Passing the Torch
S U N T R U S T S TAT E O P E N P R E V I E W
B AY C R E E K I I : A S E Q U E L W O R T H S E E I N G
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July/August 2006
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Jamie Conkling has worked as a rules official on
the PGA Tour, and that expertise proved beneficial
to the VSGA. RIGHT: Conkling, the 10th tee starter,
shares a laugh with players at the Delta Dental
State Open of Virginia in July.
FINDING HIS FOOTING
Conkling is a New Yorker. He grew
up in Larchmont (about 30 minutes
from Manhattan) and graduated from
Mamaroneck High School and Iona
College. He didn’t know what he wanted
to do after college and wound up on Wall
Street working for First Boston Corp.
He stayed with it for five years and was
successful, but he read a book—“Do What
You Love the Money Will Follow”—and
with nothing lined up, career switched
from Wall Street to the golf business.
Conkling joined the staff of the Metro-
politan Golf Association as a part-timer
in 1991. At the end of 1991 he moved
to the Southern California Golf Asso-
30
ciation as assistant director of rules
and competitions.
“That’s when I learned the rules of golf
and how a real successful organization
operates,” Conkling recalled.
He stayed with SCGA until 1999 when
he took a job with what is now called the
Web.Com Tour as a rules official. He moved
over to the PGA Tour in late 2002 as a tour-
nament official.
When the VSGA was searching for
an executive director in 2005, Palmer
approached Conkling to see if he had any
interest in the job. Conkling asked for a job
description. All the travel for the PGA Tour
was wearing on him.
“Plus, I always wanted to put my finger-
print on something. I always wanted to
make an impact,” Conkling says.
A LASTING LEGACY
When Conkling announced his retirement
earlier this year, he said he was most proud
of the staff that has been developed. Palmer
and Greever agree the staff tops Conkling’s
list of achievements. The 12 employees
have more than 100 years of experience.
“To me one of the great attributes of a
leader is to build a solid staff…He’s done a
good job of recruiting and hiring the right
people and then creating and fostering a
culture where they work together; they
collaborate with one another; they pitch in
and help each other,” Palmer says. “I would
say the VSGA has a great reputation in the
business. The organization is perceived
nationally as very solid, very strong, and I
think that is part of Jamie’s legacy.”
Conkling says he and the staff have done
a lot of good things together.
“We merged with the women, we built
this office [building], we started eClubs.
The Junior Golf Circuit is growing and
it’s entrenched, the [Virginia Golf ] Hall
of Fame, the scholarship foundation,
trying to change the culture a little bit
“Plus, I always wanted to put my
fingerprint on something. I always wanted
to make an impact.”
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 18
– Jamie Conkling
vsga.org
ally hit my irons higher, but I hit it good,”
says Conkling, who basked in the re-tell-
ing. “It wasn’t a skull shot. It landed on the
green, and Kent heard it hit the flagstick.
No one saw it go in, but [staff member]
Tripp [Sheppard] happened to be the guy
behind the green, and he said, ‘It’s in.’”
Says Greever of the moment: “I have
witnessed holes-in-one probably 10 times
over my golfing career. I have never seen
anyone more gleeful than Jamie was. He
was like a small boy at Christmas. He was
so excited. It was grand to watch.”