Alan Alsheimer Jr. has been a golfer nearly his
whole life and has been carrying a full set of
Ping clubs almost as long.
Describing one of his original sets of Ping
irons, the AmateurGolf.com player staffer says,
“I played the Ping Zing 2s and you had that
little knob sticking out of the toe. There was
nothing classic-looking about it. It looked more
like a garden hoe but I loved it.”
Alan took up the game at age seven and
immediately fell in love with it. He became a
scratch golfer when he turned 15 and earned a
full athletic scholarship to the University of
Maryland to play golf where he lettered every
year.
After a brief career playing professionally
on the Golden Bear Tour and South Florida
Tour, Alan regained his amateur status in 2002.
In 2007, he married Amanda at St. Paul the
Apostle Church in Manhattan. Together, he and
Amanda are raising two sons (Aidan and Owen)
and a daughter (Riley). Alan currently works for
Permanens Capital LP as a Senior Investment
Officer.
Alan and his family reside in Manhasset,
NY and he is a member of The Creek Club, in
Locust Valley, where he plays to a 1 index.
While many things in Alan’s life have changed
since first picking up a golf club as a middle-
class kid growing up in central New York, one
thing that hasn’t is his trust in Ping equipment.
“I grew up playing Ping i2s. I played Ping
equipment through college. I played Ping
equipment after college,” says Alan. “And
despite tinkering with other equipment
manufacturers - I end up going back to Ping.
There’s a mental comfort, a feel, and a look
when I have their stuff in my hands.”
Q&A with
Alan Alsheimer Jr.
When did you begin golfing,
and whow were the most influential people in
your life?
I first picked up a club when I was
seven. Both my grandfather and my uncle were
scratch players. My grandfather was shooting
his age into his late sixties before he passed
away from a heart attack.
Both my parents were athletes, they
loved golf. On Sundays, my parents, myself and
my younger brother would go to church
together, then lunch, then golf. So it quickly
supplemented baseball and other sports
because it meant being with my family; plus I
enjoyed getting better at it.
Then of course when you start
winning tournaments and beating older kids, all
of a sudden it catches on and becomes as
addictive as anything else you can imagine at a
young age.
Did you always assume you
would get better at it?
I had certainly hoped so because I
so loved the game. I would walk as much as 54
holes a day, from sun up to sun down. It got to
a point where I would be skipping days from
high school to go play golf; the principal would
call my mom at work saying your son's not in
school. My mom would put him on hold, call the
pro shop and ask if they've seen me. And they
would say, 'Oh yeah, we've seen Alan a while
ago.'
So I knew it was a passion and,
being a decent young athlete, I hoped the
game would take to me as much as I took to it.
Which golfers did you
admire growing up?
This might sound obscure, but I
admired Wayne Levi and Fred Couples. People
forget that Wayne was the 1990 PGA Tour
Player of the Year.
He grew up in my hometown and
my uncle actually played college golf with him.
So here I had a PGA Tour professional from my
home town. So you can imagine all throughout
my childhood in the 1980s, growing up in
central New York where they hosted the B.C.
Open, this was like having exposure to a
homegrown hero at the top of his game.
Most people don't know who he is,
but he had success.
Editor's note: Wayne Levi won
the B.C. Open in 1984; Fred Couples in 1991.
So naturally his success
meant a lot to you
It certainly did. On weeks when he
wasn't traveling the tour, you would find him at
the local golf courses (private and public).
Being from central New York he truly was a
middle class guy and he never changed, even
after winning PGA Tour events. I always
thought that was very admirable.
What's the strongest part of
your golf game and how did it get that way?
My strength has always been driving
and ball striking in general. I'd like to point out
a quote that sums up my approach - "the will
to win means nothing without the will to
prepare."
That was something that meant a
lot to me growing up. I was only going to get
what I was going to put in. I was also brought
up to believe that practice doesn't make
perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. It's
ironic that the ideas that became popular later
with people like Lynn Marriot and Vision54 was
part of my routine.
During my range sessions I would
play 18 holes in my mind and concentrate on
hitting shots I would need on the golf course.
So when it came to the driver, I imagined
hitting shots in what amounted to golf course
conditions as opposed to sending shots into this
big, wide open field where it didn't matter
where it landed.
What essential piece of golf
equipment can you not live without?
That is such a great question!
I will not play a round without my
custom Maryland Tinbox
Scorecard Holder in my back pocket. It
means a lot to me as a middle-class kid from
Syracuse. If I didn't get on a golf scholarship,
God only knows what my choices would've
been. Having had the opportunity to play for a
nationally-ranked program like Maryland's - I
owe a lot back to that place.
Do you have a favorite golf
course or course architect?
I belong to a C.B. Macdonald course
and National Golf Links of America is my
favorite golf course I've played. I would
certainly list him as my favorite architect
among old school classic designers. In terms of
present day courses, I have yet to play a Jack
Nicklaus design that I haven't thoroughly
enjoyed and felt challenged by.
Drive, chip or putt? Which
skill is the most essential to shooting lower
scores?
Drive. You can't shoot lower scores
from the trees.
We've all been in situations where
we've hit a wavered drive, chipped it out
sideways, stuffed a 7-iron and made a 10-
footer for par. But you can't make a living doing
that.