I played in the Single Digit Golf Association for a few years and won one tournament at Silverado CC. Many of my golf buddies are club champions and scratch players who've played around the world too. My latest fun is caddying for my good friend Terry Hackett at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. In 2003, Terry and his pro, David Edwards, made the cut (primarily on Terry's solid play). The first year I caddied for Terry (2002), our pro was Chad Campbell, the current PGA champion and the other pro in our foursome was another rookie, Luke Donald playing with Transamerica CEO Frank Herringer. In 2005 Terry's playing partner was Craig Perks, who won the Players Championship in 2002 Click here to see a neat golf video memory of that event.
My good friend and occasional playing partner, Tom Isaak, owns CourseCo, a company that manages golf courses in Northern California. Tom has introduced me to many aspects of golf course management. His company won the contract to manage Sacramento County's Mather Golf Course, which was purchased from the DOE several years ago. Since the first day CourseCo took on the job Mather has become the top public course in the four county area. The County created "Course Affairs Committees" for each of the 3 county courses (Mather, Ancil Hoffman and Cherry Island) the committees are made up of individuals from the public. I was nominated by Tom and was elected as the Chairman. It's been quite a privilege to be involved with the success of Mather over the years. We meet each month to discuss course management, pro shop sales, tournaments, maintenance issues and fee proposals.
Inspired by Tom Isaak's "Winter Cup", I created an event to give my golfing buddies the experience of playing in a Ryder Cup competition. Along with my friend Larry Halonen we put the event on for 3 years. We called it the "NIKLAH CUP". One of my fraternity brothers, George Kelley owns Stevinson Ranch GC in Modesto, which is a great links style golf course. We held the event there in the springtime over two days playing in the Ryder Cup formats with teams of 8 players each.
With my friend Ken Hunter, whose company manages La Purisma Golf Course and Hunter Ranch Golf Course, I organized many golf tournaments at these great golf courses for friends over the years. We've played father-son events, scrambles and low-net tournaments with wine tasting and dinner parties held afterwards. One last event I'm planning is one which entail a two day two man event with several formats played over two different courses : Hunter Ranch and Stevinson Ranch . . . . I'm going to call it the Ranch Tour.
Ken and I at the Redan Hole at North Berwick West Links, Scotland
this is one of the most copied holes in golf design.