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Sitting in a dorm room with a close friend at Northern Arizona University, Brandon Rogers contemplated his uncertain future as an aimless college dropout.
Rogers had transferred from Glendale Community College to NAU with intentions of figuring out a subject to study that would help him get a real-world job, but it felt like a waste of time, effort and money.
“I was spinning my wheels, spending way too much cash and I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Rogers said. “I had dropped out and I was sitting in the dorm room with my high school buddy and he asked me, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’
“I said, ‘I have no clue, but I kind of like to play golf right now.’ ”
That’s when Rogers’ friend unassumingly offered a lead that could only be described as a matter of fate: He had previously picked the range at Union Hills Country Club in Sun City near Phoenix as a part-time job during high school, and he had heard that the current head pro there was now picking the range by himself. If Rogers wanted a foot in the door, maybe this opening could be enough.
Rogers immediately got in his car and drove two hours from Flagstaff to Sun City where he asked the Union Hills pro if he could pick the range. He got hired on the spot. Six months later, the head pro was fired. With a skeleton staff now in charge, Rogers moved into the shop on the promise he would do whatever was necessary – unpack boxes, sweep the floor, answer phone calls, shine shoes – to help the business succeed.
“We didn’t even have a head pro,” Rogers said. “I was a 20-year-old assistant and there was a 19-year-old assistant who knew a lot more about the business who was teaching me some of the basics. I started to realize there was an avenue to a career.”
This whirlwind of a start in the golf industry seemingly came out of nowhere. Having been more of a basketball player growing up in Arizona, Rogers started golf at around age 10 when he went to Michigan in the summers and played with friends. His dad took him for his birthday every year after, and as he got deeper into his teenage years, Rogers started to take more of a liking to it.
Still, it was nothing more than a hobby until he dropped out, got the job at Union Hills and began to play golf every day.
“I got the bug like you can’t believe,” Rogers said. “Suddenly it was all I ever wanted to do.”
Rogers no longer needed to go back to college, but he did need to fulfill several exam and training requirements to become a PGA professional. He got through his first season as an assistant with no head pro before someone with more experience was hired for the position. That pro would leave the golf industry eventually, but before his exit he implored Rogers to move on to bigger and better things. He got Rogers an interview with Desert Forest Golf Club, a highly regarded private club in Carefree, Arizona, a 45-minute drive north of Phoenix.
“That May, I had turned 23,” Rogers said. “On June 3, 1998, I was hired as the third assistant. I hadn’t played high school golf or college golf, and I was only a few years into my career having to learn customer service, merchandising, competing in section events.”
Getting to see kids go from shy, insecure teenagers to confident, college-bound young men and women is all the proof Rogers needs to know it is working.
If dropping out of school and finding a quick path into the industry was the first sign that Rogers was meant to be a PGA professional, going to Desert Forest was his second. He’s now spent 23 years at the club, including the past 16 as the head professional. He likes it so much that he is willing to make the 45-minute drive each way from Phoenix and back every day – Rogers married his high school sweetheart and has two kids, so raising a family in Carefree, which has a population just north of 3,000 and is known more as a retirement destination, wasn’t the ideal situation.
Rogers makes the drive for good reason. Desert Forest is one of the more fascinating facilities in the country, a “desert links” course built in 1962 by Robert “Red” Lawrence. It’s considered among the most influential desert courses by golf architecture experts, and many of the strategic principles of the minimalist layout have been copied by other designers.
It all matches the vibe amongst the Desert Forest membership. The club likes to think of itself as understated, a true golf-only club of 200 members that takes pride in accessibility and not being too self-serious. There are no houses on the course and it’s a solid test of golf, one routinely enjoyed by players who walk instead of taking a cart – a rare opportunity when it comes to desert golf. Finding a tee time slot is not a chore.
That mentality has been a perfect partnership with Rogers.
“Brandon is a very modest guy and he downplays a lot of the accolades he gets from his colleagues and membership,” said Dave August, a Desert Forest member for the past seven years. “His personality is very in line with our club. We are a place where our membership loves our club but we don’t go out bragging about it. Brandon is kind of the same way as a head pro.”
One of the joys of being a head pro at Desert Forest is that Rogers wears many hats, but all in the name of personifying that laid-back brand. On the day Global Golf Post talked with him, he gave two lessons, took prospective members out on a tour of the course and had a 90-minute member committee meeting. The next day could be completely different.
“If I had to do the same thing over and over again, I wouldn’t do very well in that situation,” Rogers said. “Bouncing around fits my personality just fine… I have a bit of a servant’s heart. I was willing to do the things that other people may not have been as excited about in order to get the experience.”
Of all of his accomplishments, the greatest for Rogers is the junior caddie program he began in October 2015. The program is made up of 14-18 year-olds, not all of whom are golfers, who come out on winter weekends during the busy season and learn how to caddie. The roster is up to about 45 kids. Caddying in modern-day golf is virtually unheard of in the southwestern United States because of how hot the summers are, but this program has become a model for other facilities across the country.
In March the program produced its first Evans Scholarship winner, Evan Johnson. Johnson will attend the University of Kansas on the full housing and tuition scholarship awarded to caddies with limited financial means. Currently, more than 1,000 Evans Scholars are enrolled at 18 universities across the country, an initiative led by the Western Golf Association.
“That is a huge win for the program as well as golf in Arizona,” Rogers said. “Of all our members at the club, a lot of them got into golf because they were caddying as a kid. It just hit me over the head one day – this current generation of kids may never get the chance to say that. We had to figure out something.”
Rogers has been blown away by the response among caddies and members. One kid in the program sent Rogers a text on Father’s Day last year saying, “Ever since I lost my dad, you have been like a second father to me.” Another kid was being bullied because he was overweight and struggled to play other sports, but he found a community of friends with the other caddies and has since gained confidence.
“This is Brandon’s baby and he’s put in so much effort into it that now there are other clubs who are picking up on it,” said Jeff Fog, a longtime Desert Forest member. “He’s well-trained, he spends a lot of time with the kids at the beginning of the season to make sure they feel comfortable, he talks to the members to make sure they get good feedback … because of him, it’s really taken off over the last few years.”
When you talk to Rogers about his career, there is a quiet confidence about him. It makes you realize that, although it is a cliché, desire and determination can overcome more than we think.
His life was going nowhere and he took a leap.
“I think the bottom line is what got me here is literally just a blind faith, moving toward something that felt right,” Rogers said.
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