UNIVERSITY PLACE — Head pro at Chambers Bay, the home of major championship golf in the state of Washington, Sequim High School graduate Jacob Lippold has been named a finalist for a prestigious PGA of America national award.
Lippold has earned Western Washington PGA chapter and Pacific Northwest Section honors as the Merchandiser of the Year-Public Facility and is now under consideration for the 2020 PGA National award, which will be announced later this year.
“The coolest thing about that is it’s your peers doing the voting,” Lippold said. “And especially to be recognized in merchandising when you are the one who does the buying, receiving and merchandising here.”
The recognition put a bow on a year’s worth of hard work for Lippold, who was wearing multiple hats as the course returned from a six-month shutdown to replace its fine fescue greens with nativepoa annua (bluegrass). Chambers Bay’s greens were the subject of much debate during the 2015 U.S. Open as they became brown and bumpy in some warm, sunny weather during the tournament.
Formerly the head pro at Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles, Lippold started his career at The Cedars at Dungeness under the tutelage of director of golf Bill Shea and alongside fellow assistant and current Cedars head pro Garrett Smithson.
Smithson and Lippold went through the PGA’s education program at the same time, and Smithson is excited for his friend and former co-worker.
“To be a finalist for this award is a massive achievement,” Smithson said. “From what info I could gather there are somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 public/municipal golf courses in the country. I know Bill and I are extremely proud of him.”
After leaving Peninsula, Lippold traveled, visiting family in Australia as he decompressed from 70-hour weeks in the golf shop.
“I was taking some time to clear my head and take a little break from everything,” Lippold said of his initial trip. “I wasn’t sure where I was going to work when I left Peninsula, and I reached out to [Ryan Young] the director of instruction at Chambers on the same day that the course’s seasonal assistant had put in notice. So I spent seven months a year teaching and working in the shop and saved up funds and traveled in the offseason.”
Lippold said each season at Chambers Bay has seen different challenges. He was asked to head up the course’s merchandising in early 2018, right as the course was preparing to close for the greens project that October.
With the closure coming up, Lippold was tasked with reducing overall inventory levels by over $100,000 while still meeting the course’s budget in sales.
In December of 2018, he had both of his hips replaced as lingering damage from youth athletic injuries and a car accident in his early 20s had left Lippold unable to tie his shoes.
He wasn’t away from a golf course for long, putting with friends at Peninsula within a week of the surgery while rehabbing back at his father’s house in Port Angeles.
Lippold teed it up for the first time since the surgery in March 2019 and is planning to walk every hole he plays in 2020. That included a marathon trip to Bandon Dunes with Chambers members just before the coronavirus shutdown in March.
Last year, in his first season purchasing all inventory and merchandising for the course, Chambers’ Bay moved its re-opening date back a month to April, the course’s director of golf instruction took a leave of absence and the head pro moved on.
Lippold took on more group instruction and also helped with the course’s veterans outreach programs and the PGA Jr. League housed at Chambers Bay. In the eyes of the PGA, he was Chambers’ new head pro.
“April was a slow merchandise month, so I was a little nervous, but then May through September and October, we were setting records on our margins, cutting down on no-shrink [inventory listed in accounting records, but not on hand], turning through inventory. It was a good year overall, and I felt really fortunate to be part of that.”
Lippold appreciates where he is at professionally.
“It’s special,” he said. “The setting is as beautiful as any place I’ve ever played in the world. The view from my office is incredible and sunsets are amazing. It’s easy to feel that excitement when you come to work. Attitude is valued here, there are a lot of long-term employees and we want people to feel welcomed and included when they come to play. And it isn’t cheap to play here, so we want to offer that [feeling] when you walk into your home course. That type of vibe. It’s a happy and exciting place to work. It’s as good as any spot I can imagine.”
And his favorite hole? No, it’s not one of the more well-known holes like the par-3 15th “Lone Fir,” the location of the course’s one tree, or holes 16 and 17 tucked alongside the railroad tracks and the shores of the Tacoma Narrows.
Nope, Lippold likes No. 10 the best, the 398-yard High Dunes, which feature the two largest dunes on the course and a narrow opening to the green.
“Hole No. 10 has been giving me some fits lately, just a well-guarded hole with some risk-reward,” Lippold said. “I’ve hit everything from a 5-iron off the tee to stay short of the trouble, up to a driver which can leave you left or right in the dunes, or left or right in bunkers, or you hit the fairway and have 100 yards in.”
Area pros recognized
Lippold wasn’t the only golf pro with North Olympic Peninsula ties to be honored by the Western Washington PGA Chapter.
Shea took top honors as the region’s Golf Professional of the Year.
Port Ludlow head pro Tyler Sweet won the Merchandiser of the Year-Resort award for his efforts in the Ludlow pro shop.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
