If you had to sum up Scott Alexander in one phrase, that phrase would be this: he knows golf. The long-time director of Gold Mountain Golf Complex in Bremerton, Alexander has been a golf professional for more than two decades.
   “I love it,” Alexander said of his profession. “I don’t even really think of it as a job most of the time.”
   Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Alexander’s family relocated to Bremerton in 1974 when his father, a JC Penney manager, transferred to the downtown Bremerton store.
   “It was between my junior and senior year of high school,” he said of the family move. “I begged [my parents] to let me stay.”
   His parents allowed him to remain in Portland to finish high school. After graduation, Alexander attended the University of Oregon for a year, then transferred to Olympic College in Bremerton, and ultimately graduated from Seattle University in 1979 with a degree in counseling.
   Although an avid golfer who played competitively in college, and spent much of his first year out of college playing in amateur golf tournaments, working as a golf professional was not Alexander’s first choice.

Scott Alexander (R) answering a question in the pro shop

   “Coming out of college I was going to try to avoid it,” he said, citing stories people had told him about how miserable the work was, with long hours and lots of weekends. But in 1980 a friend who worked at Meridian Valley Country Club in Kent convinced him to give it a try. He spent three years there as an assistant before coming to Gold Mountain in 1984.
   As director of golf, Alexander wears many hats, and this variety is one of the things he enjoys about the profession. What he also likes, he said, is that, as a recreation business, “Ninety-nine percent of the people walk in already in a good mood – our job is just to keep them happy.”
   Alexander speaks with pride of the 20-year relationship that he and his business partner, Gold Mountain’s golf professional Daryl Matheny, have had with the city of Bremerton, which owns the facility. Alexander and Matheny own the restaurant, the pro shop, and the golf carts. They lease the space from the city and operate under a professional services agreement. Ed Faulk, who also works for the city by contract, maintains the grounds.
   When you think of city-owned golf courses, the term “municipal course” often comes to mind, and the images associated with this phrase are usually not very flattering. Gold Mountain Golf Complex defies these associations. The two-course facility highlights the area’s breathtaking Pacific Northwest scenery. Its Olympic course, built in 1996, was named the number one golf course in the state by publications such as Golf Digest and Golfweek Magazine, was rated as one of the top 100 courses in the country by Golf Magazine, and has won numerous awards. Around 100,000 rounds of golf a year are played between the two courses.
   “We’re probably the second highest volume in the state,” he said.
   Like most golf facilities in the county, Gold Mountain is a public course, so membership is not required to play. The facility does offer a range of annual pass options, and also has 650 men’s club and 125 women’s club members. Individuals interested in joining either of these clubs can do so for a $50 annual fee.
   With the addition of the new clubhouse building in 2002, the complex also does a brisk business in weddings and private parties. When all revenue sources are combined, Alexander estimated, the complex generates about $5 million a year.
   The city earns its portion of the revenue pie from the greens fees, which are set by the complex’s board of directors and approved by the city council. The board and the city rely heavily on guidance from Alexander, Matheny, and Faulk for the day-to day operations of the facility, as not one of the many people — 12 to 100, depending on the season — who work hard to keep Gold Mountain running smoothly are city employees.
   “Everyone who works here works for us or for Ed,” said Alexander. “Having the right staff is important.”
   In most ways, it’s just like running any other golf complex, he said, although the multiple-owner business model can make some aspects a bit challenging. He cited difficulties in planning some promotions that other, one-owner golf facilities can offer as a matter of course.
   “If we run a promotion and discount the greens fees, then the city loses,” he said. “If we discount the food than I lose. We have to make sure that everyone always has their team hats on.”
   Aside from overseeing the restaurant and pro shop and golf cart operations, Alexander also teaches golf and organizes tournaments.
   “Teaching golf is a blast,” he said. “And running tournaments is enjoyable, especially if you are able to pull it off in an extra-special way.”
   Gold Mountain is host to 200 to 300 tournaments a year, both for outside organizations and for Gold Mountain itself. Tournaments organized by Gold Mountain include the Bremerton City Amateur, Mountain Madness, and the Triple Eagle Tournament, which it is co-hosting with McCormick Woods and Trophy Lake.
   A major feather in the Gold Mountain’s tournament cap is that it will be organizing and hosting the 81st United States Golf Association’s Amateur Public Links Championship in 2006. This tournament will be the first national championship event the USGA has held in Washington in 10 years, and the first Public Links tournament in the Seattle area since 1968. The winner of this tournament receives an invitation to the Master’s.
   Alexander and his Gold Mountain crew are fully responsible for organizing the event, which will be held July 10-15, 2006. Right now, Alexander reported, they are in the process of raising $100,000 to $120,000 in funding.
   “We’re about halfway there,” he said.
   After two decades at Gold Mountain, Alexander shows no inclination to leave.
   “I would have loved to have been a teacher and a coach,” said Alexander of alternate career choices. “But I’m so entrenched now in the Bremerton community I can’t imagine doing anything else.”