Ryan Weir

Interview With Ryan Weir Assistant Golf Professional Silver Spring Golf Club

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Ryan Weir, the Assistant Golf Professional at Silver Spring Golf Club. 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?
I began golfing as a hobby at the age of 8. In my teen years I began to explore it more and more, and played high school golf for four years at Cudahy. After graduation, I started to notice a great deal of improvement, and in 2007 took a job as an Assistant Golf Professional. I moved to Naples, Florida in October of 2007 and remained down there for 3 1/2 years until I came back to Wisconsin. I am currenly a Level 2 Apprentice in the PGA's Professional Golf Management program.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you do the game?
My dad put a golf club in my hands at a young age and showed me the basics, after that my learning came from watching the PGA Touring Pros on television, and mimicking their movements.

What is your current home course?
Silver Spring Golf Club is my home course, because I work here. However, growing up my home course was Oakwood Park Golf Course, the longest public course in Milwaukee County.

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
Passing my Playing Ability Test for my PGA certification program. I woke up that morning with supreme confidence, and turned it into a 75 and 73, and passed my test by seven shots.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
When people do not play ready golf. I would like to see more golfers focused on their upcoming shot, rather than watching everyone in their group hit a shot, then decide what they want to do. If every golfer was able to go to their ball and select a club and then glance at what their playing partners are doing it would make for much quicker rounds of golf.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
Driver. I feel that I need to be in a good spot off the tee to be able to put a good round together. I have supreme confidence in it, and when its on, I find my scores are much lower than when I spray it.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Naples, Florida. I lived and worked there for three years. Every block you travel you see another golf property. You could spend a month there and not play the same course twice.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Whistling Straits - Straits course.

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
Augusta National. I have heard that television does not to it justice. The natural beauty of Augusta rivals anything else in the game of golf.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
I wouldn't change anything about it. It is a perfect being the way it is. It is the toughest game to play, and only requires about a 12 inch course to play on, and that is the space between your ears.

Dream foursome (living)?
Aaron Rodgers, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Alice Cooper

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Payne Stewart, Tiger Woods, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Hogan

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt? Sinking Long Putt - Drive for show, putt for DOUGH!

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Round of Life

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight? Crack of Dawn

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Power Fade

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Beverage Cart

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bathroom

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Wrap

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Sand

9) Walking OR riding?
Riding

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

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Long Par 5

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Pants

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Nicklaus

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
The Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Money

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

17) Lay up OR gamble?
Gamble

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18

Revised: 01/13/2013 - Article Viewed 37,355 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.