Golf pro follows in his father’s cleat marks from Snohomish to prestigious Overlake club

Published 3:45 pm Friday, April 30, 2010

MEDINA — As a boy growing up in Snohomish, Mark Sursely learned about golf from his dad, Tom Sursely, the longtime head pro and later director of golf at Mill Creek Country Club.

Not just the rudiments of a good golf swing, although Mark Sursely became an outstanding player along the way, including four years as an All-Western Conference golfer at Snohomish High School, where he graduated in 1990, and four more years on the University of Washington golf team.

Under his father’s watchful eye and guiding hand, Mark Sursely also learned the rudiments of running a top golf club.

He learned the importance of long hours and a tireless work ethic, of having a cheerful and gracious demeanor with members, and of doing everything every day to make his club exceptional. And if his dad was a terrific teacher, Mark Sursely was an apt student, learning well enough to become, in time, a top club pro himself.

Last month, the 38-year-old Sursely became the head pro at prestigious Overlake Golf and Country Club in Medina, near the eastern edge of Lake Washington outside of Bellevue. He replaces Ron Hoetmer, who was at Overlake G&CC for 28 years until his recent retirement.

Prior to his hiring, Sursely had been the head pro at Mill Creek CC (after his dad became director of golf), then the head pro at The Members Club at Aldarra in Fall City, and for the last four years the head pro at the Kukio Golf and Beach Club on the Kona coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.

“I couldn’t dream of how well things have played out for me,” Sursely said of his career in golf. “I feel like I’ve been very blessed. I’ve worked hard for everything and the hard work has paid off, but I’ve also been very, very lucky with all my opportunities.

“This is a great job,” he said of Overlake G&CC. “It’s a very good membership, and they’re very supportive of the staff and the pro. It’s definitely at the top of the best (clubs) in this region in a lot of different respects.”

Sursely got his start working in golf at age 5, when he sometimes tagged along with his dad to help out at Mill Creek CC. His early duties included filling wire buckets with range balls, moving golf carts and caddying.

“That was my life and I loved it,” he said. “I had a passion for it.”

With a smile, he added, “I always knew I was going to do something around this game. You know, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.”

After graduating from college in 1994, Sursely wasted no time returning to the golf business. He became a PGA of America pro and joined his dad’s staff as an assistant at Mill Creek CC. Three years later he was the head pro, and he stayed until 2000 when he took the same position at Aldarra.

Six years later, Sursely was offered the job at Kukio, where he stayed for four memorable years — and where he was just 20 minutes away from the Mauna Lani Resort, where his dad (who also left Mill Creek CC in 2000) is today the director of golf operations.

But when the job came open at Overlake G&CC, and when his wife, Pamela (a graduate of Mukilteo’s Kamiak High School), had the chance to acquire a dental practice in Totem Lake at almost the same time, Sursely applied and was hired.

Since starting in early March, he has been scrambling to get himself and his staff established and operating smoothly. A staff that includes Joan Lamey Colleran, a 1980 graduate of Mariner High School, where she was a standout golfer. She is the daughter of Dr. Dave Lamey, a longtime member at Everett Golf and Country Club.

“I’m a to-do list guy,” Sursely said, “and if I leave at the end of the day with less than I started, that’s a good day. Because there are so many different things that get thrown at you.

“I don’t want to say it’s a labor of love because I’m very well taken care of. But it’s also a lot of work. It’s not a 9-to-5 job, because there’s no way I can do all the things I do, all the multi-tasking, if I’m not here.”

The tradeoff is that “my office is about as good as any,” he said. “I like being outside. And I like the variety, because there’s never any two days that are the same.”

And what motivates him, he said, is the desire “to keep pushing myself, and to keep asking myself how can I make this place where I am right now, the best.”

It is the same philosophy he learned from his father all those years ago at Mill Creek CC.

“I could say, ‘Did my dad pave any paths for me?’ I think he did in the way I was trained,” Mark Sursely said. “A lot of this I’ve done on my own accord, but there’s also a big part of my dad in me.

“He’s somewhere in the mix that I am, and I’m proud of that,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve let him down.”