Keith Schneider, a mainstay at Castle Pines Golf Club since the beginning, set to ‘leave at the top’ after 43 years at the club; but longtime PGA professional won’t be a stranger at site of 2024 BMW Championship after being made an honorary member
By Gary Baines – 10/28/2024
When Keith Schneider initially came to Castle Pines Golf Club, it marked his first time in Colorado. Happy Canyon Road, the main thoroughfare that leads to the club, was a gravel roadway — a far cry from what has become, complete with roundabouts.
It was 1981, and Schneider had come — via his Datsun 280Z sports car — at Jack Nicklaus’ request to help open the Nicklaus-designed, Jack Vickers-founded course in Castle Rock. Schneider didn’t know what would come of the visit, but he ended up never leaving — professionally speaking.
Now, 43 years later, the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee is set to call it a career at Castle Pines. After roughly 23 years as the PGA head professional at the club, then two decades more as the PGA general manager, Schneider, 69, will retire at the end of the year, putting an exclamation mark on a career at a club that has hosted 22 PGA Tour events during his tenure.
“I love coming to work,” Schneider said in a recent hour-long interview at Castle Pines with Colorado Golf Journal. “I think the reason why I’ve lasted, I feel like I’m coming to the club. I don’t look at this as a job. I look at this as it’s what I do. It’s part of my life. Yeah, we work hard, but we play and have fun. The members here are fabulous; they’re our friends. It’s been special.”
Being a PGA professional can sometimes be a nomadic existence. It isn’t unusual for golf pros to work at numerous courses/clubs over their careers. However, Schneider is unusual in that regard. He did move from Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in Ohio — where he was an assistant professional — to help out at Castle Pines. But for the last 43 years he’s had a single employer: Castle Pines Golf Club.
Among Colorado PGA members, this puts Schneider in a similar category as Kyle Heyen at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen (44 years), Mark Fontana at World Golf & Sand Creek Golf Course in Colorado Springs (47 years), Alan Abrams at Indian Tree Golf Course in Arvada (44 years), Tom Apple at Country Club of the Rockies (40 years) — and perhaps a few others — as far as PGA pros spending four decades-plus working at a single Colorado course.
“Keith has meant so much to Castle Pines,” George Solich, the chairman and president of Castle Pines Golf Club, said recently. “It’s rare that you find somebody who has dedicated his entire career to a single place — first as a lone golf professional (who came) from Muirfield Village. He’s kind of had three distinct experiences at Castle Pines: the first with the opening and being the first head golf professional and kind of building the club. The second phase was a couple of decades later when he was asked to be the general manager. Phase III was embarking upon the rebirth of Castle Pines — everything we’ve done to the golf course, the clubhouse, the cottages as well as retooling our management team for the (future). Keith was integral in all three of those phases. Frankly, the club is set up in a very positive way for the future. I guess if you can leave at the top, he’s leaving at the top.”
Schneider (front row, center) donned his Castle Pines member’s green jacket for the awards ceremony at the BMW Championship in late August.
Indeed, Schneider is bowing out after being a key player in Castle Pines hosting the BMW Championship PGA Tour event in late August. That tournament drew about 140,000 spectators for the week and is expected to raise around $8 million — by far a record amount — for its sole beneficiary, the Evans Scholars Foundation, which funds full-tuition and housing grants to prominent colleges around the nation, including the University of Colorado. In addition, Schneider, Solich and others — with the help of Nicklaus — played integral roles in changes made to the golf course and in major infrastructure improvements at the club leading up to the BMW Championship.
“We had our caddie tournament (early this month) and George and I were walking to the caddie house,” Schneider recounted. “He says, ‘You know what, Keith? What I’m going to remember is the last 8-10 years how you and I worked together to finish all these projects — all the projects on the golf course, projects on the cottages, remodeling the clubhouse, building the transportation building, building a practice pavilion up on the range, building a range-support building, building a new caddie house. All that, we did it together.’ We didn’t have a project manager. It fell to (CFO/vice president Mike MacAdams) and I and George, and it was a big accomplishment. We did it together and survived. That’s what I’ll remember: This club has been revitalized.”
Castle Pines Golf Club has hosted more PGA Tour events than any other course in Colorado, and Schneider was part of the club’s leadership team in every case: 21 years for The International (1986-2006) and this year for the BMW Championship.
