Photo By Keith Hayes | Golf instructor Oscar Valenzuela follows through on a swing at the Tees and Trees Golf...... read more read more
The one person who has taught golf aboard base for nearly as long as Marine Corps Logistics Base has been around is hanging up his golf cleats.
Oscar Valenzuela retired in June 2016 after working at the Tees and Trees Golf Course aboard MCLB Barstow since 1949.
“I got my license in 1997 to instruct in golf, and that’s when I started charging for my lessons,” 86-year-old Valenzuela said in a July 8 interview in the clubhouse at the Tees and Trees Golf course aboard MCLB Barstow.
“Before that I played and taught at Tees and Trees as an amateur,” Valenzuela explained.
It was in 1949 that Valenzuela’s love affair began with the fairways when he was first stationed at MCLB Barstow. “A Marine chief warrant officer named Gardner designed the course in the shape of a big “M” for Marine,’ Valenzuela said. “I helped lay in sod and later did some redesigning to make some of the holes longer,” he said.
After mustering out of the Marines, Valenzuela continued to play at the course. “As an amateur, I would teach the kids and spouses of Marines assigned to the base how to play golf, for free, giving them tips on how to swing and follow through,” the veteran golfer said.
Born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1930, Valenzuela developed his passion for the sport working at the country club there when he was a teenager. “I would caddy, park cars, even sell bowls of ice on the course so that I could play there, too,” he said.
He joined the Marines in 1947 at age 17, with his parent’s permission, and was stationed at Camp Witek, Guam, a territory of the United States, where he continued playing the links.
He was stationed at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow in 1949. “When my enlistment was about to expire, I was extended for another year at the ‘convenience of the government’ because of the Korean conflict,” Valenzuela explained.
He stayed on in Barstow in 1951, working first as a dispatcher for the transportation division at the base and then became a driver, or engineer, for the Marine Corps Fire Department. “I started driving because that was my original (military occupational specialty).”
Even as a firefighter Valenzuela said he continued playing golf and representing MCLB Barstow against other installations as part of its golf team.
After retiring from the fire department, he continued playing golf, not only at the Tees and Trees Golf course but at the City of Barstow’s Sun and Sky course. “I helped them out there, too,” Valenzuela said, “and I taught at Tee and Trees as an amateur and then a pro.”
During a recent golf cart tour of the base Valenzuela pointed at the ancient trees lining the long fairways. “Those trees are 69 years old, and that’s as long as I’ve been playing on this course,” he declared.
Now at the close of nearly seven decades with Tees and Trees, Valenzuela said he has enough credit to continue playing there for free, but he can’t charge for the lessons. That’s all right with him, though. “I can give free tips and advice. But that’s what I was doing long before I became a professional golf instructor.
“It was never really about the money,” Valenzuela said. “I just loved golf, loved this course and loved teaching people how to play.”
| Date Taken: | 07.28.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2016 18:17 |
| Story ID: | 206129 |
| Location: | BARSTOW, CA, US |
| Hometown: | CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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