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2007 OREGON EXECUTIVE GOLF GUIDE: PEOPLE

It’s not winning or losing...

It’s how these Oregon businesspeople play the game

“I’ve spent most of my life playing golf. The rest of it I’ve just wasted.”

— Oregon golfer George Gregores

Everyone talks about golf as a great business tool — a way to bond with clients, clinch deals and build relationships with employees. Of course all that is true. But, as we queried executives on their golf lives, here’s one thing we didn’t anticipate would be as true: how important family is to the game.

“My most famous golfing partner is my 86-year-old grandfather,” one golfer told us. Other “famous” golfers include husbands and fathers. Children figure prominently in our golfers’ favorite stories, especially when the progeny outshine their parents.

It’s clear that golf is about much more than business, even for executive golfers. Have fun reading the insights offered in the following pages — we sure did.

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The Boly:Welch team at the Self Enhancement Inc., golf tournament, which the company helped sponsor. From left: Gwen Butler, Carie Strahorn and Allison Beam.

Allison Beam

Staffing consultant, Boly:Welch

Home course:

Langdon Farms Golf Club, Aurora, and Longview Country Club in Washington, where I grew up and learned how to golf
Dream course: Any of the Kapalua courses in Maui, Hawaii
How often do you golf: 10-20 times per year
Most famous golfing partner: My 86-year-old grandfather
Best golfing experience: Playing with my husband at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course. It was a gorgeous day, we had our own caddy, and I was even able to hit the floating green.
Most memorable bad shot: Aiming for the green and instead hitting a duck that was waddling in front of it.
Best golf advice: Don’t take the game too seriously, or you won’t have as much fun and will just be frustrated.

Gwen Butler

Legal recruiter, Boly:Welch

Dream course: Pebble Beach Golf Links
How often do you golf: 12 times a year
Most famous golfing partner: Gayle Sayre
Best golfing experience: Eagle during Pro-Am Nabisco Dinah Shore Tournament Course
at Mission Hills Country Club, Palm Desert
Most memorable bad shot: They’re not memorable!
Best golf advice: One shot at a time.

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Timothy Mort, at left, stands with Karen Jansen, guest instructor on The Golf Channel, and Jason Zuback, five-time World Long Drive champion from Canada, at this year’s RE/MAX World Long Drive Finals in Mesquite, Nev.

Timothy Mort

Broker, RE/MAX Equity Group; Founder, Tournament Golf Solutions

Home course: Rogue Valley Country Club, Medford
Dream course: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga., where I received an invitation to play two days after the Masters
How often do you golf: Depends on the time of the year; two to three times per week
Most famous golfing partner: Jason Zuback, five-time World Long Drive champion;
Toby Keith, country music recording artist
Best golfing experience: I have been blessed by the golf gods and have played many famous courses in my life. I would have to say the best experience was spending a week at Pebble Beach Lodge, overlooking the18th green, and playing golf with my then-14-year-old son at all of the courses owned by Pebble Beach Company. I was able to walk out of my beautiful lodge room, take a leisurely stroll up the 18th fairway and just sit on the tee box and watch the sun set in the Pacific Ocean. Thinking about the rich history and many legends of golf that have stood on that very tee box with a major title on the line — that was a special moment for me.
Most memorable bad shot: I was playing golf at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. We had just come to a golf hole that ran parallel to a country road when the “S” word attacked my swing. As my tee shot was flying hard right out of bounds, I didn’t see the purpose of yelling “fore” as my view was blocked by a group of trees and I knew there was just an empty country road. Wrong — the next sound was that of breaking windshield glass, and then screeching tires followed by a crash. Thank goodness no one was hurt, just my golfer’s pride. Who hit that ball?
Best golf advice: Golf is a game you can never win.

George Gregores

Partner, Holland & Knight LLP

Home course:

Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course
Dream course: Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, a great golf course I have been fortunate to play a number of times
How often do you golf: I’ve spent most of my life playing golf. The rest of it I’ve just wasted.
Most famous golfing partner: Tom Lehman, PGA Tour Professional and Ryder Cup Captain, a great player and real gentleman
Best golf experience: Playing golf with friends in the UK
Most memorable bad shot: Too many to recall
Best golf advice: Golf is a wonderful game that can be enjoyed throughout your life, so long as you do not take yourself too seriously.

