a former teaching professional at Oak Hills Country Club and now PGA Director of Instruction at Champions Run in Omaha.
Mike is a six-time Nebraska PGA Teacher of the Year, the 2013 Section Golf Professional of the Year, and was listed among the top 200 U.S. golf instructors by GOLF Magazine.
That “environment” also featured Bob Vermeer, who was Oak Hills PGA Director of Golf at the time, and the father of future PGA Professional Champion Ryan Vermeer.
Three PGA of America families formed a talented core that blended playing and coaching careers. Ryan, 47, is five years older than Judd, and there’s friend Brady Schnell, 40, who was working toward PGA membership, and the son of former Oak Hills PGA Head Professional Curt Schnell, now the PGA Director of Golf at Lake Okoboji Golf Course in Spirit Lake, Iowa.
“The thing with Nebraska that is really cool is that the instructors created a really good golf culture,” said Judd. “The reason we have had so many good players come through the state is that there is a great environment to learn from.”
Cornell came back to Lincoln after spending three seasons (2019-22) as the head coach at Creighton University. An Omaha native, Cornell was an assistant coach at Nebraska for six seasons, including his final two years in Lincoln as associate head coach (2017-18 and 2018-19).
Upon the announcement of his hiring on Aug. 11, 2022, Cornell immediately focused his attention on helping the Huskers improve.
“I think young golfers in the state have got good advice,” he said, reflecting on his playing professionally for five and one-half years and traveled throughout the world.
“I never made it on tour, but had some great experiences traveling,” said Judd. “I had three good years, played some Korn Ferry Tour events, and last year won the Section Championship.”
Judd Cornell’s past students include Nate Vontz at Creighton, the son of PGA Professional Denis Vontz, a PGA Director of Golf at Highlands Golf Course in Lincoln.
His Cornhusker luminary team members include Australian Hamish Murray, who tied for 15th in the 2025 Big Ten Championship; France’s Rudy Sautron, who had the past season’s lowest scoring average; and former team member PGA Professional Michael Colgate, an NCAA Regionals qualifier in 2015-16.
In 2019, Nebraska marked its highest Big Ten finish in school history (5th), as well as its best finish at the Big Ten Match Play Championship (4th).
As for Mike Cornell, a native of Sioux Falls, and a graduate of the University of South Dakota, he was a political science major and headed for a law career.
Mike entered the golf industry and had opportunities for director of golf at several Omaha facilities before electing to get into instruction in the early 1980s.
“My dad was one of the first to teach full-time in Omaha,” said Judd. “He’s been one willing to adapt to technology, and is always learning. He has so much knowledge and experience teaching, he can keep it very simple.
“The biggest thing he has always told me was to ‘Get right to the point; it helps simplify things in their minds.’ Instead of talking rubbish.
“You can sound smart, but if you aren’t getting to the point it doesn’t do much good. There is a big difference between being a great golf instructor on the lesson tee and someone who can just sound smart having a cup of coffee.”
Nebraska women’s coach Jeanne Sutherland, who grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, marked the spring of 2025 as her retirement after 32 years in coaching.
Sutherland began her college golf head coaching job in 1992 at Texas A&M University, and taught winters before that at the John Jacobs Golf School in Phoenix.
In 2007, offered the head professional job at Vail (Colorado), where she worked four years.
Then, while downhill skiing, she broke her left tibia and took the summer off. Recovered, she applied in 2011 and was named the head women’s coach at Southern Methodist University.
A decade later, Sutherland faced her biggest life challenge – battling ovarian cancer in 2021.
“It took a lot out of me, I decided I wasn’t up to the job and had just gone through chemo therapy and was pretty worn out,” said Sutherland. “But I was lucky, and had great doctors.”
She moved to Omaha, stayed with her parents for a short time and was just about to settle into an apartment, when she was offered an assistant coaching job at the University of Nebraska. She accepted and once the head coaching position opened in March 2023, she was named the Cornhuskers head coach.
Two seasons later, and just after catching a heel of her high heels wrong on a stair, Sutherland is recovering from a broken fibula – this time – in that same left leg.
Sutherland was introduced to golf by Larry Miller, her Dubuque Senior High School mathematics instructor.
“I played all the other spots and I decided I wasn’t going to run track,” said Sutherland. “I wasn’t very fast and he talked me into golf. He got me a job at a golf course (Bunker Hill) and the pro’s daughter was a year younger than me. We played about every day and I was horrible. But I loved it.
“The course was close to my house, and I worked all the way through college and enjoyed myself very much.”
Sutherland graduated in 1983 from the University of Northern Iowa with a teaching degree, and turned professional in 1985.
She worked for the summer after graduation at Jackson Hole (Wyoming) Golf & Tennis, then taught school in the winter, and returned to Jackson Hole in the spring. She received a job offer in Vail, Colorado, and the following summer began to carve her path in the golf industry.
“I was still learning the game when I was in college,” said Sutherland. “As a pro, I played a lot and gave a lot of playing lessons. Think playing well served me well. I was improving in my 30s.
Though she doesn’t have a long record of service in the Nebraska PGA, Sutherland said it isn’t hard to recognize a winning environment for golf.
“I think David Honnens is a great leader for the game and state,” said Sutherland. “Judd Cornell is a great coach for the men, and his ability to relate to the guys as a player and his leadership is strong.
“I told my boss in November that I would be retiring in the spring,” said Sutherland. “There are so many great things about coaching. It’s fun to be with players who want to get better and work really hard, and are open to learning. I’m very competitive and it’s one way to channel your competitiveness your whole life.
