LPGA*USGA Girls Golf 2016 Sandy LaBauve Spirit Award Honors
Air Force Veteran & Las Vegas Site Director Jennifer Alexander
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., January 11, 2017 – The LPGA*USGA Girls Golf is pleased to grant the 2016 Sandy LaBauve Spirit Award to Jennifer Alexander, LPGA Class A Teaching & Club Professional (T&CP) and Site Director of Girls Golf at Las Vegas Golf Club. Jennifer is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel whose experience has helped provide support for a military wife and her daughters through the Girls Golf program.
In recommending Jennifer for the award, Cheri Stanton highlights the mentoring and friendship Jennifer provided while her husband was serving in the military.
“Mrs. Alexander draws from her life experience in the military and as a golfer to teach lessons our modern young ladies so desperately need to be taught. My husband has been deployed several times to Southwest Asia during the time we have been involved in golf. Mrs. Alexander reared a daughter while in service and personally understands the challenges girls go through when their parents are deployed and work long hours,” said Stanton.
Jennifer will be honored and recognized at the LPGA President’s Rolex Awards Ceremony during the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida on Thursday, January 26, 2017.
When Jennifer moved to Las Vegas and learned there was no Girls Golf program in the area, she chose a position which would allow her to start her own program. After successfully launching a site at Las Vegas Golf Club, she helped fellow LPGA Teaching Professionals start another two sites in Southern Nevada. With over 70 girls in her own program over the past three years, Jennifer aims to impact the lives of one thousand girls over the next 10 years.
Upon receiving the award, Alexander said, “I am extremely honored to be selected as the 2017 Sandy LaBauve Award winner. I am just one of many outstanding LPGA*USGA Girls Golf site directors who are growing this wonderful program. There is nothing more important in my teaching program than the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf Program of Las Vegas. We are changing lives of girls here in Las Vegas and making a vital contribution to the community to make it better. It is truly inspiring to watch the girls not only improve their golf game, but also to see them grow as responsible future citizens of our society.”
Nancy Henderson, President of the LPGA Foundation and LPGA Chief Teaching Officer, said, “Jennifer is an outstanding example of a leader who has made it her personal mission to help positively shape the lives of the young women. We are honored to have the opportunity to recognize her for the tremendous contributions she has made to both the game of golf along with the lives of the young women and families who have come in contact with her program.”
Named after the founder of LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, the Sandy LaBauve Spirit Award honors an individual who has gone above and beyond to inspire the lives of juniors through their passion and dedication to empowering girls through golf. Sandy LaBauve was an LPGA Teaching Professional in Phoenix, Arizona, and mother of two daughters when she founded Girls Golf in 1989.