Missouri Golf Tour - Background
Why
Hello, I am Mark Schupp and I live in St. Louis. After a long career in marketing and advertising, I sold my business and retired in 2014. My dad used to say: "You need a purpose in life." Well, my purpose now is to play and review every golf course in Missouri, public and private and to provide useful information for other golfers about each of the courses. To accomplish this quest, I am combining my 3 greatest passions: golf, marketing and the great state of Missouri. To chronicle this adventure I took a class at Meramec Community College in website programming and design. This website is a product of that class. It is constantly evolving and I welcome any suggestions. There are almost 400 courses in Missouri and, as of November 2022, I have played all but one course.
Background
I am a Missouri boy through and through. I was born in Kansas City, went to Oak Park High School, graduated from the University of Central Missouri and moved to St. Louis in my early 20's. I started my career at two of the largest advertising agencies in the world. One of my clients, Anheuser-Busch, then hired me to serve as a global brand manager on Bud Light. I left A-B in 1993 to start my own advertising agency, with Budweiser and Bud Light as my first two clients. I still live in St. Louis where my wife Jill and I raised our two great sons, Brandon and Alex. Both boys now reside in Colorado. Jill was a state senator until January 2023, when she retired after being termed out.
Experience
My dad introduced me to golf at the age of 10 on the sand greens of a course in his home town, Sedalia. I fell in love with golf from my first contact with a ball. Within a year, we joined Claycrest golf course in Liberty (which has since closed) and I played golf every chance I could. I played on my high school team and during my senior year we tied the school record for wins . . . one. My home course is now Norwood Hills Country Club. I have only taken a long hiatus from golf 2 times: when my kids were very young and after back surgery in 2010. I love to play golf and have played all around the country and the world. And, when I am not playing I am thinking about it. With this rich history of playing golf you would think I would have a very low index/handicap. Yeah, not so much. In actuality, my index has ranged from an 8.2 to 14 over the past several years. Right now I am a 10.4 but it is definitely trending up. Oh well, such is golf. No matter how good or bad you are, you will have good days and bad days and are constantly trying to improve.