Donnie Castleman

President and COO, Edge Wireless

Home course:

Awbrey Glen, Bend
Dream course: Augusta (been there, and television doesn’t do it justice)
How often do you golf: Not often enough! Once a week.
Most famous golfing partner: No one will tee it up with me!
Best golfing experience: Ko’lav, Oahu, Hawaii (the “toughest course in America”)
Most memorable bad shot: Too many that I have mentally erased
Best golf advice: More golf, less work!

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David Rich and his golf team pose with Angela O’Rourke, the 2004 United States Blind Golf Association National Champion. Rich is third from left, with his arm around O’Rourke.

David Rich

CEO, Reitmeier Mechanical

Home course: McKay Creek
Dream course: Pebble Beach
How often do you golf: Weekly
Most famous golfing partner: Dr. Angela O’Rourke, 2004 Blind Golf Association National Champion. Angela is a Mohawk of the Wolf Clan who was blinded in an automobile accident in 1992, and retired as a colonel from the U.S. Army. She took up golf in 1998 and soon became the number one female blind golfer in the world.
Best golfing experience: Playing along a longtime golf partner and friend who had a hole in one
Most memorable bad shot: On a short par three hole bordered by houses, I hooked a five iron into the side mirror of a pickup truck at one of the houses. I was embarrassed, but my homeowner’s insurance took care of the damage.
Best golf advice: Get lessons, and don’t get angry with yourself for hitting bad shots unless you are really that good of a golfer, which most of us aren’t.

Mike Paul

President and CEO, The Commerce Bank of Oregon

Home course:

Riverside
Dream course: Augusta
How often do you golf: Not often enough
Most famous golfing partner: Rich Piccicato, author and retired FDNY commander, and the senior ranking officer on the World Trade Center site on 9/11
Best golfing experience: Playing with my son James on Mother’s Day 2001, at Columbia Edgewater. Watching him hit a sweet 130-yard three-hop hole-in-one on No. 17. My shot on the same hole — in the water
Most memorable bad shot: See above
Best golf advice: Same advice given by Lee Trevino to Lou Holtz: “Keep it low.”

Cynthia Sparacio

Executive vice president, human resources, West Coast Bank

Home course:

Fairbanks Ranch (previously Creekside), in Salem
Dream course: CrossWater, Sunriver
How often do you golf: Not enough, but usually weekly
Most famous golfing partner: My husband, Jack Sparacio
Best golfing experience: When I shot in the low 80s
Most memorable bad shot: When I actually hit a bird out of a tree on a course in Las Vegas
Best golf advice: Have FUN — it relaxes you and you play better.

Judy Havener tees off at the Lompoc High School Benefit Tournament at The Village Golf and Country Club in Lompoc, Calif.

Judy Havener

Bullard Smith Jernstedt Wilson

Home course:

Formerly Riverside Country Club and Willamette Valley Country Club; now basically resort courses during travel
Dream course: The Coeur d’Alene — I love that course.
How often do you golf: In my former life, every week. Now a couple times a month at most because of other commitments.
Most famous golfing partner: My father, who was Idaho state champion years ago, and the most famous to me; a minus-1 handicap at the time of his death.
Best golfing experience: Watching my nephew hit a hole in one during a tournament on the “hole-in-one hole,” winning $10,000 for his effort.
Most memorable bad shot: Playing in a mixer at Riverside Country Club, on a par-3 hole. I hit a terrible shot into the weeds just off the tee. In attempting to hit the next shot out of long tufts of grass, I hit a truly embarrassing shot: The ball on a pillow of grass landed like a bird’s nest on the top of my partner’s head. No one was injured and the bird’s nest remained stably on her head. Needless to say, I placed the ball for the next shot.
Best golf advice: Don’t give advice.

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