Wexler comes home as new course’s head pro

Jeremy Wexler grew up in Pullman with only a passing interest in golf.

He didn’t play for his high school team, opting, instead, to make soccer his spring sport of choice. When he returned home to attend Washington State University following a three-year stint in the United States Army, he was still nothing more than a “weekend warrior” as far as golf was concerned.

But earlier this week, the 33-year-old Wexler’s relatively late-life love affair with the sport came full circle when he landed the coveted position of Head Golf Professional at the Palouse Ridge Golf Club at Washington State University, an 18-hole, $8.5 million championship layout that is scheduled to open in late August on the WSU campus.

“It’s very exciting,” said Wexler, whose wife, Dita, and sons, Lukas and Milo, are also in the process of relocating in Wexler’s hometown. “My wife is actually from the Tri-Cities, and we’ve been away for a while now, so we’re both looking forward to getting back closer to our families.”

Getting back, however, proved to be quite a journey – especially for Wexler, who spent three years as an infantry specialist in the Army at Fort Polk, La., and Fort Benning, Ga., before returning to Pullman, where he earned a degree in criminal justice from WSU.

Following graduation, he moved to the Portland area, where he spent a year selling mutual funds and trying to decide what he really wanted to do with the rest of his life.

“I guess I was always kind of searching, looking,” Wexler said, “and after selling mutual funds for a year, I knew that wasn’t it. I had always loved all kinds of sports, and it was about then that I decided golf was probably the one sport I could make a career out of.”

So he applied for enrollment at the Professional Golfers Career College in Temecula, Calif., north of San Diego, and spent the next several months working on his game at the Green Mountain Golf Academy in nearby Vancouver while laboring for a Portland-area cable TV company.

Prior to that, Wexler was a marginal golfer, at best, having played primarily during casual outings with family and friends.

“I took (golf) up in middle school,” he recalled. “My dad took me out, but pretty much just on weekends. And I played about every sport in high school, except golf.”

Wexler ended up being accepted at PGCC and earned a specialized associates degree in professional golf management. Following his graduation, he hired on at TPC Scottsdale, a PGA Tour facility and home of the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he spent five years in what he calls a “head professional in training” mode.

“For me, I think it was a good decision,” Wexler said of the way he went about pursuing a career in golf. “I was able to create some contact, and it proved to be a good education for somebody who had never worked at a golf course and didn’t have a big background in golf.

“It didn’t give me any credits toward getting my PGA membership, but it did give me a chance to really work on my game.”

While at TPC Scottsdale, Wexler earned his Class A PGA membership status and ended up teaching individual lessons and group clinics and working as a Tour Academy Master Instructor at the course’s golf schools. He also became an integral part of its management operations team.

Once word leaked out that WSU was building a championship course back in his hometown, Wexler admitted to being “very intrigued,” especially after learning it was planned as a top-tier destination course capable of hosting a Pacific-10 Conference – and perhaps even an NCAA – championship.

“When I first heard about it, it was still a long way off,” Wexler said. “But it worked out that the timing was perfect.”

Wexler interviewed for the Palouse Ridge job in early May and was officially announced as the club’s first head pro on Wednesday. He was busy working the desk in the temporary clubhouse facility on Friday, handing out range balls for the practice facility, which opened last month.

“Local connections and his experience with the TPC program make Jeremy a great addition to the Palouse Ridge staff,” Palouse Ridge’s general manager Bruce Perisho said in a statement released by the club.

As the head pro at Palouse Ridge, Wexler will manage the day-to-day operations of the course, along with its merchandising, customer services and lessons programs.

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said, of helping manage a 7,300-yard course he expects to be both fun and challenging for golfers of all skill levels.

And a great chance, no doubt, to reacquaint himself with family and friends – this time as the PGA golf professional at what could become one of the top courses in the Pacific Northwest.