by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
Ned Graff likes it here, no matter who calls and asks him to go somewhere else.
“I did that once and I learned how much I missed the golf business,” he says. “Where can you go that’s better than this? I love my job, I love being near my family and I love my church.”
Graff is loved by his peers, too, as he has been voted the Northern Chapter PGA’s Pro of the Year. It’s the third time — believed to be a record — for the West Virginia native to get the local honor.
Graff is the head professional at Ponte Vedra and says his career goal “is to sit at the desk across from mine.”
That would mean being PV’s director of golf, and the 34-year-old Graff may have quite a wait: the man at that desk, Jim Howard, is only 48 and shows no signs of moving on, either.
Graff got the top Chapter award and also nabbed another: the award for the pro who works hardest to improve club relations. In addition, he was elected as the Chapter’s vice president for 2003-04 with Mike Lynch of Windsor Parke being elected president.
Other winners were PV’s Tom Burnett, teaching; Joe Burch, Sawgrass, education; Rob McDonald, Sawgrass, top assistant; Matt Fawkes, Plantation, junior; Rick Newell, Callaway Golf, top representative; Colin Armstrong, Orange Park’s owner, top amateur; and the three merchandising divisions: Todd Bork of San Jose, private clubs; Howard for resorts and Lynch for public.
The Chapter includes clubs from the beaches to Tallahassee, and from the Georgia state line to Gainesville.
Graff has been part of the local golf scene since 1986 except for a few months in 1999 when he joined a friend at a computer company based in Greensboro, N.C. But golf, and specifically golf at Ponte Vedra, was what he wanted to do, he said, and luckily Howard had his job waiting. Not that Howard would have hesitated to find a position.
“I can’t tell you how lucky I am,” said PV Director of Golf Jim Howard.”We were talking recently and I told him, ‘You could be the head pro at 90 percent of the clubs in the nation, and maybe all of them.’
“Even when he left, it came out for the good. For one, we realized how much we missed him. For another, it gave Bruce [Mohler] the chance to show what he could do, and he proved himself.
“We’re very busy here and we need a good leader on-site at all times. Now, we have either Ned or Bruce here every day.”
Graff’s first golf job, ironically, was at Ponte Vedra. During his college days at Jacksonville University, he worked as a cart boy.
“I came down [from Charleston, W.Va.] to go to JU,” said Graff. “Why JU? A girl I was dating at the time lived here.”
He was a walk-on for the JU team, which included former local assistants Robbie Schwab and Mike McClellan, and also Don Nicol, who owns the Sticky Fingers restaurant at Atlantic Beach. During the summers, he played the amateur circuit, and finished third overall in the Gate Open which, ironically, he now helps run.
He turned pro when he graduated from JU.
“I was on what’s now the Hooter’s Tour [a tour for aspiring PGA Tour players] for two years and I think my best finish was 35th,” said Graff. “It was a great tax write-off.”
He was dating a new girl and decided that marriage and a Jacksonville job would be better than struggling on a golf minitour, and returned in 1993. He and Mitzi were married and he got a job working the carts at Marsh Landing.
That led to an assistant pro position at Windsor Parke, then quickly back to Ponte Vedra, where he became an assistant in 1994 and a year later was boosted to head pro.
He’s been there since, except for the few 1999 months in North Carolina. He and Mitzi now have two children and a double PV income; she’s the buyer for the resort’s shops.