September 24, 2025 • 48 mins
Jim Ankowicz, former head pro of The Club at Nevillewood, joins Rich to discuss his start in the game, how he learned the ins-and-outs of being a golf pro, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the rich Comwell Go Show. This week back
on to the trail of very very, very accomplished guests
who are nice enough to jump on the phone with
me and discuss some things in the world of golf.
And this week I am honored to be joined by
Jim Anklewitz. Jim is the former director of golf at
(00:24):
the club at Nevillwood, along with many, many, many other
accomplishments in the golf business. And we will get through
all of that, and many of those accomplishments are national
as let alone regional. But before we get into all that, Jim, thanks,
thanks for jumping on the phone with us today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, it's my place for Richie, my pleasure to be
on your show and contribute any way I can and
look forward to speaking with you today.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's awesome. That's awesome. So, as we always do with
every guest, tell us about how you got started in golf,
like as a youngster.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I grew up in the mid sixties in a
town called Ambridge, Pennsylvania, which at the time was noted
for as well as a lot of towns in the
area for steel production.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Steel mills were pretty all over the place. Everything from
steel mills to tighte mills to chemical plants, and Ambridge
was one of the best. It was named after company
called American Bridge and I grew up there, born in
nineteen fifty seven. We lived in a one bathroom, two
(01:50):
bedroom house an economy borough which is on top of
the hill of Ambridge and had a nice, very nice
community that I lived in with a lot of kids,
very easy to find a pickup football game, baseball game,
(02:10):
basketball game, whatever you wanted to play, and you and.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You walk to the local school. It was a great
neighborhood with a lot of great friends that I still
stay in touch with today. But anyway, like myself, my
father was a state store manager. He provided us with
a nice living, but it wasn't an extravagant living and
(02:41):
anything that I wanted to buy for myself or if
I needed a new baseball glove, I could get one
for Christmas, but to just go down to the store
and to buy one was kind of out of the question.
So I needed, I wanted, wanted to find work, and
(03:04):
one day, when I was eleven years old, a couple
of my buddies' older brothers mentioned us that, hey, they
need caddies at Ambridge country Club this weekend and if
any of you guys want to caddy you're you can
make a few dollars. Well that was kind of right
(03:25):
up my alley, and Ambridge Country Club was exactly two
and a half miles from my house, so we rode
our bikes there. I was a big kid, and you
had to be twelve years old and have what was
at the time called working papers, which means you got
(03:48):
a physical and your parents signed off on it to Caddy.
But because I was kind of big, they already thought
I was twelve, so I didn't kind of convented that.
And the next thing, you know, the Caddy master guy
by the name of an old time Scott by the
name of Gimme Boyd asked me if I could carry
(04:12):
two bags, and I said, well, this is my first
time and I'll do my best, and I did and
I did okay, and I got paid, which was kind
of like. I made like fifteen dollars sixteen dollars that day,
which was unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
They asked me to come back the next day, which
I did, and I kept going back. The next thing,
you know, I was not only pattying but washing carts
and cleaning clubs and picking the range and doing all
kinds of little things till I got I was sixteen,
where I started working on the golf course because then
(04:57):
I had a driver's license and I could drive the
drive sand pro or rough units or a vehicle like that.
One of the perks that they let me that I
had there is it's first when I was a caddie
were you were available to play golf on Monday mornings
(05:20):
and you could start at eight and you had to
be off the course at noon, not twelve fifteen knew,
And it was kind of funny because if we were
coming up walking up in the ninth it was a
nine hole course, so you'd played the nine twice and
(05:41):
you'd be walking up your your the eighteen hole in
your eighteen hole, and if it was if it was
twelve though two, it was like if we were on
the green, we were okay, but we were on the tee,
it was like, well we better get in. So I
grew up there, and then when I said started working
on the golf course, it was very nice. They let
(06:02):
me play in the evening, so I was able to
play nine holes every night, which was fabulous. There were
no junior golf programs back then as we know that
what they are today. Golf was never the the vogue
(06:25):
sport to play as a kid in the sixties. Arnold
Palmer was just on the scene. Jack Nicholas was just
kind of starting out. Sam Steed was kind of the
old timer, him and Hogan, and you know, it was
like all the all the kids that couldn't play any
(06:46):
other sports played golf. I played basketball and baseball and
couldn't run fast enough or it couldn't hit a curveball.
So golf kind of became my sport and played and
in and kind of was self taught, or my dad
(07:07):
taught me as best as he could. Uh, he played
and we would we would go out to play sometimes
that what was then Quaker Valley Park three or West
Steals Par three. Never had a chance to play other
than I mean, the big place was Amberge Country in
those days, and the parking lot was full all the
(07:33):
time with cars for lunch, golf, dinners and to steal.
Business was booming right well. I graduated, I played high
school golf there. Uh to say that I wasn't a
threat to anybody. My best days on the golf course
were probably you know, if I broke a hundred when
(07:58):
I was in high school and the League seventies. High
school matches were eighteen holes back in those days, But
that was an accomplishment for me. But I kind of
I loved the game, and I remember I remember caddying
on Father's Day in nineteen seventy three, carrying two bags
(08:21):
and coming home and sitting on the couch and watch
Johnny Miller shoot sixty three to win the Open that year.
I was exhausted because it was I caddied a lot
and watched that, watch that tournament with my dad, and
(08:44):
I knew then that I wanted to play. I wanted
to be competitive, and I did my best and got
all kinds of things to try to become a better player,
and kind of, like in nineteen seventy four, seventy five,
seventy six, I was able to I went, I went
(09:04):
to graduate from high school in seventy five. I went
to Community College of Beaver County for one year and
then enrolled at Geneva. Geneva College majored in the county UH,
and my game kind of got better. I was able
to work during the winters, I worked at Joseph Foreign
(09:27):
Company selling men suits in the in the winter time.
My golf habit in the summers, and I became a
junior member at Ambridge Country Club and played and practiced,
done up the sundown every day with the intent that
(09:48):
I wanted to play. I wanted to play the tour,
that was my dream. I hit seven ninerons than I
did balance sheets in accounting, so I wanted to stay
with golf. And but I wasn't good enough, as we
(10:11):
all realized. And the PGA Championship was at Oakbawn Country
Club in nineteen seventy eight. I was hitting some balls
on the driving range there at Ambridge and they were
looking for volunteers to work at the PGA at I
(10:33):
was bought that week and it was like, well, here's
my chance to get up close and see what kind
of how these guys play. John de Happy beat Jerry
Pate and Tom Watson in a playoff in the second
hold that year. But I worked. I worked the golf course,
(10:53):
I worked the event, and I worked at sixteenth t
and on Monday, fellow by the name of roy D
Sinich a participant in the event. Roy won the Tri
State PGA Section Championship the previous year, and by doing so,
(11:15):
qualified to play in the PGA All forty one Section
champions At that time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We're automatically exempted in. Yeah, they got in.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And he came up to the sixteenth hole and there
was a wait. Sixteen is a two hundred and thirty
yard part three hole back in those days. It's a
little longer now. And there was a way. And Roy
and I started talking and asked me what I did,
(11:49):
and I told him, and I told him I was
looking to work somewhere next. I was running out of
money I didn't have. I needed to pay for my
college and my golf and felling suits only went so far.
