Episodes
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Kai Sato is a friend of the Ouimet Fund who started Caddieshack to Corner Office, a website and podcast which features successful business leaders who got their start as caddies. Kai was a caddie at prestigious Bel-Air Country Club while studying business at USC.
He is the founder of Kaizen Reserve, which serves as an investment advisor to family offices and corporations, helping align their existing assets with startups. He is also the founding partner of Vintage Capital Investments, which focuses on technology and media investments in sports.
Before his transition to venture capital, Kai cofounded FieldLevel, a social network dedicated to sports recruiting and participated as an entrepreneur in the inaugural Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator. He works closely with accelerators across multiple industries and is also Hatch's Entrepreneur-In-Residence, actively mentoring its cohort companies.
Kai cares deeply about organizations like ours, helping disadvantaged youth through education. He created Caddyshack to Corner Office in part to teach young people about how golf can dramatically change their lives.
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Claire Rogers grew up just down the road from Wannamoisett Country Club in East Providence, Rhode Island. Her golf-crazed family used to host players for the prestigious Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett, including a future major champion who you’ll hear about in the episode.
She went on to attend Boston College for psychology, but eventually pivoted to golf content, interning at Golf Digest before being hired full-time as a social media coordinator in 2018. Since 2020, Claire has been with Golf.com, where she covers the biggest names and events from both the men’s and women’s professional tours.
Claire recently started a popular interview series called the Scoop, where she shares ice cream and chats golf with popular personalities from the game, including Max Homa, Nelly Korda, Brooks Koepka, Rose Zhang and Fred Couples.
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Not only is Jerry York a Hockey Hall of Famer and the winningest coach in college hockey history, but he’s also one of the most well-respected and universally liked individuals in sports.
Coach York spent 50 years behind the bench at three different Division I schools, including 28 seasons at his alma mater, Boston College. He closed his illustrious coaching career with an NCAA record 1,123 victories to go along with five national championships.
He’s one of only three coaches in NCAA history to lead multiple programs to a national title. York lifted Bowling Green’s first national championship in 1984, then brought four titles to Boston College, including three in the span of five years from 2008 to 2012.
York was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019, becoming only the fifth NCAA coach to be inducted, and the first to coach exclusively at the college level. He’s also a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and the BC Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
York grew up with nine siblings in Watertown and attended BC High before a standout hockey career at Boston College. He posted 134 points in his three varsity seasons, leading the Eagles to the 1965 Beanpot and a runner up finish in the NCAA Tournament that same year.
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Ouimet Scholar and Westford native Morgan Smith is one of the most accomplished young amateur golfers in Massachusetts, and the Smith family is synonymous with golf.
Morgan’s dad Phil is a former Massachusetts Mid-Amateur champion and both of her younger sisters are talented players, including Molly who plays collegiately at Division I Central Florida. Morgan grew up playing at Vesper Country Club in Tyngsboro and eventually began playing and working in the pro shop at Mount Pleasant Golf Club in Lowell.
Morgan’s accomplishments as a golfer and a student earned her a spot on the Division I women’s golf team at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She was recently named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year after finishing second overall for the Hoyas in her first-ever BIG EAST Championship.
Morgan is the two-time defending champion of the New England Women’s Amateur, and won her first Massachusetts Women’s Amateur in dramatic fashion back in 2022. She has lofty goals for what she aims to accomplish in the future both on and off the golf course.
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There is no one who has been more supportive, more passionate, and more dedicated to the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund than Dick Connolly.
Dick started caddying as an eight-year-old at Woburn Country Club and earned a Ouimet Scholarship to attend Holy Cross, where he captained the golf team before beginning a remarkable professional career.
He spent nearly 60 years in the financial services industry, becoming one of the most successful and respected advisors in the country. Exactly a week after this year’s Ouimet Banquet in late March, Dick officially retired as Managing Partner of The Connolly Group at Morgan Stanley.
