3. 84 El Paso Country Club
To date, the twenty-first century has been
a period of capital growth for the club.
Exquisite remodeling in many club areas
continues. The membership is full, spilling
over into a waiting list, and the club is
completely free of debt.
In its one-hundredth year, the El Paso
Country Club has become an important part
of the foundation of our city. As members, we
owe thanks to that group of founding fathers
whose love of golf led them to develop a club
where sportsmanship goes hand in hand
with good fellowship and pride.
The club looks much different today than
it did in May of 1998 when Bill Dahlberg
was hired as the general manager, from
the clubhouse building to the golf course,
swimming pool, and tennis areas. The
membership profile has changed during
this period as well. The average age of our
membership in 1998 was sixty-six years old,
but because of the many young families that
have joined the club in recent years, today’s
average age of our membership is fifty-four.
In October of 2005, the club had a
membership campaign that brought
in eighty-five new members to various
membership categories, bringing our total
membership to 799. One of the long-range
goals of the Board of Directors was for the
club to become more family-friendly while
adding young members and increasing their
participation in club activities. Much of
that goal has been achieved, and there are
more family activities being planned. There
are many more tennis, golf, and swimming
programs for children than in the past with
other programs on the way.
TheElPasoCountryClubToday
While making all of these improvements,
the club remains debt-free and continues to
be the premier country club in West Texas
and Southern New Mexico.
4. 85
Meanwhile, Swanson, Hietala, Fields, and
Baryla are aiming for the main PGA TOUR.
Their preparation spans competition on four
tours, Nationwide, Asian, Canadian, and
Texas Tight Lies.
Also, very worthy of mention are the
generosity and support of membership and
the EPCC Board
of Governors who
have greatly aided
these professionals,
all of whom have
been taught by Bill
Eschenbrenner.
85
EPCC:TouringProCapital
During the past forty years, EPCC has
been directly connected with more touring
professionals than any other club in America.
This group of fourteen players began with
Ben Kern, who was sponsored on the PGA
TOUR from 1966 to 1975 by members headed
by CPA Paul Borschow. Others with El Paso
connections include Lee Trevino, Tim
Norris, Joel Edwards, Steve Haskins (son of
famed UTEP basketball coach Don Haskins),
J. P. Hayes, Paul Stankowski, Rich Beem,
Kristi Albers, Rick Todd, Dan Swanson,
Ryan Hietala, Todd Fields, and Chris Baryla.
Trevino, Hayes, Stankowski, Beem, and
Albers have long and distinguished careers,
which are featured separately in individual
stories within this book.
The others have had different degrees
of success, ranging from a PGA TOUR win
(Norris and Edwards) to victories on the
Ben Hogan Nationwide Tour (Haskins and
Todd). Norris, who won the 1979 College All-
America Golf Classic, later was sponsored
by EPCC members and won the 1982 Sammy
Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open in record
fashion. He averaged less than 65 per round
for a tournament record of 259.
Edwards also won once on the PGA TOUR
(Air Canada) after graduating from EPCC’s
junior program.
Haskins, who was a contemporary of
Edwards and another product of the club’s
junior program, was a multiple winner on
the Ben Hogan Tour.
Todd, the current UTEP golf coach, also
was a two-time champion on the Hogan Tour
and winner of the Asian Order of Merit.
Both Haskins and Todd have retained their
skills and will soon be eligible to try the
Champions Tour.
Rich Beem and
PGA trophy.
(EPCC)
5. 86 El Paso Country Club86 El Paso Country Club
PaulStankowski
A three-time All-America at UTEP, Paul
Stankowski has won twice on the PGA
TOUR despite a series of injuries and an
opening round 70 at the 2006 Qualifying
School. He rallied to finish T8 to regain his
PGA TOUR card for the 2007 campaign after
playing the last two seasons of a medical
exemption.
Stankowski, whose promising Tour
career began in 1994 with help from EPCC
members,hasbeenhamperedbyoperations
on both wrists and LASIK surgery. His
breakthrough year came in 1996 when he
won the Nationwide Tour’s Louisiana Open,
earning him a sixth alternate spot for the
Tour’s BellSouth Classic the following
week. He proceeded to gain entry into that
tournamentanddefeatedBrandelChamblee
with a birdie on the first extra hole.
The sudden-death victory against
Chamblee gave Stankowski the distinction
of being the only player ever to win
Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR events
back-to-back. He capped this fine season
with another pair of victories after the
official Tour ended, winning the Lincoln-
Mercury Kapalua International and Casio
World Open in Japan.
This was a strong prelude for the 1997
campaign when he qualified for the Tour
Championship after finishing a career-
high twenty-first on the money list. The
highlight of that year came with his
impressive triumph in the United Airlines
Hawaiian Open in a playoff against Jim
Furyk and Mike Reid.
