New Director of Golf at Grand Geneva By Brian Weis

New Director of Golf at Grand Geneva

Ryan Brown has been named golf director at Grand Geneva Resort & Spa

By Brian Weis

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin - April 2021 - Grand Geneva Resort & Spa's The Brute and The Highlands golf courses are open for the season with the news of the appointment of new golf director, Ryan Brown.

Brown will oversee and manage daily operations and golf initiatives at Grand Geneva's award-winning courses. An 11 year PGA member, Mr. Brown joins the resort from his role of director of golf at Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa. He began his career in Michigan working for Boyne Resorts after graduating from the University of Colorado, majoring in Marketing & Professional Golf Management. While working for Boyne, Brown spent some of his winters employed by one of Florida's premier clubs, Bonita Bay Club. He also worked as an assistant golf professional at one of the country's top private clubs, Pine Lake Country Club, in metro Detroit where he implemented several instructional programs which helped support the growth of the club's junior golf program to over 185 members. He was later nominated for the Michigan PGA Section Assistant Professional of the Year. Throughout his career, he's successfully launched and designed several instructional and fitting opportunities -- initiatives he plans to launch at Grand Geneva. These programs will include private instruction, golf schools, clinics for men, women, and children, and custom club fitting.

Prior to Brown joining the Grand Geneva team, the resort's golf operations were managed by former director David Hallenbeck, who has been employed by the resort for 48 years and is planning a retirement in the near future. This season, he will assume the role of golf ambassador.

"We are very excited to welcome Ryan to the Grand Geneva team. He brings a wealth of knowledge, skill and expertise in golf marketing and the sport in general" said Stephen M. Magnuson, managing director, Grand Geneva Resort & Spa. "We're looking forward to another year of golfers enjoying our courses as well as the amenities the resort has to offer. As a naturally social-distanced sport, we expect another busy season of golf."

Grand Geneva's two 18-hole golf courses, The Brute, rated one of the best in the Midwest, and The Highlands, a Scottish Link style course, opened to golfers earlier this month and will remain open through late fall. In addition to the two award-winning golf courses, the 1,300 acre Grand Geneva Resort & Spa also offers luxurious amenities and accommodations as well as a variety of on-site activities including several dining options, a spa, horseback riding, classic car rentals, biking, scooter rentals and more.

For information on golf tee times, membership, offerings, and COVID safety precautions, please visit grandgeneva.com/golf.

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Revised: 02/01/2022 - Article Viewed 4,203 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.