Bruce and Don Meet Deane Beman

I was fortunate enough to be involved with the second event ever held on the Ben Hogan Tour (now the Nationwide Tour). The Ben Hogan Yuma Open in February of 1990 was the second event of a bold experiment instigated by PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman. The first year each of these events had a $100,000 purse sponsored by the Ben Hogan Company.  The idea was that the players who did not earn their cards at the finals of PGA Tour Qualifying School plus the players just outside the top 125 of the money list would provide strong fields to play in some smaller markets around the country.  One of the requirements to host a Ben Hogan tour event was that the host site could not be within 50 miles of an existing PGA Tour event.  With PGA tour events in Tucson, Phoenix and Las Vegas there were not many sites in Arizona or Southern Nevada that met the criteria.  Originally the event was scheduled at a course under construction in Laughlin, Nevada. Sometime around the middle of November 1989 I received a call from our PGA Section asking whether we had enough support in Yuma to put together a tour event and Pro-Am in just over two months. I responded that we could do it and although my golf course, Yuma Golf & Country Club seemed like the obvious choice for the event, I had a feeling that the whole community would get behind the event if it was held at Desert Hills Municipal Golf Course. Desert Hills is an excellent city course with a Convention Center and abundant parking adjacent to the course. With the backing of the City of Yuma we committed to an event that should have taken a full year to plan and by accepting the event we committed to providing the excellence expected by the PGA Tour operation. The Head Professional at Desert Hills, Don King, and I were invited to attend a planning meeting in Ponte Vedra, Florida the first week in December. We showed up at PGA Tour headquarters and I believe the meetings were held in a nearby Marriot Hotel. Each of approximately 30 events sent a team of two to four people for these meetings and there was a great deal of excitement as PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman opened the meeting by introducing Bob Dickson as Director of the Ben Hogan Tour. Dickson and Beman started with a detailed description of event organization and spent the last half hour before our first break talking about how prior to the cut the field tees off utilizing a “double tee start”. A double tee start sends players off the first and tenth tee in a morning and afternoon wave.  Feeling that the meetings were a little bit too serious, Don and I decided to test the sense of humor of Beman and Dickson. During the break we introduced ourselves and noted our circumstance of being only two weeks into the planning stage in Yuma. Don started off, “Mr. Beman, about the double tee start?” Beman said, “Yes, you have a question?” I stepped in and said, “ Will a double tee start work if we have only a nine hole golf course?” Both Dickson and Beman looked at each other in absolute speechless horror until Don and I both started giggling like schoolgirls.  I think Dickson had a better sense of humor than Beman, as he would at least speak to us throughout the rest of the meetings. I remember at the end of the meetings we played the TPC Sawgrass in a scramble and I was paired with Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Summit who was representing the event from Tennessee.

We did not win and she was not happy about that (she always wins). In just two days I had upset the Commissioner of the PGA Tour, The Director of the Ben Hogan Tour and the All-Time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. Fortunately the actual event was an absolute hit with great community involvement, great money raised for charity and a perfect execution of a “double tee start”.

