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Dave Berry
Golf Memories...Dave Berry
By Ian Thompson
Give Dave Berry a pair of drumsticks or a fishing rod and he's in his element. But golf clubs...well, by his own admission he's not a top golfer, but then again golf administration is his forte.
Berry wears many different hats as Executive Director of the Dixie Section of the PGA of America, the professional organization for golf club professionals across the land.
He took the time to sit down with GolfSouth Editor Ian Thompson recently as he talked about the history of the section, his day-to-day activities, playing drums, catching bass and years gone by. This is his story...
Berry has called a number of places home. He was born in Knoxville, and has lived in Montgomery, Miami, Pensacola, Mobile, Atlanta, Nashville, Atlanta again and Birmingham.
My first recollection of golf is watching Shell's Wonderful World of Golf on television. That was prior to high school, which would be prior to the 60's.
In high school I picked up some clubs and started hitting balls. I was so involved in music - and was good at it - that golf wasn't a priority.
Fast forward to 1969 and Dave became a member of the country music band Del Reeves and the Good Time Charlies. He stayed with the band for nine years.
There were six of us. We played at night clubs, state fairs, that sort of thing. I'm a loyal person and would have stayed longer with Del but his popularity was diminishing. We started to play less dates and you could kind of see the writing on the wall.
However, Berry owes his PGA career in an indirect way to Del Reeves.
We took a trip to Tampa (Fla.) to play some dates. One afternoon everyone said lets go play golf.' We went to Continental Country Club in Wildwood. Pete Burns was the PGA professional. He was also a musician and we struck up a friendship. We'd be guests at his club and he'd be a guest at our show. Every Christmas I'd spend a week with him and work on my game. I did that for years. Hanging around him, I liked the golfing environment, the atmosphere.
I decided in the fall of 77 to quit music and pursue a career in golf.
He took his first job as an assistant professional at Ansley Golf Club in Atlanta in February 1978. He began the apprentice program, achieving great success as he was first in the country that year in Business School I, following that with second nationally in school II. This acumen would stand him in good stead when he decided to get into the administrative side of golf down the road.
He became a full PGA member he proudly recalled on April 1, 1981. Was the irony of that happening on April Fools Day lost on him? That might explain a lot of things, he joked.
His next job was also in Georgia at Hidden Hills in Stone Mountain under head pro Sam Adams. When Adams left to go to Bay Point in Panama City, Berry took the head pro job. He stayed for four years at this private development before moving to Fort McPherson in Atlanta. He stayed less than a year at this military golf course before the administrative side of the business lured him away.
I had applied for various jobs with the PGA of America in Palm Beach Gardens. These hadn't worked out for one reason or another, but I came to find out that the Dixie Section was looking for an Executive Director. I wanted to get into golf administration, so it seemed like a natural fit.
Berry interviewed with Joe Terry, head professional back then at Gulf Shores Golf Club, who was president of the section at the time. It followed that he met with the board members and in early 1987 he got the job as the first full-time Executive Director of the Dixie Section.
Those who came before him were either volunteer or part-time or both. Chick Ritter of Prattville was the executive secretary. When he retired Eddie Webster & Associates took over the role, but their specialty was as a travel agency. Ralph Peg Thomas took over from Webster on an interim basis and it was Peg whom Berry replaced in February 1987.
Thomas had been running the section office out of his home office in Centerpoint. Berry recalls his first day on the job.
I went to his house, sat in his chair at his desk as he showed me the ropes. What could have been a very awkward situation was certainly somewhat awkward, but he was a true gentleman. He was hurt at being replaced, but not bitter. However, obviously this (situation) couldn't go on for long.
Berry approached the officers of the section about the obvious need for office space to conduct his business, the PGA of America's business, in a business atmosphere. They saw the logic and leased some office space off of Vestavia Parkway, and they are still in the same complex today, only a different office.
Berry has seen various section staffers come and go, but he remains the constant; the glue holding the organization together along with the PGA professionals he serves and it is from within this group that the officers of the section have emerged. It is these officers with whom Berry has worked the closest. And naturally this will continue to be the case with the current crop of John Baas, The Woodlands at Craft Farms, president; Mike Shannon, Montgomery Country Club, vice president; David Juhola, Chace Lake Country Club, secretary; and Allen Austin, Vestavia Country Club, honorary (immediate past) president.
Through working with excellent officers with sound business minds over the years we have seen the section grow and go from strength to strength.
Berry's office staff now includes Danny Woodard, pro member coordinator and tournament administrator; Jerry Applegate, junior tour coordinator and media relations; and Jean Peevy, executive assistant.
Some to have passed through its doors and have worked for Berry include honorary Dixie Section members Al Hartley and Peg Thomas; B.G. Simmons and Ed Davis who both handled pro member duties at one time; and Kim Wilcox, junior golf and media relations.
The section has grown exponentially under Berry in financial terms.
We didn't have a lot in the bank when I got here 15 years ago. We have grown from generating very little money, to an organization that is now on a solid financial footing. We are a 501c6, non-for-profit organization.
I see myself as steering the ship for all our members and my philosophy is the same as that of all the officers in the section, namely to do whatever needs to be done to get the job done.
In 1987 there were 250 Dixie Section members; that number is now a shade over 400.
Funny that Berry would look back at that time in early 1987 when he first took the job and recall thinking I'll take this job for three months and then get something better. The more I got into it, the more I enjoyed it and realized that I owed the section more and more of my time.
Fifteen years on and he is still giving the section his time and is fairly compensated for doing so. Retirement will come one day, but not before he sees what he hopes is the successful campaign and tenure of NorthRiver Yacht Club's Butch Byrd as secretary, vice president, president and honorary president of the PGA of America. Byrd is seeking this national office which will be voted upon in November and it will effectively be an eight-year tenure, with two years in each position. Berry is his campaign manager.
If Butch is successful it will bring a lot of prestige to this office and to the Dixie Section as a whole.
Berry also pointed out his desire, which echoes that of the section's officers, to relocate the section office to one at a golf facility, or saving that, to operate from their own, stand-alone office building. He fully expects one of these two options to happen before his time with the section comes to an end.
Berry enjoys his time away from the office and away from golf too, none more so than when he has a bass fishing rod in his hands.
I started fishing in 1990 when my cousin, Steve Doyle, encouraged me to go with him one day. I enjoyed it so much that the next year I bought a boat. It's a lot of fun. There's no out-of-bounds, no three-putts. I find it extremely relaxing, but it wasn't the day I had a heart attack fishing with Danny Weeks back in 92.
About three years ago he started tournament fishing. He does this mostly in Georgia (he and his wife Shirley maintain a residence in Covington on the outskirts of Atlanta).
I really think I have the best job in the Dixie Section, Berry concluded. I see myself, in a way, as the head golf professional at the Dixie Section Golf Club and all my members are the members of the Dixie Section.
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