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Ernie Vossler
Landmark Golf
Chairman of the Board / Principal
Ernie Vossler has been honored over the course of his illustrious
career for his love of the game of golf, his extraordinary vision,
the strength of his experience and his team’s remarkable accomplishments.
In 1967, Vossler was named PGA Professional of the Year for his
outstanding abilities as a golf club operator and teaching professional.
Teaching is still his passion, and many of his students have achieved
great success on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA Tour. Vossler’s
most recent recognitions include the Southern California Section
of the PGA of America President’s Award.
Golf has been at the core of Vossler’s existence since his
first wins in Forth Worth, Texas on Pascal High School’s golf
team where he began a friendship with fellow teammate Dan Jenkins,
who went on to make the golf course they played, “Goat Hills,”
famous in his best selling novels and articles in Sports Illustrated.
While starting his golf career, Vossler ran his father’s plumbing
contracting business in Fort Worth and credits his close working
relationship with his father for teaching him the “people
skills,” business practices and construction disciplines that
are the foundation of Vossler’s philosophies on life, golf
and real estate development.
When Ernie Vossler was making a name for himself in amateur golf,
fellow Texans Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson wrote letters on his behalf
for his admittance to the PGA Tour. It worked! As a PGA Tour member,
Vossler won five times between 1955-1962 and developed long-term
relationships with the “who’s who” in golf including
Joe Walser, Jr., Johnny Pott, Mark McCormack, Deane Beman, Arnold
Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Harvey Pennick and many others
who have had an impact on Vossler’s life and left him with
countless stories to tell.
To provide stability for his growing family, Vossler cut back from
playing the PGA Tour on a full time basis to accept a position as
head golf professional at Quail Creek Golf and Country Club in Oklahoma
City while the golf course and residential community were in design,
developmental and sell-out phases; he remained at Quail Creek as
the head golf professional for over a decade.
Vossler established the relationship between the PGA of America,
the PGA Tour and Quail Creek Country Club for the hosting of the
annual Oklahoma City Open in the 1960-70s. It was during his days
at Quail Creek that Vossler began to fully appreciate the value
of a recognizable and marketable logo for a successful real estate
golf community.
During the 1960-70s, the competitive nature of the PGA Tour continued
to call Vossler to the “winter tour” which annually
took him to expanding golf areas such as Phoenix/Scottsdale, Las
Vegas, the Palm Springs area for the Desert Classic, now known as
the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, and to northern California for the
Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. It was during these
travels that Vossler would study golf course design, the best in
residential developments, luxury amenities, quality service and
the desires of avid golfing families, while spending his hours away
from golf courses looking at undeveloped land in each area of the
country he visited.
In 1971, Vossler and Joe Walser, Jr. founded Unique Golf Concepts,
Inc. to pursue their dreams of building exceptional golf communities.
One of the first team members Vossler and Walser added to Unique
Golf Concepts was Johnny Pott, their friend from the PGA Tour. They
began with the developments of Marsh Island Golf Club in Ocean Springs,
Mississippi, The Cardinal Club in Greensboro, North Carolina and
Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Vossler continued “California dreamin’ ” while
acquiring options for undeveloped land that would become La Quinta
Hotel Golf & Tennis Resort and Carmel Valley Ranch Resort. The
early achievements of Vossler, Walser and Pott, as golf community
real estate developers, and their close association which thrives
today, opened the door to greater opportunities.
In 1974, Unique Golf Concepts, Inc. was purchased by Landmark Land
Company, Inc. Vossler relocated to La Quinta, California as a senior
vice president of Landmark Land to oversee land acquisitions, master
planned golf community development and resort operations for Landmark
nationwide. By the mid-1980s, international recognition, through
professional golf and real estate development, was earned for Landmark’s
“Oak Tree” logo and the “Landmark Experience.”
While nurturing very close ties with the PGA of America and the
PGA Tour, Vossler, Walser and their Landmark team are credited with
being on the cutting edge of golf club membership marketing concepts
with “bundled charges” and prominent promotion of the
“Oak Tree” logo worn on national television weekly by
top PGA Tour and LPGA Tour professionals, many of whom also represent
and live in Landmark-developed residential golf communities such
as Oak Tree, Mission Hills and PGA West.
Developments which achieved national prominence during the1980s
under the direction of Vossler and his associates include: PGA West,
La Quinta Hotel Golf & Tennis Resort, Mission Hills, Carmel
Valley Ranch Resort, Moreno Valley Ranch, Oak Tree Golf Club, Oak
Tree Country Club, Palm Beach Polo and Country Club and Kiawah Island
Inn and Golf Resort.
These golf courses are renowned for hosting prestigious tournaments
such as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the Nabisco Dinah Shore,
PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, The Skins Game, Senior Skins Game,
U.S. Amateur and the World Cup of Golf.
In 1992, Vossler established Landmark Golf with plans to pursue new golf/real estate development
opportunities primarily in Southern California, Phoenix/Scottsdale,
Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada; albeit, an interesting assignment
took Vossler and his team to Mission Hills Resort in Guan Lan Town,
Shenzhen, China, where they consulted on the development of two
golf courses.
As Joe Walser, Johnny Pott and Andy Vossler joined Landmark Golf in the early 1990s as Vossler’s partners, and other
Landmark Land alums came onboard, the Company was already well under
way with Ernie Vossler at the helm of design, development, construction
and/or golf operations management at the La Vegas Paiute Resort.
Soon to follow came: The Plantation Golf Club, Landmark Golf Club,
Oak Valley, Landmark Golf Club at Oak Quarry, The Golf Club of California,
Landmark at Hemet Golf Club, The Ranch Golf Club, Mountain Falls
Golf Club, Shadow Hills Golf Club and SilverRock Resort.
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