a golfer’s quest: a journey to play america’s top 100 golf courses

Dean Sivara is like many golfers who grew up playing the game. His father Marvin, a Master Sergeant in the Army, introduced Dean to the game when he was eight years old and he has been playing for over 40 years now. Dean not only took an interest in playing golf, but also was attracted to the architectural elements of golf course design at an early age. During high school Dean would draw golf course routings during his spare time, enjoying the creative aspects of golf course architecture. It was this interest in golf course design, combined with his interest in golf history that inspired Dean to pursue a passionate dream of playing the best golf courses in the world. Dean grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and in high school focused on football and basketball, while his brother Mark played Golf. Dean became a three-year letterman in both sports, while obtaining a football scholarship to Stanford University. Mark also excelled, winning the Washington State High School Golf Championship as a Junior and obtained a golf scholarship to the University of Oregon. At Stanford, Dean played defensive safety for four years, while being coached by such legends as Bill Walsh, George Seifert, Denny Green and Paul Wiggin. Dean’s teammates included John Elway, Darren Nelson and James Lofton. While at Stanford, Dean was also able to play many of the top golf courses in Northern California, including Cypress Point, the San Francisco Golf Club and the Olympic Club. Experiencing these top courses was the start of his passionate pursuit of playing the top courses in America. Upon graduating from Stanford with an Engineering degree Dean worked for a few years and then decided to obtain his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the Wharton School in Philadelphia. Venturing East for the first time, Dean was able to play many of the great courses near New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC, including Merion, Winged Foot and Baltusrol. After graduating from Wharton, Dean started his career as a Management Consultant and was able to continue playing the best courses around the country, because his work required extensive travel. Today, Dean works for Cisco Systems in San Jose, California and has a lovely family, that lives in Atherton, California, including his wife Lissa, son Cooper and daughter Cara, who are all golfers. In fact Cooper has already played nearly 20 of the top courses in America, so we may have another top 100 conqueror in the works.