Mark Puls & Jeri Kopecko: A PGA Pro's Path to Bent Pine

Golf has shaped Mark Puls’ entire career and eventually brought him and his partner, Jeri Kopecko, to Bent Pine.

The two now split their time between Wisconsin and Vero Beach, where they've belonged for the past two years.

Mark’s own path as a PGA professional carried him through Arizona, Tennessee, and several stops across Florida before he landed in Wisconsin.

Early in his career, he worked for the John Jacobs Golf Schools, which was the largest golf school operation in the world at the time.

"They really set the foundation for me in my pursuit of being an instructor," Mark says. "They helped me learn how to be better at my craft."

That still shapes how he teaches today.

"It's really working more with the player and what they do before swinging, the mental preparation they go through," he says. "The setup procedure is super important to what a player does with the golf club. Grip, aim, stance, and posture are the foundation for pretty much everything I do."

A Shared Game

Jeri came to golf, and to Mark, through her own long history with the sport. She and her late husband were members of Stevens Point Country Club for many years, and golf remained a constant in her life afterward.

"I met Mark at our golf club," she says. "Golf gave us a common interest, and he's still helping me with my game."

The Search

Mark's decades in Florida gave him a working knowledge of the state. He kept a home in Hollywood for seventeen years and spent much of his career at clubs on the east coast, including six years in Aventura and a stretch in Palm Beach Gardens.

"I'd heard about Bent Pine and how it was a nice golf facility," Mark says.

Before heading back up to Wisconsin, the two stopped in and toured Bent Pine with the membership director at the time. Mark says, "We thought it was pretty neat."

Two years later, they joined.

"We toured clubs around the state," Jeri says. "It just always came back to Bent Pine. We liked Vero Beach more. It was just the place."

Coming from central Wisconsin, they wanted a strong golf course and good dining.

They became members on January 3, 2025, and closed on their house six days later.

Becoming a Member

For Mark, membership at Bent Pine meant learning a role he'd never held before.

"I really had no idea how to be a member," he says. "Being an employee for thirty-plus years, it took some figuring out. I'm still figuring it out.

"It's been a journey to try to figure out how to become a member, rather than someone who runs the facility," he says. "But I'll tell you, the way this facility is run, it's run very well."

Jeri says the team at Bent Pine knows Mark's background and treats him with a quiet respect for it.

"The staff there is phenomenal," she says. "We just enjoy them."

Two years in, Mark and Jeri split their time evenly between Wisconsin and Vero Beach, chasing warm weather but staying for something that's grown past the golf course itself.

"It's become more about the friendships we've developed," Mark says.

For a PGA professional who spent his career on the other side of the counter, that shift says something about what a private club can offer when the membership fits the person.

Bent Pine draws golfers who've done the research and know what they're looking for: a serious golf experience and a thriving community.