Roger Porzak

Interview With Roger Porzak Director of Golf The Retreat, Links & Spa at Silvies Valley Ranch

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Roger Porzak, the Director of Golf at The Retreat, Links & Spa at Silvies Valley Ranch. 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?
My 55 plus years in golf involves being a competitive player, accomplished teacher, Board Member and/or President of a variety of golf associations, Head Professional, Director of Player Development and Co-Founder of the Porzak Golf Academy, staff member of Callaway Golf, creator of Links Fore Life (a non-profit charity focused on growing the game) and Director of Golf for Silvies Valley Ranch.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
Age 10, my father introduced me to the game.

Playing golf at Bel Air Country Club with Ray Bolger, the Scare Crow in the movie Wizard of Oz. He sang the song "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" as he danced down the fairway. It was SPECTACULAR!

What is your current home course?
Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego, California and Silvies Valley Ranch in Seneca, Oregon.

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
The work I have done in developing junior players and growing the game. Presently, I am a ten-year Board Member of the renowned San Diego Jr. Golf Association (SDJGA) and Past President. SDJGA runs the IMG Academy Jr. World Golf Championships, the oldest and largest junior tournament in the world. I lived and worked in China for one-year establishing a junior tour, junior programs, teaching teachers how to teach the game and introducing the game in the school system. My son and I created a
golf academy in 2013 that has developed some of the top ranked juniors in the country. Golf provided me with so many opportunities as a young man and it is my passion to open doors for juniors through the great game of golf. I started a non-profit charity, Links Fore Life, that provides free lessons and equipment to juniors who come from less-fortunate families.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
Players who do not take proper care of the course.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
Sand Wedge - 70% of scoring occurs within 70-yards of the green. The sand wedge (56 degree) can be used in so many ways. Nothing is more pleasing then to save par from the most difficult of situations.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Silvies Valley Ranch in Eastern Oregon and Carnoustie in Scotland

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Augusta National

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
Carnoustie

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
A free drop from a divot in the fairway. Players who hit a good shot should not be penalized for a golfer not taking proper care of the course.

Dream foursome (living)?
Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and my son, Adam.

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and me.

Favorite 19th hole drink?
A beer

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

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

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Halfway House

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?
Walking

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

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
I enjoy the strategy associated with playing a long par 5.

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Nicklaus

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Play for Money

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Bump and run

17) Lay up OR gamble?
Lay up ( I love playing strategic golf).

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18 holes

Revised: 04/06/2020 - Article Viewed 13,129 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.