Page 5 - 2016EldoradoShootout

El Dorado native making her mark
Special to the News-Times
EL DORADO — El Dorado native Tina Barnes- Budd, the Senior Director of Social Media Marketing/ Communications at the LPGA, has spent 25 years in the sports marketing world, rising to the top in an industry typically dominated by men. In 2015, she joined forces with childhood friend and Murphy USA CEO Andrew Clyde to bring Arkansas’ first-ever LPGA-qualifying event to El Dorado with the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. The event returns to El Dorado’s Mystic Creek Golf Club this year from Sept. 30 through Oct. 2.
“I like to refer to the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout as the ‘total package.’ When you combine a great cor- porate sponsor, the participation from their employees, a fantastic venue in Mystic Creek, and the people of El Dorado who volunteer their time and open their homes to the players, it’s the perfect recipe for an extremely successful event,” said Barnes-Budd.
The 54-hole, stroke-play format tournament is part of the Symetra Tour, which prepares young female golfers for successful careers on the LPGA Tour. The top-10 money winners each season earn memberships on the LPGA Tour for the following season. Additionally, each Symetra Tour tournament raises money for a local char- itable organization, with funds from the 2016 El Dorado Shootout benefitting HOPE Landing, which provides occupational, physical, speech-language, equine, and aquatic therapies to children ranging in age from new born to 21.
Tina Barnes-Budd
Barnes-Budd began her career at the LPGA in 1990. She spent six years with the organization before tack- ling marketing strategies for NASCAR, Figure Skating, the Olympics and the U.S. Postal Pro Cycling Team, eventually launching her own agency. She returned to the LPGA in 2004, and has since spearheaded the brand’s social media efforts, launching social channels on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube, while gaining more than five million followers in the process.
It’s especially gratifying to Barnes-Budd that she’s able to bring her passion “home” to El Dorado, where she grew up competing in sports and cheering on the
Razorbacks with her dad. Symetra Tour tournaments thrive in smaller markets like El Dorado, where the entire community comes together to host a wonderful week for golfers, support teams, and spectators alike. A warm welcome is especially meaningful to the young golfers, many of whom are recent college graduates who spend much of the year traveling to tournaments around the world.
“Although I haven’t lived in Arkansas for 30 years, I still consider it home and will proudly tell anyone who asks me where I’m from. I love Arkansas and miss it terribly and hope to return one day. In the meantime, coming back for events like this makes me so proud of my roots. Knowing that I could call on old friends to create this event is such a magical feeling, and my co-workers are in awe of how such a community like El Dorado can come together and create so many fun, unique and exciting events.”
In addition, Barnes-Budd is proud to help launch the careers of so many dedicated young women. One of the LPGA’s missions is to empower girls and young women through competing in sports, while keeping the five E’s—enrich, empower, engage, energize, and exercise— at the forefront. Many of the Symetra Tour golfers are working toward the goal of representing their country at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which recently saw the return of golf at the Rio games.
“There is no shortage of role models on both the LPGA and Symetra Tours. Our players go out of their way to engage with young girls as they realize the importance of role models in their lives,” she said.
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El Dorado NEWS-TIMES – MONDAY, September 19, 2016 –5
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