The thing about coaching that’s fun is to watch kids mature and watch them grow in character and develop their decision-making skills as they age. It allows you to keep learning, and you are always trying find the next person to listen to and find an edge.”
There isn’t a day of wasted energy for Morningside University Coach Nick Wanderscheid.
The 2016 Nebraska PGA Player of the Year, and a three-time Section Champion, Wanderscheid also is a 10-time qualifier for the PGA Professional Championship.
Born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa, his junior golf experience came courtesy of the Nebraska PGA.
“My dad played slow pitch softball on a world-class level, and it happened one of his teammates played golf and took us both out for our first rounds together,” said Wanderscheid, who was eight years old at the time.
His father, Gary Wanderscheid, was a member of the Doc’s/Easton men’s 40-and-old team of Sioux City, Nebraska. In 1995, in Detroit, Gary was a member of the winning team that toppled New Zealand in the U.S. Slow Pitch Softball Association World Championship.
“Once snow melted, we had six baseball practices, I skipped five of them to play golf,” said Nick. “My dad sat me down and I was 13. He said, ‘You got teammates in baseball and you can’t leave like that. You have to pick one sport or the other.’ I was the only catcher. I asked my dad, You won’t be mad if I tell you what sport? I was riding my bike to the course after that.”
Nick grew up in the game by playing two municipal layouts, Floyd Golf Course and Green Valley Golf Course.
He graduated from Sioux City East in 1997, and won the 1998 and 1999 Sioux City Men’s Amateur Championship and turned professional in 2000. He started his professional career as the associate head professional at Whispering Creek Golf Club in Sioux City.
In 2002, he began an 18-year run at Green Valley Golf Club as the second PGA Assistant Professional.
In May of 2013, Wanderscheid was elected to PGA membership and was promoted to PGA Head Professional at Green Valley. He continued in that role until January of 2020 when he accepted the position of PGA Teaching Professional at Dakota Dunes Country Club.
Wanderscheid had a casual dinner conversation in winter of 2019 with former Morningside Coach Todd Sapp, who was talking about retirement following the next spring season. That conversation sparked Wanderscheid to call his friend the following day to say that he was interested in applying for the position once it was open.
“We live at Whispering Creek and I knew all the kids on his team before Todd retired,” said Wanderscheid. “Todd had given me a big endorsement to the kids that I was the unofficial swing coach. The transition appeared that it would be smooth.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The spring season was canceled and student-athletes were granted another year of eligibility.
Sapp, who had both the Mustangs men’s and women’s teams nationally ranked at the time, told Wanderscheid “You won’t like hearing this, but I don’t want my coaching career to end like this.”
“I had taken the teaching position at Dakota Dunes on a leap of faith that the Morningside job would open, and didn’t know if I would be able to earn a living until then,” said Wanderscheid. “Fortunately, things did work out. I was busier in the teaching side during the pandemic more than I would have been.”
The following spring, Sapp did retire and Wanderscheid interviewed in summer of 2021, being named coach of the men’s and women’s programs.
In his first three seasons guided the Mustangs to 27 team victories, including three GPAC Championships. Since he took the coaching helm, Wanderscheid’s team roster has featured players from 12 countries.
Wanderscheid said he shaped his coaching career through Rich Vanderloo of Sioux City East and attributes golf coaching inspiration to PGA Professionals that include 2018 PGA Teacher of the Year James Sieckmann, Mike Schuchart, Mike Cornell, Ryan Vermeer, and Jon Petersen, who received Nick’s lavish praise.
“It’s not a secret why Nebraska golf is the way it is,’” said Wanderscheid. “The volume of teaching is amazing for the size of Section that we are. There is nobody in Nebraska that has had more to do with the success of where our junior and college golf is than Jon Petersen.”
As he reflects upon the transition he made to Morningside, Wanderscheid said he is “blessed.”
“I was lucky to take over a program that was in great shape,” he said. “All I was able to do was keep the train on the tracks.”
Wanderscheid, 46, was chair of the Section Tournament Committee from 2019-2024, as well as holding a seat on the Nebraska PGA Board of Directors.
Along his journey as a PGA Professional, Wanderscheid has collected numerous titles and championships at the professional level. Wanderscheid has won more than 35 professional tournaments.
Included in those are the Nebraska PGA Section Championship three times (2014, ’15, ’17), the Nebraska PGA Match Play Championship twice (2015, ’21), the Nebraska PGA Assistants Championship twice (2010, ’11), and the Nebraska PGA Team Championship three times (2014, ’17, ’19).
Coach Wanderscheid was named 2023-24 GPAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year for the second time in his career.
Since he earned PGA membership, Wanderscheid has coached more than 30 players who played or are playing collegiate golf.
About the Nebraska Section PGA
The Nebraska Section PGA is a non-for-profit organization comprised of over 340 PGA Members and PGA Associates who strive to promote the enjoyment and growth of the game of golf. The Nebraska Section PGA encompasses the entire State of Nebraska, western fifth of Iowa and a small portion of South Dakota including Dakota Dunes and Yankton. The Section office is located in Lincoln, NE and acts as a resource for local and national golf information for the golf professional and amateur player alike. Our members are often referred to as “Club Professionals”, not to be mistaken as PGA Tour Professionals.
Each Nebraska Section PGA Professional serves as an expert in the ever-changing business of golf. They are the leading expert players and teachers, skilled business managers, community leaders, and superior merchandisers who have dedicated their careers to the local delivery of these services.