There’s no doubt Schneider and Castle Pines are deeply intertwined, and so it’s appropriate that, even though he’s retiring, his time at the club won’t be ending. That’s because earlier this year, Schneider was made an honorary member at Castle Pines, joining the likes of Hale Irwin, Condoleezza Rice, CBS’ Jim Nantz and Lance Barrow, and Heidi Ueberroth. Schneider said there are roughly a dozen honorary members, but he’s be the first employee to be given one.
“This year, (Solich) has sent me out on top and made it a celebration,” Schneider said. “This year at our annual meeting, he had a video made; it was narrated by Jim Nantz, Nicklaus was on it (as well as) probably a dozen members as a tribute to my career here at the club. At the end of it — I get emotional as I talk about it — (Solich) slowly opened my locker, and it had a green coat in there. It still gets me. So they made me a member that night. We had 180 members here and it was a really special evening. The members presented me with a BMW X5 M60 — the fastest one they had — and there was a nice envelope in the glove box. (Schneider’s wife) Beth got that.
“This year we worked our ass off. Duffy Solich did a great job (as tournament chairman) and of course George. We presented this (tournament) to the world. But it’s also been a celebration of my career here at the club.”
Since being awarded his honorary membership in June, Schneider has been wearing his navy blue blazer — part of his wardrobe as a staff leader at Castle Pines — during the day, but if he eats dinner or attends events at the club in the evening/night, he’ll wear his member’s green jacket with the club’s two-hummingbird logo on the pocket.
While Schneider will split time in retirement between Florida — he has a house in Palm Beach Gardens and is a member at Nicklaus’ nearby Bears Club — and Colorado (where he lives in Cherry Creek North), he figures to spend a fair amount of time at Castle Pines playing golf and/or going to club functions.
“The ultimate honor is we made him an honorary member at Castle Pines,” George Solich said. “He has a green jacket and he won’t be a stranger. He’ll still be part of our great culture, our great membership and our great staff for as long as he wants to be.
“And he’s really earned it. He’s a great guy and he cares deeply about the club. And he’s been a big part why Castle Pines is such a great success.”
The plaque for “The Schneids” putting course at Castle Pines.
In addition, Schneider’s name — or a variation thereof — will be a fixture at the club for at least the foreseeable future. Several years ago, as part of the work that was done at the club, Schneider brought up the idea to Solich to clear out scrub oak surrounding a small putting green situated between the 18th and ninth greens — and add what would become a very popular feature at the club.
“You couldn’t see Pikes Peak, you couldn’t see anything (from the old putting green there),” Schneider said. “I said to George when we’re doing all this, ‘What if we lowered all this, took all the scrub oak out, and made a putting course. I think it would be fun for the members. He loved the idea. Jim Lipe, Jack (Nicklaus’) architect, came in. George and I both got to move some dirt on the dozer.
“And it’s been a huge success. We light up the cups at night. Members will come out here and putt. We finished it, then the following year during the Vickers Cup we had our cocktail party out here during the tournament. There was a sheet over this rock (near the putting course). I said to Drew (Schneider, Keith’s son and the assistant GM at the time), ‘What the heck is a sheet doing over this rock?’ He said, ‘Oh there’s been an irrigation break today. Since we’re having the party down here, we didn’t want anyone stepping in the hole.
“We’re having the party and all of a sudden all the staff came so I knew something was up. And George introduced this (plaque). There’s a letter from Jack and George and they dedicated it and named it ‘The Schneids.’ Jack Nicklaus told me it’s a real honor: ‘You know you have to do something to have your name put on it. I’m really proud of you.’”
The plaque on the rock near the putting course notes it was the inspiration of Schneider and it further pays tribute to the role he’s played at the club over the decades. “When you are enjoying the putting course with friends and taking in the fabulous view, you’ll find it hard to ‘Get off the Schneids!’” the plaque concludes.
Schneider with Jack Nicklaus, who designed the golf course at Castle Pines and who made numerous notable changes to it over the last decade.
Schneider’s history at Castle Pines began a little more than 43 years ago. After Nicklaus had designed the course for Vickers, the plant-in took place in the spring of 1981, with the plan being to open the course in the spring of ’82. But the grow-in went better than expected, and it was decided to open it for member-only play starting on Oct. 1, 1981.
With things being sped up, Schneider, then an assistant pro at Muirfield Village, was unexpectedly summoned to meet with Nicklaus, who at the time was practicing for the World Series of Golf.