Bobby Clampett's College Days

          Bobby Clampett is one of the primary reasons I became a PGA Club Professional. In my final year of college at UNLV (1978) I was already struggling with my putting but I thought I was a pretty good ball striker. I always felt that if I could fix my putting I could play with just about anyone. Clampett was playing for BYU and we were paired together for two or three tournaments that year. I had played with some pretty good players but never a player with Clampett’s pedigree. Between 1978 and 1980 Clampett would earn All-America honors three times and be named collegiate golf’s player of the year twice. In 1978 he won the California Amateur, Western Amateur, Sunnehanna and the World Amateur Individual Medal. He was also low amateur in the U.S. Open in 1978 and low amateur in the Masters in 1979. I was hot off a 2^nd place finish in the Broadmoor Invitational (that’s the 9 hole Broadmoor CC in Nampa, Idaho). The first time I played with Clampett I was astonished that after three or four holes his game was very similar to mine. Fairway, Green, 2-putt and an easy par. If this is the best amateur on the planet then I must be pretty good. Well along came the fifth hole… BOOM… a five iron to two feet BIRDIE. Sixth hole par 5… BAM… a 3 wood to one foot EAGLE. Seventh hole …SHAZAAM…. a 7 iron to 4 inches BIRDIE. When he found his slot it did not matter whether he was hitting a two iron or a wedge...the golf ball took off dead at the pin and went the perfect distance on a perfect line. Each of the times I played with Clampett he would have two or three streaks of this ball striking that was almost supernatural in nature. He was also a completely fun guy to play with. Now in a 4 day event these ball striking Blitzkriegs by Clampett would leave me 10 to 20 strokes behind, that is if I was playing well. The thing that made me realize it would be smart to pursue a life as a PGA Club Professional rather than compete with the likes of Bobby Clampett was that although he beat my 20 shots in four rounds he would typically miss two or three putts under four feet each round. I truly believe that Clampett had to go nuts when he started playing the PGA Tour and would get beat by guys making six 20 footers a round. Although he won 1.4 million on the PGA tour most people classified him as underachieving. In the past few years Clampett has gotten involved in an instruction program called the Impact Zone that details his ideas of how to strike a golf ball. I use some of his principles in my teaching and so I can now thank Bobby Clampett for pointing me toward a great profession and providing me a teaching tool to help people enjoy the game.

James Contreras...Serial Wrong Ball Hitter

        Hitting a wrong ball, particularly in competitive golf, is worse than a missed Boise State field goal in football. It is worse than a Shaquille O’Neal free throw. It is even worse than whiffing the ball. You have to add two shots, go retrieve the wrong ball, apologize to whoever the wrong ball belonged to, go find your own ball and then regain your composure and try to hit a quality golf shot. During this time your self talk (one of the 3 to 5 voices in your head) is not very positive. “You are an Idiot. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking was I? I was two under par. Crap, my ball is in a divot.”  If you have never hit a wrong ball I congratulate you. If you have, I think you will enjoy this story about James Contreras. James was one of my best players at Arizona Western Junior College where I coached golf for a few years in the early 1980’s. He was smart, articulate, a very good player and….a serial wrong ball hitter. A serial wrong ball hitter is a person who continually hits wrong balls even when they are very aware that they have a propensity for doing so. I currently play golf with a serial wrong ball hitter and I actually write NOT LINDA on my ball which has at least cut the wrong ball hitting in half but that is a whole nother story. James Contreras became a SWBH in the third event of the season in the spring of 1984. He was playing excellent golf and I remember him posting a 73 or 74. “Nice round James”. Contreras shook his head, “Coach, I was one under with three to play and I hit the wrong ball on 16.” “Was it in the rough where you couldn’t see it?” James shook his head again, “Nope, right in the middle of the fairway.” We discussed what he had learned and how important it would be in the future for him to pay attention to hitting the correct ball. The next week, same thing, posted a 72 or 73 and started shaking his head as he walked toward me. “James, you didn’t?” “Coach, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Middle of the fairway on 15 and I hit the wrong ball again!”  James was such a good kid I couldn’t be upset with him so I just patted him on the back and commented that I bet he would never do that again. Now remember that by definition a SWBH is someone who continues to hit the wrong ball even though they are very aware of their propensity. At the next event I had the answer. Wilson Golf had recently introduced the orange and yellow Pro Staff balls. They were not a big hit and there were no Junior College kids playing these odd colored balls…except for James Contreras. I gave James two sleeves of Yellow Pro Staff balls and said, “James, the wrong ball issue stops here. Play these today and I guarantee you will not hit a wrong ball.” James was pretty self conscious about teeing up a yellow ball but he did so even though he assured me he could go without hitting a wrong ball on his own. James posted another good score in the low seventies and as he walked away from the scorer’s table he was again shaking his head. “James, what’s up. I know you didn’t hit a wrong ball…did you?” Contreras said, “Coach, I don’t know how it happened but on 14…” I stopped him mid-sentence, “James, what color was the ball you hit?” “White”, he replied. “What color ball were you playing?” “Yellow”, he replied. At which point we both burst out laughing. What are you gonna do.

