Brett Sterba volunteered his way into a golf career. Here he recounts how he went from NFL hopeful to his current position as Championship Director of the 2012 PGA, to be contested at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. Sitting in on the interview was Brett’s Golden Retriever puppy, Harper. As I grilled Brett unmercifully, Harper was beneath the table chewing on my fingers. You gotta love a major where a puppy is in on the planning!
Brett Sterba, 2012 PGA Championship Director
The 2012 PGA Championship web site is up and running!
Golf Conversations: When you graduated from college, you tried to catch on with the Green Bay Packers as a kicker. When that didn’t work out, what was your next move?
Brett Sterba: For me it was all about sports and business. If you can’t play sports for the money, you have to work for the money. I started out as a cart guy at World Golf Village. And then over at TPC Sawgrass.
GC: But why did you pursue a career in golf instead of, say, a front-office job in football?
BS: Golf was interesting to me. It was always a game I liked to play when I was growing up but by no means was I great at it. I never played competitively; I never played on any team; never played in any amateur tournaments. It was a sport that helped me calm down and focus for a couple of hours on something that was fun to do. Throughout college, I found that kicking the football and swinging a golf club were very similar actions. The best people at both do the same thing consistently time after time. I found that if I was kicking very badly during practice, going out and hitting golf balls helped me with my tempo.
GC: After you left the Packers, how did you get the job at World Golf Village?
BS: At that point, I was still trying to get back into football. After I was released by the Packers, the next day I flew out to the Jets, and continued to have workouts with other teams here and there. But I needed a flexible job that would allow me to go to football workouts.
GC: What year was this?
BS: This was 2001 and 2002. So I would get a call and they’d say, “Hey, we need you in San Francisco in two days for a work out,” and off I’d go. So it was important that I had a flexible job.
My aunt and uncle lived in Jacksonville and I was living with them. It was a warm enough place where I could train year round for kicking, and it was near the World Golf Village where I worked as a cart attendant. I also bounced around arena football for a while. But once you’ve been to the NFL and you’ve experienced that level of professionalism, it was really difficult for me to accept the lower levels of football. Nor did I have the patience to stay with football. I had my degree from William and Mary, a great academic school…
GC: So you actually went to school and graduated. You’re one of those student-athletes!
BS: (laughing) Yes, one of those NCAA student athletes. They like to hear that! I’d go to football workouts and run into people who’d been bouncing around for 10 years … they’d had a year or two in the NFL, or great college careers, and I’d talk to them and discovered that they had a very transient life. That’s when I saw the big picture and said to myself, “that’s not what I want to do.” I was ready to move on. And about a year later, one of the members at World Golf Village offered me a job with his company. I worked there for a full year, because I knew you needed at least 12 months on your resume with your first job.
GC: What were you doing at the member’s company?
BS: Accounting. I had a finance and information technology degree. So I did that for 12 months. But I knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do, because it had nothing to do with sports. So from March of 2003 through June of 2003, I started planning my entry into golf. I volunteered at nine or 10 PGA Tour and Champions Tour events.
GC: As a marshall?
BS: I worked for ShotLink; I had that IT background. I was a volunteer; I was nothing special. I had to pay for my uniform and I got my lunch chit just like any other volunteer. I volunteered for ShotLink because it was new and with my IT background, I thought it would make me more marketable. I was living in Jacksonville working at TPC Sawgrass. And PGA Tour headquarters was nearby. So I was always trying to work with the PGA Tour’s HR department. They didn’t have any internships that I qualified for, so I created my own internship.
I quit the company that I was working for, which was kind of interesting: I had to tell them that I was quitting a paying job for a nonpaying internship position. I used the money that I had saved up that year to start my volunteer swing through the PGA Tour. I began at The Players Championship, and went over to the Colonial where I saw Annika play, and the Byron Nelson in Texas. I picked cities where I had friends because I couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel seven days a week. $1000 a week for hotel costs wasn’t in my budget.
GC: And that doesn’t even include pizza!
BS: I scrounged by any way I could.
GC: At each tournament stop you were working with ShotLink?