‘I (think), ‘Oh shit, what did I do now’” to be called into a meeting with Nicklaus, Schneider said. “So we went into his villa. He said, ‘I’m opening a course in Colorado. Jack Vickers is the guy behind it. He told me all about him. The golf course is ready before we thought. Would you go out and help them get a golf shop set up in a trailer? They’re going to build a cottage (now the founders’ cottage at Castle Pines) to be the (temporary) clubhouse. They’ve hired a manager from Old Baldy (in Saratoga, Wyo.) . He can’t get there in time because he’s got to finish his season at Old Baldy.’ I said, ‘I’m honored. When do you need to know.’ He looks at his Rolex and said, ‘Now’ (Laugh).”
“I was single and I said, ‘Sure.’ He said, ‘Keith, go out and work hard. I have no idea who (Vickers) is going to hire as a golf pro, but if it works out, you’ve got your first head pro job. If it doesn’t, you can come back here.’ I had a good gig there too.”
It did indeed work out, and Vickers formally hired Schneider as Castle Pines’ PGA head professional on Dec. 17 of that year, at Vickers’ Denver offices. “We got to spend a lot of time together and we thought a lot alike,” Schneider said of his early days with Vickers. “It was kind of like he could mold me into exactly what he wanted. But I was also strong enough that I gave my opinions, but I respected that he was chairman and founder and all that. We just got along and we blended well together. He treated me like one of his sons.”
(It should be noted here that the Oct. 1, 1981 event that included the first rounds for members and an exhibition by Nicklaus was when Schneider first interacted with a young George Solich, who then was an Evans Scholar at CU. Schneider had called the CU E.S. house in the weeks leading up to the event, recruiting forecaddies for the event, and Solich was among those who came down to work. “George says, ‘Hey, you were barking orders at me then. Now it’s my turn.’” Schneider said with a smile, recounting the memory.)
The distinctive tower at Castle Pines Golf Club.
Schneider said Vickers’ original idea was to have co-pros at Castle Pines, with the second pro likely being a PGA Tour player who was on the downside of his playing career. And Schneider himself was included in interviews with two or three prospective people for the second position.
“My idea was just to work hard so he didn’t have a reason to (hire a co-pro),” Schneider said. “It worked out great; he never did hire that second pro.”
Schneider went on to spend about 23 years as the head professional at the club — a span which included the great majority of Castle Pines’ time hosting The International. But it was a different event during those years that Schneider lists as one of his favorite memories at the club. That was the permanent clubhouse being opened on July 4, 1984.
“We had 250 members here for three days and Jack (Nicklaus) came in and played another exhibition for the membership,” Schneider said. “We moved in this clubhouse the night before. We’d been working around the clock for two weeks to get it ready. It was a black-tie event yada yada yada. Jack said, ‘I’d really like for you to play with me today.’ I hadn’t played golf for a month. So I went in my office, turned the lights off and I just decompressed for 15 minutes. I changed my clothes. I had played with him before so that first ‘scared-shitless swing in front of Jack Nicklaus’ was over. But I was nervous. I decompressed and went on the range and we both hit 30 balls and did a little clinic back and forth for the membership. We went to the first tee and had 250 people following us.
“We get on (hole) 17 and we’re even (with one another, score-wise). He finishes eagle-birdie and I finish bogey-bogey and when we finish he says, ‘You’ve got to step on the Bear when you’ve got him.’We can’t print what I said (in response).
“We go in my office and I’ve got my original MacGregor staff bag that I got at Muirfield. It’s sitting in the corner of my office down in the golf shop. I had some old Eye-O-Matic MacGregor drivers in there. He’s messing with one, and one of them had ‘Jack Nicklaus’ stamped on the bottom of it. He said, ‘Keith, this is my driver; it’s got my name on it.’ I said, ‘No it’s not. It’s my driver.’ He said, ’I need this. My hosel is cracking. And I haven’t seen one this close to the one I’m playing.’ We bantered back and forth and I gave him the driver. ‘I know you want this driver and of course I’m going to give it to you.’
“He (ended up winning) the ’86 Masters with it.”