So I needed to I needed to. I needed to work.
And my thought was, well why not work? That was
(12:10):
off course, and uh, Roy and I struck up a conversation,
and uh, he said, call me in the spring. Call
me in the spring. I'm willing to need people to
work next year. I need some help. I said, okay,
I'll do that. Off he went Roy. Kind of the
(12:31):
side note. Roy played in the event. Didn't make the cut,
but he birdied sixteen both of the event, which is
pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
But but and I met him there. So the following week,
I'm back home at Ambridge getting ready to start classes
at Geneva because I commuted back and forth to school.
And I said, you know, I'm really interested in that.
I'm gonna I'm going to maybe be a little ambitious,
and I'm going to call him and I want to
(13:06):
make sure that my name's in the hat for next year.
So I called him that week and he said, why
don't you come up and talk to me on Friday
at noons. So I came up, sat down in his office,
had my resume. We talked for fifteen minutes. He said,
you want to start Monday?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And I told him. I said, well, I've got some
school obligations. He said, well, we could work around that.
So I started like August fifteenth, August eighteenth at the
Allegheny Country Pub and a couple people that were there
were leaving, leaving employments. They were getting out of the
(13:50):
golf business. And he said, I need people to work
right now. So he I started right away and hit
the ground, run in and really haven't stopped since.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That's incredible, that's incredible. See I known, I've known obviously
that you worked for him, but I did not know
that backstory. That's incredible. So that's incredible because if anybody
doesn't know, Allegany Country clubs an incredible place, an incredible place.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It is really it is really special. It's kind of
my I call it my alma mater because that was
my first even though Amber's Country Club was my home, right,
my alma mater is alligating because of that's where I
started my professional career and I worked there for five
(14:47):
and a half years through nineteen eighty three. The end
of eighty three I left to go to Higland Country
Club and as we as we progressed, you know, I
(15:08):
loved working at Alleghany. It's definitely at the time, it's
definitely an old school play. It was really old school
back then. Kind of another side, it's kind of an
interesting thing all the My first day of work, it
was funny because like at six seven o'clock at night,
(15:29):
the assistance would go out and play nine holes, right,
and my first day at work, they Jim, come on,
get you got your clock, let's go. So put them
on a cart and there was three of us and
we played nine holes. And I come to the eighth hole,
one hundred and sixty five yards par three, and it's
(15:53):
almost pitch dark, and don't you know, I knocked it
in the hole a hole one the first day, first
time I played the hole, which was pretty special and
loans a hold. About forty years later, almost to the day,
I had another hole of one on the same hole.
(16:16):
I have a lot of memories there, a lot of
great memories there and and a lot of friends there,
and still go back there every year and play a
few times. And as with everything else, time has changed,
but it's still a special place for me. That fall
in nineteen eighty three, and the reason I remember all
(16:39):
these dates is because most of my employment changes happened
around when a major tournament was in Pittsburgh, and the
eighty three US Open was at oak BoNT that year,
won by Larry Nelson, and our Tucky was the all
(17:00):
professional at Highland Country Club for fifty four years, announced
his retirement comand country Club was a little but I
shouldn't say little, but it was a nice golf course,
private club up in the North Hills Westview area of Pittsburgh,
very close to the old Westview Amusement Park, and I
(17:25):
applied for the job, went through a few interview processes
and was selected to replace Art. Wow, that was quite
an experience, you know. One of the things you know
that that I give a lot of a lot of
(17:45):
my success, a lot of my a lot of the
things I've done, I give credit to Roy Vicentach because
he taught me how to be a He taught me
how to be a golf professional, not just the play,
but a golf professional. Were how to conduct myself, how
(18:06):
to handle situations, how to present myself, how to drafts.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
We'll talk about there, yep, Okay, hold on just a
minute for me. This is the This is the Rich
Comwell Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Komwell Golf Show.
We're spending time with Jim Ankowitch today. Jim is the
former director of golf at Neville Wood and in the
first segment we talked about how Jim launched from Ambridge
(18:32):
as a very young man to the assistant golf professional
Alleghany Country Club working for roy View Centach. And for
anybody that anybody that knows anything about Western Pennsylvania tri
State PGA and actually National PGA, Royview Sentich is a name,
It's a name. He's a great player, longtime, longtime private
(18:53):
club professional, did everything that that private club professionals do,
not only play, but everything else. So Jim, I have
to ask you to I know he taught you. You know,
obviously you mentioned like you know, silverware and play settings
and things like that, but like it was probably like
(19:15):
an everyday thing that you learned something.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Right. Roy gave and tremendous amount of golf lessons his books.
His lesson book was booked from like eight to twelve
in the morning every day, then from one to four
(19:44):
thirty straight and then like five to seven every day,
six days a week. And he usually played in the
swat on Saturday afternoon at one o'clock. But I would
I would just go and watch him teach. He was
(20:06):
had tremendous knowledge of the golf swing which was unbelievable,
and say that he was an exceptional player would be
an understatement. Right when I went to work for him,
it was before Bob Ford was in his heyday. It
was when Jim Frey, who was at one time one
(20:31):
of the best section players, was leaving Westmoreland, or was
still at Westmoreland Country Club but going to play the
senior Roy was like the premier section player. And on
two occasions, and I remember them vividly. He shot twenty
(20:54):
nine on the front nine at Allegame and he in
the rounds were both like this. Once I was with
him and once I wasn't. He birdied one, two, three, four,
five eagles six, which is a part five. So he's
seven under after six holes, and it's like.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Video games.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's that's almost impossible to even.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Right fathom that's how you're going to do that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
That's a video I mean he made.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
He was seven under after six and then barge seven,
eight nine to shoot a boring twenty nine. So I'm
where he votes bog he ate so because Allegame is
par thirty five, and so I mean, that's that's an
unbelievable feat right too. In the second one, regarding playing,
(21:56):
I mean Ry won. He was the Section player of
the year. Most people don't realize, but he played. He
played the senior Tour for a number a year. He qualified.
He went to Q school when he turned fifty. He
went when he was fifty one, fifty two, it's fifty three,
when he was fifty three. I think it might have
(22:20):
been his third try. He made it at that time.
They took eight players for fully exempt, four conditionally exempt,
and he finished in the top four and had a
full exempt status for a year and went out to
(22:41):
play the Senior Tour and qualified again. Played played out
there for ten years or so and had a night
night successful senior playing career. It never won, finished second
a number of times, but just as the exceptional player
(23:01):
when he came off the senior Tour or when he
was fifty nine. This story is probably the most amazing
one that I know about him when he was fifty nine.
We're playing with a very good member. Very good player
is a member at Allegaty Gary mckewn and Todd Renner.
