When I was in middle school, we lived right on a golf course. Westridge in McKinney, hole 8, pretty much on top of the tee box. My dad would always go play with my uncle and my grandpa, and every single time I'd ask to come along. He'd tell me the same thing every time. Not yet. You have to break 90 first.
I started getting up at 5am and sneaking out without anyone knowing. I'd ride my bike with my clubs on my back down to the course, chipping in the dark until the pro shop opened to get balls to hit on the range before school. I'd get back home before anyone noticed I left the house, get ready, and as soon as I got off the bus in the afternoon I rode my bike right back out there. Two years of that. Same routine every weekday. Then one Saturday I finally beat my dad straight up. That was when I really fell in love with the game and convinced him to let me play competitively.
I played all the way through high school. Played in college too, but not on the team. I tried walking on the team multiple times and was turned down. That stung, but it didn't slow me down. I kept playing for the love of it, because by then golf wasn't just a sport, it was part of how I connected and kept challenging myself to keep improving. After college I picked up caddying loops at Dallas National and started working on my real estate license at the same time. I wanted a career that looked different every single day, the same way every round of golf does. No two lies the same. No two situations the same. And at the heart of both, it's really about the people you're walking the course with.
I started my journey in real estate on the investment side, working with investors and learning the hard way that outside of location, condition is the whole ballgame. That pulled me into the construction side. Buying houses, fixing them up, flipping them. Becoming an expert in what actually makes a property move. Now I work with homeowners to find creative solutions based on three main factors: the situation, the location, and the condition. That's the playbook.
A few years into real estate I joined my first private club here at Brookhaven Country Club, and it changed the way I thought about everything. The atmosphere, the volume of golf, the family feel, the way people knew each other on the course. It was a different kind of community. My wife Cierra and our two dogs, Remi and Birdie, are a big part of this community now. We're building our family here, right where I love being most.
After thinking about all of it, the love of the game, the years building my book of business, the simple truth that most golfers I know would rather live a wedge away from a course than anywhere else, Fairway Realty came together. A golf-themed brokerage built to get golfers closer to the courses they love across DFW. Both of the things I'm best at, in one company. That's why I built it. And that's why this tournament exists.