BS: I was working for each individual tournament for ShotLink. But I wasn’t working for the PGA Tour.
GC: So you just went from tournament to tournament even though you didn’t live in that particular city?
BS: Yes. Anyone can volunteer for any tournament; there is no rule about where you have to be from. I made it clear at each tournament that I wanted to work with ShotLink only. I told them I was creating my own internship for the PGA Tour and I wanted to become well-versed in ShotLink.
And this was a great opportunity for me to meet people from the Tour on a weekly basis. There were no other volunteer positions that interacted with the Tour officials on a weekly basis. I think my last volunteer position wasn’t with the PGA Tour but with the USGA at the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields. Then I went back to Jacksonville and tried to set up meetings and interviews with ShotLink and PGA Tour officials, but still wasn’t able to get a job.
I had met Jim Poole, the head pro at TPC Sawgrass a few years earlier, and went back to him and got a job as a cart attendant or as we call it, “an outside operations guy.” I wasn’t in the PGM program. They knew that. Everyone else was, and I was able to get past that because they knew what I had done in terms of volunteering at various tournaments and what I was trying to do in the future. And this was another great opportunity for me to meet Tour officials who were often at Sawgrass.
GC: What were some of the feelings you were experiencing during this time?
BS: It’s tough to have a degree from a top-30 college, being two years out of school, and making minimum wage plus tips. That was pretty tough to swallow. Especially when my friends from college were making lots and lots of money, were going on trips, that sort of thing. They asked me to come visit them in New York or D.C. but I’d have to say,”Sorry guys, can’t do it.”
My life was on hold at least fun wise for those two years. I had to do what I had to do to try and get by. I had roommates who were all trying to play golf, and we were just getting by. One of those guys is now a caddy on tour; the other one is still in Jacksonville and is a golf professional. So it was tough. To this day, when we hire interns and I look at what we pay them, I think to myself: I worked for much less than that.
GC: I didn’t know that they paid interns.
BS: We do pay our interns at the PGA of America. And they work very hard. It would almost be impossible not to pay them.
Brett Sterba & Robert Blumenthal
GC: Okay. Let’s change directions. Where’s the Wanamaker Trophy right now?
BS: If it’s not back from being refinished, I’ll bet it’s at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, the site of this year’s PGA.
GC: Y.E. Yang won the PGA Championship last year. After the trophy was presented to him, did he receive the actual trophy or a replica?
BS: A replica. In previous years we didn’t give full replicas. About two or three years ago, we did a 90 percent to 100% replica of the trophy.
GC: 90 to 100%? What does that mean?
BS: I’m talking about the size of the replica. it used to be smaller; now it’s 90 to 100% the size of the actual Wanamaker Trophy.
GC: The replica is something they get to keep forever?
BS: Yes.
GC: And everything is exactly the same as the Wanamaker with all the names of the past champions?
BS: Yes. They’re all hand engraved. I don’t remember the gentleman’s name that does the engraving; I believe he’s out of Europe. The replica includes all the signatures of the past champions including yours. It’s a 40 -pound silver trophy and it’s not inexpensive. But it’s a major championship and that’s the way we want to portray ourselves.
GC: So when does the PGA champion actually receive the replica trophy?
BS: That I don’t know.
GC: Does he get the actual Wanamaker for a week?
BS: The Wanamaker stays with us; the winner gets to hold onto it until he leaves the tournament site. I believe he gets the replica shortly thereafter. But he does have the trophy to use for his interviews while he’s in town, and then he’ll receive his replica shortly thereafter.
GC: What do you do when you start running out of space for the names of the champions?
BS: They add a base to it. I’ve seen them do that to the Bourne trophy in 2006 and 2007 for the Senior PGA championship. I assume they do the same thing for the Wanamaker, but I can’t swear to it.
GC: So on the final day of the PGA Championship, is the engraver on site adding the winner’s name to the Wanamaker?
BS: Yes. We try to have him in a controlled environment where he can concentrate because what he’s engraving is a very valuable piece of metal.
GC: Does the Wanamaker Trophy tarnish? Do you have to send it out to be cleaned?