(23:23):
Todd Renners probably won the club championship there fourteen or
fifteen times. Gary's won in it six or seven times.
Gary says to Roy, Gary's I spent sixty eight years
all at the time. Gary. Roy says to Gary Garry,
have you broken your age yet? And Gary says no,
(23:46):
but I'm getting close. And Roy says to Gary, says
to Roy, when are you going to break your age?
Roy says, well, I'm fifty nine, so it's going to
be a few years. And everyone last until next week
when Roy played in the John Siretti Memorial Tournament at
(24:07):
Montour the first days of pro am. Roy goes out
and shoots fifty nine at Montour Heights Centry Colfel in
an event, the only golf professional to ever break their
age and shoot fifty nine in a PGA sanctioned event
(24:30):
in the country. The funny part of the story is
Roy comes off the golf course and Dennis Derek are
executive directors standing by the scoreboard and says, Roy, how'd
you do? And Roy says, Dennis, I shot fifty nine today,
(24:50):
And Dennis chuckles and says, not your team, Roy, what
did you do? Dennis, I shot fifty nine today. Walter
is sitting at the scoreboard with his back to Roy,
throws his scorecard in the air and says, I just
shot sixty four, my all time low and got beat
(25:12):
by five five. I mean, that's that's an unbelievable round
to play in an event like that, and a great
player in the National National Senior Clubs Borough Player of
the Year a number of times, and just just an
amazing just an amazing golf professional and an amazing player.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Awesome all right, so so let's bounce back into your
career now. So now you get the job at Highland, right. See,
So first of all, you're following a legend, which everybody
in our business says, don't follow a legend, but you did.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I did. Art was there, and Art was definitely old school,
you know. Things were things, you know back in those days,
the the club pro, the cart consession, you know, or
caddies or caddies sold golf clubs but never sold a
(26:14):
lot of shirts or or apparel. Things were just different
back then, and and and Art was that way. And
I came in developed a friendship with Art. But it
was funny my second year there first holes of two
(26:37):
hundred and ninety five yard par four and it was
Saturday morning before Easter and I went out to play
and don't you know, I hit a great t shot
with my group and I knocked it in the hole
for a one on the first hole, and there were
about forty or fifty guys standing around, which made it
(27:00):
even better. But that was a great experience that that
I had there to kind of start my career off.
And I was there for twelve years. It was a great,
great club. I keep saying, how things were back in
the day. But back in the day things were a
(27:21):
little different where the real room was full of card
players and dinners after golf and smoke smoke a lot
of you know, there was also no smoking regulations and buildings.
A lot of self employed people at the at the club,
(27:46):
and they they they liked to gamble. They gambled on golf.
They they've bet on football, they bet on a bet
on horn, they bet on everything. So we I was
there for twelve years and it was a nice job,
(28:07):
a nice pub, but kind of things were getting stale
for me. And around nineteen ninety four, the fall of
nineteen ninety four, there became an opening at the club
at Nevillwood and the job was the position opened was
(28:30):
for the golf professional. And back then there was through
the seventies, eighties, early nineties, there was there was not
very much growth in new golf courses being built in
western Pennsylvania, and all of a sudden it became the
(28:53):
vogue thing to do to have a one of the
name designers design of golf course. And at that time
there were three Nicholas, Palmer and Player. They were the
big three of golf in the sixties and seventies a
early eighties, and then they went into the golf design business,
(29:17):
and Jack being eighteen majors, was always the name to
to try to attract and design your golf course. He
also had the biggest price pack and a number of developers.
Four developers got together and they secured a piece of
(29:38):
land in Pauler Township. They bought it from the two
biggest partials of ground was from the John Nevill family,
right where the name Neville Wood comes from. And the
(30:00):
second largest parcel came from Maybe State Hospital, which was
or Woodville State Hospital Woodville State Hospital where the name
Wood comes from. So that's how the where Nevillwood came about.
John Neville was a Revolutionary War officer and after the
(30:28):
Revolutionary War, the government had the American government had no
money and they paid their soldiers in landland. So John
Neville kind of came to western Pennsylvania and he was
commissioned by President Washington to collect the tax from the
(30:53):
farmers on Whiskey. Well, the farmers didn't want to have
anything to do with that. They loved John Neville so
much that they burned his house down and President Washington
was outraged and threatened to send in the militia to
(31:15):
go to squash the Wiskey Rebellion, which was just down
the street from Neverwood. So that's how the word Neverwood
came about. So the developers who cured Jack Nicholas to
build and design to design golf course, and they built
(31:36):
it and it opened in nineteen ninety two. I came
in ninety five. It was my first full year applied
for the job. I would say it was a very long, tedious,
stressful interview process because they wanted to make sure they
(31:59):
were they selected the right individual for the job. Well
I guess they did, okay, because I was there for
twenty six years before I retired. And then they made
me golf professional emeritus, of which I am to this
day and have given me an honorary membership. And that
was that that was very special with what they did,
(32:22):
very very humbling for me for a kid that started
out in Ambridge, Pennsylvania being an illegal caddy right.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
On a bicycle, back in on a bicycle, right right.
What What do you remember about how, like you said,
stressful arduist, like the interview process, like what how many
times did you interviewed?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You know, you remember three times three four an interview
interviews in front of the search committee. The first there
must I was told I have not seen, but I
(33:10):
was told there was like eighty resumes submitted. They interviewed eight.
I was one of the eighth, and I made the
cut to the second round, of which there were two
and the two it was myself and a fellow from
from Florida, and they selected me. And then my third
(33:39):
interview was in front of the entire board of the
directors that had to approve me. Neville would at the
time was going through some what I would They were
going through their infancy and and and they were money
(34:01):
was always tight. They wanted the golf professional to own
the shop. They did a number of credit checks, background
checks on me. I think they wanted to make sure
that the individual that they selected was not only capable
of doing the job, but also understood that some of
(34:24):
these phone numbers and some of the things that you
were privy to were sacred and needed to be kept private.
And I guess I did okay because I lasted, like
I said, twenty six years. One of my one of
my another one of my mentors ball Board always said
everything has a shelf life, including your job.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
That's that's probably a more true statement than you would think.
So I really wanted the position. I really wanted to
take over at a club like that, and it just
it just grew. And probably one of the biggest things
(35:07):
that happened to help the club expand grow the membership
grow was the eight years that the club held the
Mario Leaving Celebrity Invitational in Jim But it kind of
put us on the map locally and now actually as
far as a premiere private club.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Okay, when we come back from this commercial break, we
are going to talk about how you branched into working
with you know, and juggling the all the balls that
associate yourself with the PGA of America at a section level,
on a national level. Well run an awesome operation at Neverwood.
This is the rich Combwell Golf Show. Welcome back to
(35:50):
the rich Komball Golf Show. We've spent considerable amount of
time with Jim Ankowitz, the golf professional emeritus at the
club at Nevillwood, and we talked about how he started
in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, branched into what is a nationally known
club and did an excellent, excellent job at it and
(36:13):
I know that because he stayed there for twenty six years.
