Meet Rogelio Mercado | C/ Founder | Pinecone Golf Club

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rogelio Mercado and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rogelio, what do you attribute your success to?
One of the most important factors behind our success and the success of our brand is our golf community. A large percentage of our members are creatives with amazing input and suggestions on how we can keep pushing our club and brand to new horizons.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After graduating from college I had an amazing opportunity of working for one of the top Architectural illustration/Marketing studios around. As a 3D artist I learned a lot about photography, lighting, painting, digital painting, and generally how to make creative 3D marketing images. Some of the challenges in Architecture as a project manager/Designer are going through project phases where you’re dealing with very complex and technical puzzles of making buildings meet code or dealing with construction administration without an artsy creative outlet. I have used golf as a creative outlet with photography, graphics , digitally painting tournament posters, and 3D modeling our larger torment trophies. Pinecone Golf Club is a combination of a very diverse group of members that have found ways to improve their golf game, form lifelong friendships, and also use the platform as a creative outlet. Shoutout to all our photographers, videographers, and creative in the crew.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Golf was not always on my radar, my good friend and club founder Jared Lanctot introduced me to golf a few years back. We have a great group of friends that helped cultivate the initial idea of competitive play while having fun. As our admiration for golf grew, so did the list of friends that wanted to play with us. We went from 4 to 6 to 16 friends playing competitive golf on a Saturday morning. With help from the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) we became an official golf club.

Jared and I used to work at the same Architecture Firm, where we managed complex projects and teams of engineering consultants. We used our project management skills to set up formats, get organized and set up for scaling fast. When Covid hit, many people wanted safe social interaction while being able to be outside. Our golf club went from 16 to over 300 (current) members, we gather and play tournaments once a month. We thank our amazing members and the Los Angeles golf community that has really embraced our club.

Website: https://www.foremagazine.com/golf-groups/pinecone-golf-club-a-modern-spin-for-the-modern-golfer/ and pinecone.golf/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pineconegolfclub/?hl=en

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDmJe9sE1xc

Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL_gZdPxprI

Image Credits
@pineconegolfclub