Proximity is often a key to success, and it certainly was in the case of Gerry Brown, the CGA’s director of course rating and handicapping.
In the early 1990s, Brown and his wife were in the publishing business, and their office was located directly above the headquarters of the CGA and the CWGA. And due to that proximity, Brown and CGA staffer J.P. Messick struck up a business-related relationship that largely revolved around their mutual interest in computers.
Little did Brown know at the time that him rubbing elbows with the CGA staff, along with being a “self-taught computer geek”, would lead to a long-term job with the association.
On Oct. 15, Brown will celebrate 20 years of working for the CGA. That makes him the longest-tenured member of the current CGA staff. CWGA executive director Robin Jervey celebrated 20 years with that organization early this year.
At this week’s CGA/CWGA Volunteer Appreciation Day at CommonGround Golf Course, the associations recognized Brown for his many contributions over the years.
“Gerry has been a tremendous asset to the Colorado Golf Association for a long, long time,” said executive director Ed Mate, who played a big role in Brown coming on board with the association. “He’s grown to be one of the most valuable members of the staff.”
Mate, who’s worked for the CGA before and after a stint with the Colorado PGA, and then-executive director Warren Simmons were key players in Brown’s change in career paths 20 years ago.
“It was Ed who went out on a limb and took a chance on me without (me) having any golf background to speak of,” said Brown, who initially was hired because of his computer/technology-related skills, and to help fill the void after staffer Jim Topliff’s quadruple heart bypass. “… I just had a passion for golf, a love for the game. Warren recognized that apparently, and I didn’t let him off the hook after the (job) interview. I kept pestering him. They interviewed me in July and didn’t hire me until October.
“But apparently I learned quickly enough that they said, ‘We’re going to keep you around’ for another year and another year and so on.”
The result is that Brown often has been the go-to guy for the CGA and CWGA on computer and technology-related issues through the last 20 years. And for the last 11, he’s developed into one of the more respected authorities on course rating and handicapping, both regionally and nationally.
That fact was born out last year when Brown received a prestigious appointment to the USGA Course Rating Committee.
But getting from then — 20 years ago — to now hasn’t been seamless. Indeed, he’s been tested and challenged all along with way.
In addition to being a technology-related guru, Brown served as a tournament administrator for his first nine years, often assisting Topliff. “Jim was strictly — as he liked to call himself — ‘the out-house guy’ and I was the ‘in-house guy,'” Brown said with a chuckle.
Obviously, without the prevalence of the internet and cell phones in the early days, running a tournament was a considerably different task back then. Brown will be the first to attest to that after one of his first experiences troubleshooting a GHIN (Golf Handicap and Information Network) software glitch at a CGA championship.
“I remember finally walking out the door with Jim (Topliff) at midnight” after fixing a problem that affected setting up the next day’s tee times, Brown said. “The golf shop staff had locked up and they said the door will close behind you when you leave. Here’s the code for the security system.
“And in those days we didn’t have cell phones and people were calling Jim’s home while his family was sleeping asking what their tee time was for the next day because that was the only way you found out. Jim said that he didn’t get to bed before 2 o’clock, and he was up and back at the course at the crack of dawn.”
Then there was the day in 2001 that Brown was scheduled to do his first course rating, at Spring Valley Golf Club in Elizabeth.
“My first rate was Sept. 11, 2001,” he said. “My head just wasn’t in it that day. There was something else going on. That’s one of those, ‘Where were you on that date?’ moments. I’ll never forget that because I watched the planes slam into the World Trade Center live, then had to send my daughter to school. I had to get to my golf course to rate, and the guys that I met that were supposed to teach me had left (home) before the 9-11 disaster.
“They drove up from Colorado Springs, I went down from Parker and they had a mission on their mind. I got there before they did and I went inside the clubhouse and was talking to the professional. We stood there and watched the television news coverage and that was about the time the plane crashed into the Pentagon. We’re like, ‘Oh my God, we’re under attack.’ We had no idea what was going on.
“These (raters) finally came into the golf shop and found me and they said, ‘Here you are. What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Do you have any idea what’s going on? They looked at the TV and said, ‘What happened?’ I said some planes just crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They said, ‘Oh. … Let’s go rate the course.'”
It was that fall that Brown’s job at the CGA took on a new look. While he still would do considerable software support work — both for the CGA/CWGA offices and member clubs — he’d move from tournament administrator to director of course rating and handicapping, his current position.
“When Ed (Mate) said in 2001 that we want you to take over handicapping and course rating, my jaw dropped because all of a sudden I could see my learning curve shoot through the roof again,” Brown said. “Fortunately I had a pretty good handle on handicapping at that point. I had no idea how to do course rating. So in 11 years to go from nothing up to the USGA Course Rating Committee, I felt very honored.
“I relied on Warren Simmons even after he left (the CGA) in 2000. Warren was always a good sounding board. He was one of the pioneers for the current course rating system.”
Nowadays, Brown works with 40 to 45 CGA course raters, and they handle roughly 35 to 45 rates a year. Every course in the state gets rated — for course rating and Slope purposes — at least every eight years. Raters evaluate the difficulty of a course for scratch golfers and bogey golfers from the various tee boxes. The idea behind both course rating and handicapping is to make the game equitable for golfers of all ability levels.
Brown himself rates 10-12 courses per year, and he estimates he’s done well over 100 in the 11 years in his current position.
“I’m probably a closet teacher,” he said. “If I’m prepared and I know my material, I love to get in front of a group and share what I know about handicapping and course rating.”
Overall, Brown estimates he spends about 75 percent of his work time on GHIN and handicap-related matters, and 25 percent on course rating. Ask him how he likes his job, and a smile comes to his face.
“This has been one of those dream jobs that everyone wishes they had,” the 62-year-old Parker resident said, noting that he’d like to continue in the position for another six or eight years. “A lot of people have offered to take it from me when I’m ready to retire. I keep telling Ed that could be my retirement benefits — sell the job. But it’s been of those great jobs that’s been a marriage of the computer work which I love, the game of golf which I love, and just an absolutely great pool of people to work with throughout the years.
“I’ve learned a lot along the way — more about golf than I ever thought was possible. I just cannot say enough good things about what a great job it is.”
And Mate can’t say enough good things about the job the Colorado native has done over the last 20 years.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the country that knows course rating and handicapping better,” Mate said in saluting Brown. “We’re so lucky to have (him).”
