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Dave
Manougian is a graduate of Portland’s Cleveland High School. His
father, Sarkis Manougian, worked at Atiyeh Brothers Rug & Carpet for
40 years. Today, Dave Manougian gets up and goes to work on the other
side of the country in Orlando, Florida—that’s because Oregon-born
Manougian became president of The Golf Channel in January ’02.
That’s the same golf channel now viewed in 58 million homes in North
America, the same golf channel that next year will be the exclusive network
of the PGA’s Champions Tour, as well as being the exclusive provider
for the European Tour, and the same channel that last year hired on-air
talent Vince Cellini away from CNN. Local boy makes good, very good, at
golf.
Oh, by the way, the 42-year old Manougian also happens to be close friends
with Arnold Palmer—the founder of The Golf Channel. Late last winter
Portland resident Steve Brink, a childhood friend of Manougian’s,
came to Orlando (Orlando is also the home of Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam,
Ernie Ells, Mark O’Meara, and Scott Hoch) to get a glimpse of the
local lifestyle. Manougian remembers:
“Steve was out here on vacation and I made a tee time at Bay Hill
(Arnold’s course) for a twosome on Sunday. They joined us with Charles
Howell III, who had just recently lost the Nissan L.A. Open in a playoff.
It was a neat deal, and Arnold found out we were playing and drove out
and watched us play a few holes.” An afternoon with Palmer and a
rising PGA star—not a bad way to host a childhood friend.
No wonder Manougian says, “I have a great job.”
When Dave Manougian isn’t entertaining friends from home, he is
busy overseeing the growth of The Golf Channel. “When I started
at the Golf Channel in ‘94, as vice president for ad sales, I was
the 14th employee hired. We now have 325 employees, and we’re adding
six to eight million homes a year.” And while his viewers may see
only a game, the game of golf, Manougian’s workday is anything but.
“I work 12 hour days, and spend a portion of my day going over items
that have to do with the product, the brand, programming, marketing and
general operations and where we want to be a year or two from now.”
Another Oregon resident, John Norville, a Hollywood screenwriter and co-writer
with Ron Shelton of the classic golf movie, Tin Cup, has noticed the rapid
growth and success of The Golf Channel.
“The Golf Channel is the background music of choice in my house,”
says Norville. “It’s a wonderful station to randomly turn
on. The teaching is helpful and the historical stuff is a hoot. It’s
fun to see Nicklaus playing Gary Player. It’s the only place you
can see Pine Valley on TV because they once allowed a ‘Shell’s
Wonderful World of Golf.’ And it’s fun to see guys putt on
greens when the stemp meter was 3.”
Norville
has some personal interest in watching the rise of Manougian and
The
Golf Channel because he
too
is a
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Cleveland High graduate and grew up in the same Eastmoreland neighborhood
with Manougian.
“We played a lot of street basketball together as kids. He grew
up on 35th and I grew up on 29th. The games were very, very hard fought
street games and Dave had a good jump shot. You had to deny him that.
On the golf course he’s pretty adept at getting the ball up and
down. He’s a good putter.”
And yet another Oregon resident is a rising star on The Golf Channel and
happens to have two shows on the network—Peter Jacobsen. Jacobsen
stars in “Plugged In,” a lighthearted instructional show,
and “Peter and Friends,” a golf roundtable discussion show.
Says Manougian of Jacobsen’s on-air work, “Peter is very comfortable
in front of the camera and has a glib and relaxed manner in relating to
other golfers. It’s a great environment to showcase his personality,
and one of the two shows will air every Monday night, with 12 to 14 episodes
being the roundtable and and 10 to 12 being “Plugged In.”
One of Manougian’s favorite shows was a “Peter and Friends”
with Jacobsen, Nancy Lopez and Michelle McGann discussing the ups and
downs of Annika Sorenstam competing against the men at this year’s
Colonial Open. “That show got interest,” says Manougian.
Ask Manougian about the direction of golf course architecture, and you’ll
get some strong opinions—and they lead back home. “The industry
needs to be focused that we built the right courses. Golfers want to enjoy
themselves, not feel exhausted because they’ve been playing target
golf. The wonderful thing about growing up in Oregon was playing such
great public courses like Eastmoreland, Broadmoor, Rose City and Heron
Lakes. How lucky we were to have those types of courses.”
No matter how busy he is with the year-round business of The Golf Channel,
Dave Manugian does take the time to get back to his old hometown. “Yes,
being a Portland native, I get back three times a year, for the holidays,
for the summers.” And when he’s home is he playing golf? “I
usually play.” Where? “At Columbia Edgewater, that’s
where my brother, Ron, belongs.”
And the family matches are as intense as the childhood basketball games
in the old Eastmoreland neighborhood.
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