But along the way and I give undying credit for
this to Jim and two professionals like Jim dedicated to
considerable amount of energy and effort to the PGA of
America at a section level, on a national level. So Jim,
(36:33):
tell me how that started, Well, Rich.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It was. I think anybody who's a golf professional has
an inherent, inherent quality about them. Did they want to help?
They want to help with juniors, they want to help
people with their golf games. They want to help people
to play better. They want to help people. If you
have a flat tire in the parking lot, they want
(36:58):
to come and help. It's just it's just part of
our DNA. And I was no difference. And when I
was a section member, is sitting in the audience at
our section meetings, there was the boarder directors and it
was like, I want, I want to jump in, I
want to be on a committee. I want to I
want to contribute. And I got involved in a couple
(37:22):
of committees and loan behold. One year I got nominated
for be a director on the board directors of the
Tri State PGA, and I didn't make it on my
first my first nomination. The following year I got nominated
again and got elected for a three year term. Served
(37:47):
on a couple committees, served as the assistant apprentice chairman
for three years and ran with that and then ran
at my term expired three year term fat out a year,
ran again, was not elected for a second term. Ran
(38:07):
the following year, was elected and became an education chairman
for the Education Committee and presented a number of educational
programs to our section members. I was approached about running
for secretary as an officer of the Association, of which
(38:29):
I did, and I ran against Mark McConnell, who was
the golf professional at swickly him and I won the election,
and by doing so, I was part of that responsibility
was going to the National PGA of America annual meeting
(38:53):
that's held in November every year in different parts of
the country. So I went as a delegate. I went
for twelve years, four years of secretary, four years as
vice president, four years is as president, and loans the
whole UH I wanted. I wanted to contribute more and
(39:19):
the God to the point where I wanted to be
on the national Board of Directors and that comes around
every nine years to our area for a three year term,
and I ran and I was elected. In fact, both
(39:40):
times I served, I served in that position for two terms,
and when I did, I ran unopposed each time. That
position requires you to be away from home probably about
forty five days a year, everything from being from being
at meeting thanks to being at the PGA Championship and
(40:05):
UH I served two terms, two terms on the national board,
and at that level, there are a lot of things
that happen that are mind blowing as far as how
big the scope of the PGA of America is, with
its twenty eight thousand members.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I served there for like I said, two terms, and
UH one year we had a fellow that from Western
New York, Tony Biatta, whose son was his wife got
a bad form of cancer and was not able to attend,
and we were able. One of one of my UH
(40:51):
the things that I like to be remembered by is
I was able to start a scholarship for their young
son at one of those annual meetings and had thirty
thousand dollars contributed in one afternoon to this kid's college fund.
And I think that probably was one of the reasons
(41:16):
that in two thousand and eight, the PGA of America
selected me as the National Golf Professional the Year. And
I would say that that was probably the most humbling
award recognition that I could have ever received. I remember
(41:42):
getting the call from President Brian Wickham thing that I
was that I was selected out of twenty eight thousand
to be their Golf Professional the Year, and it was
it was It's definitely a life changing, uh scenario where
(42:05):
things just things just are a little different after you
receive that. It's like, what you know, they they chose me.
And what was even more humbling is that the following
year when I served on that committee, I saw the
quality of the other individuals who were in their running
at the time, and it's it's like a who's who
(42:30):
hall of fame of plump ros in the country and
they selected me. So, needless to say, that was probably
that's probably in my professional golf career. That was the
highlight of my career.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, I would I would think so, I would think.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
So.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm quite sure that you know, I'm quite sure that
that had to be a tremendous shock to win that award.
I'm not saying you weren't qualified for him. I deserve it.
But that had to be like by that had to
like catch you way way way like a ton of
Breakastfore you know you know.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
That you're in the running because to submit when you
get nominated for an award at that level, uh, you
have to you have to submit a number of documents
and a portfolio, so you you know you're in the finals.
You just don't know where you're at in the in
the finals, and uh, you don't even know if you
(43:31):
make it to the to the last four or five.
And when you get the phone call, it's usually you
get the phone call when you when the president and
the association it calls the national Award winners, and that
is a that is a special moment. I'll be very
(43:54):
I'll be then honest with you. I cried. It's it's overwhelming.
The club had a The club threw two large parties
for me, once when I retired and once when I
was his all professional year. And it was just very
(44:17):
just a very emotional phone call that you get of man,
they selected me out of twenty eight thousand, so very humble,
very uh, just just one of those great things that
happened to somebody for a little Polish kid from Ambridge.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Right, it's interesting. I was just going to say that,
you know, hard to believe that, like at age eleven
you jumped on a bicycle and to try to carry
try to figure out if you could carry two golf
bags for sixty five hundred yards and then you.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Know, it's very funny how how how life works, and
that is you know, if I'm not there that day
with my friends who brothers came and told us about
this job, I probably never go there, right, or I
go there three years from there. If Roy doesn't make
a putt at the Section championship to win to go
(45:15):
to play oak Point, I probably never meet Roy, right,
I'd probably never go to Alligan. It's just it's just
funny how life works, and uh how some of those
things just make it so that you're in the right
place at the right time. And uh, you know, Bob Trace,
(45:35):
the Great Pirate announcer, would always have a saying that
the harder he worked, the luckier And I am definitely
I am definitely that person.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
This has been awesome. I learned a lot. I knew
a lot about you, and I've known you for a while,
but I didn't know a lot of that stuff. And
that's just that's absolutely an awesome, awesome story. I got
to tell you from a golf refessional standpoint, this is
this is a massive highlight for me and I can't
tell you how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
You know, back in back in those days, it's like
there were days I would be with an Ambridge country
club dying to play, right, dying to play. I would
always see these members kids coming up to the tee
and going off who were who I went to school with,
and I would I'd be sitting there and I couldn't
play that I wasn't a member, right, and uh I
(46:34):
never forgot that. So it was always my goal that
if I could get some kid on a golf course,
I would I would do that. You know what. One
little side about Ambridge is that I had my Cannabis
Kansas Sunday bag with six or seven clubs in there, yep,
that I would sneak on the back holes full two
(46:55):
three and four that were out of everyone's site, and
I'd played two three and four, two three and four,
two three and four over and over and over again
at night. Yeah, I see somebody coming over the hill
on the cart bucked into the woods right because I
wasn't supposed to be out there. Okay, So I mean
I I played that, and I and I just I
just remembered sneaking on the golf course and one day
(47:18):
I would brave it and go down. I'd play five
when nobody was around. To make it. To become a
PGA member, to become a head golf professional and at
one of the premier clubs in western Pennsylvania, and then
being recognized nationally for a foreign award, is is just
(47:39):
the It's hard to believe, but hard work pays off,
and I would I would stress to anybody that work
as hard as you can every day to do the
right thing, and things usually work out for the best.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
There it is, Jim. Thanks again. I appreciate it. I
cannot tell how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
All right, you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
And thanks for having you too. This has been the
rich Comewall Golf Show.
