Over the last two decades Chris van der Velde has worn just about every hat in the golf industry.

The sandy-haired 42-year-old has been a college amateur, a touring professional, a coach and a design consultant. He has developed a golf course community, managed a golf apparel company, and even created an online golf swing analysis system.

Van der Velde relocated to Central Oregon last year from the Netherlands to serve as golf development director at Tetherow, a resort course currently under construction west of Bend on Skyliners Road.

His office on the second floor of a two-story building in northwest Bend with a view of Mount Bachelor from its window, is cluttered with plans and papers and still smells of fresh paint.

Van der Velde sits on a big green exercise ball and describes one of the biggest wins of his life.

It’s still fresh on his mind.

Van der Velde – whose mother is a native Oregonian and whose father is Dutch – didn’t swing his first golf club until he was 19. By the time he was 24, he was swinging his clubs for a living.

Raised in Connecticut, van der Velde was a champion distance runner in high school and went to Boston College on a cross-country scholarship. By his sophomore year, he had switched to the golf team. And in 1985 – at age 21 – he qualified for the U.S. Amateur.

Van der Velde says the discipline he developed as a runner naturally transferred to the golf course.

”I had no problem putting hours in on the driving range,” he recalls. ”When I took up golf, it hit me pretty fast. I shot a 4 under par as a first-year golfer.

”When you progress at something that quickly, it’s always fun,” he adds.

Van der Velde spent most of his 11-year professional golf career on the Dutch and European Tours, which included stints on other international tours as well. He represented the Netherlands at the World Cup of Golf seven times, and he was the small northern European country’s PGA champion four times.

Van der Velde admits he was never star.

”I was a journeyman on the Tour,” explains van der Velde. ”I never won (a Tour event), and usually finished in the bottom third. You make a good living, you’re traveling a lot, but you’re not a superstar.”

Van der Velde retired from Tour life in 1999, but was recruited back to the Netherlands in 2001 to coach the Dutch men’s national golf team.

”I never pictured myself as a coach,” says van der Velde. ”Golf is an individual sport, and I was too into my own game.”

Van der Velde notes that after he retired from the pro tour, his perspective began to change. He wanted to give back to the sport, and the Netherlands was looking to improve its lackluster men’s and boys teams.

”I was a hothead Tour player,” he admits. ”They took a risk in hiring me; to see if I was a team player.

”When I first joined the (Dutch Golf) Federation, nobody in the golf committee believed in the Dutch team,” says van der Velde. ”The hardest thing was to get (the players) to believe in themselves.”

Van der Velde would lead his teams in 2003 to top-five finishes in the European Team Championships, and in 2005 his boys (ages 18 and under) squad would capture the championship title under his guidance.

But the pinnacle of his coaching career came just last month, when the Dutch claimed the world amateur team title on Oct. 29 in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

The World Amateur Team Championships are conducted biennially by the International Golf Federation, which comprises the national governing bodies of golf in more than 100 countries.

Each team of two or three golfers plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship.

Led by Joost Luiten’s 6-under-par effort over the final five holes, the Netherlands won by two strokes over second-place Canada and by three over third-place USA. Dutch teammate Wil Besseling was the tournament’s individual medalist.

Before this year, the Dutch had never finished higher than eighth place at the world championships.

”It made me feel so good as a coach,” van der Velde beams. ”It brought tears to my eyes, and I don’t cry very much. I was bawling like a baby on the 18th green.

”It’s just unbelievable that we won,” he continues, noting that there are approximately 275,000 golfers in the Netherlands compared with some 25 million in the United States. ”The enormity of what we’ve done … it’ll help make a difference in Dutch golf in the future, and golf in smaller countries.”

This year, van der Velde himself returned to competition, this time as a golf professional rather than as a touring pro.

”It was my first time playing (competitively) in two years, and I was nervous,” recalls van der Velde, describing his first round at the Oregon Open in June at Eagle Crest Resort. He tied for 25th place after 54 holes.

Three months later, in a field of 119 golfers, he captured fourth place in the 2006 Northwest Open Invitational at the Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls.

Van der Velde says after last month’s win in South Africa it was time to leave coaching – he had made 21 international trips in the last year – to spend more time with his wife, Erin, and their three school-age children, and to focus full time on the Tetherow project.

”Five years is a long time,” says van der Velde of his role as coach with the Dutch golf team. ”It’s a lot of energy. You’re giving yourself 100 percent to the kids.

”All that hard work paid off,” he adds, referring to the team’s world title. ”There aren’t words to describe how it felt. It was amazing.”

The same energy and focus that van der Velde brought to playing and coaching, he says he brings to his latest project: developing the resort course at Tetherow in Bend.

”When the course opens, it’s going to be pretty impressive,” van der Velde claims. ”We’ve got a designer – David McLay Kidd – that pushes the limits with every new course he designs.”

Once the course opens – that’s slated for 2008 – van der Velde’s firm, Dutch Pacific Golf, has the option to purchase it.

”I don’t claim to know everything,” says van der Velde, who admits he’s entering new territory with the project. ”But I’m a good coach … and I have a knack for bringing out the best in the people I work with.”

Heather Clark can be reached at 617-7868 or at hclark@bendbulletin.com.