Former KU All-American golfer Ryan Vermeer wins second consecutive national honor

By Matt Tait     Jan 9, 2020

Tom Keegan
Former KU All-American golfer Ryan Vermeer gets a read on his putt Friday, Aug. 13, 2018 on the fifth green at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, site of the 100th PGA Championship

For the second year in a row, former University of Kansas All-American golfer Ryan Vermeer has been named a PGA Professionals Player of the Year.

Vermeer, the PGA Director of Instruction at Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, Neb., won his second consecutive national award during a season in which he won his third Nebraska PGA Section Championship, setting the 54-hole scoring record in the process.

Vermeer, 41, also finished tied for eighth at the PGA Professional Championship and tied for 80th at the PGA Championship. His 2019 season also included a third consecutive Nebraska PGA Player of the Year award and a 69th-place finish at the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic.

The former Jayhawk, who has been seen at a couple of KU basketball games this season, told PGA.com that his 2019 season had special “bookends,” as he won the TaylorMade Golf National Championship in March at Pebble Beach and helped the United States recapture the PGA Cup in September in Austin, Texas.

“It’s been another awesome year on the golf course,” Vermeer told PGA.com. “My game held up pretty well considering I was playing in some high-level competition. To be able to come back and win an award like this – once is incredible – but to win a second year in a row is something that not many have been able to do. I am extremely proud and honored to be able to do it.”

Vermeer and fellow 2019 PGA Professional Player of the Year honorees Bob Sowards, of Dublin, Ohio, and Joanna Coe, of Lutherville-Timonium, Md., will be honored on April 24, in conjunction with the 53rd PGA Professional Championship at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.