"Let's Play 9!"

For our March spotlight we are going to find out a little more about Scott Harmelink, Director of Golf at Green Valley and Floyd Park golf courses.

Harmelink was born and raised in Yankton, SD.  In Yankton, he played high school golf and capped off a great senior year with the Yankton golf team winning every tournament they played in, including ESD and State.

After high school, Harmelink went to New Mexico State University to major in Professional Golf Management, a degree that at the time was only offered by four universities (Ferris State, Mississippi State and Penn State were the others).  At NMSU he qualified for the golf team by getting 3rd place in the PGM Student Walk On Tournament however he never qualified to represent NMSU in tournament play.  Harmelink had some "somewhat famous" roommates in college.  2002 PGA Champion Rich Beem, Martin Chuck, who is the Tour Striker inventor and a top US golf instructor and Brennan Little.  Little is a long time PGA tour caddie who was on the bag for Mike Weir when Weir won The Masters as well as looping for Gary Woodland at the US Open and is still Woodland’s caddie.

Golf has been in Harmelink’s blood since he was young. He said “As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted a career in golf. I started playing golf when I was 7 or 8. My dad and grandmother played golf, but my dad was very busy with his law practice and tending to our family’s farm, cattle and hog operations so my grandma took me golfing most times. She usually took me to Kentucky Fried Chicken after the round, which I thought was as fine a culinary experience could be at that time”.

After college, Harmelink spent the better part of the next decade playing golf at Hillcrest in Yankton during the summers.  Many great friendships were generated from those days, as was his desire to play and compete in the game.

In the mid 90’s, Scott and his girlfriend (now wife) Stacy moved to San Diego where he worked as an assistant pro at courses such as Del Mar, Sea and Air, Eastlake and Singing Hills.  He and Stacy married in 1998 and decided to move back to the Midwest in 2000 to start a family. In late 2000, he was hired by then Green Valley head pro Bret Taylor to be 1st Assistant.  When Taylor left in 2002, Harmelink became the Head Pro.  His title at Green Valley changed to Director of Golf as Bob Walker and Nick Wanderscheid joined into the GV/Floyd Head Pro positions. When Wanderscheid left GV in 2019, Walker became Head Pro at GV and Matt Nelson took over at Floyd.

Green Valley and Floyd Park have become great advocates for the First Tee of Siouxland. Says Harmelink “I am proud to serve on the First Tee Board. First Tee kids play, practice and learn life lessons all summer long at our two golf courses at no cost to the First Tee”.

Green Valley will hold it’s first tournament of the year on April 8th.  It will be the Spring Thaw 1-Man Scramble. Sign up at the course.  Also, you can download and sign-up for the Tri-State Masters on the website.

Scott and Stacy will celebrate 25 years of marriage in May and they just spent a vacation celebrating that milestone in Africa.  They have two daughters, Emma (21) and Maya (19).  Emma graduated from Grand Canyon University in August and still resides in Phoenix. She is signed up with three modeling agencies.  Maya is now a freshman at GCU. 

Now, let's see how Scott does on the back 9...