Golf:

You wouldn’t think the life of a golf professional would be fast-paced, but for Bob Lovejoy his life has been fairly frenetic for more than four decades.

It finally slowed down a bit for the 65-year-old, who retired from his position as director of golf at Big Canyon Country Club, May 1.

Lovejoy had been with the Newport Beach country club since 1985 and has been working as a golf professional since graduating college in 1966.

“I always set as a goal to retire when I turned 65,” Lovejoy said. “About a year and a half ago I told the general manager that was my plan. It worked out. I’m comfortable with it.”

Comfortable, maybe, but there was certainly a learning curve for Lovejoy.

“I’m still waking up at the same time,” Lovejoy said. “I get up in the morning and go through the same routine, I just take more time to do it. I get up, put on some jeans and relax for a while. The ability to relax and do things a little more slowly is pretty fun.”

He didn’t have that luxury during his 24-year tenure at Big Canyon. When he became head professional in 1985, the club was just 13 years old and Lovejoy had some plans he wanted to implement.

“I wanted to do the best job I could, but I don’t know if that means I came in there with the idea of lighting the world on fire,” Lovejoy said. “The situation there was they had a head professional for a short period of time and there was some work that needed to be done. I had to go in aggressively at first to get the ball rolling.”

The main philosophy Lovejoy wanted to present to the members and make sure his staff understood was a simple one.

“I think the most important thing we can do in our business that I try and stress is making the members feel comfortable and providing good service for them.” Lovejoy said. “They felt there was sincerity in the effort that I and the other staff members gave to them in our service. We are in the service business. We have personalized service and can interact with them in a more personable way than any other business. That is what I always tried to do. I wanted the members to always know that my staff and I sincerely cared about them.”

A program Lovejoy wanted to improve upon was the club’s involvement with outside groups, notably schools and amateur golf.

“We’ve hosted quite a few of the [Southern California Golf Assn.] qualifying events,” Lovejoy said. “We also hosted the UCI Invitational and done a lot of those things. Getting the club to be a partner in the golf associations was a big thing as well. We wanted to contribute to the game rather than just being a club and they have done that. They have had involvement with UCI and the high schools.

“We developed a relationship with the SCGA that I think was very good. We’ve hosted so many events for them. That is what real quality clubs do is give back to the golf community in one way or another. The club has decided one way they want to do it is through offering availability of the club.”

The club also became one of the few in Orange County to host a United States Golf Assn. championship event, holding the 2000 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championship.

One of Lovejoy’s biggest accomplishments however, might have been offering an honorary membership to a young amateur golfer. Tiger Woods has been an honorary member for more than a decade and it has been a beneficial relationship for both.

“The club had always encouraged it to happen,” Lovejoy said. “We started a program of assisting young people playing the game. Sally Little [who won 15 career LPGA titles] was an honorary member and we did it with several other players. Our president came to me and said one of the players had left and we had a spot open and we should offer someone else a membership. I thought about it and made a call because I didn’t think Tiger had a place to play.”

Lovejoy will always have a place to play. At a party at the club, members gave him an honorary membership and his relationship with the club will continue.

“It was such a wonderful thing for them to do,” Lovejoy said, “but now they are stuck with me for a little while longer.”

Lovejoy has also been a strong supporter of the Jones Cup, which pits the four country clubs in the Newport-Mesa area. The Jones Cup is in its 10th year and Lovejoy has led Big Canyon to the title six times (2001, ’02, ’03, ’05, ’07 and ’08). He will be honored and will serve as the official starter of this year’s event July 29 at Santa Ana Country Club.

JOHN REGER’S golf column appears Thursdays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].