The Gray Area Celebrates a Seventieth Birthday

Whenever we hear something referred to as a gray area, it instantly stirs thoughts of something which can’t be defined as black or white, right or wrong or be branded with any certainty. It doesn’t matter if the subject is politics, religion, sports or just our everyday walk through this life, gray area refers to something difficult to measure and evaluate. But the Gray area at The Coves Residential Development & Golf Club on Grand Lake is clearly the exception. For more years than most can remember, Lori Worley-Gray has been the face of The Coves regarding real estate activities and Jim Gray, along with his sidekick Zack Hamilton, have managed the golf club operation. But unlike when the sports anchor says something to the effect of “Same name but no relation,” it’s not true in this case. Gray & Gray has been a husband and wife team since the early eighties and with Zack and Jim almost joined at the hip with respect to the operation of the club’s pro shop, they might as well be brothers. But it’s Jim, alias the Silver Fox, who celebrated the “Big Seven O” on December 8th. We’ll chronicle the winding road which led the Silver Fox to Grand Lake in detail a little later, but the real story is how an educator/coach, car and real estate hawker, who happened to love golf, converted The Coves from an ordinary golf course to what it has become today. Not unlike the old sitcom Cheers, based on a neighborhood bar in Boston, where, as the theme song always proclaimed, “A place where everybody knows your name,” The Coves has embraced a similar atmosphere complete with golf. As the Silver Fox likes to say, “This is country club livin’ at its best, baby.” “Team Golf at this Grand Lake golf club has utilized a formula for success for many years. Hamilton can be defined as the detail man. If it comes to crunching tournament score numbers, posting a leader board, tracking inventories and the countless other tasks required to get the job done, he’s your man. But when it comes to making members feel welcome and that their particular concern or question of the day is the most important thing on Bird Island, the king of schmooze, Jim Gray, is your man. When a member hits their approach shot over the water to the difficult 18th green, it’s clearly visible from the clubhouse. The Silver Fox is almost always watching and typically greets the member with encouraging words and an offer to provide a beverage of choice. Regardless of an errant out-of-bounds tee shot, a ball squarely hit in the water hazard, or God forbid, the dreaded shank with devastating results, thanks to Jim Gray the main product the club offers is about to kick in……the fun and fellowship provided by the 19th hole. Golf in the Gray area didn’t come to him over night. If a person is truly a reflection of life’s experiences and lessons learned along the way, Jim must have been mentored by the best when it came to providing service. Those experiences and lessons can be traced back to his home town of Picayune, Mississippi, where the first shot fired at serving others came when Jim ran for president of his high school’s student body in 1958. A classmate helped with the election by coming up with the winning campaign slogan: “Jim Gray for President, The Gray Ghost Rides Again.” But the cornerstone of Jim’s success in the service sector was really learned at home. He credits his mother for instilling his caring attitude towards people and the enthusiasm he brings to work every day. But if it hadn’t been for the survival skills and rewards that could be harvested by taking a risk or two in this life, taught by his father, Jim Gray wouldn’t be on Grand Lake today. That may explain how an education major from William Carey College, who had a passion for coaching high school football and basketball, would venture out to expand his horizons into car sales, real estate marketing, convention sales and eventually find his calling in the golf business. On a lark, Jim came to Oklahoma at the urging of his long-time pal Mickey Barkley in 1981 to sell lots at the all new Coves Residential & Golf Club Development. Following eight months of parties and sales meetings presided over by Barkley, he moved on to Resort Convention sales at Shangri-la on Monkey Island. But unbeknownst to Barclay, his biggest contribution to Gray’s life was not exploring the party spots around Grand Lake or how to sell residential lots….It was the hiring of Lori Worley away from Monkey Island Realty to sell lots for Frates & Company on Bird Island, which led to a chance meeting with the future Mrs. Jim Gray. Jim recalls that chance encounter like this: “Yeah, I was sitting outside Barkley’s office reading the sports page, when she showed up at the old rock cabin which was the only structure here at the time. She was all decked out in a western pants and boots and I asked, ‘Where’d ya’ get those boots’?” She paid little attention and went in to see Barkley, who would later tell Gray to stay away from her to which he replied, “I will…until tonight.” And the rest has been history as this iconic Grand Lake couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on August 1, 2009. Gray moved on to Shangri-la Resort where he spent eight years in convention sales when one of those twists of fate would change his life forever. He was asked to serve on a committee to find a new golf pro for the resort. Jim reflects back on that life changing event and recalls it like this: “I helped recruit a young man, Rick Reed, who was an assistant pro at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Tulsa, to take the job at Shangri-la. In a sense I helped hire him, and to make a long story short, he hired me to work in the golf shop and gave me my start in golf.” To this day Jim speaks highly of his relationship with Reed, course Superintendant Milton Hale and the importance of making the acquaintance of one Zack Hamilton while working there. Zack was still an educator at the time, but this was the start of well document friendship, and partnership, which still flourishes at The Coves. And it was during the Shangri-la years that the “King of Schmooze” started collecting nick names. Richard Bell, who owns Allied Towers in Vinita and has been a member at Shangri-la for some thirty-five years, remembers Jim being called “Senator” due to his immaculate dress and sporty attire. Jim says he never denied being a clothes horse. It was also during those years that veteran Oklahoma entertainer Johnny Desmond dubbed Gray the “Silver Fox.” Desmond and Gray were frequent golfing companions who shared many memorable rounds on the famed Championship Blue Course. One night, following a round earlier in the day, and during a performance in the resorts prime years, Desmond acknowledged his golfing pal by saying, “The Silver Fox, gray in his hair and gold in his heart.” You know it stuck when it appears on a car’s vanity plate which most days can be found in the parking lot at the Coves pro shop. The Silver Fox became a mainstay at The Coves in 1999 and still recalls a conversation with the resorts major player. I said, “Well, Mr. Buford, what kind of contract do you have with your emloyees?” To which the Silver Fox recalls quite vividly the Buford reply. “If you do a good job for The Coves today, you get to come back tomorrow.” The Silver Fox deals in the people business and keeping the members happy is job number one. And it doesn’t hurt when the head pro treats the members more like friends than customers and has been know to say, “This is country club livin’ at its best, baby.”