Top Golfers, Take 2
Successful CRE execs possess three critical skills: work ethic, market knowledge, and a great golf game. So today, we bring you some of CRE's top golfers (by handicap, not deals). We rounded up a another installment of the best golfers in the commercial real estate community.
JERROD SIMMONS
If Henry S Miller associate Jerrod Simmons hadn’t broken his foot playing baseball when he was 13, he may have never discovered how much he enjoys golf. He was bored and went to the golf course with his stepbrother (who was on the high school team) and it’s been a love affair ever since. Here, he’s between Mutual of Omaha’s Chris Martin Eau and Rosie and Sam Kartalis (HSM prez/COO). His lowest round: 61. Biggest win was by six shots with a 62. The former Brookhollow golf pro’s bucket list: to play Cypress and Pine Valley. He also wants to shoot 59. His sister has done it and “I will never hear the end of it unless I do the same,” he says.
JIM KRICK
Sierra Lane Partners’ Jim Krick (here on hole 15 at Cypress Point Golf Club in California) first learned of golf as a caddy in high school. He set the bar high by hitting five holes-in-one while playing in high school. With a low of 69 at his home club of River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth, he’s been playing most weekends and some summer evenings there since 1981. He’s wrapping up development of a shopping center in Murietta, Calif., and is a member at Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells, Calif. He’s been on father-son golf trips throughout Scotland and Ireland. His three sons are all low single-digit handicap golfers and one is a professional golfer living in Scottsdale, playing in web.com and eGolf Tour events.
MATT ROSENFELD
The Weitzman Group associate Matt Rosenfeld began playing golf at the age of 3 at Sherill Park. He won his first junior tournament at the age 6 and was hooked from there. He won more than 140 tournaments as a junior and went on to play at UT, where he was a three-time All-American. He was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Big 12 2002 to 2006 and was winner of the 2006 Big 12 Championships, 2004 Spirit Cup Champions, and 2005 Palmer Cup Champions. He went on to play professionally for seven years on the PGA Tour, Web.Com Tour, European Tour, and the Asian Tour. He’s lucky to get in a game or two a month right now, but after recently playing in the Prosper EDC tournament and firing a 61 at Gentle Creek, he’s planning to make a bigger effort to play more on the weekends.
NATHAN ORBIN
JLL SVP Nathan Orbin (here at his favorite place in the world, Pebble Beach) is still shooting for that hole-in-one by taking an annual golf trip to a new destination. He shoots about a 75, despite not getting to play nearly as often as he’d like. He’s spending more time close to home with a 2-year-old boy and a baby girl on the way.
CREW DALLAS
The 28th annual CREW Dallas Golf Classic tournament sold out to 136 professionals associated with 65 commercial real estate firms playing the course last month. The Butler Burgher team won the first place net with players Daniel Stickane, Chris Roach, Justin Teel, and Chase Addington. This year, tournament proceeds will provide assistance to local organizations funded through Dallas Women’s Foundation; fund research grants for women’s health issues through University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and support to CREW Network Foundation. Not to be left out, CREW Fort Worth is hosting its golf classic on May 30 at the Tierra Verde Golf Club.
JIM LESLIE (Again?)
We featured Cresa national CEO Jim Leslie in our last issue, but he was too modest to tell us just how good he really is. Cresa founding principal Jerry Porter sent us this picture of Jim after he made a hole in one at Bandon Dunes in Oregon a couple of years ago. He’s the real deal, Jerry says.
