Jared Lambert is the new golf pro at the Astoria Golf & Country Club.

Head golf professional, Astoria Golf & Country Club.

It’s a prestigious, highly sought-after job, with not a lot of turnover. From 1961 to 2022, only four people held the title.

And of the previous two Astoria golf professionals, one was just inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame; the other was named the Golf Professional of the Year in 2018 for the Oregon chapter of the PGA.

Since 1989, Mike Gove, John Kawasoe and now Jared Lambert are the only three men to serve as the head golf professionals at the Astoria Golf & Country Club.

After 20 years at Astoria, Kawasoe was named the golf pro at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course in North Plains last spring, and Lambert made his Astoria debut in April. “Even though he has big shoes to fill, the 29-year-old native Oregonian is ready to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.

It was basically a move up U.S. Highway 101 for Lambert, who was the golf pro at Salishan Golf Links near Lincoln City. Before that, he was an assistant pro at Avondale Golf Club in Palm Desert, California — the city where Gove was working before he came to Astoria in 1989.

Currently the golf pro at Inglewood Golf Club in Kenmore, Washington, Gove was Astoria’s golf pro until 2002. Kawasoe held that title for the last 20 years, and now the baton has been passed to Lambert.

“I’ve been here almost three full months, so I’m feeling a lot more comfortable,” Lambert said. “Everybody at the club has been great. All the employees, the members … they’ve been very welcoming and amazing at making me feel at home.”

Lambert spent just over a year as the club pro at Salishan.

“I got my trial run of coastal weather and had a great time,” he said. “When I told people I was going to Astoria, I was asked ‘why?’ a lot. It wasn’t anything wrong with my last job — I enjoyed it a lot — (Astoria) is just a special club and a job that doesn’t come up very often, so I jumped at the chance.”

To be exact, the Astoria Golf & Country Club has had just eight golf pros since 1936, including Lambert.

“Astoria is a special place,” he said. “They take care of their people here. To be frank, not every place is like that. So to land in a spot like this, I feel very, very lucky to be here.”

Last week, Lambert was in the midst of his first Oregon Coast Invitational. “The Coast” began on Aug. 6, 1910, making it the second-oldest tournament in the state behind the Oregon Amateur Championship. And a little daunting for Lambert.

“Fortunately, (club employees) Cody Mullins and Brad Young have been through the gauntlet, and they have been very beneficial to have on the team,” he said. “Cody’s been here 15 years, and is really familiar and knows what to expect. He has helped a ton.”

The invitational was cancelled in 2020 — the first time since 1945 — before making its return last summer.

“It’s been in the works for nine months,” he said. “I just arrived in the middle of it, so I just hope I don’t screw anything up. It’s not often you get to run an event that has 350 players, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

In his role as the club professional, Lambert is also looking at continuing the area’s already solid youth programs.

“As far as junior programs and player development goes, there’s some new stuff we’re trying,” he said. “We’re focusing on group lessons. We have a couple junior clinics going, and I teach a ladies class as well. They are groups of six to eight players. It’s $250 per person, and they get eight weeks of instruction, one-hour lessons, and they get four nine-hole playing lessons with an instructor. The group format makes it fun for everybody.”

He adds, “We’re also in the works of doing a PGA junior league here, either this fall or next spring. It’s great to see the numbers that the high school programs are able to attract.”

But, “I’d like to start that process earlier,” with golfers 9 to 11 years old. “That’s how you build the winning programs. When you have a high school kid who comes in with four or five years experience already, it’s helpful.”

Born and raised in central Oregon, Lambert was an all-state golfer at Redmond High School, then played four years at Corban University, where he earned all-Cascade Conference honors as a sophomore, junior and senior, graduating in 2015.

He turned professional in 2016 and played in various tournaments for two years before becoming an assistant club professional at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond.

He spent part of 2018 at Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Prineville, while working seasonally in Palm Desert.