Welcome to the rich Comwell Go Show. This week back
on to the trail of very very, very accomplished guests
who are nice enough to jump on the phone with
me and discuss some things in the world of golf.
And this week I am honored to be joined by
Jim Anklewitz. Jim is the former director of golf at
(00:24):
the club at Nevillwood, along with many, many, many other
accomplishments in the golf business. And we will get through
all of that, and many of those accomplishments are national
as let alone regional. But before we get into all that, Jim, thanks,
thanks for jumping on the phone with us today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, it's my place for Richie, my pleasure to be
on your show and contribute any way I can and
look forward to speaking with you today.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's awesome. That's awesome. So, as we always do with
every guest, tell us about how you got started in golf,
like as a youngster.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I grew up in the mid sixties in a
town called Ambridge, Pennsylvania, which at the time was noted
for as well as a lot of towns in the
area for steel production.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Steel mills were pretty all over the place. Everything from
steel mills to tighte mills to chemical plants, and Ambridge
was one of the best. It was named after company
called American Bridge and I grew up there, born in
nineteen fifty seven. We lived in a one bathroom, two
(01:50):
bedroom house an economy borough which is on top of
the hill of Ambridge and had a nice, very nice
community that I lived in with a lot of kids,
very easy to find a pickup football game, baseball game,
(02:10):
basketball game, whatever you wanted to play, and you and.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You walk to the local school. It was a great
neighborhood with a lot of great friends that I still
stay in touch with today. But anyway, like myself, my
father was a state store manager. He provided us with
a nice living, but it wasn't an extravagant living and
(02:41):
anything that I wanted to buy for myself or if
I needed a new baseball glove, I could get one
for Christmas, but to just go down to the store
and to buy one was kind of out of the question.
So I needed, I wanted, wanted to find work, and
(03:04):
one day, when I was eleven years old, a couple
of my buddies' older brothers mentioned us that, hey, they
need caddies at Ambridge country Club this weekend and if
any of you guys want to caddy you're you can
make a few dollars. Well that was kind of right
(03:25):
up my alley, and Ambridge Country Club was exactly two
and a half miles from my house, so we rode
our bikes there. I was a big kid, and you
had to be twelve years old and have what was
at the time called working papers, which means you got
(03:48):
a physical and your parents signed off on it to Caddy.
But because I was kind of big, they already thought
I was twelve, so I didn't kind of convented that.
And the next thing, you know, the Caddy master guy
by the name of an old time Scott by the
name of Gimme Boyd asked me if I could carry
(04:12):
two bags, and I said, well, this is my first
time and I'll do my best, and I did and
I did okay, and I got paid, which was kind
of like. I made like fifteen dollars sixteen dollars that day,
which was unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
They asked me to come back the next day, which
I did, and I kept going back. The next thing,
you know, I was not only pattying but washing carts
and cleaning clubs and picking the range and doing all
kinds of little things till I got I was sixteen,
where I started working on the golf course because then
(04:57):
I had a driver's license and I could drive the
drive sand pro or rough units or a vehicle like that.
One of the perks that they let me that I
had there is it's first when I was a caddie
were you were available to play golf on Monday mornings
(05:20):
and you could start at eight and you had to
be off the course at noon, not twelve fifteen knew,
And it was kind of funny because if we were
coming up walking up in the ninth it was a
nine hole course, so you'd played the nine twice and
(05:41):
you'd be walking up your your the eighteen hole in
your eighteen hole, and if it was if it was
twelve though two, it was like if we were on
the green, we were okay, but we were on the tee,
it was like, well we better get in. So I
grew up there, and then when I said started working
on the golf course, it was very nice. They let
(06:02):
me play in the evening, so I was able to
play nine holes every night, which was fabulous. There were
no junior golf programs back then as we know that
what they are today. Golf was never the the vogue
(06:25):
sport to play as a kid in the sixties. Arnold
Palmer was just on the scene. Jack Nicholas was just
kind of starting out. Sam Steed was kind of the
old timer, him and Hogan, and you know, it was
like all the all the kids that couldn't play any
(06:46):
other sports played golf. I played basketball and baseball and
couldn't run fast enough or it couldn't hit a curveball.
So golf kind of became my sport and played and
in and kind of was self taught, or my dad
(07:07):
taught me as best as he could. Uh, he played
and we would we would go out to play sometimes
that what was then Quaker Valley Park three or West
Steals Par three. Never had a chance to play other
than I mean, the big place was Amberge Country in
those days, and the parking lot was full all the
(07:33):
time with cars for lunch, golf, dinners and to steal.
Business was booming right well. I graduated, I played high
school golf there. Uh to say that I wasn't a
threat to anybody. My best days on the golf course
were probably you know, if I broke a hundred when
(07:58):
I was in high school and the League seventies. High
school matches were eighteen holes back in those days, But
that was an accomplishment for me. But I kind of
I loved the game, and I remember I remember caddying
on Father's Day in nineteen seventy three, carrying two bags
(08:21):
and coming home and sitting on the couch and watch
Johnny Miller shoot sixty three to win the Open that year.
I was exhausted because it was I caddied a lot
and watched that, watch that tournament with my dad, and
(08:44):
I knew then that I wanted to play. I wanted
to be competitive, and I did my best and got
all kinds of things to try to become a better player,
and kind of, like in nineteen seventy four, seventy five,
seventy six, I was able to I went, I went
(09:04):
to graduate from high school in seventy five. I went
to Community College of Beaver County for one year and
then enrolled at Geneva. Geneva College majored in the county UH,
and my game kind of got better. I was able
to work during the winters, I worked at Joseph Foreign
(09:27):
Company selling men suits in the in the winter time.
My golf habit in the summers, and I became a
junior member at Ambridge Country Club and played and practiced,
done up the sundown every day with the intent that
(09:48):
I wanted to play. I wanted to play the tour,
that was my dream. I hit seven ninerons than I
did balance sheets in accounting, so I wanted to stay
with golf. And but I wasn't good enough, as we
(10:11):
all realized. And the PGA Championship was at Oakbawn Country
Club in nineteen seventy eight. I was hitting some balls
on the driving range there at Ambridge and they were
looking for volunteers to work at the PGA at I
(10:33):
was bought that week and it was like, well, here's
my chance to get up close and see what kind
of how these guys play. John de Happy beat Jerry
Pate and Tom Watson in a playoff in the second
hold that year. But I worked. I worked the golf course,
(10:53):
I worked the event, and I worked at sixteenth t
and on Monday, fellow by the name of roy D
Sinich a participant in the event. Roy won the Tri
State PGA Section Championship the previous year, and by doing so,
(11:15):
qualified to play in the PGA All forty one Section
champions At that time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We're automatically exempted in. Yeah, they got in.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
And he came up to the sixteenth hole and there
was a wait. Sixteen is a two hundred and thirty
yard part three hole back in those days. It's a
little longer now. And there was a way. And Roy
and I started talking and asked me what I did,
(11:49):
and I told him, and I told him I was
looking to work somewhere next. I was running out of
money I didn't have. I needed to pay for my
college and my golf and felling suits only went so far.
