Chris Bona

Interview With Chris Bona Head Golf Professional Boulder Ridge CC

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Chris Bona, the Head Golf Professional at Boulder Ridge CC. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
Learned the game at an early age at Big Foot CC in Fontana, Wisconsin Played high school golf for Lyons Township, LaGrange, Illinois Played college golf for The University of Notre Dame Turned professional in 1990.
Head Pro at Boulder Ridge since 2007

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
I started playing golf when I was 4 years old.
My father introduced me to the game.
I remember him cutting down some of his many clubs and showing me how to "get it done".
Besides my father inspiring me to play, Roy Wallin, the Pro at Big Foot CC nurtured me through the early years of development.

What is your current home course?
Boulder Ridge CC

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
Being Co-State Champion in 1982.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
When players disrespect the course by being ignorant about fixing ball marks and divots.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
Humility.
Because it's so much more fun when you remember it's a game.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Bandon Dunes.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Augusta, like most others.

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
St. Andrews.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
Pace of Play!
To many rounds are ruined by slow-play.

Dream foursome (living)?
Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Bob Ford.

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Dad, Arnold Palmer, Alister MacKenzie.

Favorite 19th hole drink?
Vodka and lemonade.

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long putt

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Hole in One

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Dawn

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Power fade

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Halfway House

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bathroom

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Wrap

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Sand all the way

9) Walking OR riding?
Walking.
Wish there was more.

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Hybrid sorry to say.

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Long par 3. gets my pulse and focus going.

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts whenever possible as a professional!

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Palmer but wow....either one, right!

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Neither.

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Always both!!

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Bump and run all the way.
It's in my dna.

17) Lay up OR gamble?
More gamble in me.

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18 because of what comes after.

Revised: 02/08/2018 - Article Viewed 16,562 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.