Bruce Cherry will be the first to tell you he is one of the luckiest people in this world. For over three decades, he has lived his dream.
“It is so pleasant to come to work every day, I pinch myself every day,” said Cherry, the head golf pro at Irondequoit Country Club. “I look at the physical beauty of the place and I feel like the happiest guy in the world.”
Even the best dream has to end sometime.
Cherry has announced his retirement from the club and will leave at the end of the year. The native Rochesterian, who has worked at ICC since 1981, will split his time between his homes in the Flour City and Naples, Fla.
Don’t expect him to disappear from the local golf scene entirely. Cherry is still hoping to teach, and play his favorite area courses.
“I just realized that I want to focus more on myself and less on the flock,” Cherry said. “I still want to do some teaching, involve myself in golf going forward. I am going to give myself six months of retirement to decide what the next step is going to be.”
Cherry has spent plenty of time honing his craft on the course, but he quickly learned it is what you do off the course members most appreciate.
“Bruce is a great guy, very loyal and dedicated,” said Rob Fogel, ICC men’s club champion. “He is easy to work with and I have enjoyed interacting with him. He is dependable and honest.”
The 1995 Ryder Cup is among his favorite memories over his career. The club closed for the week and played host to daily shotgun events featuring some of the top executives in the country.
Cherry was instrumental in helping bring the Xerox Classic and Nationwide Tour (now Web.com Tour) to Rochester and Irondequoit Country Club. When he is watching the PGA Tour, he always keep an eye out for the ones who played here during the tournament’s four-year run.
“The four years we had (the Xerox Classic) was great,” Cherry said. “Meeting up and coming pros was fantastic. It is still fun to watch some of the guys that played here. I would almost have to put that right up there with the Ryder Cup. It was great for me and great for the club.”
Cherry first took an interest in golf at 14-years-old, when he caddied a round for his father at Genesee Valley Golf Course. Soon, he was taking lessons and riding his bike out to the course every weekend.
Bruce Cherry will be the first to tell you he is one of the luckiest people in this world. For over three decades, he has lived his dream.
“It is so pleasant to come to work every day, I pinch myself every day,” said Cherry, the head golf pro at Irondequoit Country Club. “I look at the physical beauty of the place and I feel like the happiest guy in the world.”
Even the best dream has to end sometime.
Cherry has announced his retirement from the club and will leave at the end of the year. The native Rochesterian, who has worked at ICC since 1981, will split his time between his homes in the Flour City and Naples, Fla.
Don’t expect him to disappear from the local golf scene entirely. Cherry is still hoping to teach, and play his favorite area courses.
“I just realized that I want to focus more on myself and less on the flock,” Cherry said. “I still want to do some teaching, involve myself in golf going forward. I am going to give myself six months of retirement to decide what the next step is going to be.”
Cherry has spent plenty of time honing his craft on the course, but he quickly learned it is what you do off the course members most appreciate.
“Bruce is a great guy, very loyal and dedicated,” said Rob Fogel, ICC men’s club champion. “He is easy to work with and I have enjoyed interacting with him. He is dependable and honest.”
The 1995 Ryder Cup is among his favorite memories over his career. The club closed for the week and played host to daily shotgun events featuring some of the top executives in the country.
Cherry was instrumental in helping bring the Xerox Classic and Nationwide Tour (now Web.com Tour) to Rochester and Irondequoit Country Club. When he is watching the PGA Tour, he always keep an eye out for the ones who played here during the tournament’s four-year run.
“The four years we had (the Xerox Classic) was great,” Cherry said. “Meeting up and coming pros was fantastic. It is still fun to watch some of the guys that played here. I would almost have to put that right up there with the Ryder Cup. It was great for me and great for the club.”
Cherry first took an interest in golf at 14-years-old, when he caddied a round for his father at Genesee Valley Golf Course. Soon, he was taking lessons and riding his bike out to the course every weekend.
“I caddied for my father once and I was hooked,” Cherry said. “I was hooked on the game and the smell of cut grass. I became an avid fan.”
Cherry graduated from Monroe High School and went on to the University at Buffalo where he was a history major. He got his first job in golf after college, working at the Country Club of Mendon. Cherry was jack of all trades there working in the bag room, as a bartender and on the maintenance crew.
He soon put the dreams of working in golf on hold to attend law school at the University at Albany. He had a constant reminder though of his favorite pastime.
“I spent a semester there and decided after driving by a golf course after every time I went to class that someone is trying to tell me something,” Cherry said. “I decided my calling was golf.”
Cherry soon returned to Rochester, taking a job at Locust Hill Country Club in 1975. He stayed at Locust Hill for six years until he accepted the assistant pro position at ICC.
“With Bruce, you always know the job is going to get done,” said Mark Miller, general manager, Irondequoit Country Club. “He is a consummate professional.”
