Vail Golf Club pro wins 2024 Colorado PGA West Chapter Assistant Golf Professional of the Year award

When Andrew Villescas helps out a young golfer with The First Tee in Vail, he can’t help but remember the first time he picked up a club as a 4-year-old in the program growing up in Lakewood.

“It’s kind of full circle,” the Vail Golf Club assistant golf pro said.

Earlier this month, Villescas was named the 2024 Colorado PGA West Chapter Assistant Golf Professional of the Year. The award considered “leadership, service and promotion of the game of golf” as well as “overall performance at the member’s facility, level of service to the PGA and image as a golf professional.” While Villescas started competing at 10 and played varsity golf through high school, he recognized his true calling early on.

 “(I) never was really good enough to go DI or college but I loved teaching the game,” said Villescas, whose first foray into instruction came as a 14-year-old junior coach for The First Tee. He said he loves breaking down the complexities of the game — from spin rates to club-head speed — so they’re “digestible for beginners.”

“Everybody has little breakthroughs,” the 25-year-old said. “And that’s what I enjoy the most.” 

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Villescas graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2022, majoring in hospitality with a focus on professional golf management. The UNLV diploma would come in handy later on.

After an internship at The Grove, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious golf courses, the Lakewood native had his mind set on remaining in Europe.

“Traveling is a huge passion of mine,” he said. “With golf, it’s kind of an outlet for me to continue traveling to these different countries and go from course to course and see the different styles and how to play differently.”

Working across several of The Grove’s departments enabled him to observe the importance of tying them together — from hotel and food hospitality to grounds crew and teaching.

“The coolest part of their operation is how big it is and how every department is intertwined,” he said. “Everything relies on each other.”

Villescas lined up a job overseas, but when the visas fell through he was forced to scramble and discovered Vail. It helped that Trey Johnson — the Vail Golf Club’s head pro — was a fellow Runnin’ Rebel.

“The connection was there from the start,” said Villescas, who made an immediate impact upon his move to Eagle County in 2023, winning the Colorado PGA West Chapter Youth Player Development Award in his first year. These days, Villescas stays busy running all of the Vail Golf Club’s junior programs, including Camp Vail, First Tee of the Rocky Mountains, Mastery Program, PGA junior league and junior tournaments. In addition to his teaching, he assists with weekly men’s, women’s and senior leagues and trains interns coming up from various PGA Management programs.

“I’m fortunate to be up here, for sure,” he said. “It is a really special place.”

Villescas is now up for the Colorado PGA section award, which includes the entire state plus Eastern Wyoming and parts of South Dakota. He called his current honor a “team effort,” crediting Johnson as well as director of golf Alice Plain — the 2021 Colorado PGA Professional of the year — and assistant professional Shannon Elias.

“We’ve created a really good team and good atmosphere,” Villescas said. “I couldn’t do it without those guys and their support.”