BS: Yes. In fact, it was completely refurbished this last December and January at a silver shop in Williamsburg, Virginia. We have to clean it and polish it on a regular basis; it does get a few scratches now and then from transporting it from one media day to another.
GC: And you have to get the smell of beer or champagne out of it?
BS: (laughing) I can’t speak about any particular player, but I’ve heard secondhand there’s been some fun with the celebrations with the Wanamaker Trophy.
GC: And where is the trophy during most of the year?
BS: There is an official trophy at the PGA headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens and another one that’s used at the site of the tournament itself. The one that sits at PGA headquarters is the original; the one that travels around the country is a replica. And that’s the one you’ll see at the trophy presentation on Sunday.
GC: And because you’re giving the winner a replica, do you give him any instructions on how to care for it?
BS: (laughter) It’s theirs to do what they want with it.
GC: Okay. That’s enough about the Wanamaker. Who were some of your golf heroes when you were growing up?
BS: Certainly, Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player. I always liked Chi Chi Rodriguez, his attitude and Trevino’s attitude. That final round of the 1986 Masters that Nicklaus won, that always sticks out in my mind.
GC: And were you playing football as a child?
BS: I hadn’t gotten into football yet. I played a lot of soccer and some baseball.
GC: So when did you become a kicker in football?
BS: During my college career.
GC: Really? That late?
I went to school as a walk-on. I was a recruited walk-on, meaning that I didn’t have a scholarship, but earned my scholarship after being there. My high school team won four state championships and two national championships. So we were real football powerhouse. Just from my senior class alone there were four of us that went to the NFL. Because we had such a great team, it got me some looks from colleges and I ended up going to William and Mary. And I really blossomed as a football player after my freshman year in college. And that’s when I found the link between kicking and the golf swing in terms of consistency and accuracy.
GC: Yes, but in football you’ve got people coming to kill you! I mean you’re not a big guy; how did you feel about the violent potential of football?
BS: Luckily, I had great teammates and great blockers and I never had a kick blocked in the four years that I was there. But I definitely had my bell rung a few times hitting people on kickoffs. I enjoyed hitting them.
GC: Now it’s all coming out! He likes to hit people!
BS: (Laughing) Kickoffs were a good release of some energy!
Brett Sterba & Harper
GC: You were the championship director for the Senior PGA that was held at Kiawah’s Ocean Course in 2007. Did you know then that the PGA was coming to Kiawah in 2012?
BS: Yes. That was part of the announcement that was made in 2005 at the PGA Club Professional Championship. I came here to Kiawah as soon as I was done with the 2006 PGA at Medinah. The 2007 Senior PGA was a great learning process for us for 2012. Previously working with the resort, working with the local county officials and getting to know the community and what they like and want in terms of hospitality or ticket access, we learned a lot of things in 2007. I don’t think we did anything poorly, but we made sure that anything that was not up to par has been corrected for 2012.
For example, our hospitality products have changed somewhat because we listened to our clients who’ve told us they want a more interactive experience at the PGA. Instead of company A having its own private chalet, and company B also having its own private private chalet, we’ve created almost a tailgating experience where the two chalets can interact with each other while still maintaining their privacy. The two companies have a common patio area that they can share.
GC: When did the actual planning for the 2012 PGA championship begin?
BS: When we opened our office in 2005 for the 2007 PGA Senior Championship, we also had the 2012 PGA Championship in mind. We introduced some new hospitality products in 2007 specifically for the Ocean Course — things such as panoramic views of the ocean and the clubhouse. We took products that were traditionally closed tents and made them into open-air products. We elevated many viewing areas from the usual 4 feet off the ground to 20 feet off the ground to offer spectacular views of the ocean and the dunes.
GC: Tell me a bit about the logistics of running the PGA Championship.
BS: There is no way our office here can do this all by ourselves. We have the support of Kiawah Island Resort, our headquarters, the local community and county officials. We work together with all of them and we develop a formal plan for everything from traffic patterns, to emergency preparedness, to bus routes, to shuttle parking, to daycare for the players’ kids for the week.
