Cactus Golf Head Pro of the

Week - Paul Nolen, The Gallery

By Shane Sharp,
Contributing Writer

April 5, 1999 TUCSON, AZ - - The Gallery is one of the hottest new tracks to open not only in Tucson, not only in Arizona, but in the Southwest at large. If you want to ensure the success of a course as highly touted as the Gallery, you have to bring in a hot head pro to ensure that the day to day operations around the course are as first-rate as the course itself. Wade Dunagan, the Gallery's Project Manager, has done just this by recruiting his former University of Arizona teammate Paul Nolen for the Head Pro/Director of Golf Operations position at the Gallery.

The professional journey that is Nolen's has taken him from the Mountains of Colorado, to the charms of Savannah, Georgia, only to land back in his old college town where he and his U of A teammates once made a name for themselves in the ultra competitive Pac-10. "I played golf for four years at U of A", says Nolen, "and we won Pac-10 championship in 1984. The team was solid but we never quite put it together. We never made it to the NCAA's as team."

Nolen picked up the game golf when he was seven years old, if nothing else to mimic his father and brother. The only catch was that Noel was an instant ringer.

"I just grabbed a club out of my dad's bag and started hitting it pretty well. John Benzel, who is now the head pro at Sedona Golf Resort actually cut my clubs down when I was a kid." At first glance, Nolen gives the appearance of the typical golf pro -someone who has been confined to the links his entire life. Dig a little deeper and you find out that this Grand Junction, Colorado native has a ton of game, and it is in no way limited to the golf course. "I was Allstate in basketball and baseball when I was at Glenwood Springs high in Grand Junction."

But even while juggling the hardwood with the diamond, Nolen was able to carve out a name for himself in Colorado high school golf. "My junior year at Glenwood we won the state championships in golf." After graduating from the U of A, Nolen took a position on the coaching staff as a student assistant coach. Being a big basketball guy, one thing he remembers fondly about his time at Arizona was watching Lute Olson resurrect the college basketball program from ground up in less than a year.

"I got to see Lute turn things around here with guys like Steve Kerr. It was really something to behold."

Nolen left the U of A golf team for a brief stint on the mini tours. Weary from the travel and down trodden from the lifestyle, he landed in Palm Springs, California at Mission Hills Golf Course.

"A buddy of mine I played a lot of golf, Greg Twiggs, told me to come out to Mission Hills, that they were looking for someone to work as an assistant." As it turned out, Palm Springs was just a one-year stop over for this up and coming assistant pro. While on the mini tours, Nolen had met is future wife in Savannah, Georgia. When an assistant pro job opened up at the exclusive Landings Club outside of Savannah, Nolen made it into Georgia faster than Sherman and his troops. The charms of the Deep South and the six plush courses of the Landings had a hold on Nolen, as he called Savannah home for seven years - five of them in the club's head pro position.

From Deep south to Wild west, Nolen made the trek back to the left coast in search of the desert golf lifestyle he once enjoyed early on in his career. "I got a phone call from my college golf coach saying the director of golf position at Tucson National had opened up. I took the job for 13 months and left in August 1996. Things didn't work out, but it was interesting."

After leaving Tucson National, Nolen spent some time honing his teaching philosophies at the John Jacob's School of Golf. But in the fall of 1997,the business of being a golf pro reeled him in once again.

"I was hired by Troon Golf, and they needed me at La Paloma at the time." But Nolen was only at Paloma for a year when the challenge of heading up the golf operations and teaching functions at the Gallery presented itself where else - but out on the golf course.

"Going to the Gallery had nothing to do with being dissatisfied with Paloma. One day I got a call from Gallery Project Manager, Wade Dunagan -my old U of A teammate. I had been looking at the project (the Gallery) for a couple of years, before they even broke ground on it. I was playing a round of golf with Wade out at Tucson National and he asked me if I would be interested in the position. Having the chance to work with Wade was a great opportunity I could not pass up."

For a guy who was been across the country and back, Nolen is just happy to be back in the Old Pueblo, even if the Gallery is consuming all his time. "I am so busy I haven't had a chance to do anything else since I started at the Gallery. I like Tucson. It is a big city with a small town feel, and its fun to be in a city that backs the university. I am a huge Hoops fan and its great to be back in a hoops town." Being a Tom Lehman and John Fought designed course, Nolen has had the opportunity to meet with Lehman and talk golf course design and strategy with one of the PGA Tour's real class acts.

"Lehman is every bit a nice a guy as he appears to be in the media. When he was here he was still was recovering from his shoulder injury so I didn't get to play with him." In fact, Lehman has not had the pleasure of playing the course yet. But many of the PGA's touring pros had the chance to tee it up at the Gallery during the Tucson Open. Players who missed the cut at the Open were invited to play in a pro-am at the Gallery that weekend. According to Nolen, many of the players were still talking about the course the next week at the Doral in Miami.

This just in Houston - it appears that both Nolen, and the Gallery have landed.

FROM THE FRINGE The Gallery is open for daily fee play on a limited basis only. Says Nolen "we want to create an atmosphere for our new members like they are the only ones out there on the course." The Gallery is seeing about 90 rounds per day and when the threshold of 390 members is reached, the next Lehman/Fought course will go under construction on location. Bill Huffman of the Arizona Republic calls the Gallery "the best new private course in the state."