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Executive Profiles

Joe Walser Jr.
Landmark Golf
Vice Chairman of the Board / Principal

Through his multi-faceted career, Joe Walser, Jr. has been recognized and written about for his dedication to golf as a sport and as a business. Quality, consistency and strength of experience are the hallmarks of Walser’s leadership and his team’s notable accomplishments.

When Joe Walser, Jr. attended Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City, his golf team won three State Championships. His talents were recognized with a full scholarship to Oklahoma State University where his team won several Conference Championships, and he earned a Bachelor in Education. Walser went on to win 25 amateur tournaments including the Oklahoma State Amateur and the Oklahoma Open, which led him to a successful career in the golf. Walser “turned pro” in 1959 and joined the PGA Tour.

After two years on the PGA Tour, Walser embarked on what became 15 years in positions of head golf professional, general manager and director of golf at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, Lake Hefner Golf Club and Altus Country Club. Walser served as president of the South Central Section of the PGA of America for two consecutive years and served two terms on the PGA of America Board of Directors.

In 1970, Walser was presented with the PGA of America Horton Smith Award which recognized his contributions to the education of fellow golf professionals. Walser’s commitment to education and training of the business aspects in the profession of golf is evidenced by his mentoring of many outstanding club golf professionals such as Jim Brotherton Jr., a recent PGA of America Golf Professional of the Year. Today, Walser maintains the close ties he developed through the PGA of America and the PGA Tour with the “who’s who” in golf including Deane Beman, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Jim Awtrey, Pat Rielly and many others who have had an impact on Walser’s life and left him with memorable stories to share.

In 1971, Walser and Ernie Vossler founded Unique Golf Concepts, Inc. to pursue their dreams of building exceptional golf communities. One of the first team members Walser and Vossler 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.

Walser and Vossler used their knowledge of great golf locations from years of participating on the PGA Tour to help them identify and acquire 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, paved the way for greater opportunities.

In 1974, Unique Golf Concepts, Inc. was purchased by Landmark Land Company, Inc. Walser was named a senior vice president of Landmark in charge of golf operations, golf course design and construction. Walser remained in Oklahoma to spearhead the development of Oak Tree Golf Club and Oak Tree Country Club before relocating to La Quinta, California for the development of PGA West.

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, Walser, Vossler 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 Walser 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.

From 1992-1996, Walser was chief operating officer for PGA Tour Golf Course Properties, Inc., overseeing Tournament Players Clubs, PGA Tour Design Services, Inc. and PGA Tour Construction Services, Inc. in Ponte Vera Beach, Florida.

Walser also represented the PGA of America board meetings.

In 1996, Walser rejoined Ernie Vossler, Johnny Pott and Andy Vossler as a partner in Landmark Golf, which was involved with design, development, construction and/or golf operations management at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort; followed by 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.