The Story of Las Vegas's Greatest Amateur Golfer Is Still Being Written

Brady Exber, a lifelong Vegas resident, didn't pick up a club until later in life but quickly made a name for himself. He'll soon be a captain in the amateur East-West Matches.

Brady Exber won the British Senior Amateur in 2014. / Courtesy Brady Exber

This is the latest in a series of articles about how golf is an important part of the Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World.

Lifetime Las Vegas resident Brady Exber is the most decorated amateur golfer in the history of the area. To many reading this, golf may seem like it would be an afterthought in a city with a reputation like Vegas, but the grand old game and the sports and entertainment capital of the world enjoy a deep and intertwined history.

Exber, a member of three Halls of Fame and a champion of more than 100 amateur local, regional, national and international golf tournaments, will be the West captain of the prestigious East-West Matches to be played at Maridoe Golf Club outside Dallas, Nov. 1-3.

The matches pit top college, mid-am and senior golfers from east and west of the Mississippi against each other in a Ryder Cup format. AmateurGolf.com calls it “the best amateur event you never heard about.”

Exber has been a part of the fabric of Las Vegas golf for five decades. The history of golf in Vegas dates to 1953 and the playing of the inaugural Tournament of Champions won by Al Besselink. Today, the tournament is still played on the PGA Tour in Hawaii, but Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and a host of other notables won the event in Las Vegas before it left for La Costa Resort in the San Diego area in 1969.

On a larger scale, the Exber family name has been a part of the fabric of Las Vegas for more than nine decades. In fact, it is fair to call Brady’s father, Mel, one of the city’s founding fathers.

In 1947, Mel went to work for the legendary and infamous Moe Dalitz and Eddie Moss at the Desert Inn Sportsbook. The elder Exber learned the ropes, and in 1953 opened the Saratoga Sports Book with Jackie Gaughan, another Vegas founding father. The two then bought the Las Vegas Club in downtown Las Vegas in 1961. 

Mel is remembered as a sports betting innovator who introduced teaser parlay cards and the 1.5- and 2-run baseball lines. The teaser card remains one of the most popular bets as the sports gambling industry continues to explode around the United States.

By 1963, Exber and Gaughan had added the El Cortez Hotel in downtown, and a few decades later Brady would run the family business. It was sold in 2004, two years after the passing of Mel.

“When people talk to me and I play golf around the world, they are mostly interested in talking about Las Vegas in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and the old days of Las Vegas,” Exber said. “A lot of people know the names like Dalitz, Bugsy Siegel, and all of those characters. There is a huge interest in that.”

Exber didn’t know Siegel, but a family friend was a “runner” for the Flamingo, a noted hotel operated by organized crime and led by Siegel. The runner would deliver money to Phoenix or other areas after it had been washed, so to speak. Allegedly.

Brady, 66, didn’t pick up a golf club until later in life, but quickly made a name for himself around the iconic Las Vegas Country Club, a member-owned club that was overseen by Dalitz and three other Vegas legends: Irwin Molasky, Allard Roen and Merv Adelson. Exber won the first of his six club championships in 1981.

“I didn't know Moe very well, but he was always around the Club and my dad worked for him when he first came to Las Vegas,” said Exber about the Midwest organized-crime leader who became a huge philanthropist and business leader after relocating to Las Vegas. “He was already an older fellow by then, but during the interactions I had with him, he couldn't have been nicer.”

As Exber’s game improved, he started to play in Southern Nevada and Nevada State Golf Association events. He won the Nevada State Amateur in 1991 and 2008, and was a nine-time Southern Nevada Golf Association Player of the Year. Now, the POY recipient is presented with the Brady Exber Award.

In addition to his local success, Exber has made his mark nationally and internationally. He has won the Champions Cup team event held at the historic Champions Golf Club in Houston five times with three different partners: Jamie Crow, Frank Acker and Kevin Marsh. In 2014, Exber won the British Senior Amateur and then the Canadian Senior Amateur in 2018.

“When I look back at winning the British Senior Amateur, I think that I was a better player than I gave myself credit for at the time,” Exber said. “I was just trying to play as well as I could at every tournament that I went to. I thought that I was good enough to win, but you never really know until you do it. I had a lot of top 10s there and lost in a playoff two years later.”

Brady Exber was inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. / Courtesy Brady Exber

Exber was inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame in 2006 and in 2017 earned enshrinement into the National Senior Amateur Hall of Fame. Earlier this year he was inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, joining Andre Agassi, Dana White, Jerry Tarkanian, Butch Harmon and other Vegas sports icons.

Exber is now “all-in,” to use a Vegas term, on the East-West Matches. He played in the inaugural event in 2020 and believes the matches can help increase the awareness of the top players who don’t live in the Eastern Time Zone.

“I think for a long time there has been this perceived East coast bias with amateur golf in the United States,” Exber said. “I felt it coming up when I was a younger guy and was playing more. It was always more difficult to be invited to some of the East Coast tournaments if you were a West coaster. It's important for us to show that we have a lot of good players out West. We might not have as many top amateur tournaments west of the Mississippi, but we sure have a lot of good players. I want our guys to represent the West with that in mind.”

The East captain is Nathan Smith who will also serve as the United States Waker Cup captain in 2025. Exber and Smith are busy putting their respective teams together. Exber wants players to know that there is still time to earn a spot. The senior players will be set following the Crump Cup and the Mid-Am players will be finalized following the U.S. Mid-Amateur. Both events are in September.

His captaincy is just another in a long line of amazing golf journeys.

“Golf has been really unbelievable to me,” said Exber, who is also a part owner of the Houston Astros via a relationship with majority owner Jim Crane that was built through golf. “I never thought that I would take golf as seriously as I did. Golf has taken my whole life to a different level than where it would have been without golf.”

Brian Hurlburt is the founder of www.LasVegasGolfInsider.com and can be followed @lasvegasgolfinsider on social media.