In addition to his accomplishments on
the course, the oft-injured Stankowski is
known for being an expert analyst for the
Golf Channel and XM Radio’s PGA TOUR
Network.
Paul Stankowski, winner of the
1996 BellSouth Classic and the
1997 United Airlines Hawaiian
Open. (Mike Norwich)
6. 8787
KristiAlbers
Kristi Arrington Albers, who represents
Vista Hills and El Paso Country Club, has
been a winner at every level of golf, rang-
ing from junior competition to the LPGA
Tour. As a young golfer, she won the Sun
Country Junior State Championship and was
a high school star before graduating to the
University of New Mexico.
Her college career was even more impres-
sive. Kristi was a First-Team All-American
in 1984–85 and three-time All-Conference
player. She also won the 1984 New Mexico
State Invitational, New Mexico Amateur
Championship, and Dick McGuire Invitational.
Following her distinguished amateur career
came a quick transition to the professional
ranks as she earned exempt status at the
1985 LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament. Her
twenty-year LPGA campaign began in 1986,
and she surpassed the $2 million mark in
earnings during 2003.
The highlight of her LPGA career came ten
years earlier when she won the 1993 Sprint
Classic in Tallahassee, Florida. Winner with
a wire-to-wire performance, Kristi withstood
the pressure to post a nine-under-par total
of 279, one stroke ahead of Rosie Jones on
the difficult Killearn Country Club course.
The victory, which came after two second-
place LPGA finishes in 1992, was very well
deserved and rewarding. In fact, the $180,000
winner’s share of the $1.2 million purse, was
more than she had won in any of the seven
previous years.
Kristi, who married El Paso television
sportscaster Fred Albers in 1987, was a regu-
lar competitor on the LPGA Tour, playing in
an average of twenty-five events each year,
until the birth of their son, Austin Frederick,
in 2001.
Since then, she has limited her LPGA
appearances but still is an excellent player
and familiar figure at El Paso Country Club.
Kristi Albers
Kristi Albers, winner of
the 1993 Sprint Classic.
(Kristi Albers)
7. 88 El Paso Country Club88 El Paso Country Club
RichBeem
Rich Beem, a former assistant professional
at El Paso Country Club, rose toward the top
of the PGA TOUR in 2002 following regional
success in the Sun Country PGA Section in
1998.
A graduate of New Mexico State University
(1993) where his father, Larry, was golf
coach through 2004, Beem is a study in
perseverance. He earned Player-of-the-
Year honors after victories at Socorro and
Truth or Consequences during the 1998 Sun
Country Mini-Tour and capped off this local
dominance by finishing T8 in the PGA Tour
Qualifying Tournament.
Beem then made a strong impact nationally
by winning the Kemper Open in only his
twelfth start on the 1999 Tour. It was worth
$450,000 in contrast to the $5,000 he earned
for winning the 1998 Conrad Hilton Open at
Socorro.
This was merely a preview of his best year
when he won The International and a major,
the National PGA Championship, over Tiger
Woods. His one-stroke victory over Woods,
keyed by an eagle on No. 13 and a thirty-
five-foot birdie putt (16th) at Hazeltine in
Minnesota, led to a final round 66 and 278
total. This clutch finish from three strokes
off the pace marked the first final round
come-from-behind triumph in a major since
Paul Laurie rallied from ten back to win a
playoff at Carnoustie, Scotland, in the 1999
British Open.
Beem also finished T6 at the World Golf
Championships-NEC Invitational to total
$1,950,000 in three August starts and propel
him to the world’s No. 16 ranking.
He remains a factor on the tour because
of his PGA victory’s five-year exemption and
has come a long way since quitting the game
temporarily in 1995 to sell cellular phones
and car stereo systems in Seattle.
From left to right: Rich Lerner, The Golf Channel; Rich Beem, winner of the 1999 Kemper Open,
the 2002 International, and the 2002 National PGA Championship; and Izzy Kahn. (EPCC)
His renewed interest in the game came
after watching fellow El Paso resident J. P.
Hayes win the 1998 Buick Classic. He rallied
to finish T8 to regain his PGA TOUR card for
the 2007 campaign after playing the previous
two seasons on a major medical extension.
9. 90 El Paso Country Club90 El Paso Country Club
J.P.Hayes
John Patrick (J. P.) Hayes is a popular,
regular member of the El Paso Country
Club and the PGA TOUR, for which he first
qualified in 1992.
A graduate of UTEP and the PGA Q School
on five occasions, Hayes has earned more
than $6 million on the TOUR and Nationwide
Tour. His breakthrough on the PGA TOUR
came in the 1998 rain-shortened Buick
Classic at Westchester (N.Y.) Country Club.
J. P. had struggled before this prestigious
event, having broken 70 only once in nine
tournaments with earnings of just $16,712.
