Russell Pulley (Pulley Family)

GRAPEVINE — Just this week, Stevens Park golf pro Jim Henderson called to inform me of the death of Russell Pulley, the longtime golf professional at Grapevine Golf Club and a native of Tyler who was part of a wonderful era of junior golf at the old Briarwood Country Club, now The Cascades. Henderson and Pulley both began their golf professional careers working for Jim Wise at Briarwood and later Hide-A-Way Lake.

My mind swirled with memories because Pulley, though small in size, had the competitive heart of a lion and once came within a whisker of winning the Briarwood Invitational, a premier event on the old “beer and barbecue” circuit in East Texas during the 1960s and 70s.

Pulley was one of the “Briarwood Boys,” a group of talented golfers who were part of perhaps the best junior golf program in the state during the 1970s. Two of those players would win State Junior titles with Steve Bowman winning at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio in 1975 and Andy Dillard doing the same at the old University of North Texas course in Denton in 1977. Both Bowman and Dillard would go on to play professional and both had their moments on the leaderboard of the US Open with Bowman playing well at the 1988 tourney at The Country Club near Boston and Dillard in 1992 at Pebble Beach.

Playing in that same era at Briarwood were others who played college golf and amateur golf at the top level — Pulley, Howie Alexander, Reagan Brown, Kyle DeShazo, Brad Jones, Steve Thompson, Dennis Northington, Gary Sirman, Larry Sims, Les Loggins, Brian Nelson and many more that escape my memory.

Pulley’s close call at the Briarwood Invitation was in 1976 when he was a college golfer at Stephen F. Austin. Pulley led the Briarwood tournament after 36 holes only to stumble at the end and lose by one to David Sann. I was just out of college and writing for the Tyler paper and mentioned that Pulley, like most good golfers, was his harshest critic in the aftermath.

“Just call it one big gag job,” Pulley said in his moment of discontent. “The double bogey I made on the 16th hole was just plain ridiculous.”

I have no way of knowing those details in this recounting of such a long ago event, but that 16th hole is the one every golfer sees on the entrance to the Cascades and the least changed hole since the first nine holes were built in 1957. It was a difficult hole then and remains difficult today with a long uphill tee shot that leaves an approach shot to a tiny green tucked into a sandy area of oak trees so prevalent at The Cascades.

Pulley was also a runner-up in 1975 when Van Gillen won the title at Briarwood. Pulley was four under par for the tournament, one behind Gillen and tied with two fine players from East Texas — Mark Triggs and Rick Maxey. Those performances were indicative of how good of a player and how underrated Pulley was in many golf circles. But even more understated was Pulley’s character as a person.

“I am so sad to hear this but glad you let me know,” Wise said by phone from Birmingham, Alabama where he is semi-retired and a starter at Greystone Golf and Country Club. “He was so modest about his golf because I remember that he shot a 63 at Denton Country Club in a celebrity pro-am and never made a big deal of it. Later he got the head pro job there and stayed for many years before going to Grapevine.”

Wise added a humorous story of Pulley’s courage.

“We had a notorious guy playing the course one day at Hideaway and he and his friends removed their golf shirts on a hot summer day,” Wise said with a lilt in his voice. “When I knew who it was, I sent Rusty out there and he did not hesitate in demanding they put their shirts on or get off the course.”

On a personal level, I solicited Pulley for a magazine ad in DFW Links, a monthly publication I began writing for in 2010. He was kind enough to give me a nice ad and a chance to write about his 27-hole course in Grapevine that is delightful and now managed by head pro Robert Singletary, another East Texas golfer who has excelled in golf business. Pulley was just a lot of fun to work with on the article because he was more enamored with the animals that roamed the course than the design features or what have you.

Pulley talked about the mascot dog “Tripod,” who came to the course one day on his three legs and never left. He then told me about “Rocky Racoon,” the sneaky critter who lurked near the fairways in search of unprotected cheese crackers in the front of golf carts. I was a victim of his thievery one day but the best of all was Pulley telling me that the Grapevine course was home to a sizable and significant “rookery” for the impressive sand cranes that often soared above the freeways near Grapevine.

Finally, we talked about the original nine holes at Grapevine designed by Byron Nelson and the “dam hole” that is a challenging par 5 that runs along the southern boundary of the property adjacent to the giant dam of Grapevine Lake.

“How you play that hole determines how you spell it,” Pulley said with a sly grin. “That pecan tree up by the green has also been cursed a lot but Lord Byron insisted that it was a needed feature for the hole and so when we renovated the course with D.A. Weibring and Steve Wolford, no tractor got near that tree.”

Many who love the game of golf will tell you that the game can be frustrating and befuddling and thus helps to mold character for those who play it and enjoy it. In the case of Russell Pulley, that statement is certainly true.

Russell Pulley will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

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A Celebration of Life will be held on Monday, March 10 at 10 a.m. in the Chapel of DeBerry Funeral Directors in Denton.

Russell is survived by his wife, Raye Ann Pulley of Corinth, daughters, Melissa Smith and her husband Les of Argyle, Megan Cox and her husband, Ryan and grandchildren, Nora and Eleanor, of Highland Village, his brother, Mike Pulley and his wife, Karen of Houston, and many nieces and nephews.