To hear Steve Morewitz describe it, his position as head professional at Ocotillo Golf Resort in Chandler is “the perfect job.’’ He has a great relationship with the club’s owner, Bernie Hoogestraat, the potential to advance with the industry’s leading management company, Troon Golf, and he gets to oversee a staff of employees he calls “the best in the business.’’
“Ocotillo is a very special place, which is why I’ve been here as long as I have,’’ said Morewitz, who has been with the club for 12 years.
“It’s where I met my wife (Laney), it’s where I built my career, and it’s where I’ve formed a lot of special friendships that are dear to me.’’
So why is Morewitz leaving Ocotillo and leaping all the way across the country to Williamsburg, Va., to start a new career selling insurance?
“It all came down to my family: the one that is here, and the ones that are back in Virginia,’’ he said of wife Laney and children Catherine (9) and Casey (6), as well as a large group of relatives.
“I was working so much -- when we’re jamming, six days a week, 12 hours a day -- that I found myself missing out on so many things that involve our family. . . I don’t want to be 50 someday and say, ‘Where did all the years go?’ I’m just not going to miss my kids growing up.’’
So at age 38, Morewitz is leaving the golf industry for what he envisions as a more “normal life.’’
His return to his roots wasn’t planned, he said, “It kind of ebbed and flowed until it just happened while I was back there recently on vacation.’’
“This is in no way is about sour grapes,’’ said the easygoing Morewitz, who is taking over an insurance business in Williamsburg that has been run by an uncle. “I just feel like I’m still young enough to make a midlife career change that will greatly enhance my family life.
It’s not an indictment of the golf industry, either. “If you’re lucky enough to become a head pro or a director of golf or a general manager at a wonderful course like Ocotillo, you have to put in long hours if you’re going to succeed at the level that is expected,’’ Morewitz said.
I’ve heard this many times before, although most of the golf industry people I’ve heard it from never take such a plunge. From a distance, the golf world looks pretty glamorous, but I would bet a dozen Pro-V1s that you and I get to play more golf and spend more time with our families than those who work in the pro shop.
“Oh, sure, there’s a lot of people who would love to have my job,’’ conceded Morewitz, who got out of media relations with the Phoenix Firebirds back in 1993 and worked his way up the ladder at Ocotillo starting in outside service.
“But the perception that a head pro plays golf five times a week, gives 10 easy lessons, and has a leisurely lunch in the grill every day, well, that doesn’t happen much in Arizona these days. The reality is, it’s a very demanding job.’’
One that never goes away. Like last weekend, when Morewitz and his staff put in a lot of overtime while cleaning up after a microburst that downed 58 trees and left Ocotillo’s ubiquitous lakes full of debris.
“You can get the call at any time . . . Christmas morning, whenever,’’ Morewitz said. “There’s just always something that seems to drag you to the course, and no one really thinks that’s unusual; it’s what we do.
“But the bottom line was my wife and kids; having to leave in the morning when they’re still in bed, and coming home at night after they’ve already had dinner. . . . You start to realize it’s been three or four or five years of that, and eventually it will be a lifetime.’’
Kathy Wilkes, the executive director of the Southwest Section of the PGA, of which Morewitz is a member, understands the toll of working in the golf industry. And while she sees a few leave, the numbers continue to grow, as the SWPGA is now at 1,400 members and climbing.
“Are (club pros) overworked?’’ she asked rhetorically. “I think so, as I’d say most work 50 to 60 hours a week or more. But I think everybody is overscheduled in our society, and the golf industry is no different. So we work more and have less leisure time -- less time to play golf -- than ever before.’’
What’s interesting, Wilkes added, is that most of the club pros who leave for careers outside of golf return to it within a year.
“Golf kind of gets in your blood, I guess,’’ she said.
John Gunby, the head pro at Shalimar Golf Club in Tempe, fits that mold. Gunby gave up his career as a club pro in 1999 and then returned the following year.
“I got out because I got divorced, and I needed more time to take care of my kids,’’ he said. “But I really missed it, and I came back. . . .
“The reality is, it’s a job that’s tough on marriages and the family. . . . So I can understand why (people change careers). Hey, when you die, you’re not going to say, ‘Gee, I wish I’d spent more time at work’ as the hearse rolls down the street.’’
Morewitz can relate, and that’s why he’s taking his family back “home,’’ where four generations of great grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins are waiting. Personally, I give him a lot of credit for tackling one of life’s great debates -- career vs. family -- and making the choice he did.
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