This drought came to a sudden end after
impressive rounds of 66-67-68—201 to tie
Jim Furyk for the title over fifty-four holes. In
the playoff, Hayes sank a seven-foot birdie
putt on the first extra hole to earn $324,000
and an all-important two-year PGA TOUR
exemption.
From 1999 to 2001, he was oftentimes a
contender with ten top ten finishes before his
banner year in 2002. Early in that year, Hayes
had a TOUR record-tying eight consecutive
birdies during the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
at PGA West’s Palmer Course.
The Wisconsin native continued to play
well, finishing in the top five for the third
straight year at the Greater Milwaukee Open.
Next came his second PGA TOUR triumph,
at the John Deere Classic, forged around his
tournament course record 10-under-par 61 in
the second round en route to another record,
22 under 262 total. He almost repeated the
feat in the 2006 John Deere Classic, closing
J. P. Hayes, winner of the
1998 Buick Classic and the
2002 John Deere Classic.
(PGA TOUR)
with Sunday’s lowest round of 65, but John
Senden’s 68 gave him a one-stroke victory
over Hayes.
15. 96 El Paso Country Club96 El Paso Country Club
AMessagefromBillDahlberg
Club Manager 1998–2008
The club looks much different today than
it did in 1998 from the clubhouse building to
the golf course, swimming pool, and tennis
areas. The membership profile has changed
during this period, as well. In 1998, the
average age of our membership was sixty-
six years old, and today’s average member
is fifty-four years of age.
In 2005, the club had a membership
campaign that brought in eighty-five new
members to various membership categories.
One of the long-range goals of the Board
of Governors was for the club to become
more family-friendly while adding young
members and increasing their participation
in club activities. Much of that goal has
been achieved, and there are more family
activities being planned. There are many
more tennis, golf, and swimming programs
for children than in the past with other
programs on the way.
The interior of the clubhouse has under-
gone a complete renovation with new carpet-
ing throughout the building. The ladies’ and
men’s locker rooms and public bathrooms
have been totally renovated along with the
adult bar and dining area. Our fitness room
was enlarged and furnished with new state-
of-the-art equipment.
Two of our older tennis courts were
demolished in 2006, and two new post-tension
courts have replaced them. A slide was
added to the swimming pool area, and this
addition further increased our membership
participation. Our parking lot has been
resurfaced and is now complete with newly
planted islands and additional lighting.
A new lake was added in the spring of
2006 to help make the golf course drought-
resistant. We have also added three wells for
our lakes in the last three years. All of our
golf course equipment is in great condition
as we have replaced equipment as it was
needed. All of our equipment is well short of
its expected lifespan.
Our biggest issue of 2006 was the one-
hundred-year flood that the city of El Paso
and the club had to endure in August. The
club and the west side of the city had more
than fourteen inches of rain in a five-day
period, which caused much damage to the
city’s drainage ditch that runs through our
golf course. The flood washed out three cart
crossing bridges and two walking bridges.
Plans are underway to determine the most
cost-effective way to repair the drainage
ditch and rebuild the bridges.
Much has been accomplished during my
tenure but only because of the support of
the membership and their willingness to
provide the funding for the many projects.
Through my entire employment at the El
Paso Country Club, I have felt very fortunate
to have been employed here as the general
manager. It has been a great honor, joy, and
pleasure for me. The members have always
treated the staff and me with great respect.
There is still much more that needs to be
accomplished to keep the El Paso Country
Club as the premier country club in West
Texas and Southern New Mexico. A long-
range planning committee has been formed
to assess where the club needs to be in the
year 2020 and beyond to make that a reality.
The members have been very supportive
of me, even when they may have disagreed
with the Board of Governors and me on
certain issues.
After ten years, I can honestly say that I
look forward to going to work every day. I
remember that after the first few months
of working at the club, I told my wife that I
loved my job and the club, and unbeknownst
to me, I had been in training all of my life
for the general manager’s job at the El Paso
Country Club.
Bill Dahlberg, General Manager, EPCC. (EPCC)
16. 9797
CentennialVideoIsLivingHistory
In addition to this one-hundredth-
anniversary book, the El Paso Country Club
Centennial (1906–2006) was featured in a
video presentation made for the members to
see living history. Narrated by Fred Albers,
this colorful DVD was produced in two
parts—the club’s evolution from humble
beginning and the gala centennial party
one hundred years later as the margaritas
flowed.
This first portion of the well-done DVD
features several members recalling some
of the good and tough times that the
club has experienced since its founding
for a membership fee of fifteen dollars.
Throughout war, depression, drought, and
flood, the club has survived and prospered,
ranking as a national leader.
Perhaps the most important fact about
EPCC’s success, however, has been its
equality or lack of prejudice. Creed and
skin color simply do not matter. This is
synonymous with El Paso Country Club,
whose hospitality is just as notable.
Centennial
DVD Cover.
(Neil C. Baker)
