Thursday, May 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
If Brady Exber could have had his wish, he'd have been a baseball player. However, reality set in and he chose to take up golf instead.
Smart move.
Exber, 40, is vice president of the Las Vegas Club. He also happens to be one of the top amateur golfers in Nevada.
"Baseball was my first choice if I could have played anything," Exber said. "But I was too slow a runner, even though I could hit pretty well. I was offered a partial scholarship to Pepperdine, but I knew I wasn't going anywhere in baseball, and I didn't just want to ride the pine.
"I took up golf because it filled the void left by baseball."
It has indeed. Exber has won the Nevada State Amateur, the Southern Nevada Amateur, the Southern Nevada Golf Association Championship and the Las Vegas City Amateur, as well as numerous other local titles. He played in the 1988 United States Amateur and has narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. Open.
"I'm very fortunate because I enjoy working at the game, not just playing it," he said. "There are a lot of guys who hate to practice, and they're the kind who fade off into mediocrity. I've always loved being around the game. I've had a lot of fun and had the opportunity to meet some tremendous people on the golf course."
One such person was Las Vegan Jim Colbert, the Senior PGA Tour's leading money winner and 1995 Player of the Year. Exber met Colbert following a round eight years ago, and credits the pro golfer with teaching him golf swing mechanics.
"He opened my eyes to a different way to play golf," said Exber, who plays out of the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin.
A few years ago, Exber tried to use Colbert's teaching approach to win his wife, Pia, over to the game. He came away with far different results.
"She's a scratch shopper, that's her talent," Exber quipped.
Daughter Jordan, however, may be a different story. The three-year-old already has been outfitted with a small putter, and from time to time accompanies her dad on golf outings. "She can hit 'em," Exber said. "They don't go far, but she makes contact."
Exber's father, Mel, is a Las Vegas gaming legend and president of the Las Vegas Club. Brady said while he enjoys working with his dad, golf allows him to step out from the shadows and enjoy success in his own right.
His duties at the Las Vegas Club, including the overseeing of new construction on the property, has forced Exber to cut back on his practice and tournament schedule. He said he has started to see an adverse effect on his game.
"Golf used to be something I enjoyed for the mental exercise of competition," Exber said. "Now, when I get to the course it seems I'm so mentally burnt out from everything else, and all I want to do is relax and have fun. That's all right, but you can't stay as sharp as you'd like.
"The problem is I'll play in a tournament and it'll be disappointing because I'm not doing as well as I know I should be doing. But when you don't have the time to work at golf it's tough to maintain a high level of play."
Exber will try to get his game back on track this weekend, when he and partner Frank Acker compete in the Boulder City Team Championship.
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