ssing
JAMIE CONKLING REFLECTS ON 13 YEARS
AS THE VSGA’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
the Torch
by ARTHUR UTLEY
J
AMIE CONKLING has a simple explana-
tion for why I haven’t seen him hit a golf ball in
the 13 years I’ve known him as executive director
of the Virginia State Golf Association.
“I’ve played all my life, but since I got in the busi-
ness, after maybe my first five or six years when I was
in Southern California, you know, it’s the old line if you
want to quit playing golf, get in the business,” Conkling says.
Conkling is retiring as the VSGA chief Dec. 31 after com-
ing to the organization in February 2006.
Past VSGA president Gib Palmer, who was instrumental
in getting Conkling to Virginia through their work on the
U.S. Junior Championship committee, has played with
the executive director on a few occasions, but “in that
number of years, you would think we would have played
a lot more. He always used to say, ‘If you are going into the
golf business in order to play golf, you’re not suited for my
organization.’ He and his staff were not going to be out on
the golf course playing all the time. They were serving the
golfers of Virginia, and you can’t do that by playing golf.”
That didn’t mean it was all work and no play during the
Conkling years.
“He kept things light, and he kept things fun. He led the
staff with his work ethic, and with his timeliness and with
his passion for everything that we do,” says his successor
Matt Smiley, who has been with the VSGA for 16 years
after spending two summers as a P.J. Boatwright intern.
vsga.org
LIKE A SMALL BOY AT CHRISTMAS
Conkling and Smiley established a VSGA staff
championship in 2007. The trophy is a sports jacket.
Patches with the winners’ names are on the sleeve.
Conkling, who started caddying at Winged Foot Golf
Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., when he was 10 years old, was
winless until claiming the VSGA green jacket in 2017.
Smiley played with Conkling in the final round.
“He’s very proud of his golf game,” Smiley says. “I know
it meant a lot to him to win the staff championship, and
he played great.”
Conkling says he “used to be able to play a bit.” He is
quick to point out that he can make a claim no one else on
the VSGA staff can: “I’m the only one in this office that is
a dual staff champion.”
While working as director of rules and competitions for
the Southern California Golf Association in the 1990s, he
won that organization’s staff title.
The storybook finish doesn’t end with the staff cham-
pionship. Conkling scored his first hole-in-one the day
before his final VSGA Board of Directors meeting at Suf-
folk’s Cedar Point Country Club in September. He used
a 6-iron on the 153-yard ninth hole that plays uphill and
was against the wind.
“I was playing with Gary Beck, Kent Holubar and Anne
Greever. There was a guy standing behind the green, but
we didn’t know who it was. I didn’t hit it really high. I usu-
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