Giustina became driving force.

Byline: The Register-Guard

You won't see the name Natale "Nat" Giustina prominently displayed on any golf courses or clubhouses in the Willamette Valley.

But maybe you should. The 87-year-old retired timber baron - who became a "golf nut" at age 40 - played a key role in the development of three highly regarded area golf courses.

Giustina's name is most closely associated with Tokatee Golf Club, the family-owned course he began building in the McKenzie Valley east of Eugene in 1964.

Working with golf course designer Ted Robinson, Giustina carved the course out of 380 acres of forest and meadowland that afforded stunning views of the snow-covered Three Sisters mountains.

Tokatee, which has won numerous accolades from national golf magazines, is still owned and operated by the Giustina family, through the Tokatee Land Co. Nat's son Larry is managing general partner, and grandson Mark is involved in the business.

Giustina was also a key financial contributor and de facto general contractor for Trysting Tree, the Oregon State University golf course outside Corvallis. Giustina is a 1941 OSU graduate in mechanical engineering.

"Nat Giustina basically built that course by himself," John Irving, director of the OSU Foundation, said on the occasion of the foundation's 50th anniversary. Profits generated by Trysting Tree go to the foundation.

Trysting Tree was recently rated the ninth-best public course in Oregon by Golf Digest, and it placed seventh on an in-state news magazine's list of the top 20 golf values in Oregon and southwest Washington.

Finally, and largely overlooked, is that Giustina was among the Eugene Country Club members spearheading the 1967 redesign of the Eugene Country Club course, including the retention of famed designer Robert Trent Jones.

That renovation - which included turning around the entire golf course from tee to green so as to place existing water hazards in front of the greens instead of harmlessly next to the tees - resulted in ECC being regularly ranked among America's top 100 by Golf Digest.

Longtime country club pro Wendell Wood later said Giustina, along with ECC member Bob Booth and greens superintendent John Zoller, deserved "the majority of the credit," not only for promoting the remodel, but for being tenacious in making sure Jones' design specifications were followed.

Giustina had only recently completed Tokatee and "could speak the golf course architect's language," Wood said.

At one point, "The Middle Tee" Oregon golf magazine rated Eugene Country Club and Tokatee first and second, respectively, on its list of Oregon's top five golf courses.

Undoubtedly, Nat Giustina would rank No. 1 on any list of golfers who have helped influence the development of quality golf courses in the southern Willamette Valley.

- Mike Stahlberg

CAPTION(S):

The first foursome at Tokatee is (from left) Nat Giustina, Ehrman Giustina, Dean Pape and Larry Giustina.