So I needed to I needed to. I needed to work.
And my thought was, well why not work? That was
(12:10):
off course, and uh, Roy and I struck up a conversation,
and uh, he said, call me in the spring. Call
me in the spring. I'm willing to need people to
work next year. I need some help. I said, okay,
I'll do that. Off he went Roy. Kind of the
(12:31):
side note. Roy played in the event. Didn't make the cut,
but he birdied sixteen both of the event, which is
pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
But but and I met him there. So the following week,
I'm back home at Ambridge getting ready to start classes
at Geneva because I commuted back and forth to school.
And I said, you know, I'm really interested in that.
I'm gonna I'm going to maybe be a little ambitious,
and I'm going to call him and I want to
(13:06):
make sure that my name's in the hat for next year.
So I called him that week and he said, why
don't you come up and talk to me on Friday
at noons. So I came up, sat down in his office,
had my resume. We talked for fifteen minutes. He said,
you want to start Monday?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
And I told him. I said, well, I've got some
school obligations. He said, well, we could work around that.
So I started like August fifteenth, August eighteenth at the
Allegheny Country Pub and a couple people that were there
were leaving, leaving employments. They were getting out of the
(13:50):
golf business. And he said, I need people to work
right now. So he I started right away and hit
the ground, run in and really haven't stopped since.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That's incredible, that's incredible. See I known, I've known obviously
that you worked for him, but I did not know
that backstory. That's incredible. So that's incredible because if anybody
doesn't know, Allegany Country clubs an incredible place, an incredible place.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It is really it is really special. It's kind of
my I call it my alma mater because that was
my first even though Amber's Country Club was my home, right,
my alma mater is alligating because of that's where I
started my professional career and I worked there for five
(14:47):
and a half years through nineteen eighty three. The end
of eighty three I left to go to Higland Country
Club and as we as we progressed, you know, I
(15:08):
loved working at Alleghany. It's definitely at the time, it's
definitely an old school play. It was really old school
back then. Kind of another side, it's kind of an
interesting thing all the My first day of work, it
was funny because like at six seven o'clock at night,
(15:29):
the assistance would go out and play nine holes, right,
and my first day at work, they Jim, come on,
get you got your clock, let's go. So put them
on a cart and there was three of us and
we played nine holes. And I come to the eighth hole,
one hundred and sixty five yards par three, and it's
(15:53):
almost pitch dark, and don't you know, I knocked it
in the hole a hole one the first day, first
time I played the hole, which was pretty special and
loans a hold. About forty years later, almost to the day,
I had another hole of one on the same hole.
(16:16):
I have a lot of memories there, a lot of
great memories there and and a lot of friends there,
and still go back there every year and play a
few times. And as with everything else, time has changed,
but it's still a special place for me. That fall
in nineteen eighty three, and the reason I remember all
(16:39):
these dates is because most of my employment changes happened
around when a major tournament was in Pittsburgh, and the
eighty three US Open was at oak BoNT that year,
won by Larry Nelson, and our Tucky was the all
(17:00):
professional at Highland Country Club for fifty four years, announced
his retirement comand country Club was a little but I
shouldn't say little, but it was a nice golf course,
private club up in the North Hills Westview area of Pittsburgh,
very close to the old Westview Amusement Park, and I
(17:25):
applied for the job, went through a few interview processes
and was selected to replace Art. Wow, that was quite
an experience, you know. One of the things you know
that that I give a lot of a lot of
(17:45):
my success, a lot of my a lot of the
things I've done, I give credit to Roy Vicentach because
he taught me how to be a He taught me
how to be a golf professional, not just the play,
but a golf professional. Were how to conduct myself, how
(18:06):
to handle situations, how to present myself, how to drafts.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
We'll talk about there, yep, Okay, hold on just a
minute for me. This is the This is the Rich
Comwell Golf Show. Welcome back to the Rich Komwell Golf Show.
We're spending time with Jim Ankowitch today. Jim is the
former director of golf at Neville Wood and in the
first segment we talked about how Jim launched from Ambridge
(18:32):
as a very young man to the assistant golf professional
Alleghany Country Club working for roy View Centach. And for
anybody that anybody that knows anything about Western Pennsylvania tri
State PGA and actually National PGA, Royview Sentich is a name,
It's a name. He's a great player, longtime, longtime private
(18:53):
club professional, did everything that that private club professionals do,
not only play, but everything else. So Jim, I have
to ask you to I know he taught you. You know,
obviously you mentioned like you know, silverware and play settings
and things like that, but like it was probably like
(19:15):
an everyday thing that you learned something.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Right. Roy gave and tremendous amount of golf lessons his books.
His lesson book was booked from like eight to twelve
in the morning every day, then from one to four
(19:44):
thirty straight and then like five to seven every day,
six days a week. And he usually played in the
swat on Saturday afternoon at one o'clock. But I would
I would just go and watch him teach. He was
(20:06):
had tremendous knowledge of the golf swing which was unbelievable,
and say that he was an exceptional player would be
an understatement. Right when I went to work for him,
it was before Bob Ford was in his heyday. It
was when Jim Frey, who was at one time one
(20:31):
of the best section players, was leaving Westmoreland, or was
still at Westmoreland Country Club but going to play the
senior Roy was like the premier section player. And on
two occasions, and I remember them vividly. He shot twenty
(20:54):
nine on the front nine at Allegame and he in
the rounds were both like this. Once I was with
him and once I wasn't. He birdied one, two, three, four,
five eagles six, which is a part five. So he's
seven under after six holes, and it's like.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Video games.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's that's almost impossible to even.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Right fathom that's how you're going to do that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
That's a video I mean he made.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
He was seven under after six and then barge seven,
eight nine to shoot a boring twenty nine. So I'm
where he votes bog he ate so because Allegame is
par thirty five, and so I mean, that's that's an
unbelievable feat right too. In the second one, regarding playing,
(21:56):
I mean Ry won. He was the Section player of
the year. Most people don't realize, but he played. He
played the senior Tour for a number a year. He qualified.
He went to Q school when he turned fifty. He
went when he was fifty one, fifty two, it's fifty three,
when he was fifty three. I think it might have
(22:20):
been his third try. He made it at that time.
They took eight players for fully exempt, four conditionally exempt,
and he finished in the top four and had a
full exempt status for a year and went out to
(22:41):
play the Senior Tour and qualified again. Played played out
there for ten years or so and had a night
night successful senior playing career. It never won, finished second
a number of times, but just as the exceptional player
(23:01):
when he came off the senior Tour or when he
was fifty nine. This story is probably the most amazing
one that I know about him when he was fifty nine.
We're playing with a very good member. Very good player
is a member at Allegaty Gary mckewn and Todd Renner.
(23:23):
Todd Renners probably won the club championship there fourteen or
fifteen times. Gary's won in it six or seven times.