It takes 2 to 3 years to prepare for the PGA Championship. Logistically, we know that the Ocean Course here at Kiawah is one of the toughest courses we have to deal with. But we’ve already been through trial runs with the 2007 PGA Senior Championship. We know we can get 25 to 30,000 people a day onto the Ocean Course … we know how to transport them.
Our challenge is to get that information out to the public so they realize this is an easy event to get to and enjoy. Whether they stay on the island or in Charleston or drive from Charlotte or Atlanta or Columbia, we have the solutions for easily arriving and departing.
The questions everyone asks Stephen Youngner, the head pro at the Ocean Course, about the 2012 PGA are: Where is everyone going to stay? Where are they going to park? And how are you going to get them out here? And we have all those answers. We did it here in the ‘91 Ryder Cup, the Senior PGA in 2007, the World Cup events here, and the Warburg Cup.
GC: Are the vendors that you use for the championship from the local area?
BS: There are only a certain number of companies that have the capability to do what we require and provide our clients with the level of service that they demand. These are large established national companies that use local vendors to help them procure the services that we require. So they contract out to local restaurant companies, local food providers, local event staffing companies. They have national managers that come in and oversee the operation that will hire buses from anywhere within the region for the shuttle service. Everything is supported locally, but it’s managed nationally.
GC: Where are the spectators going to pick up the shuttle buses for the championship?
BS: Right before you get onto Kiawah Island, there’s a large space that appears to be only 10 to 20 acres. But it’s really about 110 cleared acres there … enough to hold 2.5 people per car. We know we can get 12,000 cars in a 110 acre area. It’s only a 12 mile ride, about 20 minutes from the shuttle parking lot to the course. Frankly, it’s amazing that we have such a geographically small island but at the same time have the capability to park 12,000 cars nearby.
And our volunteers will be able to park even closer right here on the island. Island residents will also be able to use an island bus system that we’ll create with 30 stops or so on the island.
GC: And where will the players be staying?
BS: They can stay on the island at the accommodations they prefer. They can rent an eight-bedroom house, stay at The Sanctuary Hotel, rent a two-bedroom villa … they have lots of choices. We work with Kiawah Island resort to develop a private website where the players can see the housing options that are open to them.
GC: Can you share any anecdotes about the players who participated in the 2007 Senior PGA championship?
BS: Tom Kite said the better players loved the course because it really weeds them out. It’s not like one of those Florida flat courses where everyone goes low. This is a course where the cream really rises to the top,
They were all tested and I believe all of them said it was a fair test of golf. Depending upon the wind at the Ocean Course, those tees can change up to 15 minutes before the first group tees off. If all of a sudden we were going to play that 335 yard drivable par for that day, we may go back to 390 yards because the wind is blowing at 25 miles an hour downwind. Kerry Haigh, who sets up our courses, changed the tee distances 15 minutes before the ‘91 Ryder Cup.
GC: If people are interested in volunteering for the 2012 PGA championship how do they go about doing that?
BS: It’s not too early to register. Our website should be up by early April. The website address is www.PGA2012.com. At that point, you can pre-register for tickets and you can pre-register to volunteer. Those opportunities will become available for volunteers in January, 2011 and for tickets in July, 2011. But the requests have been coming in already. I have been getting calls on a fairly frequent basis from people who want to volunteer.
GC: How many volunteers will work the PGA Championship?
BS: About 3500.
GC: Do you get more requests than you have the need for?
BS: Ultimately, yes. The Senior PGA 2007 was one of our fastest tournaments to fill up for volunteers and that was for approximately 2000 volunteers. So we encourage anyone who’s interested in volunteering to go to the website and pre-register so you’ll be notified when opportunities start to open up.
GC: Finally, what advice would you give to a young person who wanted to pursue a golf career similar to yours?
BS: Never pass up an opportunity to get involved in a tournament in any way. If it’s volunteering as a junior standard bearer when the tour comes to your town, do it. Even if it’s working at a golf course during the summer, get some stuff on your resume. It’s a tough industry to get into and certainly the people who have shown the effort and put in the time are usually going to be the ones who ultimately are rewarded. Don’t be afraid to get involved.
