(Riverton, WY) While Wyoming’s winter months may have taken golf off the radar, Riverton’s Country Club is undergoing some changes, and along with it, the board selected Mike Neuman as the new Head Golf Professional and Pro Shop manager, welcoming him into the community at a meet-and-greet event last Friday.
A Wyoming native born and raised in Rawlins, Neuman had retired after 25 years with Coca-Cola, after which he and his son built, owned and operated Casper Indoor Golf & Wyoming Golf Academy. One of his friends, who was Head Pro at Paradise Valley Country Club, approached him and asked him to be Assistant Head Pro. “He knew I always wanted to be a part of the PGA program,” he said. “So that’s what I did for the last two years.”
From the indoor facility to Paradise Valley, the opportunity for Neuman to come to Riverton and be Head Pro was one of his goals. “I’ve got dear friends that are basically family that live here, and that kind of set me on the course of this, so to speak,” he said. “I’ve coached for a long time…basketball, golf…I’ve been around golf my entire life. So the opportunity to be here? I’m beyond excited.”
Coming in during the winter months, Neuman said that he’d be “excited to see about 20 inches of snow melt,” he laughed. “That would help the cause. But seriously, I was able to come in January while the pro shop was literally being gutted. Carpet, walls, everything. Little by little, we’re putting it all back together. The help of the board, the help of members, the volunteers…it’s has been outstanding.”
A few more details and upgrades need to be done before the pro shop will be ready, as Neuman looks forward to plans for the upcoming season. “The inventory will start coming in probably around mid-March,” he said, “It’s obviously going to be a real learning year for me, getting a staff together, setting some expectations of what that will look like…might do some things a little bit different. I’m not here to change traditions, but I’m here to go and prove everything that we do.”
Neuman had been a member at the Casper Country Club for 17 years, “so I got the ‘member’ side of it down,” he said, also adding that Central Wyoming College had approached him with the offer as their Head Golf Coach. “So through all of this, a real bucket list item of mine was to be a college golf coach. To check all of this off has been fabulous…everything is falling into place and I’m super excited.”
The Riverton Country Club board stated on their website that “Mike shares our vision of adding value for our members and has already jumped in with establishing accounts with our pro shop vendors, helping with the pro shop remodel, and sharing best practices for some key processes.”
Visit the Riverton Country Club website at rivertoncountryclub.net or call the Pro Shop at (307) 856-4779
h/t Carol Harper