Gary says to Roy, Gary's I spent sixty eight years
all at the time. Gary. Roy says to Gary Garry,
have you broken your age yet? And Gary says no,
(23:46):
but I'm getting close. And Roy says to Gary, says
to Roy, when are you going to break your age?
Roy says, well, I'm fifty nine, so it's going to
be a few years. And everyone last until next week
when Roy played in the John Siretti Memorial Tournament at
(24:07):
Montour the first days of pro am. Roy goes out
and shoots fifty nine at Montour Heights Centry Colfel in
an event, the only golf professional to ever break their
age and shoot fifty nine in a PGA sanctioned event
(24:30):
in the country. The funny part of the story is
Roy comes off the golf course and Dennis Derek are
executive directors standing by the scoreboard and says, Roy, how'd
you do? And Roy says, Dennis, I shot fifty nine today,
(24:50):
And Dennis chuckles and says, not your team, Roy, what
did you do? Dennis, I shot fifty nine today. Walter
is sitting at the scoreboard with his back to Roy,
throws his scorecard in the air and says, I just
shot sixty four, my all time low and got beat
(25:12):
by five five. I mean, that's that's an unbelievable round
to play in an event like that, and a great
player in the National National Senior Clubs Borough Player of
the Year a number of times, and just just an
amazing just an amazing golf professional and an amazing player.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Awesome all right, so so let's bounce back into your
career now. So now you get the job at Highland, right. See,
So first of all, you're following a legend, which everybody
in our business says, don't follow a legend, but you did.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I did. Art was there, and Art was definitely old school,
you know. Things were things, you know back in those days,
the the club pro, the cart consession, you know, or
caddies or caddies sold golf clubs but never sold a
(26:14):
lot of shirts or or apparel. Things were just different
back then, and and and Art was that way. And
I came in developed a friendship with Art. But it
was funny my second year there first holes of two
(26:37):
hundred and ninety five yard par four and it was
Saturday morning before Easter and I went out to play
and don't you know, I hit a great t shot
with my group and I knocked it in the hole
for a one on the first hole, and there were
about forty or fifty guys standing around, which made it
(27:00):
even better. But that was a great experience that that
I had there to kind of start my career off.
And I was there for twelve years. It was a great,
great club. I keep saying, how things were back in
the day. But back in the day things were a
(27:21):
little different where the real room was full of card
players and dinners after golf and smoke smoke a lot
of you know, there was also no smoking regulations and buildings.
A lot of self employed people at the at the club,
(27:46):
and they they they liked to gamble. They gambled on golf.
They they've bet on football, they bet on a bet
on horn, they bet on everything. So we I was
there for twelve years and it was a nice job,
(28:07):
a nice pub, but kind of things were getting stale
for me. And around nineteen ninety four, the fall of
nineteen ninety four, there became an opening at the club
at Nevillwood and the job was the position opened was
(28:30):
for the golf professional. And back then there was through
the seventies, eighties, early nineties, there was there was not
very much growth in new golf courses being built in
western Pennsylvania, and all of a sudden it became the
(28:53):
vogue thing to do to have a one of the
name designers design of golf course. And at that time
there were three Nicholas, Palmer and Player. They were the
big three of golf in the sixties and seventies a
early eighties, and then they went into the golf design business,
(29:17):
and Jack being eighteen majors, was always the name to
to try to attract and design your golf course. He
also had the biggest price pack and a number of developers.
Four developers got together and they secured a piece of
(29:38):
land in Pauler Township. They bought it from the two
biggest partials of ground was from the John Nevill family,
right where the name Neville Wood comes from. And the
(30:00):
second largest parcel came from Maybe State Hospital, which was
or Woodville State Hospital Woodville State Hospital where the name
Wood comes from. So that's how the where Nevillwood came about.
John Neville was a Revolutionary War officer and after the
(30:28):
Revolutionary War, the government had the American government had no
money and they paid their soldiers in landland. So John
Neville kind of came to western Pennsylvania and he was
commissioned by President Washington to collect the tax from the
(30:53):
farmers on Whiskey. Well, the farmers didn't want to have
anything to do with that. They loved John Neville so
much that they burned his house down and President Washington
was outraged and threatened to send in the militia to
(31:15):
go to squash the Wiskey Rebellion, which was just down
the street from Neverwood. So that's how the word Neverwood
came about. So the developers who cured Jack Nicholas to
build and design to design golf course, and they built
(31:36):
it and it opened in nineteen ninety two. I came
in ninety five. It was my first full year applied
for the job. I would say it was a very long, tedious,
stressful interview process because they wanted to make sure they
(31:59):
were they selected the right individual for the job. Well
I guess they did, okay, because I was there for
twenty six years before I retired. And then they made
me golf professional emeritus, of which I am to this
day and have given me an honorary membership. And that
was that that was very special with what they did,
(32:22):
very very humbling for me for a kid that started
out in Ambridge, Pennsylvania being an illegal caddy right.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
On a bicycle, back in on a bicycle, right right.
What What do you remember about how, like you said,
stressful arduist, like the interview process, like what how many
times did you interviewed?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You know, you remember three times three four an interview
interviews in front of the search committee. The first there
must I was told I have not seen, but I
(33:10):
was told there was like eighty resumes submitted. They interviewed eight.
I was one of the eighth, and I made the
cut to the second round, of which there were two
and the two it was myself and a fellow from
from Florida, and they selected me. And then my third
(33:39):
interview was in front of the entire board of the
directors that had to approve me. Neville would at the
time was going through some what I would They were
going through their infancy and and and they were money
(34:01):
was always tight. They wanted the golf professional to own
the shop. They did a number of credit checks, background
checks on me. I think they wanted to make sure
that the individual that they selected was not only capable
of doing the job, but also understood that some of
(34:24):
these phone numbers and some of the things that you
were privy to were sacred and needed to be kept private.
And I guess I did okay because I lasted, like
I said, twenty six years. One of my one of
my another one of my mentors ball Board always said
everything has a shelf life, including your job.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
That's that's probably a more true statement than you would think.
So I really wanted the position. I really wanted to
take over at a club like that, and it just
it just grew. And probably one of the biggest things
(35:07):
that happened to help the club expand grow the membership
grow was the eight years that the club held the
Mario Leaving Celebrity Invitational in Jim But it kind of
put us on the map locally and now actually as
far as a premiere private club.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Okay, when we come back from this commercial break, we
are going to talk about how you branched into working
with you know, and juggling the all the balls that
associate yourself with the PGA of America at a section level,
on a national level. Well run an awesome operation at Neverwood.
This is the rich Combwell Golf Show. Welcome back to
(35:50):
the rich Komball Golf Show. We've spent considerable amount of
time with Jim Ankowitz, the golf professional emeritus at the
club at Nevillwood, and we talked about how he started
in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, branched into what is a nationally known
club and did an excellent, excellent job at it and
(36:13):
I know that because he stayed there for twenty six years.
