Interview With Eric Smith PGA Head Golf Professional Big Cedar Lodge

Interview With Eric Smith PGA Head Golf Professional Big Cedar Lodge - Top of the Rock

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Eric Smith, the PGA Head Golf Professional at Big Cedar Lodge - Top of the Rock. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
Started playing golf at the age of 15. Was hooked immediately and have been playing and working in golf ever since.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
I was 14 when I first hit a golf ball on a family reunion in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. A bunch of the guys decided to go play a little par 3 course and I just wanted to tag along.

What is your current home course?
Top of the Rock in Ridgedale, MO

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
I recently made my first hole in one so that is up there. But I would say all the people I have met through golf is just incredible! I have so many people that are friends now because of golf.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
When people get really upset and throw a tantrum, your playing golf, you could be doing something worse!

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
52* wedge that needs to be replaced but I can't part with it.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Top of the Rock - Buffalo Ridge at Big Cedar Lodge of course!!!

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Augusta National

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
That is tough, it would be a course I don't have the opportunity to play often, Kalamazoo Country Club. It is an old private course where my first job in golf was at, I was a caddie.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
If you hit it in the fairway and are in a divot you get ground under repair relief.

Dream foursome (living)?
My dad Greg, brother Matt, and one of my school teachers Frank Sipes

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Same as above

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long Putt

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Round of Life

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Crack of Dawn

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Draw

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Neither

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bathroom

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Hot Dog

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Sand

9) Walking OR riding?
Depends on the course, if it is walkable, Walking

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Hybrid

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Long Par 5, better chance for birdie

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Pants unless its really Hot

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Flip a coin

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Neither

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Money

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Flop

17) Lay up OR gamble?
Depends on the situation, probably layup and use my wedge

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18

Revised: 01/19/2015 - Article Viewed 32,599 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.