If you moved to the area in the last 10 years, you probably don’t know Terry Sadowski. But he once was arguably the area’s best amateur golfers and today he’s one of the best real estate salesmen here ... and he has a Laurel Award to prove it.
“I had my day in golf,” Sadowski said. “I played well, and I gave the game a chance. But I found that, if I wanted to make money, I’d better do it in another profession.”
Sadowski graduated from the University of Florida in 1985 — he had failed to make the golf team as a walk-on freshman, and didn’t try again — and played solid golf here. He won several invitationals (back then, they attracted top fields) and went head-to-head with players such as Robert Goettlicher, Cary Splane and Jeff Thorsen.
“Robert and I traveled together to big tournaments,” he recalls. “I could hold my own.” He also sold real estate.
Goettlicher — now a Realtor with Re/Max — went on to win the military championship and the North-South Amateur; Sadowski turned pro.
“That lasted two years, 1990-91,” he said. “I played minitours long enough to realize that I couldn’t quite make it.”
The fields were strong and he competed with names such as Jerry Kelly, Dave Stockton Jr., John Daly and Bob Estes, all on today’s PGA Tour.
“I had to do something else and real estate was my profession,” he said.
He caught on with Mercedes Homes, a big builder in this area, and three years ago moved to Arvida, which was developing St. Johns Golf and Country Club in northern St. Johns County.
But there’s still a Mercedes connection; his wife is Donna Sadowski, the sales manager there. They have a budding golfer/agent, too — Rachel is now almost 4.
When the local builders’ association announced its award winners last month, one of the names called was his — he won a Laurel Award in the “Top Producer (Realtor)” category. His 2002 work produced 50 home sales, many in St. Johns G&CC.
“We’ve sold about 40 percent of the property here,” said Sadowski. “This is a good project.”