The Nebraska Section PGA’s Turning Point at the Hands of Executive Director Bruce Lubach
Written by Stu Pospisil | Omaha World Herald Reporter & Lead Writer
The Nebraska Section PGA was on its way leaving the days of a mom-and-pop operation when it hired Bruce Lubach as its third executive director in less than two years.
Lubach navigated choppy waters, especially with finances, early in his two-decade tenure from 1989 to 2009.
But by the time Lubach stepped down to join the national PGA office as a regional career consultant, the Nebraska PGA had new-found stature in the state and in the nation.
It stemmed most notably from the now-Korn Ferry Tour bringing tournaments to Sioux City and Omaha, the Nebraska Open restarting and the Professional Golf Management program launching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Prior to his hiring, Lubach said the Nebraska PGA had good leadership from his predecessors, Rich Williams, who had a long career with the PGA of America, and Kirk Stanzel, whom the Iowa Golf Association hired away after only one season to be its executive director.
With that being said, things were “just barely moving along.” Marc Cruse, then the pro at Mahoney Golf Course in Lincoln and the Section President, had to sign a bank note to guarantee the section could pay its bills.
Cruse was in a new generation of Nebraska PGA leaders, following stalwarts such as Bob Popp at Omaha Country Club, John Frillman at Happy Hollow Club in Omaha and Bob Schuchart at Holmes Golf Course in Lincoln.
Popp was at OCC for 31 years ending in 1989. He won the Nebraska PGA title four times. A three-time President of the Nebraska Section, Popp was named Nebraska Professional of the Year three times and served three 3-year terms on the National PGA Executive Committee. In 1982, he was the PGA of America’s Professional of the Year.
Frillman was at Happy Hollow 36 years ending in 2001, the longest tenure for a Nebraska Section pro at one club since Stanley Davies at the Field Club of Omaha. Frillman played in seven PGA Championships and the 1973 U.S. Open. He won the Nebraska PGA Section Championship six times and the Seniors Championship seven times while being named Nebraska Section player of the year four times and Professional of the Year in 1972. He played the PGA Champions Tour for part of the 1988 season.
Schuchart was at Holmes for 26 years ending in 1995. He was the son of a golf pro and the father of a pro golfer. He served two terms as Nebraska PGA President, established the Nebraska PGA office in its present form and received the Nebraska Section’s Horton Smith Award in 1982 and its Professional of the Year Award in 1985. While he was President, the PGA of America honored the Nebraska Section three consecutive years as the best section in the nation.
Besides Cruse (whose father-in-law was Schuchart), Jeff Porter at Lochland Country Club in Hastings, Jim White at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Tony Pesavento at Field Club and Omaha Country Club, Don Germer at Miracle Hill and Highland (Ironwood) in Omaha, Dave Malone at the Country Club of Lincoln and Mitch Merrill at Sioux City Country Club were among those who helped Lubach move the needle for the Nebraska Section.
“Jeff Porter was a promoter, you know, and Jim White, along with Jeff and Tony and Don Germer, those guys really wanted to elevate the golf professional, and so I think that’s what part of my job was, to solidify our image as being more businessman than just the good old golf pro,’’ Lubach said. “And I think we did that. I don’t think it was perfect, by any stretch, but I think that was one of the things we really tried to do.”
The Korn Ferry Tour started in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour, and Sioux City was one of the first 30 stops. It ran for 12 years, thriving while Gateway 2000 was its major backer, through 2001.
By then, Omaha with the Cox Classic was one of the tour’s flagship stops.
“It was a really fortunate time for us, back in the early 90s, because that’s when the Ben Hogan tour started. I think we were viewed as being a pretty hot spot, as far as up at Dakota Dunes, that it worked really well,’’ Lubach said. “Then they were looking at Omaha as being a possibility. I just was at the right spot at the right time to get that all going.”
With the Section involved in those two tournaments, there were financial benefits for the Section but it was keeping Lubach away from the office during the busiest time of the year from running section events.
Enter Tom Hearn as the Section’s first tournament director in 1998.
“Dave Malone, under his tenure as President, wanted us to hire a tournament director, and I got just a resume from Tom,’’ Lubach said. “It stood out just because of his experience as a professional golfer, and then his interest in getting into the tournament director side of life, and that was a great hire. “
Hearn stayed eight years before joining the PGA Tour as a rules official. His successor, Brian Davis, is now executive director for the South Central PGA.
