2026 Award Winners Spotlight: Tom Bach, PGA!

Tom Bach has a way of making people feel that they matter. And long after the years spent working alongside him have passed, that feeling tends to stay.

The phone still rings. The relationships endure. The people who have crossed paths with Bach throughout his career carry something of him with them, whether in the way they lead, the way they teach or the way they show up for someone else.

That is the sort of impact that can be difficult to quantify, but impossible to miss. The 2026 recipient of the Southern Ohio PGA’s Bill Strausbaugh Award, Bach has spent a career investing in people with a generosity of time and attention that extends well beyond the job in front of him.

At his core, Bach is a relationship builder. His leadership roles and professional accomplishments tell an important part of the story. The rest is found in the trust he has earned and in the people who continue to carry his influence with them.

For 12 years, Bach served on the Section and Chapter Boards, rising to Section President during a pivotal period in the SOPGA’s evolution. His steady leadership helped guide the Section through the elimination of its chapters, bringing PGA Professionals closer together under a more unified organization. It was a consequential shift in how the Section operated and how its members came together — a change whose impact is still felt at Section events and tournaments today.

But the measure of Bach’s career may be found less in the structures he helped build than in the people who came through them.

During 27 years as Head Professional and General Manager at Sharon Woods Golf Course, Bach made mentorship part of the job. He brought his staff into budget preparation, planning and management decisions, giving young professionals something more valuable than instructions: the experience and confidence to lead on their own. Former assistants have gone on to become head professionals, general managers, teachers and business owners. Many still call Bach when they face a difficult decision or need someone they trust to help them see the way forward.

That instinct to invest in people extends beyond the golf industry’s next generation of professionals. Through the Bach Scoring Academy, high school coaching and his work with PGA HOPE, Bach has helped players of different ages and abilities find more in the game. His students know him not simply as an instructor who can improve their scores, but as someone who will stand beside them when the score threatens to define the day.

During a recent state-qualifying event, one of his high school players struggled under the pressure of being the final golfer representing his team. After a difficult stretch, Bach helped him reset and approach the remaining holes one shot at a time. The player made birdie on the next hole and finished with renewed composure. Later, he sent Bach a message of thanks, telling his coach that he had kept him in it.

It was a small moment in a long career. It also said nearly everything.

Bach was named the SOPGA’s Golf Professional of the Year in 2014 and has continued to serve the Section as Past President. The Bill Strausbaugh Award, which recognizes a commitment to mentoring and developing fellow professionals, is a fitting addition to that record.

It honors not just what Bach has accomplished, but the way he has gone about accomplishing it.

In golf, a legacy can be measured in championships, positions held or years of service. For Tom Bach, it’s measured in the people who still reach for the phone because they know Tom will answer, equipped with a warm hello that makes them glad they called. It’s measured in the former colleagues who carry his lessons into their own leadership. It’s measured by the young players who remember how he helped them find their footing.

His legacy lives in all of those people because for Tom Bach, those connections aren’t separate from the work.

They are the work.