Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--For the second straight year, the Professional Golfers' Association of America is naming a Mississippi State senior No. 1 on its list of national professional golf management majors.
Ryan M. Coyle of Cross Plains, Wisc., is among 14 university students being honored during 2009 who are enrolled in PGA-accredited professional golf management academic programs. He is receiving a $2,500 scholarship, while the 13 other winners are each receiving $1,500.
The PGA annually recognizes rising seniors enrolled in its 20 sanctioned PGM programs, all designed to prepare graduates for careers as Class A professionals at country clubs, resorts and public golfing facilities. Carey Witten of Starkville was last year's first-place winner.
MSU's program is the second oldest holding accreditation by the world's largest working sports organizations. (For more, visit www.msupgm.com/.)
Coyle, the son of Michael and Jeanne Coyle, is an MSU President's Scholar with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. In addition to marketing/professional golf management, he is completing a second degree in economics, both in the College of Business.
He has served as vice president of the campus PGA Golf Management Club and was its tournament director 2006-08. He also is a member of the MSU Jones Cup team.
As a PGA professional after graduation, Coyle said he plans to use his love of golf "to introduce the game to as many new people as possible, and foster their love of a game that can be so much more than just a sport."
The Runyan Award is a memorial to the legendary teaching professional who also was a two-time winner of the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based organization's championship and senior championship competitions. A World Golf Hall of Fame member, he died in 2002.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.