Canadian Denise Lavigne named coach of Swiss national team

Duramed FUTURES Tour alumna Denise Lavigne of Quebec, Canada, has been named as the coach of the Swiss women's national team for 2010. The squad will start its training camp in Spain in February.

"It's pretty much my passion," said Lavigne, a teaching professional and
member of the LPGA's Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP), the Canadian
PGA and the Swiss PGA. "My heart leans toward the coaching of elite players.
I'll be traveling all over Switzerland to work with these girls."

Lavigne launched her professional career as a member of the Tampa Bay
Mini-Tour in the early 1980s, which became the FUTURES Golf Tour and later, the Duramed FUTURES Tour. She played collegiately at Florida International University in Miami. Lavigne (prounced La-VEEN) is now a full-time teaching professional during the winters at Deer Creek Golf Club in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and during summers at Club de Golf Le Mirage in Quebec.

She also taught golf at the Golf Club de Geneve in Switzerland for 15 years
and served as the regional coach for 14 and under players in western
Switzerland from 1990 to 2004.

"I am looking forward to working with this Swiss team," said Lavigne, who
has spent her teaching career using both the French and English languages on the instruction tee. "Some of the players speak French and some speak
Swiss-German, but we do just fine."

Lavigne was mentored by Canada's Jocelyne Bourassa and is now mentoring
numerous young Canadian pros, including Danielle Mills of Quebec. Mills will
be a rookie on the 2010 Duramed FUTURES Tour and was the runner-up in the Tour's annual qualifying tournament last fall.

-by Lisa Mickey, Duramed FUTURES Tour