         James continued on in golf and made the team as a walk-on at ASU. That process involved about 100 guys teeing it up and the coach taking only the single best player after a set number of rounds. Here are a few of his accomplishments.

James Contreras PGA

Currently Teaching Professional, Las Sendas

2002 U.S. Open Sectional qualifier


2000 Third place in Hawaiian State Open

2000 Played in Phoenix Open


1991 Played in Hogan and Nike Tour events


1991 Southwest Section PGA Assistant’s Player of the Year


1991 Southwest Section PGA Assistant’s Champion


1984-1986 ASU golf team

1984 Invented the term “Serial Wrong Ball Hitter”

From "Weed" Puller to Golf Course GM in One Year

“Do you realize that you just spent two hours totally destroying a bed of desert wildflowers?”  Richard Bermudez was the Vice President of American Golf Corporation and oversaw golf course maintenance of the company’s entire portfolio. I had noticed him watching me intently over the past hour so I really made sure that I did the most thorough job ever of clearing the area of “weeds”.  “I thought they were weeds.” I replied. The year was 1991 and I was working on the golf course maintenance crew at Painted Desert Golf Club in Las Vegas. As the above conversation indicates I was not very good at what I was doing. Bermudez said, “I don’t think we can afford to have you on our maintenance crew. There is an opening over at Sahara Country Club for a Head Golf Professional/Tournament Director. Take the day off tomorrow and go interview… and please leave the flowers alone.”

Bermudez must have put in a good word for me as I was hired immediately at the Sahara Country Club. For some reason, Painted Desert did not want any notice and allowed me to leave their employ the next day. I think that if I had stayed much longer at Painted Desert that they would have had to change the name to just Desert. The Sahara CC, now Las Vegas National was one of the original courses in Las Vegas and being located just two miles from the Las Vegas Strip it was very popular with both tourists and locals. It is a true Championship Course having hosted both PGA and LPGA tournaments. As I started to work, the sheer volume of golf outings that the course hosted almost overwhelmed me. My predecessor had not kept up with the job so I had over 100 contracts to send out that required an old fashioned typewriter and triplicate copies.  I dug in with exuberance, as I was better at this than I was working on a maintenance crew. Over the next year we were a very successful operation that was becoming more successful as the Dunes Golf Club and Tropicana Country Club were bulldozed to make room for the Bellagio and the MGM Grand resorts.  I had been at the Sahara CC for less than a year when the GM of the property, Gary Klein, dropped a bombshell that would change my professional career. “Bruce, the company is moving me to Phoenix where we have several new properties coming on board. This place needs a full time General Manager and I choose you.”  This was September of 1992 and the course was starting to get inquiries several years in advance from many of the events that had played at the Tropicana and the Dunes. We had already taken our Green Fees from $65 to $75 and still we seemed to be turning people away. As I assumed the duties of GM the natural market pressures of decreased supply of golf courses and increased supply of rooms continued to drive fees upward every three months. In less than a year we were a $100 golf course. At this time, I was blessed to have a Regional Manager and true leader named Steve Harker (currently President & CEO of Touchstone Golf). He became very involved in the Las Vegas market but really let me take the reins and fly. He suggested that we needed to find a way to keep our local clientele to fill times in the summer and to fill early morning tee times that tourists in Las Vegas typically shied away from.  I don’t generally like to take credit for good ideas but since I received the kudos I will on this one. We created a club for Las Vegas residents with a newspaper ad that screamed “Free Golf”. For $100 a local resident could purchase a card that allowed them to make tee times 3 days in advance and pay a much-reduced rate. When purchasing the card they received a “Free” round of golf. We made it a true club and partnered with Las Vegas Golf Magazine to mail their magazine to our members with a monthly newsletter and special offers just for our members.  Since we sold 1,000 of these cards in July and August ($100,000 in sales) Steve Harker was very happy. As a reward he sent my wife and I on a trip to Pebble Beach with a room at the lodge overlooking the 18^th green. The golf portion of that trip will have to wait for another story.  While working under the guidance of Harker the property flourished. The course changed its name to Las Vegas Hilton Country Club, hosted the Re/Max Long Drive Championship and the PGA Tour Las Vegas Invitational and boosted green fees to $145. This was a fun, almost giddy time of working 70 hour weeks and loving it because success occurred daily and trips to Pebble Beach aside Steve Harker knew the value of simply saying, “Thank you. Nice job team.”  By 1996, Harker was reassigned and the magic, at least for me, ended. For four years I had been given goals and it had been up to me and my team to figure out how to achieve those goals.  The new regional manager gave me similar goals and told me how he wanted them achieved. I might have missed out on another good mentor but at the time it felt like the difference between driving a team of horses 70 hours a week and pulling a wagon 70 hours a week. I like to drive. 

