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 Damian Pascuzzo (left) and Steve Pate have found they work well together. It’s not uncommon for professional golfers to be involved in business opportunities beyond the course, but it’s also not uncommon for those golfers to undertake ventures with ulterior motives rather than passion for the activity. Damian Pascuzzo, a golf course architect who grew up in Los Angeles, knew about such superficial forays from his own experience and testimonies from his colleagues. A tour player would join a design project for the publicity or chance to say he worked on the design without proper concern for the job’s nuances. But when Pascuzzo joined with six-time PGA Tour winner Steve Pate on Monarch Dunes in Nipomo early this decade, the opposite happened — the duo worked so well together on what was supposed to be a one-off project that they became business partners. “I’d worked with other tour pros before, and nobody had shown the legitimate interest in learning about architecture that Steve had,” recalled Pascuzzo, who served as president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 2001-02. “I was really impressed by that and the amount of time he was willing to devote to it.” Two men can largely be credited for the partnership — real estate entrepreneur John Scardino and John O’Hurley, who played J. Peterman on “Seinfeld.” In 2001, O’Hurley played with Pate in a South Carolina pro-am and asked if he was interested in course design, mentioning a friend of his (Scardino) had a project within The Woodlands real estate development on California’s Central Coast. Pate met Scardino at a party shortly thereafter, and Scardino was impressed enough with the Ventura native that he informed Pascuzzo he’d have a tour pro consulting on the course, which had been in the planning phase since 1991. “After John Scardino called and told me he wanted to bring Steve on board, it couldn’t have been more than an hour or two later that Steve calls my cell phone,” Pascuzzo said. “I’m in central Oregon, and I actually pull into a Home Depot parking lot just to make sure I had good reception. We must have talked for two hours, and the next day it was like another two hours. That immediately told me it was going to be a little different situation.”  Pate, who has the nickname “Volcano” because of past outbursts during tournaments, has enjoyed a career that’s included two Ryder Cup appearances (American victories in 1991 and ’99) and a pair of triumphs at Torrey Pines. Five of his six PGA Tour victories came in the late 1980s and early ’90s, around the time he became interested in architecture. But it wasn’t out of admiration. “I felt golf course architecture changed around that time,” said Pate, a former Pac-10 champion and All-American at UCLA. “In particular, I saw it with the TPC courses. I pretty much hated every one of them. I was just convinced, right or wrong, I could do better than that. I just wanted to have a chance.” The issue wasn’t so much length as it was tricked-out elements like forced carries, deep bunkers and greenside setups that required magic to save par. “You would play some of these courses in pro-ams with 15 handicaps — guys who were competent players — and it didn’t matter how far up you put the tees, they just couldn’t finish the golf course,” Pate said. “That just didn’t seem right.” When construction began on Monarch Dunes in 2003, Pate initially kept quiet because he wanted to absorb knowledge and not step on the veterans’ toes. But as the Agoura Hills resident became more attuned to what was involved and where he could provide his input, he made his presence felt. Pate’s influence on the layout, which was named one of Golf Magazine’s 10 best new courses in 2007, could especially be seen on the green complexes. “The surfaces themselves are fun and interesting, and if you miss the green, there are a variety of recovery shots,” Pascuzzo said. “The way I was taught by Robert Muir Graves was that once you reached the green, you were almost home-free. Listening to Steve, and looking at it from his perspective, there’s more to the story than just being on the green, it’s where you are on — or off — the green.” Pascuzzo and Pate agreed on many design concepts and shared a common love for food and grilling. During the project, they’d often enjoy meals at Jocko’s, a legendary local steakhouse, and Paco’s, a revered spot for traditional Mexican fare. Pascuzzo was at a career crossroads during the creation of Monarch Dunes due to the death of his design partner, Graves, a few years earlier. So near the end of the project in 2006, Pascuzzo and Pate decided to join forces and create 2P Golf Course Design, which is based in El Dorado Hills in Northern California. “The universe just kind of aligned itself perfectly,” Pascuzzo said. “The chance to work with a great player and pick his brain — how he thinks, attacks and views the strategy of a golf hole — really opened my eyes to a whole different way of thinking.” So far, their clients have appreciated the dual viewpoints. The two have worked on a variety of projects, including renovations at Newport Beach’s Big Canyon Country Club and Simi Hills Golf Course in Simi Valley. They also conceived another design at Monarch Dunes — the Challenge Course, which features many of the tenets as the regulation-length layout spread over 12 par-3 holes — and have been tapped by Scardino to design a third course on the property in the near future. “After starting this, I started thinking more in terms of golf being fun and that it’s not all about tournaments,” Pate said of his design outlook. “It’s important for me to go play a golf course once and remember most of the holes, and you do that by having variety.” As for his playing career, Pate, who will be 48 next May, has been competing mostly on the Nationwide Tour. But it’s been difficult for him to generate momentum, mostly because his back hasn’t been 100 percent. But architecture has been a refreshing change of pace, and Pate has been trying to stay fit in the hopes of peaking for a tenure on the Champions Tour. “Playing also helps the architecture business,” he said. “It gets our names out there so people are more aware of us and what we do. Especially now that I’m older, these guys I used to play in pro-ams with, I felt like I was playing with my father and I was scared to talk to them. Now, I’m older than half of them. It makes a big difference in how I can relate to them.” |
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