With Vickers, Schneider said the memory he cherishes most was a trip they made together 1989, when the private plane they were in — along with Red Hudson (of Hudson Foods) and Mike McClurg — was originally bound for the World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, N.C. But reported bad weather in Pinehurst was going to preclude playing golf there that day, so, after Schneider made some late re-arrangements, the plane took a right turn and they went to play at Lake Nona in Orlando. “We go to dinner there and drink a bottle of Scotch and Red Hudson and Jack Vickers tell their life stories that night,” Schneider said. “Mike and I are kind of looking at this like, ‘Wow, what an evening.’” From there, they went on to Pinehurst and played a couple of rounds there, in conjunction with the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
“Mr. V says, ‘I don’t have anything tomorrow. Do you want to go to Augusta (National, where Vickers was a member)?’” Schneider recounts. “We all say hell yeah. So we go to Augusta. The first round, Mike McClurg makes a hole-in-one on 4 and lips out on 6. His ball is one turn from going in there. We just had the greatest match for two days. Augusta wasn’t all that crowded at that point — the weather wasn’t all that great — so we’re the only ones in the dining room having dinner. It’s something I’ll always, always remember and cherish. That trip just sticks with me.”
The Castle Pines Golf Club flag flies adjacent to those of the U.S. and Colorado near the practice range.
It was another cross-country trip that’s memorable in regards to Solich, who became the chairman and president of Castle Pines Golf Club when Vickers passed away in 2018.
During the course of a three-day trip in 2019 to meet with prospective members, a leadership team from Castle Pines, including John Elway, traveled to New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Over the three days, the Castle Pines contingent met with 40 prospective members.
“We hit it hard but we got 30 new members,” Schneider said. “That transformed the club from the old to the new, membership-wise. As soon as George became president in the fall of 2018 when Mr. Vickers died, we did the clubhouse, remodeled the cottages and built these other buildings. We called it revitalizing the club — modernizing and kind of getting new blood active in it. To be part of that was really special. You felt part of the team, part of the gang. I didn’t look at it as work. We had so much fun. And it was successful; that’s what made it fun.”
Over the years, besides his work at Castle Pines, Schneider has played prominent roles in other Colorado-based golf organizations. Specifically, he’s served terms as president of both the Colorado PGA and the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. And regarding the PGA, he was named the national Merchandiser of the Year for private clubs by the PGA of America in 1990.
The Colorado PGA has presented Schneider numerous awards over the years, most notably its top honor — Golf Professional of the Year — in both 1994 and ’95. In 2025, Schneider and retired TV broadcaster Verne Lundquist from Steamboat Springs will be given Lifetime Achievement honors from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. Schneider was inducted into the CGHOF in 2009.
Schneider transitioned from head professional to GM at Castle Pines a little more than 20 years ago when Vickers and Larry Thiel — the longtime executive director of The International who passed away on Oct. 17 at age 81 — asked Schneider if he’d consider the change after the former GM departed.
“I knew all the staff and worked well with all of them. And I knew all the members so well. It was just a natural deal,” Schneider said. “I said, ‘Mr. V, if you want me to do this, I’ll do it for you.’
“(The transition) was actually pretty easy. I knew the golf and the golf course maintenance. We had a great chef and a great food and beverage manager. I guess you could say they taught me what the important things were — it didn’t need to be rebuilt. I learned the food and beverage. Probably the biggest (learning) curve I had were with the cottages. We ran a hotel. I realized it, but I didn’t realize it. We had 70 bedrooms. I went ‘Oh shit, what do I know about running a hotel — the housekeeping, the maintenance and all that?’ But I learned. Probably the grace that I had was Mike MacAdams, the other vice president. He and I kind of ran the club. He didn’t know anything about a club, but he was smart as hell in the financial aspect of it. So we made a pact: We’re going to be partners in this. I started my new deal within a year of when he became the CFO.”
Said MacAdams of the partnership: “We’re truly a team and we play to each other’s strengths. We’re not very good on the golf course because I’m not very good, but we can ham and egg a meeting really well.
“Sometimes something will come up and we’ll have a decision to make. Nine times out of 10 the answers (we come up with separately) are very very similar without even having to talk about it just because we’ve worked together for so long.”
Added Schneider: “We made a pact: He was going to teach me numbers and I was going to teach him operations. And now we’ve worked very well together for 20 years.”
Many of Schneider’s years at Castle Pines have been “All in the Family” affairs as his wife and kids have also been part of the team.
