Interview With Rick Callies, Kettle Moraine Golf Club

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Rick Callies, PGA Professional at Kettle Moraine 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.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you do the game?
I tried golf twice at the age of 14, before ever being asked to play with my friends. The first time I swung my dad's clubs in the yard and ended up wrapping one of them around the basketball pole. My dad took his clubs and said I was never allowed to use his clubs again. To me this didn't mean I couldn't use my mom's clubs. So a few days later I took her clubs out in the back yard and ended up hitting my dog in between the eyes and caused her to receive a few stitches. My parents told me I was never allowed to play golf again.

What is your current home course?
Kettle Moraine Golf Club

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
First and only hole in one.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
Ball marks left on the greens.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Whistling Straits

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

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

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
Having to play out of a divot in the fairway. I feel it is unfair to be penalized for hitting to an area you are supposed to be. It would be like if you were required to putt through unfit areas on the green. A divot can be a very unpredictable lie and it always seems to happen at the most key times in a round.

Dream foursome (living)?
Me, Woods, Ogilvy, Mickelson

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Me, Woods, Hogan, Payne Stewart

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long Putt --- Long drives usually come after a ball out of bounds

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 fade

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Beverage cart

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bushes as long as the beverage cart already passed

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Wrap

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?
2 and 3 iron

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

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Pants

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Nicklaus

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Its only fun if you play for money

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Flop

17) Lay up OR gamble?
gamble

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18 to sandbag the next 18 to win the cash

Article Tags: Interview With Rick Callies

Revised: 03/23/2012 - Article Viewed 34,469 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.