Exchange City Par 3 Golf Course professional Mark Hahn is heading to Laurel Golf Club.
BILLINGS — Unexpected opportunities arose for Mark Hahn and Matt Stricker — opportunities too good to pass up.
Stricker is replacing Hahn as the head professional at Exchange City Par 3 Golf Course in Billings, while Hahn has taken the same position at Laurel Golf Club. Both will begin their new jobs on Thursday, April 1.
The move is a homecoming for Stricker, a Billings native currently living in South Dakota. Hahn, who was also born and raised in Billings, had a tough time leaving Par 3 after more than two decades as the head pro there. But the Laurel job was too tantalizing to turn down.
“It’s an honor and it’s something that I couldn’t say no to,” Hahn told The Billings Gazette and 406mtsports.com. “It doesn’t come around like this. I’m just thankful for it.”
Hahn, 53, learned about the opening from the person he’ll replace. After 31 years as Laurel Golf Club’s head pro, Tom Anderson will transition to director of golf and plans to retire in a year or so. Hahn immediately came to mind when he was thinking about a replacement.
“He’d be just a great fit for out here. He’s well-liked, he’s really pleasant, he knows this business,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we can go wrong.”
Anderson, 68, grew up in Utah and came to Montana in 1972. He worked at Lake Hills Golf Course for four years, then became an assistant pro at Laurel in 1977, the same year he met his wife, April. He was the head pro at Signal Point Golf Club in Fort Benton for the next two years, took a four-year break and returned to Signal Point in 1984. He spent 1988 as the head pro at Sunnyside Country Club in Glasgow, and he took over in Laurel a year later.