Chris Deinlein is named 2020 Mike Brown Award honoree

“Mighty fine.”

That’s the answer you will hear from North Carolina resident Chris Deinlein when you ask him how he’s doing. It’s also the reaction that most SoHG members who know him will echo when they learn of his 2020 Mike Brown Award honor. Of course, not everybody can say “mighty fine,” with that distinctive Southern drawl.

Deinlein was among several who were nominated for the honor. He was selected based on his years of service as SoHG president, 2011-13, the many friends he has introduced to hickory golf, and his hosting of a successful U.S. Hickory Open in 2018 at his home club of Sedgefield Country Club. Well, this plus the fact that he’s been involved in most USHOs since their beginning 2008. He was a key organizer/host for the first five USHOs, three at Mimosa Hills GC in Morganton, N.C., and two at the Donald Ross Course in French Lick, Ind.

It is never easy to select  a recipient for the award, which recognizes respect for the traditions of hickory golf; dedication to growing the game; and a passion for promoting friendships through hickory golf – all traits that epitomized the award’s namesake, who passed away in February 2010. Deinlein set a high bar in all three categories, according to current SoHG president Greg Smith, who chaired the 2020 Mike Brown panel with two former recipients.

“Chris was one of the first players I met at the first hickory tournament I attended, the NHC,” Smith says. “Here I am, new to hickory, and I meet one of the finest gentleman you could want to welcome you to the game. It was a pleasure. And that is one of the reasons we voted for Chris. He has accomplished so much for the SoHG and for hickory golf in general by introducing so many to the game.”

Deinlein said he was humbled to receive the award, especially thinking of “the good gentleman” for whom it is named. “This means quite a bit when you think about Mike and what he tried to do to develop and expand hickory golf.”

Deinlein, who started playing golf in earnest during his career as an Air Force navigator flying C130s – which included combat assignments over Viet Nam during that conflict followed by service at Pope AFB in North Carolina  – was introduced to hickory golf in 2004 by a friend.

“I had gone to Scotland with him when he called me up and said let’s go play this tournament near the Greenbrier in West Virginia,” Deinlein says. “I said, fine, are we going to play the Old White or the Greenbrier course? He said neither, it’s the Oakhurst Golf Links for the National Hickory Championship. Long story short, I fell in love with it. I met some interesting people. I returned the next year and was paired with Tad Moore on the first day of foursomes and we hit it off. I told Tad I’d buy a set of clubs. Well, he sent me some and told me to try them out and let him know whether I sliced or hooked or what. I did, sent them back and he made a set of his OAs for me based on my feedback. I love those clubs and still have them.”

After that, Deinlein bounced around between modern and hickory clubs until about 2007 when, he says, “I was having too much fun with the darned things, so I switched to hickories entirely.”

Also about this time, Deinlein sold and retired from a sales company that he owned, a move that allowed him to devote more time to golf.

Around 2007, Deinlein estimates, he met Mike Brown at an event the two were playing in. “He found out where I was from and the club I belong too and all of a sudden, in the mail, I began to get all these little things like postcards that featured Sedgefield, or a scorecard that was from Sedgefield in the 30s. All from Mike. Now I’m wondering, who the hell is this guy?”

As with most people who knew Mike, the two became friends. Deinlein soon purchased a Carnoustie brassie with a bench-made head from him. “It’s still in my play set today,” Deinlein says.

“I’ll never forget Mike was on the board of the SoHG and I had just become a member. We were organizing our first USHO in 2008 at Mimosa Hills and Mike was responsible for finances. He was very demanding as to expenses and I respected him for that. He made sure everything was fiscally responsible.”

Deinlein served as president of the SoHG from 2011-13 and recalls it as a time of transition.

“Under Ken (Holtz) who preceded me, there were a lot of changes in the structure of the organization and we were trying to get everything in place, you know, flying in formation, to borrow an Air Force term. Our objectives were to develop and grow the SoHG and to improve the USHO and gain some more status for it. That’s one reason we decided to move the USHO around the country and not keep it in one place. We didn’t want it to be solely a regional or Carolina tournament.”

Deinlein and his wife, Leena, make their home in Greensboro and he still maintains his membership, and a 15 handicap, at Sedgefield where close friend, Hamp Munsey, himself a former SoHG president, is also a member. About every 10 days or so they will get down to the Southern Pines to meet up with friends and sample the golf courses in that area. A member of the British Golf Collectors Society, Deinlein also is a veteran of several Hickory Grail competitions, a bi-annual fixture of the BGCS that pits North American and European members in a Ryder Cup-style competition. He has also competed in a several SoHG international tournaments.

As for the SoHG, Deinlein hopes it will continue to expand. Getting players to experience shots with hickories and appreciating traditional courses is part of it, he says. “I don’t care if it is reproduction clubs or originals, getting more involved in hickory golf and realizing the pleasures of hitting a good shot are at the core of enjoying the game.

“You get to looking at golf courses that were built and designed during the ‘golden age’ of golf and start to realize why certain bunkers are where they are. You begin to understand and enjoy the pleasures of seeing courses of that nature, just to appreciate what the architects were doing in those days, working with the land and not just shoving earth all around with heavy equipment. I get a lot of joy in my heart in seeing courses like this, from Ross and Mackenzie, and playing on them.”

For Deinlein, the days are measured with good friends, his family, hickory golf and the beautiful traditional courses of the Carolinas… and occasional trips to experience both Scotland and some of the other great courses of the U.S. He still enjoys introducing newbies to hickory golf and gets a thrill when they connect to the sport.

“I have many good friends I’ve developed through the game, both here and overseas and that is the key, as far as I am concerned, the friendships, the camaraderie,” he says. “That’s why most of us are out here, to go out and enjoy the game with our friends. That was what Mike was all about.”

Mike Brown himself might even say that’s “mighty fine.”