CANONSBURG — Talk about reaching one's goals.

Knoch graduate Melissa (Lazar) Myler is exceeding hers as operations manager of the upcoming Mylan Classic.

The Nationwide Golf Tour event, slated Sept. 2-5 at Southpointe Golf Club, will feature 565 volunteers and give approximately $250,000 to charities, primarily because of Myler's efforts.

"She has done a fantastic job," tournament director and Slippery Rock University graduate Chase McClain said. "We set a lot of lofty goals because that's how we like to work.

"We wanted 500 volunteers, Melissa got us 565. We wanted to give $250,000 to charity — which is a crazy number — and we're going to hit it. This is all a testament to her work ethic."

The Mylan Classic is a first-year event. Myler said most first-year Nationwide Tour events generate in the neighborhood of $40,000 in charitable contributions.

"This is a great golf market. The people around here just get it," Myler said. "We work through the Tickets for Charity program and most (Nationwide) tour events give 50 or 75 percent of their ticket money to that program.

"We're in it for 100 percent. That's the way it has to be for people and charities to really buy into it."

As of Monday, the Mylan Classic had generated just over $200,000 in ticket sales. A Tickets for Charity incentive bonus pool of $35,000, along with ticket sales money at the gate, will push that total to $250,000 or beyond.

Myler also has 150 charities signed up for the event, most ever for a Nationwide Tour event.

"Some events have a volunteer handle the charity side of the tournament. This event hired me," Myler said. "I'll take 30 minutes on the phone with each charity, explaining how to sell tickets and how they benefit from it."

Myler was a three-sport athlete at Knoch — soccer, basketball and track — and attained a sports management degree from Slippery Rock University. She also played basketball at Butler County Community College.

"I knew her briefly in college, but not all that well," McClain said. "We were able to reconnect through the golf industry.

"When I saw the work she had done organizing volunteers at the U.S. Open, she had a natural connection for this job."

Myler helped coordinate 5,300 volunteers and 30 committees at the 2007 U.S. Open, hosted by Oakmont Country Club.

She's only dealing with 14 committees at the Mylan Classic.

"Volunteers will be doing everything from marshaling, holding up quiet signs while players hit, walking with a foursome monitoring scores, working the admission gate ... We couldn't hold this tournament without them," Myler said.

When the tournament ends, Myler will begin work on the 2011 event. The Mylan Classic has a three-year contract with the Nationwide Tour.

The top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list at the end of the season will receive their 2011 PGA Tour cards during a ceremony in Charleston, S.C., Oct. 31.

Myler will be there.

"I was invited down to give a presentation on the Tickets for Charity program," she said. "I'm honored to get that opportunity."

Tickets for the Mylan Classic will be available at the gate each day. Rocco Mediate confirmed Monday he will be playing in the event.