When Schneider as the PGA head pro, his wife Beth was the buyer for the shop and her best friend was the shop manager and they were all there when Schneider won his PGA of America national merchandiser award in 1990. Son Tommy, now a lawyer, was a caddie at Castle Pines and worked on tournament operations for The International. Daughter Lindsey (Wagner), who works for Northrop Grumman, did stints in the bag room, golf shop and on the flower crew at Castle Pines and managed the merchandise tent during The International for a couple of years. Son Drew, now an assistant GM at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas, worked in the bag room, golf shop, driving range and merchandise tent at Castle Pines, then returned as assistant GM from 2017-23.
“That was the last thing I said to Jack Vickers before he got too sick: Mr. V, I can’t tell you how much it meant,” Schneider said. “Some places don’t let families be a part, but all three of my kids worked here. All three of them have said those are some of the best years; it taught us how to work — how to have fun and how to work. To be able to have that opportunity is really really huge.”
The BMW Championship at Castle Pines proved a big hit in Schneider’s final year working at the club.
For Schneider, so was seeing Castle Pines shine on a national and international stage when it hosted the BMW Championship two months ago. Besides its success from attendance and money-raising standpoints, the tournament proved one of the tougher tests of the year on the PGA Tour. The winners of just four tournaments had lower scores — relative to par — than champion Keegan Bradley did at Castle Pines (-12): the U.S. Open (-6), the Memorial (-8), British Open (-9) and the Masters (-11).
“To get this place ready and for it to go as well as it did …,” Schneider said. “And the golf course stood up. That was what I was proud of. It it hadn’t have rained on Thursday night and those 63s wouldn’t have been shot on Friday, I’m not sure that (the winning total) wouldn’t have been in the single digits (under par).”
The fact that Schneider helped revitalize Castle Pines Golf Club over his final decade on the job certainly didn’t go unnoticed by Solich.
“In this last phase, Keith really understood what I wanted to do,” Solich said. “He always understood how to carry out Jack (Vickers’) vision and he really understood how to carry out my vision, which was to bring Castle Pines back to greatness. It took a lot of work in the fourth quarter of his career, and he was all in. (The improvements at the club) were 10 years in the making really. I very much appreciated his strong finish. It was the perfect end.”
Still, as much as Schneider enjoyed working at Castle Pines, he’s known for the past year and a half that retirement was near.
“I came back from Florida last spring (2023),” Schneider said. “After the Masters, I called George and said let’s have breakfast. I said, ‘George, it’s time. I need to shut the engines down. I said the last five years when I’ve come back from Florida I’ve been charged up, ready to go. But I’m tired, mentally drained. He said, ‘I’ve got it, I’ve got it. What kind of timing are you looking at?’ I said, ‘I’m not here to say it’s next week, the end of the year, after the BMW. What fits you the best?’ We just kind of talked that it would be neat to go out after the BMW because we had worked so hard on all these projects. Mac and Drew and George and I did them all. He said, ‘I think it would be nice if you enjoy those.’ I said, ‘I’m with you. I can make this work another two seasons.’ Decision made.”
So now, a year and a half later, Schneider is down to his final couple of months working at Castle Pines. Club leadership selected Dwight Dyksterhouse, from The Alotian Club in Arkansas, as the new PGA general manager/VP, succeeding Schneider. Dyksterhouse started at Castle Pines earlier this month and Schneider is helping teach him the ropes for the remainder of the year.
“I really like him,” Schneider said. “I think he’s going to do a great job. It’ll be an easy transition. We kind of think alike. It’ll be great for the staff and all that. He’s got a great pedigree.”
As for Schneider, in retirement what will be on his agenda? And what will be included on his bucket list of things he wants to do that he hasn’t been able to?
“The first thing I’m going to do, I’m going to lose some weight. I’m getting in shape,” he said. “And I’m going to improve my golf game. I’m going to be able to travel with my wife. A lot of things we’ve wanted to do, we couldn’t do. I think next summer we’re going to go to Wimbledon for maybe 3-4 days, then we’re going to go down to Normandy. Those were things we couldn’t do because I was always working in the summer. That’s No. 1.
“Golf is kind of my hobby, my love, so there’s going to be golf. My wife plays a little bit. We’ll travel, play a little golf. I’ve never played St. Andrews; that’s going to be on my bucket list. I won’t travel outside the States a lot — maybe a little trip once a year. We have a goal to go to — there’s a lot of National Parks we haven’t gone to … I’ve never been to Yosemite. I have not seen (Mount Rushmore). Those are things we want to do — just little things.”
And there will certainly be plenty of visits to Castle Pines, too. After all these years, how could there not be?
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com