Turtle Bay Golf, Mai Tais, Baywatch & Miss Hawaiian Tropic Contest

            September 2002. A year after 9/11 and the world was still in shock from the events that rocked New York City and Washington DC. I was still working for the Pointe South Mountain Resort but we had a new management company and my mentor (Brad Jencks) had left to take the position as General Manager at the Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii. Airlines were flying half empty planes to Hawaii and room rates were low. It was a great time for a vacation.

           Now settle in for a long story and I promise I did not make this up. My wife and I were/are good friends with Kim Hinshaw who was a Captain for Northwest Airlines. My wife was giving Kim golf lessons and she was totally hooked on golf. Over a cold beverage we started talking about golfing vacations. In the middle of the conversation I picked up the phone and called Brad at Turtle Bay. I was patched through to his voice mail and I left a detailed message about the dates we were thinking about and that we were coming to play a lot of golf. Kim committed to getting us to Hawaii if I could set up the rooms and golf. I was excited at the prospect of the trip as Turtle Bay had 36 holes and was set to host a Champions Tour event in early October. I got the call the next day. “Bruce, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we have rooms available and I can give you a great rate.” “What’s the bad news?” I asked. “Well Bruce, the bad news is that the week after you are here we are hosting the Turtle Bay Champions Tour event on the Palmer Course and the tour officials have asked us to close the course the week prior to the event.” I said, “That’s not bad news, we can still play the George Fazio course can’t we.” “Well you can but as GM of the property I need your professional input on how the Palmer Course conditioning is coming along so we will play the Palmer Course anytime you want and we will be the only players on the course.”  Ok. This sounds like a dream vacation. Companion pass for the airfare, low rate for a luxury Hawaiian resort and we will have our own private, tour conditioned, course to play whenever we want. No way this could get any better. Brad interrupted my daydream, “One thing I failed to mention is that while you are here we are hosting the USA Miss Hawaiian Tropic Pageant. This means that you are going to have to put up with beautiful young women dressed in swimsuits constantly strolling around the property.”As my mind once again began to wander Brad interrupted again, “And so the ladies are not left out we also have the cast of Baywatch Hawaiian Wedding staying here and they work out in the fitness center every morning. I think Lynn and Kim will enjoy their workouts.” I asked if that was about it and Brad replied, “Yes except that you should know that we have a secret Mai Tai recipe and our Mai Tais are Internationally acclaimed as one of the top 5 Mai Tais in the world.” 

                I am really not making this up. Since we were flying standby we Fedexed our clubs to Hawaii and started our journey from Phoenix to Hawaii. Things went great getting out of Phoenix and we only waited a couple of hours to get on a plane in Los Angeles. Three passengers and only one seat available…in first class that is. The ladies wanted to sit together and talk so they actually volunteered to have me sit in first class. Who am I to disappoint? Well rested we arrived in Honolulu and at the car rental place the car we had reserved was not available so they upgraded us to a convertible…chaching! Picked up our clubs at FedEx and we were off to the North Shore and Turtle Bay. The rooms were great with an incredible ocean view and we quickly settled in to seats at the Hang Ten Bar and Grill in preparation for the Sunset Happy Hour that featured $5 Mai Tais. Now you can’t even get a Coca Cola for $5 in Hawaii so we decided that since there was fruit attached that the Mai Tai would suffice for dinner. As we sipped dinner we were treated to the most amazing sunset I had ever witnessed. Brad was not there that first evening but he left a message for us that he was available for a “course tour” at 11 am.