But along the way and I give undying credit for
this to Jim and two professionals like Jim dedicated to
considerable amount of energy and effort to the PGA of
America at a section level, on a national level. So Jim,
(36:33):
tell me how that started, Well, Rich.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It was. I think anybody who's a golf professional has
an inherent, inherent quality about them. Did they want to help?
They want to help with juniors, they want to help
people with their golf games. They want to help people
to play better. They want to help people. If you
have a flat tire in the parking lot, they want
(36:58):
to come and help. It's just it's just part of
our DNA. And I was no difference. And when I
was a section member, is sitting in the audience at
our section meetings, there was the boarder directors and it
was like, I want, I want to jump in, I
want to be on a committee. I want to I
want to contribute. And I got involved in a couple
(37:22):
of committees and loan behold. One year I got nominated
for be a director on the board directors of the
Tri State PGA, and I didn't make it on my
first my first nomination. The following year I got nominated
again and got elected for a three year term. Served
(37:47):
on a couple committees, served as the assistant apprentice chairman
for three years and ran with that and then ran
at my term expired three year term fat out a year,
ran again, was not elected for a second term. Ran
(38:07):
the following year, was elected and became an education chairman
for the Education Committee and presented a number of educational
programs to our section members. I was approached about running
for secretary as an officer of the Association, of which
(38:29):
I did, and I ran against Mark McConnell, who was
the golf professional at swickly him and I won the election,
and by doing so, I was part of that responsibility
was going to the National PGA of America annual meeting
(38:53):
that's held in November every year in different parts of
the country. So I went as a delegate. I went
for twelve years, four years of secretary, four years as
vice president, four years is as president, and loans the
whole UH I wanted. I wanted to contribute more and
(39:19):
the God to the point where I wanted to be
on the national Board of Directors and that comes around
every nine years to our area for a three year term,
and I ran and I was elected. In fact, both
(39:40):
times I served, I served in that position for two terms,
and when I did, I ran unopposed each time. That
position requires you to be away from home probably about
forty five days a year, everything from being from being
at meeting thanks to being at the PGA Championship and
(40:05):
UH I served two terms, two terms on the national board,
and at that level, there are a lot of things
that happen that are mind blowing as far as how
big the scope of the PGA of America is, with
its twenty eight thousand members.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I served there for like I said, two terms, and
UH one year we had a fellow that from Western
New York, Tony Biatta, whose son was his wife got
a bad form of cancer and was not able to attend,
and we were able. One of one of my UH
(40:51):
the things that I like to be remembered by is
I was able to start a scholarship for their young
son at one of those annual meetings and had thirty
thousand dollars contributed in one afternoon to this kid's college fund.
And I think that probably was one of the reasons
(41:16):
that in two thousand and eight, the PGA of America
selected me as the National Golf Professional the Year. And
I would say that that was probably the most humbling
award recognition that I could have ever received. I remember
(41:42):
getting the call from President Brian Wickham thing that I
was that I was selected out of twenty eight thousand
to be their Golf Professional the Year, and it was
it was It's definitely a life changing, uh scenario where
(42:05):
things just things just are a little different after you
receive that. It's like, what you know, they they chose me.
And what was even more humbling is that the following
year when I served on that committee, I saw the
quality of the other individuals who were in their running
at the time, and it's it's like a who's who
(42:30):
hall of fame of plump ros in the country and
they selected me. So, needless to say, that was probably
that's probably in my professional golf career. That was the
highlight of my career.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, I would I would think so, I would think.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
So.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm quite sure that you know, I'm quite sure that
that had to be a tremendous shock to win that award.
I'm not saying you weren't qualified for him. I deserve it.
But that had to be like by that had to
like catch you way way way like a ton of
Breakastfore you know you know.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
That you're in the running because to submit when you
get nominated for an award at that level, uh, you
have to you have to submit a number of documents
and a portfolio, so you you know you're in the finals.
You just don't know where you're at in the in
the finals, and uh, you don't even know if you
(43:31):
make it to the to the last four or five.
And when you get the phone call, it's usually you
get the phone call when you when the president and
the association it calls the national Award winners, and that
is a that is a special moment. I'll be very
(43:54):
I'll be then honest with you. I cried. It's it's overwhelming.
The club had a The club threw two large parties
for me, once when I retired and once when I
was his all professional year. And it was just very
(44:17):
just a very emotional phone call that you get of man,
they selected me out of twenty eight thousand, so very humble,
very uh, just just one of those great things that
happened to somebody for a little Polish kid from Ambridge.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Right, it's interesting. I was just going to say that,
you know, hard to believe that, like at age eleven
you jumped on a bicycle and to try to carry
try to figure out if you could carry two golf
bags for sixty five hundred yards and then you.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Know, it's very funny how how how life works, and
that is you know, if I'm not there that day
with my friends who brothers came and told us about
this job, I probably never go there, right, or I
go there three years from there. If Roy doesn't make
a putt at the Section championship to win to go
(45:15):
to play oak Point, I probably never meet Roy, right,
I'd probably never go to Alligan. It's just it's just
funny how life works, and uh how some of those
things just make it so that you're in the right
place at the right time. And uh, you know, Bob Trace,
(45:35):
the Great Pirate announcer, would always have a saying that
the harder he worked, the luckier And I am definitely
I am definitely that person.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
This has been awesome. I learned a lot. I knew
a lot about you, and I've known you for a while,
but I didn't know a lot of that stuff. And
that's just that's absolutely an awesome, awesome story. I got
to tell you from a golf refessional standpoint, this is
this is a massive highlight for me and I can't
tell you how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
You know, back in back in those days, it's like
there were days I would be with an Ambridge country
club dying to play, right, dying to play. I would
always see these members kids coming up to the tee
and going off who were who I went to school with,
and I would I'd be sitting there and I couldn't
play that I wasn't a member, right, and uh I
(46:34):
never forgot that. So it was always my goal that
if I could get some kid on a golf course,
I would I would do that. You know what. One
little side about Ambridge is that I had my Cannabis
Kansas Sunday bag with six or seven clubs in there, yep,
that I would sneak on the back holes full two
(46:55):
three and four that were out of everyone's site, and
I'd played two three and four, two three and four,
two three and four over and over and over again
at night. Yeah, I see somebody coming over the hill
on the cart bucked into the woods right because I
wasn't supposed to be out there. Okay, So I mean
I I played that, and I and I just I
just remembered sneaking on the golf course and one day
(47:18):
I would brave it and go down. I'd play five
when nobody was around. To make it. To become a
PGA member, to become a head golf professional and at
one of the premier clubs in western Pennsylvania, and then
being recognized nationally for a foreign award, is is just
(47:39):
the It's hard to believe, but hard work pays off,
and I would I would stress to anybody that work
as hard as you can every day to do the
right thing, and things usually work out for the best.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
There it is, Jim. Thanks again. I appreciate it. I
cannot tell how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
All right, you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
And thanks for having you too. This has been the
rich Comewall Golf Show.
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