Tee Time with Lyn Nelson at Half Moon Bay Golf Links
by Heidi Trilling
Lyn Nelson on the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. Photo: Heidi Trilling
What do ancient Egyptians, Dutch flower merchants and Scottish sheep farmers have in common? They all contributed to the origins of golf!
Today, there are over 16,000 golf courses in the United States alone — at least double that number worldwide — and golf has evolved into a highly sophisticated game involving mental preparation, physical precision and lots of good fun.
“Golf is an amazing sport!” says Lyn Nelson, general manager of Half Moon Bay Golf Links on Miramontes Point Road. “It’s the game that never stops. … Somebody told me years ago: When you start playing golf, it’s 90 percent physical, 10 percent mental. The more you play, those numbers reverse, and it becomes 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical — which gives anybody the advantage! Golf is magical. … It gives you back everything you put into it, and more.”
Practicing what she preaches, Nelson gives her considerable energies and time to golf, and receives a wealth of satisfying returns.
For example, Nelson holds the record scores for women on both Half Moon Bay Golf Links courses: the Old Course and the Ocean Course. She plays in national amateur golf tournaments, and in 2002-2003 was ranked 66th by the United States Golf Association — achieving amateur status alongside talented athletes like Michelle Wie. “I was on that list for two years,” Nelson says, “which is unusual for someone who was — at the time — 25 years older than the peak players! Being ranked … that felt really good!”
Golf has also given Nelson the opportunity for remarkable “firsts.”
She is one of the first female general managers of a golf facility in the country, and she is the first woman elected to the board of the Northern California Golf Association in its entire 107-year history. “This is not only a great compliment to Lyn,” says Gail Rogers, director of education for the NCGA, “but another wonderful thing for all women in sports!”
Nelson also “gives back” by volunteering for the NCGA Foundation and a host of other charitable organizations that fund children’s sports, education and healthcare programs. Half Moon Bay Golf Links has hosted over 1,200 tournament fundraisers, which have contributed millions to charitable organizations, as well.
A dedicated golfer since her college days, Nelson came upon the game by accident. Literally. When a skiing-related ligament injury resulted in the loss of her softball scholarship to Oregon State, Nelson — on crutches — decided to switch schools and switch sports. “I thought: Well, golf won’t be a lot of work. The ball just sits there, you hit it, and you’re done. It’s easy. I can do this!”
So, she took iron in hand, and proceeded to astound the San Jose State golf coach so utterly that he assembled the entire men’s golf team behind her the next day, to watch her slam through the bucket of practice balls set up for novices at the driving range.
“And then,” Nelson remembers, “I ended up really getting hooked on the game!”
It was a swift trajectory from there, beginning with Nelson’s joining the San Jose State women’s golf team, which was then ranked No. 1 in the nation, and featured collegiate players Patty Sheehan and Juli Inkster (both of whom are now in the LPGA Hall of Fame). Competition after competition followed.
But a future on the pro tour didn’t entirely appeal to Nelson: “Traveling from town to town, away from family and friends — it didn’t seem like that was going to suit me very well.” As Nelson had an interest in business functions and management, seeking an opportunity to make a living in the golf industry — while continuing to play competitively — felt right.
Over the years, Nelson honed her exceptional managerial skills in a variety of high-level positions at private golf and sports clubs in Silicon Valley, winning glowing praise from her colleagues, and even receiving a standing ovation in the dining room of the University Club in Palo Alto one day because of service upgrades she implemented on the tennis courts.
Joining Half Moon Bay Golf Links in 2003, Nelson, a Coastside resident, felt right at home.
Managing a top-rated facility and continuing to participate in amateur golf events, Nelson works on her game, periodically, with Pebble Beach Golf Academy lead instructor Katherine Marren.
“Unfortunately, I can’t take any of the credit for her good play,” Marren says. “She’s more of a natural athlete who is self-taught and plays a lot by feel, so our lessons were more about tinkering than overhauls. … She is an amazing role model for women like me in the business of golf — so, in many ways, I have become her student, and I am really lucky to be influenced well by her.”