                 Lynn and Kim were up at 6 am to go to the fitness center for their workout. Lynn spent more time putting on makeup than she did for our wedding and since I seem to be allergic to working out they went down to the fitness center/Baywatch beefcake facility without me. When they returned I think I remember them saying something about J.D. and Hobie and that I should start working out but I really did not know that there were guys on the Baywatch show. I think I was the victor that morning as we got in the elevator and I held the door for 5 or 6 Hawaiian Tropic contestants who “squeezed” into the elevator with us. I am glad it was only a few floors down as I probably could not have held in my gut for more than 10 stories. We had a quick breakfast…real food because the Hang Ten Mai Tai Bar was not open yet.

It was 10:00 so we went looking for our host and found Brad in the executive offices letting his personal assistant know that he would be at the “tournament site “ for the next 5 hours. The Palmer course at Turtle Bay is incredibly scenic and although it had only been closed for a few days it was immaculate. Playing golf on a great course with your wife and good friends is just incredible. Add the fact that it is absolutely private to only your group and it becomes a surreal experience. It was incredibly quiet and each divot one made seemed like a crater that would show up on TV the following week. After golf we headed back to the Hang Ten and for a late lunch we had a Mai Tai that according to the menu consisted of Hana Bay Rum, Orange Curacao, Pineapple & Orange Juices Topped with Hana Bay Dark Rum Served on the Rocks . Now I happen to know at least one more ingredient that makes the Turtle Bay Mai Tai a world class drink but I am sworn to secrecy as disclosing this secret would be a devastating blow to the economy of Hawaii.

         This was our daily schedule for the trip other than our overnight stay in Waikiki and the afternoon spent at the mansion on Diamondhead where Lynn learned how to surf but we will save that story for another day. One thought to add is that I am amazed at the places I have been privileged to visit and the people I have met thanks to the game of golf. This story is the 52^nd story I have written in a year’s time. I will continue as long as I feel I have something you will enjoy reading.

Davis Love III A Class Act

In the spring of 1994 I received a call from Eric Dutt who was the Tournament Operations Director of the Las Vegas Invitational. The Desert Inn CC had asked to bow out of the three course rotation of TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas Country Club and Desert Inn and Eric was inquiring whether I would be interested in hosting the event at Las Vegas Hilton Country Club. Although it would seem like a no brainer, the early October dates of the event made it very difficult to have a course in condition for a tour event. Las Vegas temperatures are cooler at night so courses usually overseed in the middle of September. With an early October date a course needed to overseed early and take the green height down quickly or wait to seed until after the event and risk that an early frost would render $50,000 of seed a total waste. We decided that it was worth the risk to overseed early and agreed to host the PGA Tour Las Vegas Invitational. Within weeks we received a visit from a PGA Tour Agronimist who outlined the expectations for green speed, bunkers, fairway height, rough height and other details that needed attention. I do not recall receiving any income for the event but I believe that the PGA paid the course $50,000 which also happened to be the fee that the course paid back to the tour for the opportunity to have some television coverage. 

            As the tournament date neared things were going well with course preparations, the golf shop was stocked with an endless array of Las Vegas Invitational Merchandise and the food and beverage operation was stocked to the gills with hot dogs and beer. The Las Vegas Hilton Country Club (originally Sahara Nevada CC), now Las Vegas National, had hosted many professional tournaments beginning with the LPGA Championship in 1961. The PGA tour also hosted events  at the course beginning in 1967 with the Tournament of Champions. From 1969 through 1976, the Tournament continued forward as the Sahara Invitational and the tournament winners of both the LPGA and PGA events reads like a Hall of Fame list of professional golfers. Mickey Wright and Sandra Haynie were among the LPGA winners.  For the PGA events, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Lanny Wadkins,  and Al Geiberger all won the Sahara Invitational event.  The Course record of 63 was initially set by Arnold Palmer in 1967 during the Tournament of Champions. Great history, but as the modern tour players arrived for practice rounds there was only one thing on their minds, “ Are the fairways going to be this wet during the tournament?” Any speck of mud on a ball was cause for great concern and the tour staff assured the players that the course would be dry for the tournament. I asked one prominent player how he liked the greens and he said, “Bruce, the greens are fine but here’s how it works. If I putt well during the tournament they are great greens. If I putt poorly they suck. That’s just how it is.” The weather during the event was perfect, the players liked the course and Bruce Lietzke was crowned the champion. The thing I recall most about the event was the graciousness of Davis Love III. He was the defending champion and we had a large sign at the front entrance welcoming people that featured the statement that Davis Love was here to defend his title. Love had arrived needing to at least make the cut in order to qualify for the Tour Championship. He did not play well and had just finished his round at my course when one of my staff approached him with a request. “Mr. Love, would you mind posing for a few pictures with our Pro out by the entrance sign?” I was within earshot and cringed a little bit as I knew how disappointed Love was in his play. Love’s reply, “I’d be glad to. I really enjoyed your course today.” That is class.

