Finding the Joy: Nick Geyer’s Life and Love Come From the Game of Golf
2023 SCGA Mid-Amateur champion Nick Geyer’s path in golf started as a six-year-old, when his dad bought a piece of equipment from just about every sport and a young Nick tried them all. Golf was the one that took.
“The chase of unattainable perfection is what made golf stick for me over other sports,” Geyer said.
He played his high school golf at Viewpoint School in Calabasas and was a four-time team MVP. He moved on and played at the University of New Mexico from 2006-2010. As a Lobo, he was part of the 2006 team that won a Mountain West Conference team title under coach Glen Millican. In 2009 Geyer also won the National Invitational Tournament and capped his career with a T-21 finish in the 2010 NCAA West Regional tournament.
Geyer graduated with a degree in communications and embarked on a brief career as a touring professional. He competed on both the eGolf and Hooters Tours from 2010 to 2012 while living in Charlotte, N.C., and tried PGA Tour Q-School. When he failed to earn his card, he began the process of regaining his amateur status.
“What I came to realize while playing as a professional was that my joy wasn’t in pursuing a check but in the camaraderie and competition that golf provides. When it feels like work, the game isn’t fun. Regaining my amateur status allowed me to find the joy in golf again.”
Upon retiring from the professional ranks, Geyer returned to New Mexico and became a USGA PJ Boatwright Jr. Intern with the Sun Country Amateur Golf Association (SCAGA). The program assigns interns who are interested in a non-playing career to work for state associations in various administrative departments. Geyer would become the SCAGA’s senior director of rules and competitions, serving in that role until 2015 before accepting a position as an assistant men’s golf coach at the University of San Diego.
After two years with the Toreros, he accepted another assistant coaching job with the Army golf program at West Point.
At Army, Geyer helped guide the Black Knights to a runner-up finish in the 2017 Patriot League tournament, falling to rival Navy by just three strokes in collegiate team play. Then-junior Nick Turner earned all-Patriot League honors under Geyer’s tutelage.
After his stint as a college coach, Geyer returned to Southern California to work for Scottie Cameron in Encinitas before moving over to his current gig with Titleist as a fitter. He helped dial-in Nelly Korda with a TSi3 driver during her four-win season in 2021.
In April of this year, Geyer won the SCGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Bakersfield CC by 3 shots, posting rounds of 71-70-71 (-4).
“The SCGA’s Mid-Am is one of those events that has always been really important to me, and to put my name on that trophy is something I had always hoped to do,” Geyer said. “SCGA championships have always been marked on my calendar.”
He followed his April Mid-Am win with a fourth-place finish at the Huddleston Cup.
“When it comes to my competitive career, my wife Lacey and my co-workers are incredibly supportive of the aspirations I have to play at a high level, and I don’t take their support for granted,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to learn incredible life lessons and meet my wife and many lifelong friends through the game of golf. Pretty much everything I have in my life involves golf one way or another, and I’m so grateful to be part of it.”
All this from a golf club his dad bought him as a kid.