The Bulletin continues its regular offseason Tee To Green feature in which we introduce to readers a Central Oregon golf professional or other notable member of the local golf community. This week, meet Devon Scanlon, the director of membership at Sunriver Resort since 2008.

Scanlon came to Sunriver from famed Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where she was also the membership director.

Yet she is a relative newcomer to golf. Scanlon grew up in Brookfield, Conn., as an avid sports fan who played field hockey and basketball, among other games.

“I was a real tomboy back in the day,” Scanlon says.

But she spent little time on the links until she watched on television the duel between Phil Mickelson and Payne Stewart at the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, a duel Stewart won by one stroke.

Scanlon was hooked by the spectacle.

She decided to go down a career path that would allow her to eventually work at Pinehurst, and to that end she studied sports management at Elon University in North Carolina and earned a master’s degree in the same subject at North Carolina State University.

While in school, Scanlon interned at Pinehurst. And once out of school, she was hired as the resort’s director of corporate golf events.

In 2005, she helped organize the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst and the 2005 British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland. Scanlon was later promoted to Pinehurst’s director of membership, a job she held for about three years.

In 2008, Scott Ellender, Sunriver’s director of golf who also came to Central Oregon from Pinehurst, was able to lure Scanlon to Sunriver.

Q: What led you into the golf business?

A: Golf resorts, in general, are just beautiful places to work. I just really enjoy being around golf, the industry, and the people who play golf. Everybody is out to have a good time, for the most part — with the golfers I like, anyway.

It is just a really great environment to work in. But what got me into golf was definitely watching Payne Stewart and Phil Mickelson.

Q: What brought you to Central Oregon?

A: We came out in August (2008) and had never experienced weather like that, where it’s cool at night and it warmed up to 75, 80 degrees during the day. We were in like the hottest, most humid summer in North Carolina, where you couldn’t even go outside.

Definitely it would be the weather. And it would be the Sunriver Resort.

Q: What are some of the challenges in attracting members during the current economic recession?

A: Being a member at a club is not a necessity. And so you have to endear the club to the members so it is part of their life, and their life’s moments, such as their birthdays and their anniversaries … they take their families here when they come.

And the challenge is making sure they see the value in that.

But there are lots of challenges.

Q: How much golf do you play?

A: Now that I work at a resort, I play a lot less than I used to play. I used to try to play once a week. I would say now I play maybe once every two weeks. Because you know, when you work somewhere, you don’t want to recreate (there) on your day off.

Q: What is your lowest score ever?

A: It would have been back at Pinehurst (No. 8, in 2007), I shot a 95. I’m really bad. You know if I break 100, it’s a good day.

Bio Box

Name: Devon Scanlon

Birth date: April 23, 1978

Residence: Bend

Birthplace: Seattle

Family: Husband, John

Education: Elon University (B.A., sports management); North Carolina State (master’s, sports management)

Special interests: Group fitness, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, cross-country skiing