           

The course hosted the event for three years with Jim Furyk winning in 1995 and Tiger Woods posting his first Professional win in 1996. I do remember that Woods played the first round of the event at Las Vegas Hilton Country Club and shot a 70. He finished at 28 under for the five round event. I wonder if he would have posed for a picture with me….

5th Man on 1972 TFHS Golf Team Is Tough Achievement

Golf as a team sport is usually over by the time a person finishes college unless that person is an elite golfer who plays in the Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup. The memories of team golf last much longer and are usually quite strong as playing this individual sport as a team creates some interesting scenarios. In most team sports there are a limited number of individuals who compete for a certain position on the team. In golf, everyone wants to be the number one player and there is usually strong competition just to make the traveling squad of four to six players. My high school golf experience was quite unique and wonderful. My family moved from Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, Idaho the summer before my sophomore year. Golf was a popular sport in Boise but in Twin Falls, a town of 30,000, golf was the most popular and successful sport in town. The Twin Falls High school golf team had won 6 of the last 11 State Championships in golf and expectations were that the trend would continue. The team played and practiced at Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course. Built in 1931, the course featured two par fives, six par threes and ten par fours for a total par of 68. The greens were tiny and built for flood irrigation. They sloped severely from back to front and the sides were almost straight up and down. This was a great course to learn to hit accurate irons shots and develop and inventive short game. The course is short and has an odd par but it has hosted the Idaho Open eight times. As a sophomore I was a bit overwhelmed by the talent level. The two best players, Kevin Packard and Gary Duncan, seemed to shoot under par every round and there were 6 other players on the team that could shoot par or better at any time. The qualifyings for the team were very fair. Early in the season all spots were open to those shooting the lowest scores. I averaged two or three over par at that time and just could not seem to make a match. As the season progressed the spots available for qualifying decreased as players earned immunity by being medalist or shooting under par in matches. The final qualifying of the season came about and there was only one spot available. Maybe I could make a match and if I played well be selected for the state tournament team. The qualifying was to play two nine hole rounds in a two day period. I shot 34 the first round and was thrilled to see that no one else had played well. The three nearest scores were 38, 39 and a 40 by Dave Warner, a Senior who had made most of the matches that year. The next day I played well again and shot a 34 for a total score of 68. Based on the previous day’s scores I was absolutely assured that I had finally qualified for a match. As I waited for the rest of the team to finish I went out and played four holes on the back nine that looped back to the clubhouse. As I entered the clubhouse I noticed the whole team gathered around the coach and there seemed to be quite a bit of excitement. Were my team mates that happy that I had finally made a match? I walked up to the coach and said, “I made the match, right coach.” The coach looked up and said, “Sorry McNee, Warner shot 26.” This did not compute at first. 26 + 40 = 66 so that is lower than 68……but wait, no one shoots 26, they had to be playing a joke on me. Unfortunately for me it was no joke. Warner had made par on the first hole (the only par five on the front 9) and then birdied the next 8 holes. He did go out and play the back nine and made nine straight pars for an 18 hole score of 60 which is a pretty good score for the 5^thman on a high school golf team. The team went on to win the State Championship that year and I had an unforgettable memory of both disappointment for myself and pure joy for an unbelievable achievement by a team mate.