Interview With Curt Rohe Executive Director Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association By Brian Weis

Interview With Curt Rohe Executive Director Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Curt Rohe, the Executive Director at Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association. 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?
I got my start in golf as a caddie at Boone Valley Golf Club outside St. Louis, then working 6 summer at Boone caddying, outside services and including 3 summers on the grounds crew. After my first year at St. Louis University I answered an ad in the paper for an internship with the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association and became the PJ Boatwright Intern for the 1999-2000 seasons. After college I went to work as Assistant Manager at Franklin County Country Club in Washington, MO. In October 2001, returned full-time to MAGA and was named the Executive Director in 2008.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
Honest story, I started playing golf in back cow pasture of my younger brothers best friend. They had a small farm and in the summer would cut 9 circles in the pasture and put flagsticks in them. They had a couple Harley Davidson 3-wheel golf carts and we would go back there and knock the ball around.

What is your current home course?
The Country Club of St. Albans

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
Just getting to tell people I do this for a living! So many people ask what I do in the off-season when we do not have tournaments. When I say this is my full-time job they are sort of in awe.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
Slow play, either when I am playing or when conducting a championship.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
Driver, that is my most consistent club when playing...and I do not play often.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Pine Valley Golf Club. I have had the opportunity to go three times and the experience is unlike any other.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
St. Andrews Golf Club, the home of golf.

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
Pine Valley Golf Club

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
That it would be less expensive, especially for those getting started. I think the cost of buying new clubs, maybe taking lessons and playing at some clubs is a bit overwhelming to beginners.

Dream foursome (living)?
Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Stan Musial

Favorite 19th hole drink?
Transfusion

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

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

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

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

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Power draw

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Halfway House

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bushes

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Hot Dog

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

9) Walking OR riding?
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

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Nicklaus

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Play for fun

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Bump and run

17) Lay up OR gamble?
Gamble

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18 holes

Revised: 04/22/2021 - Article Viewed 11,030 Times

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.