Interview With Dan Piecha Director of Golf Delbrook Golf Club By Brian Weis

Interview With Dan Piecha Director of Golf Delbrook Golf Club

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Dan Piecha, the Director of Golf at Delbrook Golf Club. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
I started in the golf business in 1986 as an assistant golf professional at Carroll Country Club in Carroll, Iowa. I moved 375 miles from Illinois to take that job. After my first year I went to Jester Park Golf Course outside Des Moines. During that time I passed my P.A.T. and completed PGA Business Schools 1 and 2, finishing in the Top 5% of both classes. In 1990 I took the position of First Assistant Professional at Turnberry Country Club in Crystal Lake, Illinois. In 1992 I was offered the Head Gold Professional position at Rochelle Country Club and was there until 2004. I took a PGA Professional position at Golf Galaxy in Gurnee, Illinois for a year until I was offered the Director of Golf job at Delbrook Golf Club where I have been since 2006.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
I was probably 11 or 12 years old when I started playing. I grew up in a town of only 300 people and there was a nine hole course about 5 or 6 miles from town. I remember my grand parents, or whoever I could find, driving me to the course and dropping me off in the mornings and picking me up late afternoon. I would spend most of my days either playing or hunting for golf balls in the woods.

What is your current home course?
I'm currently the Director of Golf at Delbrook Golf Club in Delavan, Wisconsin so I consider this my home course.

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
I would say having successful terms at two different facilites. The first at Rochelle Country Club a private club in Illinois where I was at for 13 seasons. And now at Delbrook Golf Club where I am currently in my 14th season.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
That guy that wants to walk you through his round shot by shot. I'm happy to hear about some of the highlights, but do I really need to hear about how you lagged your 20 footer?

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
I like my wedges and I guess my favorite is my 54 degree. I use it for all kinds of shots around the greens and I get the biggest kick out of imagining and pulling off shots to get up and down.

What is your favorite golf destination?
I went to TPC Sawgrass for a week back in the 90's for a PGA Playing Workshop. Great facility and practice areas. What a lot of people don't know is in addition to the Stadium Course there is also the Valley Course on property and that is one heck of a course also.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
I don't really have a bucket list for courses. But I would really like to play Augusta National, so if you know a guy!

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
Golf de la Martinique. Back in the early 90's I did a few cruises with Norwegian Cruise Lines. They would comp my trip and I would play golf with the passengers. This course is a Trent Jones design and the uniqueness of the place still stands out to me. Plus the added component of waking up in the Caribbean.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
They fixed the spike mark thing, so I'm good.

Dream foursome (living)?
So I'm the fourth?
Lee Trevino
Nick Faldo
Tiger Woods

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Seve Ballesteros
Arnold Palmer
Walter Hagen

Favorite 19th hole drink?
Rum & Coke

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long Putt

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Round of Life

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Twilight

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Power Fade

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Bev Cart

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bathroom

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Hot Dog

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Sand

9) Walking OR riding?
riding

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Hybrid

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Par 3

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Palmer

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Fun

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Flop Shot

17) Lay up OR gamble?
Gamble

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18 Holes now days.

Revised: 02/01/2020 - Article Viewed 12,564 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.