The Nebraska Open was outside the auspices of the Nebraska Section or the Nebraska Golf Association until its restart in 1992.
“I didn’t like the fact that the state associations didn’t have their fingers in what was called the Nebraska Open,’’ Lubach said. “So I always thought that was something that we and the amateur body should do together.
“Then when we had Jack Crowley in the mix with Jeff Porter and Jim White, we just came up with that idea to make it happen. How we tied it all into the (Nebraska) community college system was just one of those things that I had seen in my career, in order to have events, you needed to tie it into something outside of yourself. It had to show a purpose.”
Crowley was a Hastings businessman who was the executive director of the Central Community College Foundation. One of the community college system campuses was in Columbus, as were the offices of the Nebraska Public Power District. Add in Elks Country Club, and Lubach said Crowley saw it as an ideal marriage.
“I think it’s been one of the best state opens, you know, in the country,’’ Lubach said. “At the start of it, we just knew the Elks Country Club was somewhat remote, but because of NPPD being there and them also wanting to tie in with this, with Jack, it just fit.
“I always fought to not move it to Omaha, even though I thought probably in a bigger picture, it would probably be more profitable, potentially, but that meant having to probably find a new sponsor. In my world of common sense, I thought that would be a bad play.”
The UNL PGM program started in 2003.
“It’s been a good boost for us and UNL as well,’’ Lubach said.
From about 75 professionals and 50 apprentices in 1989 when he started, the Section’s Membership in 2019 was about 240.
“A lot of those were PGA Professionals, I think, due to the fact that we had the PGM program there. We didn’t have very many true apprentices any longer. It morphed right into becoming a PGA member because of the program, and so we had very few startup PGA apprentices there for a while,’’ Lubach said.
Nebraska also was in a course boom, with about 70 new facilities built between 1989 and 2009. They ranged from community public courses to the likes of Sand Hills Golf Club, which opened eyes as to the potential of the region for links-style courses in the sand dunes north of the Platte River.
“It’s marvelous to think that Nebraska was there when the minimalist type of golf was being planned, and yeah, it’s taken off in ways that people only could have dreamed about,’’ Lubach said. “Nebraska doesn’t take a backseat to anybody when it comes to golf.”
The Section’s very successful junior golf program, now backed by the combined forces of the Nebraska Section and the Nebraska Golf Association, mushroomed from the Section’s Pepsi Junior Tour in the 1990s. Lubach hired summer help, and later tapped PGM students, to manage a program that at times had 45 events for 750 juniors.
Lochland hosted the 1998 Northern PGA Club Professional Championship, an event that returned to Nebraska in 2003 at Wilderness Ridge in Lincoln. Lochland also hosted the Nebraska high school boys championships from 1992 to 1994 in conjunction with exhibitions by 1991 PGA champion John Daly in 1992 and 1993 and Peter Jacobsen and Vicki Goetze in 1994.
For all that transpired during Bruce Lubach’s time in the Nebraska Section office, which was in a small room at the back of Firethorn at the start, it’s the journey of the late Steve Hogan, the state’s first Black PGA Professional, that he singled out.
“That was something that I was really kind of proud of, that we got an African American to win the PGA’s Junior Golf Leader Award. We worked hard trying to get Steve going. And he worked hard to get his PGA membership, and then, unfortunately, the cancer struck,’’ Lubach said.
“We were really trying to get golf into the hands of every socioeconomic situation there was, and Steve was the start of that, and deserved a lot of credit for that.”
While Lubach said he wasn’t the one who hired his successor, “I saw something in David that I knew was going to be the right fit.”
David Honnens — and today’s Nebraska PGA — are the subjects of the next installment of the Section’s history.
About the Nebraska Section PGA
The Nebraska Section PGA is a non-for-profit organization comprised of over 340 PGA Members and PGA Associates who strive to promote the enjoyment and growth of the game of golf. The Nebraska Section PGA encompasses the entire State of Nebraska, western fifth of Iowa and a small portion of South Dakota including Dakota Dunes and Yankton. The Section office is located in Lincoln, NE and acts as a resource for local and national golf information for the golf professional and amateur player alike. Our members are often referred to as “Club Professionals”, not to be mistaken as PGA Tour Professionals.
Each Nebraska Section PGA Professional serves as an expert in the ever-changing business of golf. They are the leading expert players and teachers, skilled business managers, community leaders, and superior merchandisers who have dedicated their careers to the local delivery of these services.