I have been playing golf for almost 40 years and I started taking it a little more serious when I was at Oregon State.  I tended to spend more time practicing golf instead of going to classes so needless to say it took me a while to graduate.  I started a golf club repair company in 1982 and one of the golf clubs that I did work for was Broadmoor in Portland.  In ’84 I was approached by Don Otto, the Head Professional at the Moor, and he asked me if I wanted to be an assistant for him.  At the time I was making very little money so it sounded like a good idea even if I still wasn’t going to get rich. 

In ’87 I accepted the Assistant Professional job at Corvallis Country Club and worked for Todd Young.  At that time, Todd was on the Board for the OPGA and he was the first one to try to get me to be involved in the chapter and section.  From there I went to Salishan and worked with Grant Rogers and Vern Smith.  My goal as an apprentice was to work at a Public, Private and Resort facility to get a feel of what jobs I wanted to pursue after that.  I became a member of the PGA in 1988 while at Salishan but my most important achievement that I accomplished was to convince my future wife Kate that I was a better catch than the fisherman.  It was a tall order but we are still happily married today.

My first Head Professionals position was at Wing Point Golf and Country Club on Bainbridge Island across the Puget Sound from Seattle in 1990.  When I took over for Dan Hill, the course was nine holes and the golf shop was the size of a closet.  We went through a total remodel and added the back nine while I was there.  Kate worked at some of the local hotels but never found anything to her liking until she was contacted by a Four Seasons Resort.  We would have to move to a different Island but it would be in the Caribbean instead of the Sound.  She caught me on a good day to ask, Ladies Day, and we were off to the tropics in 1994.

I was the Head Professional at the Four Seasons Resort Nevis for about two years and had a chance to meet some very influential people.  From the world of sports, (Wayne Gretzky, Cal Ripken), entertainers (Robert Plant, Michael J Fox), and business icons (CEO Pfizer, President American Express) as well as share a bottle of wine and a cigar with Marvin Shanken, publisher of Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado.  It was the most interesting and frustrating job I have had and it gave me a new understanding of how good it is to live in the USA.  When we left the Islands in 1996 we could go anywhere we wanted and we both chose Portland as the place to land.

I grew up in Portland and went to Wilson High School so coming back to the city was a very easy transition.  My parents still live here and I am still good friends with some of my buddies for school.  I started All Seasons Indoor Golf in Beaverton with one of them and built a 10,000 square foot facility that was recognized as one of the best in the country.  We focused on corporate events and junior camps but after 9/11 we found that the only way to keep afloat was to build synthetic putting greens and run it as a sports bar.  This was not the direction that I wanted my career to go so I moved out to Pumpkin Ridge in 2002.

I started as the Director of Instruction of the Nike Golf Learning Center, a mouthful of a title.  My responsibility was to get new golfers and juniors into the game.  It was a great program but it was at a course that was a little to difficult for most beginners.  I was in this position for about two years and then was given the Head Professionals job at Witch Hollow which is a story in itself on how it came about.  I started in the spring of 2004 and I have been at Pumpkin Ridge longer than any other facility.  One of the goals that I set for my career was to be the Head Professional at a facility that hosted a major championship and Pumpkin is one of the few in Portland that can say that.

The part of the job that I enjoy the most is being able to build relationships with members, co-workers, and my peers.  This is the main reason why I feel that I am suited to the Private side and I have really enjoyed being on the Board.  If you think about it, we work in a part of the service industry that revolves around sports and I think it is our job to make sure that our customers remember that they are out here to have fun.  Most people who walk through our doors feel that way and if you are a sports junkie like I am you will always have something in common with them.  I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t in the golf business, maybe I would have been in the wine industry, but then I would have made my hobby my job once again.