The 19th Hole: Dean Graves

Dean Graves
CGCS // Chevy Chase (Md.) Club

Dean, what can I get you? What’s the hoppy local IPA?

How did your fly-fishing trip go? In a word: Awesome. We were way out in the boonies in Idaho and Wyoming, on the Snake and Green Rivers. They’re world-class trout streams. We saw more golden eagles than people, by far.

If the Queen of England were coming to your house, what would you cook? I would sous-vide a cowboy ribeye with a port and shallot reduction.

You would sous-what? Sous-vide. It’s a French technique… put the steak in a Cryovac bag, then you cook it in water under pressure. It cooks the steak evenly all the way through, at the perfect temperature… then you throw it on the grill at the end just to give it the marks. Come visit, I’ll make it for you.

That’s a deal. What was your first car? A 1972 Toyota Celica ST, lime green. I was in high school. I was hot stuff with that car! I used the money I made working in the golf pro shop and paid cash, $3,100. If you saw that car today you’d say, “Who in the hell would buy that thing?” But they’re all rusting away in heaps somewhere now.

What’s the oldest thing you own? I have a 1954 Chevrolet 3100 pickup, fully restored, 943 miles on it. I got it two years ago. With the internet, everything is at your fingertips. I looked around until I found it in Tennessee. I keep it in the garage, every once in a while I’ll get it out on a Sunday.

Where’s your favorite vacation spot? Any place with my wife and children. It could be Antarctica or a Caribbean island.

When you’re sitting around the campfire, cigars in hand, what story do you like to tell? When I was 14, I was working in the pro shop at Rehoboth Beach Country Club and talking to two members. I looked down and I saw a $100 bill on the ground. I put my foot over it. I had a decision to make — wait for them to walk away and keep it, or ask if it belonged to one of them. I asked, “Is this anyone’s?” and one of the guys said, “Yeah Dean, that’s mine.” He pulled out a roll of hundreds and added it to the stack.

He and I kept in touch over the years. One day, he called me and said, “Dean, the superintendent here has resigned… how would you like to come to Chevy Chase Club?” You just never know. When I tell that story to interns, I tell them — your integrity is everything.

Photos: Golfdom