NCGA Director Rogers adds: “Lyn is a model of someone who has taken something she is very passionate about — golf — and has incorporated it into both her business life and her personal life. And she has come up with a wonderful balance. And that is a great example for other people, especially young women golfers: that there are options out there … there’s a lot of variety out there, besides just turning pro.”
By virtue of her visionary management and marketing skills, Nelson has developed and diversified the services of Half Moon Bay Golf Links significantly: fostering programs for junior golfers, accommodating working women with their own convenient tee times, and offering multiple tee boxes for players of all skill levels.
All of this while overseeing the remodeling of the Half Moon Bay Golf Links clubhouse, pro shop, and superb on-site restaurant, Mullins Bar & Grill, and developing creative golf tournament packages, lavish catering, and special events at the site, such as Monte Carlo Nights, Drive-in Movie Nights, and resplendent “19th Hole” Scotch-tastings.
“I don’t know of anybody in the golf industry who knows more about golf, golf management and tournament play than Lyn Nelson,” says Mark Kendall, president of Kenmark Golf Management, the corporation that oversees the facility at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. “Lyn’s ability to manage everything from the marketing of golfing, to growing the business of golf, to handling the financial aspects of running a golf business — and that goes from restaurant, to retail sales, to daily fee play, to tournaments — is bar none!”
Nelson, Kendall and their talented, devoted team at Half Moon Bay Golf Links have cultivated and maintained both golf courses to such high tournament standards that the facility was chosen as the host site for both a Women’s U.S. Open 2006 Qualifier and a Men’s U.S. Open 2007 Qualifier.
This coming October, the Samsung World Championship comes to Half Moon Bay Golf Links, bestowing even more recognition upon Nelson and the superb facility under her managerial wing.
The Samsung World Championship is an international golf tournament created by Mark McCormack, the late founder of the global sports, entertainment and media corporation IMG, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Featuring the top 20 professional women golfers in the world, this year’s purse of $1 million is the largest in event history, and an estimated 69 million viewers will watch the competition. Lorena Ochoa, Mexico’s down-to-earth golfing sensation and benevolent role model, is defending champion.
The five-day tournament will be played on the Ocean Course, with its gorgeous bluff-top layout in the Scottish “links-style” tradition. Rugged, treeless, and offering ocean vistas at every hole, the course promises rigorous play in a breathtaking setting.
Nelson explains: “When the LPGA came to look at the site, they felt that this was going to be a unique experience for the players. … They have to go against the elements here because the winds aren’t sheltered and they’ll be playing in coastal conditions. … It’s much more rustic, and this is going to add an extra challenge.”
Hosting the Samsung is a prestigious honor for Half Moon Bay Golf Links, a culmination of the steady rise of accolades which both courses have received from high-profile golf and travel industry magazines like Golf Digest, Golf for Women, Links Magazine, Travel & Leisure and BusinessWeek.
These magazines recognize Half Moon Bay Golf Links as a uniquely multi-faceted facility. Partnered with the neighboring Ritz-Carlton Hotel, it is a world-class resort destination, it is a much-lauded draw for the adjacent Ocean Colony residential properties, and Half Moon Bay Golf Links is also the Coastside’s public golf course, able to offer local patrons an uncommonly high-caliber place for daily-fee play.
Nelson, Kendall and their team enjoy providing a superb facility for golfers of all skill levels. Nelson says: “If you can take your vocation and make it fun … if, at the end of the day, people enjoyed themselves and have smiles on their faces … that’s the best.”
“There’s an expression in golf,” offers Nelson, “which says: ‘every shot in golf makes somebody happy.’ You’re going to be happy that you hit it, or your opponent may be happy that you missed it, but … it’s spreading joy around, no matter what!”
On the Web:
www.halfmoonbaygolf.com
www.mulllinsbarandgrill.com
http://pages.samsung.com/us/golf/
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