handling their then 10-year-old son,
Christopher. Though they had joint custody,
Hurst decided his main priority at the time
had to be the boy.
“It was play golf, and let him go in the
wrong direction,” Hurst says, “or quit and
take care of the problem.”
Christopher came to live with Hurst and
his new wife, Julie, a second grade teacher
and later a school administrator, who also
had a son, John, about the same age. When
the decision was made to focus on his son,
Hurst took a break from the game and his
clubs stayed buried in the closet for 10 years
as both boys grew up.
At the time, Hurst had no idea what he
wanted to do. Truth be told, he’d been a
tad burnt out on golf after several years of
24/7 concentration on the game. He did
not want to go back into the golf business,
and was open to any suggestions. His father
put him in touch with one of his neighbors,
Mike Tierney, who owned a home building
business. He hired Hurst, and 10 years later he
was running the company, Battlefield Homes.
HOPE, HEARTBREAK AND
A HEALING PLACE
And then, sadly, came the tragedy.
Hurst had begun playing golf again, with
Julie’s encouragement. Then, in 2003, she
was diagnosed with colon cancer, and after
two years of intense treatment, she actually
told him one day “I’ve got it licked.” She
also urged him to try playing professionally
again, and he started to test the waters on
another mini-tour in the Carolinas.
Then the cancer came back.
“After eight years and who knows how
many surgeries and treatments, she lost the
battle,” Hurst says.
Julie Hurst died in June 2011, though not
before achieving the one goal that kept her
going for so long.
“She wanted to see John graduate from
high school,” Hurst says. “When he did,
by then she was director of education for
Spotsylvania County. He graduated from
River Bend High in Spotsylvania in 2008, and
she got to hand him his diploma. He didn’t
know about it until he saw her up there. It
was a very special moment for everyone.
“He went on to James Madison University,
and once he got into college, she started
going downhill. She fought so hard. I don’t
know if I could have fought it like that. It’s
just a terrible, terrible disease, no matter
what kind it is.”
w w w. v s g a . o r g
Master_VSGA_MayJune14.indd 7
Hurst was obviously devastated by her
loss, and his friend and frequent golf partner,
Keith Decker, a two-time VSGA Amateur
champion from Martinsville, says Hurst
“handled it as well and with as much class
as anyone possibly could. He obviously took
some time off, and when he came back, you
knew something was wrong. He’s a tough
guy and keeps a lot inside. I think what
helped him was that he prepared himself
for it. It had been going on for such a long
period of time, he was able to wrap his brain
around it and deal with it.”
Meanwhile, Hurst’s son had clearly
straightened out, joined the Marines after
high school and served in Afghanistan. After
Julie’s death, his father clearly found some
solace on the golf course and “I started
playing as much golf as I possibly could,”
Hurst says. “It was kind of an escape for me.
It was always somewhere I could go and not
think about stuff.”
Julie’s illness also was ongoing during the
last recession, and Hurst decided to leave his
job at Battlefield Homes to allow Tierney to
keep other workers employed. He went back
to school, earned a master’s degree from the
University of Mary Washington in special
education, and was soon employed at an
elementary school.
101ST VSGA
AMATEUR
CHAMPIONSHIP
When: Tuesday-Saturday, June 24-28
Where: Spring Creek Golf Club,
Gordonsville, Va.
Format: Thirty-six holes of stroke
play qualifying (18 holes per day) on
Tuesday-Wednesday, June 24-25.
The low 32 scorers will advance to
match play and will play two matches
a day on Thursday-Friday, June 26-27.
The scheduled 36-hole final is set for
Saturday, June 28.
He spent some time working at Mary
Washington Hospital as a capital equipment
buyer, then went back to work at Battlefield.
In November 2012, he finally decided
to go out on his own with his current
business partner, Bobby Sealy. Hurst is now
a 50 percent owner of S&R Building and
Construction, a custom home building and
renovation firm, and he is now engaged to
be married again.
“I’ve been very
fortunate. I think
God takes you
where he wants
to. Life goes on.
Life is short, and
it has to go on.”
— JON HURST
CHANGE OF COURSE
Another transition soon followed.
In the beginning, he was assigned two
hard-case troubled kids, who occasionally
would spit on him or physically attack
him. At one point, he had to start wearing
padding from football tackling dummies
just to enter his tiny classroom. He’d had
minimal experience handling such situations,
and when he received little support from his
school principal, Hurst decided “this is not
my calling,” and resigned.
AT-PEACE PERSPECTIVE
His work is mostly Monday through Friday,
allowing him enough time to enter a number
of weekend amateur events around the
commonwealth and region. And judging
from his results last year, his play has never
been better, even if he doesn’t practice much,
save for his short game.
That should serve him well in ѡ