Virginia Golfer September / October 2015 | Page 10

The Virginia Golfer Conversation
College, is the 12-month intern for the
VSGA. Her year runs from May 2015 to
May 2016.
While at Bridgewater, she served for four
years as the operations manager for the
football team.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve played sports
so I knew I wanted to stay around sports. For
you to say in my freshman year that I would
be in the golf business and a collegiate golfer
(team started in sophomore season), I would
have laughed at you,” says Daniels, whose
degree is in business administration. “I didn’t
intend to do anything with golf. I just knew I
wanted to be around sports.”
Gavin Parker, 22, of Richmond concluded
his three-month stint in August before heading
back to Campbell University for his last
semester in the professional golf management
program. When he graduates in December, he
will have a business administration degree and
be a Class A PGA Professional.
Parker first learned about the Boatwright
Internship four years ago from past VSGA
President Lee Coble. Parker applied then

but wasn’t selected. He did internships at
three other golf facilities through the years,
reapplied for the Boatwright, and got it.
“I went to school to become a golf
professional so it’s been super neat to be
schooled for the last four years on how you
want to increase the bottom line for your
club and make revenue for yourself,” Parker
says. “But now with the administration and
association, I am a gatekeeper for the entire
state of Virginia. I’ve had the opportunity to
travel all across the state and go to different
facilities. I want to stick more to this side,
try to channel my way up, and hopefully
be sitting in Mike Davis’s (current USGA
executive director) office one day.”
Daniels and Parker didn’t know who
Boatwright was. Neither did Walder and
von Doehren in their day, but all the interns
eventually learn who he was.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The Boatwright Internship application
lays out what the program offers and what
interns should expect:

The program is “designed to give experience to individuals who are interested
in pursuing a career in golf administration while assisting state and regional golf
associations in the promotion of amateur
golf. Each internship is unique since the
needs of each association are different. The
common thread is exposure to tournament
preparations, tournament administration
and post-tournament business.
The nature of tournament administration
will test one’s patience, initiative and
decision-making abilities as well as one’s
ability to endure long hours and hard work.
Daniels and Parker experienced all that
this summer during the most intense and
busiest part of the VSGA tournament lineup.
They didn’t see much of each other because
of their schedules.
“The internship has changed focus from
when I did it,” Walder says. “When I was an
intern, we pretty much shadowed Richard
Smith (then director of competitions) on
the tournament side of the organization.
There wasn’t as much time spent in some

MAGGIE WATTS, VSGA STAFF

Gavin Parker, the three-month Boatwright
summer intern, uses a Stimpmeter to measure
the speed of a putting green.

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V IRGINIA G OLFER | S EPTEMBER/O CTOBER 2015

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