One of his clients was Arnold Palmer, who became a dear friend and a passionate supporter of the Ouimet Fund. Dick was instrumental in expanding the Annual Banquet in 1997, an event in which Palmer was the first recipient of the Ouimet Award for Lifelong Contributions to Golf.
Dick and his wife of 43 years, Ann Marie, are the largest benefactors in the history of The Fund, and the Connolly’s have made a lifetime commitment to countless other charitable causes locally, nationally and abroad.
Dick’s philanthropic efforts are perhaps only topped by his modesty and his storytelling, and we hope you enjoy our second conversation with Mr. Ouimet Fund.
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Dave Wilson spent a decade as a successful golf professional and now works as a career consultant for the PGA of America, helping to better the lives and careers of PGA Professionals.
The son of Irish parents, Dave grew up in Quincy, MA and began caddying at Wollaston Golf Club in middle school. He continued his loops at Wollaston throughout his time attending BC High before earning a Ouimet Scholarship. His college choice was Penn State, graduating from its PGM program in 2012.
Wilson’s career as a PGA professional has taken him to some of the most prestigious golf courses both nationally and beyond, including Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach, Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, The Country Club in Brookline, Hole in the Wall in Naples, Florida, Somerset Hills in New Jersey, and eventually Hyannisport on the Cape, where he was the head pro beginning in 2018.
Dave has served as a board member for The Fund for the last three years and is a member of the Club Relations Committee. We’re extremely grateful for his dedication as a mentor in the game of golf, and for his promotion of our life-changing scholarship opportunities to young men and women in Massachusetts.
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Jennifer Misiaszek is a Program Manager for the Boston Parks and Recreation department. Jenn has worked for the city for eleven years, and has been the Ouimet Fund’s “go to” partner and contact through her oversight of the Boston Parks and Recreation Caddie Scholars Program – where each year, more than 100 young men and women work at either Franklin Park or George Wright golf courses.
Through working in this program, young people become eligible to apply for a Ouimet Scholarship (as one of the prerequisites is two years of golf employment at a Massachusetts golf course). The program was founded in 1996 and over the nearly 30 years, has experienced great success and growth due to the efforts of people like Jenn along the way. In that time, $2,510,000 in need based awards have gone to 181 young men and women who participated in the Caddie Scholars Program at Franklin Park and George Wright.
Jenn grew up in Boston and is a graduate of UMass Boston, where, as a standout athlete, she played both softball and basketball. Growing up as an athlete and now having two children, Brayden and Madison (both of whom participate in many sports), Jenn has been moved by having once been the person on the fields and courts, playing in tournaments organized by the City – and now she is the person organizing them.
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Glenn Kelly is the Head Golf Professional at Woods Hole Golf Club in Falmouth, Massachusetts, a Ouimet Alumnus, and a lifelong supporter of the Ouimet Fund and its mission. For decades, Glenn has led Woods Hole’s successful caddie program, and has guided more than 50 young men and women to Ouimet Scholarships totaling in excess of $300,000 in awards. For his decades of dedication and effort, Glenn received The Fund’s 2023 Golf Professional of the Year award.
Glenn grew up in Pembroke, Massachusetts and grew up working at Pembroke Country Club. Glenn’s love for the game of golf would lead to a celebrated career, as he joined Woods Hole Golf Club in 1985 as Assistant Golf Professional to legendary Head Pro Dutch Wessner. Glenn was promoted to Head Golf Professional at Woods Hole the following year, and has been staple in the Club’s community ever since.
Glenn has been deeply involved with the Cape Cod chapter of the PGA, and during his career has served as District Director and was elected to the prestigious Quarter Century Club of the PGA.
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Robert P. “Bob” Donovan is the recipient of the Ouimet Fund’s 2023 Denny Goodrich Honorary Alumnus Award, which is presented annually to someone who did not receive the scholarship when they were in school, but has been exemplary in their support of the Ouimet Fund. For 29 years as Executive Director, Bob led the Ouimet Fund through a period of tremendous expansion and growth, and there is perhaps no better person to represent multiple generations of this organization’s impact.
