GAM Outstanding Service Award: Golf Professional Dave Kendall

Farmington Hills – Dave Kendall was diagnosed with the end of cancer less than a year ago and he doesn’t think he’s alive in 2025.

Less than a year later, a PGA teaching professional in the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame, founder of Kendall Golf Academy of Ypsilanti and an ownership partner at Washtenaw Golf Club said he was still teaching him courses throughout his life.

“A lot of good things have happened since then, and I’m glad I didn’t let myself think my life is over,” he said. “I started a therapy to keep it as long as possible. I get up and walk every day. I don’t think I’ll play golf again, but I can play and enjoy it every day. I hope I end up being a miracle story, but if not, I have a lot to thank for, either way I win.”

Kendall, 70, has been named the 2025 Michigan Golf Association (GAM) Outstanding Service Award winner. This is a GAM honor, and Kendall will be one of the winners presented in the spring at the association’s annual conference.

Mary Jo Green, senior director of communications and operations at GAM, nominated Kendall for the awards ceremony on the grounds that he firmly devoted his development to golfers of all levels.

“He coached and taught thousands of students throughout his career, including many aspiring golf professionals,” she said. “His influence can also be seen among hundreds of coaches working at his college, all influenced by Dave’s mentorship and commitment to excellence. He spent countless hours developing Michigan’s lasting golfer, and his commitment to the game is unparalleled.”

Kendall said he was humbled by the award and thanked for his long-term connection with the game.

“It was my state’s golf amateur wing a few years ago and what they did when they were at Cadillac Country Club was important to our members, and it was very important to the players I worked with,” he said.

Kendall calls GAM an impact that has multiple influences on him.

“My Godson Henry Do won the Michigan Amateur Championship (2014), which was an excitement and achievement for him and was very rewarding for his family, and it was only witnessed his victory to win the great GAM Championship,” he said. “It’s great to have a GAM Championship at Washtenaw. I know it’s hard to give up some income and host competitions at golf courses, but at Washtenaw, golfers were exposed to our courses and their relationships with GAM’s rules officials and tournament directors were valuable. GAM gave me many students the opportunity to test and become better golfers. As a PGA professional, developing games is important to me. It’s an important part of my teaching career.”

Shortly after Kendall’s diagnosis, Kendall said Washington received a visit from Dennis Walters, known for his art of trickery and inspirational performances throughout the country, despite being paralyzed from the waist in a golf cart accident a few years ago.

“Dennis has seen and played golf with before, and he did his performance on our Forn of Honor Classic, and I was inspired to think I was a little embarrassed when I told him I had cancer,” Kendall said. “I mean, it wasn’t easy for him just to get out of the car, and I knew he had to practice for two hours a day to do his own performance.”

Kendall said watching Walters help him decide to quit considering not playing golf, but using it as a strength exercise. After brain surgery, he couldn’t walk for three months, and chemotherapy was a battle.

“But I started eating, weight, walking and swinging clubs to do exercises,” he said. “I could play every day and start to enjoy the competitive part of the game I always loved, even though I was competing with myself most of the days. It was still very satisfying, Karen (his wife) and I played a lot and I started to feel better. One day, I was there, and I lined up a 12-foot ball in the last hole, which was important to me. After all the experiences, I shot my age. I did it and felt as good as any championship I won, actually any putt I had ever made.”

Kendall said his doctors now call 2024 a good year.

“It’s been researching every day,” he said.

The young golfers he inspired and worked with have reached out to sign Kendall for the 2025 game. The two-time Michigan Senior Open champion played for the Adidas State Professional at the Michigan PGA alongside Carl’s Golfland’s chief operating officer Casey Baker and one of his former assistant pros, Ian Ziska, and is currently a PGA Head golf professional at the Dunes Golf Club in the United States, who played for the Michigan PGA team.

“So many wonderful things happened, and it’s so good that the game did it for me, it’s incredible,” he said.

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