Man of the land, Corey Burd is honored for his role molding Bailey Ranch and young men

By Ken MacLeod

Few golf professionals have a deeper connection to the land on which their course resides than Corey Burd, the 2024 PGA South Central Section Professional of the Year.

Corey’s grandfather Theo Burd was the ranch foreman for Larkin Bailey’s Black Angus cattle ranch for 31 years, retiring a few years before Bailey donated the land to the city of Owasso for the construction of Bailey Ranch Golf Course, which opened in 1993. Many a summer day was spent by Corey and his family hunting and fishing on the property.

When most of us got our first glimpse of the Bland Pittman designed course it had an incredible prairie links look and feel and it was easy to see why the Burds spent so much time traipsing across it. Now much of it is framed by a successful housing development, just a sign of how important Bailey Ranch has been to the growth and success of Owasso, which has nearly quadrupled in population since the course opened.

Burd has been Director of Golf since 2004 and 20 years later the course is coming off its most successful season in its 31-year history, with close to 42,000 rounds played, Bermuda greens were installed in 2021, the city continues to invest in the clubhouse and conditions and Bailey Ranch and the city of Owasso serve as a model for perseverance and the importance of a strong relationship between a municipality and its course and how cooperation can benefit both.

Burd is as deeply engrained in the fabric of Owasso as Bailey Ranch. He raised his family there, is involved in church and community events, has led Owasso’s boys golf team to two state championships and four runner-up finishes and has turned Bailey Ranch into a welcome center for all youth golf including Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour, U.S. Kids, PGA Jr. League, Drive Chip and Putt and other groups.

Coaching and teaching are both in his blood. His father Pete was the boys basketball coach at Kingfisher, where Burd went to school from 1975-88, coming back in the summers to roam the ranch. He played high school football, baseball and basketball while golf was just a hobby. Burd walked on the basketball team at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and then transferred to Oklahoma State, where he admittedly majored in shooting pool. After college he worked for a steel manufacturer, a heat exchange manufacturer, then six years for a lawn care company before forming his own, with numerous contracts in mid-town and south Tulsa.

Golf had become an outlet for his competitive drive after the other sports had faded. He, his father, uncle and cousin were notorious for winning all the scramble events at Bailey Ranch.

“We were starting to get some complaints so we would just all enter as zero handicap and still win the gross division,” Burd said.

“They would win everything to where before I knew them it made me wonder about their potential honesty,” said Warren Lehr, the first head professional at Bailey Ranch and the man just as responsible for the course’s success when he returned to work closely with Burd first as Parks Director working his way up to City Manager. “Turns out they were all super honest and 100 percent standup guys.”

At age 29 in 1999, Burd said he was burned out by 80-hour weeks at the lawn care business and took a tip from his wife Tara. “Do something that you enjoy.”

So, he applied for a third assistant’s job at Bailey Ranch, then under head pro Rod Alexander, who now runs Lew Wentz in Ponca City and later under Russell Carlson. When Owasso hired a management company to run the course in 2004, Burd was promoted to director of golf even though he was still three years from earning his Class A PGA membership. Then city manager Rodney Ray said that Burd was the future of Bailey Ranch and how prescient he turned out to be.

Burd earned his PGA membership in 2007, the same year Lehr returned from running Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Course near Albuquerque and a partnership was formed that has guided Bailey Ranch through many difficult times in the industry and at the location.

“We’ve had some struggles,” Burd said. “Whether it’s irrigation problems, green problems, cart problems, clubhouse issues, it’s always a trial by fire. I always try to draw on my athletic experience and just keep your head down and keep moving forward. It’s never going to be perfect, just like in golf not all parts of your game are going to be on at the same time. When maintenance is good and carts are good and the pro shop is good, then it’s staffing in the restaurant or a fire suppression sprinkler goes out. When it’s boring, that means that things are clicking but it seldom gets boring.

“When Warren came back in 2007 it was important to me to have someone close that I could call anytime who had vast knowledge of the property, of the community and experience in so many different areas. He was here to help me and this golf course is a big reason he came back. He knew it was a quality of life issue. It’s about having good public golf in your community and how that leads to businesses coming, better retail, home ownership, all the good things that go into making a good community.”

Not only did Burd take on the responsibilities at Bailey Ranch, he accepted a position as head coach of the high school golf team in 2014 and in 2015 Owasso ended Edmond North’s 11-year run at the top of Class 6A. The Rams won again in 2019 and were runner-up in 2017-17-18. Now Burd is the Owasso Golf Sports Coordinator with oversight over both the boys and girls teams and still keeps his hand in basketball by serving as the color commentator for the 2024 state champion basketball team.

Things were as close to boring as possible for Burd and the course in 2024. Record rounds and revenue, long-time superintendent Chris Cook continues to be an agronomic wizard and support from the city remains strong even after Lehr retired at the beginning of the year.

“Corey is an outstanding golf professional and an even better person,” Lehr said. “I’ve met some golf professionals of his caliber, but I’ve never known a better person.  He’s a great golf professional because he cares about people and has a humble servant heart in all he does.  He’s an outstanding son, father, husband, brother, and friend.

“When I go out there now I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have been the first one there and now see it back and arguably as good or better than ever.”

Burd, 55 with four grandchildren in town who call him “Coach,” sees himself continuing the tradition and success he’s built at Bailey Ranch for a good time to come. He talks regularly with area professionals to share ideas and make sure the game is heading in the right direction and taking advantage of its newfound popularity post Covid and converting as many of the new golfers as possible into lifetime proponents.

“The Covid rush won’t last forever and we’ve got to do all we can now while we’ve got them here,” Burd said. “That’s why we do so much with junior golf. We may lose some money on some of the events compared to regular or membership play, but we’re building customers for the future. That’s what it’s all about.”

Coming Thursday: In Dan Langford of Earlywine and the late Pat McCrate of LaFortune Park, two pro’s pros are going into the South Central Section Hall of Fame.