Growing up in Milton, Massachusetts, Bob learned to play golf at the Old Wollaston Golf Club and began working as a caddie as a teenager. He attended the University of Tennessee, and soon after began a career in sports information. Bob and his family moved to Connecticut, where he spent a great deal of his career running special events with CIGNA, many of which had a close connection to golf.
However, Bob returned to Massachusetts to take the position as Executive Director of the Ouimet Fund and in his 29 years at the helm, Bob was instrumental in countless important efforts. Among his many achievements, Bob was intrinsically involved in the broad expansion of the endowed scholarship program, the inception and growth of the annual Golf Marathon, and, leveraging his expertise in special events, the creation of the Ouimet Annual Banquet alongside Ouimet Fund benefactor Dick Connolly - which today continues to be the largest golf dinner in America.
Bob Donovan remains closely connected to The Fund as a Trustee on the Board of Directors, and often provides crucial information and background as one of the preeminent golf history buffs in Massachusetts.
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Juli Inkster is one of the greatest golfers of all time, a World Golf Hall of Famer, and will be awarded the 2024 Francis Ouimet Award for Lifelong Contributions to Golf at the Ouimet Fund’s Annual Banquet on March 21, 2024. With a professional career spanning three decades, Inkster’s career is highlighted by an incredible seven major championship wins, and she is ranked sixth all-time in career LPGA Tour wins. She has more wins in Solheim Cup matches than any other American, and is the only female golfer in history to win two majors in a decade for three consecutive decades by winning three in the 1980s, two in the 1990s, and two in the 2000s.
Inkster grew up in Santa Cruz, CA, the youngest of three children and extremely competitive with her older brothers. While she played nearly every other sport growing up, Inkster picked up golf in her late teens, after having taken a job at Pasatiempo Golf Club. After choosing to attend San Jose State University on a golf scholarship, she launched into a prolific stretch of amateur golf, including being named a three time All-American, winning three straight U.S. Women’s Amateur titles, and becoming the #1 ranked women’s amateur golfer in the world.
In recent years, Inkster has taken on a new chapter as a golf commentator, serving in both the booth analyst and interviewer roles for Golf Channel, Fox Sports, and NBC. She and her husband, Brian, have two daughters, Cori and Hayley.
Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy our conversation with the legendary Juli Inkster!
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Mark Frost is an American novelist, screenwriter, film and television producer and director. He is the author of The Greatest Game Ever Played, as well as the screenwriter and producer of the film adaptation of the book. He is also the co-creator of the mystery television series Twin Peaks and was a writer and executive story editor of Hill Street Blues.
Mark was born in Brooklyn to Mary Virginia Calhoun and actor Warren Frost. During his childhood, Mark was raised in Los Angeles and spent his adolescence in Minneapolis, and spent two years in an internship program studying and working at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater. Mark subsequently enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University studying acting, directing and playwriting.
Throughout his successful career, Mark has written novels, screenplays and theatre productions, however, in the Ouimet Fund world, Mark is most famous for having written The Greatest Game Ever Played, which captured Francis Ouimet’s victory at the 1913 U.S. Open and the seminal moment in the beginning of American golf. The novel is remembered as one of the greatest sports books of all time. Mark subsequently wrote and produced the film adaptation, which starred Shia LaBeouf and was directed by Bill Paxton.
Mark has firmly established himself as a dear friend to the Ouimet Fund, the Ouimet community and the families of Francis Ouimet and Eddie Lowery. He and his wife generously created an endowed scholarship with the Ouimet program, which provides an award each year for a young man or woman studying art, dance, theater or film.
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Don Hearn is the Executive Director of the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of New England and a close partner and friend to the Ouimet Fund. Don has spent his entire life and career devoted to golf, from his early days caddying at Woburn Country Club all the way through to his present day role running the daily operation of the GCSANE.
Don graduated from Stockbridge Agricultural School at UMass Amherst, and throughout his impressive career, Don spent nearly forty years working at several top courses in Massachusetts, including as Head Superintendent of Weston Golf Club, Lexington Golf Club and Vesper Country Club.
