After 5: Who are Springfield's Top Biz Golfers?

They are some of Springfield’s most accomplished businesspeople – doctors, lawyers, real estate brokers and business owners.

They are also some of Springfield’s most humble people when asked about their golf prowess.

“One day you’re a world beater, and the next day you’re getting beat by the world,” jokes attorney Chuck Greene about his exploits on the golf course.

Greene, a partner with law firm Husch & Eppenberger, has little reason to be self-effacing, though. After all, the 30-year golfing veteran won the Missouri Amateur Championship in 1998.

Greene is one of a large group of accomplished golfers within Springfield’s business community. Many of them played at the collegiate level. Many of them are scratch or better golfers. And many of them are mainstays at area tournaments.

“There’s a pack of us that run together,” says Wayne Fredrick, Re/Max House of Brokers owner/broker and avid golfer who tees off for about 10 tournaments a year.

Fredrick is a three-time Springfield City Open champion, 1996 Missouri Amateur champion and 2001 Missouri Stroke Play champion.

He has a theory why golf is so popular with the professional crowd.

“Pretty much anything you’ll run into in your life you’ll run into in 18 holes of golf,” Fredrick says. “I think that is why there is a big corporate culture when it comes to golf. Successful people tend to like to play golf because it’s very demanding.”

Other folks draw their own comparisons between golf and business.

Sean Crayton, a scratch golfer and agent for Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance, enjoys the competition on the golf course and in the boardroom.

“You’ve got to have that fight to you” to do well in both, he says.

Tyler Thompson, general sales manager for Thompson Pontiac-GMC-Cadillac-Saab, is a plus-2-handicap golfer. For him, success at golf and business requires brainpower.

“You’ve got to think your way around a golf course,” Thompson says. “You can be aggressive at times, and you can be conservative at times.”

For Todd Edwards, a scratch golfer and owner of three Lloyds Cleaners, a golf course is a great place to talk shop.

“I’ve always looked at golf as an opportunity to get someone out for four hours and be able to talk to them and handle business that way,” he says.

Of course, golf doesn’t just have business-related appeal. It has human appeal.

For one, it’s a relatively ageless sport.

Vernon Bennett, sales rep for Southern Missouri Containers, turned 51 on Oct. 18, and he says he has more passion for the game now than at any time during his 40 years of playing golf.

In June, Bennett played in the U.S. Senior Open in Hutchinson, Kan., alongside the likes of Tom Watson, Peter Jacobsen, Tom Kite and Hale Irwin.

“You can play it the rest of your life,” adds Jackie Snead, one of Springfield’s many women golfers and agent for Carol Jones Realtors.

Golf is also a family sport.

Snead enjoys playing golf with her 11-year-old son and says it presents “great one-on-one time.”

Alan Rosen, a former professional golfer and current Springfield dentist, says he looks forward to the day that he can golf side-by-side with his daughters, who are currently 2 and 5.

Rosen won the 1991 Missouri Amateur and played on minor league professional tours in Texas and Florida from 1992 to 1996.

He says golf will teach his girls many valuable lessons.

“It just teaches you a lot about life,” Rosen says.

The Honor Roll

Some names popped up again and again when Springfield Business Journal asked players and course pros who were the best business golfers in town. Here are 10 of the popular answers, in alphabetical order.

Vernon Bennett, Southern Missouri Containers sales representative

Sean Crayton, Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance agent

Eric Ecker, Prime Inc. logistics representative

Todd Edwards, Lloyds Cleaners owner

Wayne Fredrick, Re/Max House of Brokers owner and broker

Chuck Greene, Husch & Eppenberger partner

Alan Rosen, Daily & Rosen DDS dentist and partner

Antonio Serrano, Assist-2-Sell owner

Jackie Snead, Carol Jones, Realtors agent

Tyler Thompson, Thompson Pontiac-GMC-Cadillac-Saab general sales manager

Golf Glossary

Approach – A shot to the green made from anywhere except the tee.

Birdie – Score of one shot under par on a hole.

Bogey – Score of one shot over par on a hole.

Fairway – The prepared surface running from tee to green.

Green – The shortest-cut grass where putts are taken.

Handicap – Average number of strokes above par. For example, one whose handicap is 16 is expected to shoot 88 on a par 72 course.

Mulligan – Second attempt at a shot, usually played on the first tee. This is illegal.

Net score – Score for a hole or round after handicap strokes are deducted.

Par – The score a good player would expect to make on a hole or round.

Scratch player – One with a 0 handicap.

Source: Golf.com[[In-content Ad]]