No matter how casual a golf fan might be, many of them have dreamed of meeting Jack Nicklaus, the winner of 18 major championships, a record he has held for decades.
Alex Tsakiris, a Brophy College Preparatory alumnus, lived out that dream 13 years ago at the U.S. Amateur played at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver.
“(I) had to pinch myself that I was sitting in a golf cart just having a one-on-one chat with Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest ever to play the game,” said Tsakiris, assistant executive director of Arizona Golf Association.
Those precious five minutes with the Golden Bear wouldn’t have been possible without a sudden detour in Tsakiris’ real estate track.
He finished his studies at University of San Diego in 2008, just as the U.S. housing market was crashing. Tsakiris still obtained a real estate license in California and worked for a property management company. A couple of years passed, and he came to the realization that a real estate career wasn’t viable.
All was not lost, however, as Tsakiris turned to one of his side passions: golf.
His applications to outside service positions at San Diego golf courses didn’t pan out. But one of his friends alerted him to an internship opportunity in the Valley.
Tsakiris said he admittedly didn’t know his latest application was for anything more than a position with AZ GOLF. In actuality, the gig was one of many prestigious USGA P.J. Boatwright intern spots across the nation.
This time, his application stuck the landing.
“I was super green but they took a risk on me because my focus was going to be on the championship side of the tournament department,” Tsakiris said.
More than 14 years later, Tsakiris has worked his way up the AZ GOLF ladder.
At the time of his internship in 2011, Tsakiris said AZ GOLF only hired a single USGA intern. Now the Scottsdale-based golf organization has four Boatwright interns and one fellow.
Grace Garner, an Anthem native and graduate of Boulder Creek High School, is one of those five. She came aboard for the second straight summer, as the USGA affords its Boatwright interns more than one period – May to August is the most popular – if it so arises. Garner said she will likely be interning until December.
Like Tsakiris, Garner was a late bloomer in the sport.
Garner’s dad, Matt, introduced her to the game at a young age, but she didn’t compete in a tournament until her junior year in high school. Her newfound passion led her to playing three seasons at the University of South Carolina Upstate after transferring from Missouri Southern State University.
“It came kind of naturally to me, which I’m so lucky,” said Garner, who studied marketing. “I can’t even express how grateful I am that I got into it.”
She also has her dad to thank for pushing the Boatwright internship program, as it helped Garner make valuable connections in her career pursuits.
“I think there’s nowhere better to connect with people than through golf,” Garner said. “Playing college golf, I’ve met my best friends that I know will be my lifelong friends. … I’ve met a lot of my mentors through golf.”
One of those mentors is Logan Rasmussen, AZ GOLF head of rules and competition and a former Boatwright intern. Rasmussen didn’t do his internship at AZ GOLF but three other full-time staff members did: Mike Mason, director of handicapping and course rating, and Austin Pelias and Kylie Shoemake, who are both championship managers.
Because of these relationships, Garner said she has been entrusted with creating new programming for the organization outside of her assigned tournament operations role.
The programming will focus on attracting new AZ GOLF membership, geared particularly to people who aren’t usually part of the typical competitive golf calendar.
“We just want to be able to bring in people that don’t want to play individual tournaments,” Garner said. “We want to expand our audience and give every golfer, no matter their skill level, an opportunity to play golf.”
These projects are pieces of a three-year strategic planning period for AZ GOLF, according to Jason Knybel, AZ GOLF head of marketing and communications. The fellow and interns are all in on the action.
“We’re bringing them into the fold on these things because we want them to be active participants, not just spectators,” Knybel said. “So it really is across all functions of the association and they work very closely together as well and share their experiences and such.”
Hannah Tippy, a native of Smyrna, Delaware, is working through an 18-month immersive experience as an administrative fellow for AZ GOLF, an opportunity which required special approval from the USGA.
Tippy’s position isn’t unique, according to Daniel Magen, USGA Boatwright Internship administrator, but it is uncommon among the largest-ever class of 215 since the program began in 1991 with about 20 interns.
Magen said a roughly $2 million budget has made lengthier hires possible. The average Boatwright intern receives about $2,000 per month as compensation, he said.
“I think that the future of it is going to continue molding into this golf-adjacent, not just golf-specific, internship,” said Magen, a Boatwright intern in 2023. “So like things that are maybe working alongside TaylorMade manufacturing … or working alongside a green grass facility.”
While not exactly “golf adjacent” just yet, AZ GOLF’s latest Boatwright interns are meeting modern needs through their daily work.
Two of the interns are involved in traditional tournament operations, with Garner working alongside Scottsdale native Reid Chamberlin. But in the last few years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic positively impacted the golf industry, Tsakiris said bolstering the communications and data analytics departments has been vital.
“That was the logical step forward, the communication side,” said Tsakiris, who highlighted key moments that were documented such as AZ GOLF’s integration of the Arizona Women’s Golf Association in 2018. “We have one (position) specifically focusing on data entry utilizing our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform and all the data from our members to just be more tactical in how we make decisions.”
Besides the hands-on experience Boatwright interns can have with one of 57 state-allied golf associations in the nation, they can attend USGA’s summit in Liberty Corner, New Jersey held annually in May. This year, AZ GOLF’s Chamberlin and McKinley Burnett, marketing and communications intern, were able to hear from USGA CEO Mike Whan and make lasting connections with fellow Boatwright interns over three days.
P.J. Boatwright Jr., the USGA executive director from 1969 to 1980, served the game he loved and even helped revise its rules before dying from cancer in 1991 at 63.
His legacy has continued to grow in stature in golf’s corner – as evidenced by the program’s popularity. That’s not lost on interns like Garner.
“To be able to say you’re a Boatwright, anywhere you want to go in the golf industry, it’s going to help you a lot, just the name of it,” Garner said. “I think it’s a powerful internship.”