While still acting as a Head Superintendent in Massachusetts, Don was elected President of the Golf Course Superintendent Association of New England in 1984, and in 2004 was awarded the organization’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1987, Don was elected President of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, a nationwide organization leading their field. Among his many achievements in this role, Don led the organization in revamping its certification process and program, which to this day remains the mark of top superintendents throughout the country.
He also excelled in the industry through service and leadership, having served as a member of the USGA Green Section committee and the Massachusetts Golf Association Executive Committee. Known to those close to him for his quick wit, he is widely respected by his peers, and continues to lead the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New England, especially in pushing for additional recognition for the hard work of the superintendent teams day in and day out at courses throughout the region.
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Dr. Jacqueline Moloney is a current Professor and Chancellor Emerita of UMass Lowell. Dr. Moloney had a long and accomplished career during her nearly forty years at the University, and served as the first female Chancellor from 2015-2022 after coming up through the ranks as a faculty member, administrator, Dean and Executive Vice Chancellor. Throughout her career, Dr. Moloney has been recognized as a national leader in innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education. As Chancellor, Dr. Moloney led the University through the successful completion of its “2020 Strategic Plan”, which she spearheaded in 2010 as Executive Vice Chancellor, resulting in UMass Lowell nearly doubling its enrollment to 18,000 students, transforming the student experience, revitalizing the campus infrastructure and quadrupling its scholarship endowment. Prior to coming to UMass Lowell, Dr. Moloney was a director of several non-profit agencies and programs in the Lowell area. Dr. Moloney currently serves as a member of the Graduate School of Education faculty, and as Senior Fellow and Advisor to the University’s Donahue Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.
A tremendous supporter of the Ouimet Fund and its mission, Dr. Moloney and UMass Lowell have hosted on-campus Ouimet events in the past, and each year nearly 20 Ouimet Scholars proudly attend the University. She is also a proud proponent of Ouimet Scholars and the Ouimet program at her beloved Vesper Country Club.
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Jesse Menachem is the Executive Director and CEO of Mass Golf. Raised in Framingham, MA, Jesse attended Indiana University as an Undergraduate and during his summers home from college worked as a USGA Boatwright Intern for the then Massachusetts Golf Association (now Mass Golf).
After being hired full time by the MGA in 2008, Jesse spent five years working in multiple departments throughout golf administration before being hired as the Executive Director of the MGA at the age of 27. Jesse is the youngest Executive Director in Mass Golf’s 120-year history, and remains one of the youngest in the country to hold this position at a state or regional golf association.
Under his leadership, the staff size of Mass Golf has nearly tripled, and the organization is on the cutting edge across multiple departments – from the quality of the championships they run, to the scale of their communications and marketing efforts, to their work with the First Tee of Massachusetts and other charitable endeavors. He remains such a leader in the industry that in 2021, Jesse was named the President of the International Association of Golf Administrators, an organization which supports all state and regional golf associations across the country.
Jesse lives in Needham, MA with his wife Stephanie and three children.
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Maddy Belden is a PGA Professional, currently working as an Assistant Golf Professional at Salem Country Club. She has been around the golf industry her entire life, as her father was the Head Golf Professional at Worcester Country Club for 20 years.
Maddy attended College of the Holy Cross as a Ouimet Scholar and graduated in 2020 with a degree in International Relations. She was a four-year member and two-year captain of the Women’s Golf Team at Holy Cross, and during college, Maddy interned with the New England PGA. Upon graduation, she took a position as an Assistant Professional at Brae Burn Country Club. In January 2022, Maddy was elected Class A PGA membership, and she currently serves on various boards and committees, including the National PGA Employment Committee and is the Secretary of the Massachusetts Chapter. She is determined to make golf more accessible and fun for women and girls.
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Ryan Carey is the President and Founder of Golden Age Golf Auctions, the world’s leading golf collectibles and memorabilia auction house. Among some of the record-breaking items Ryan and his company have helped source and auction are multiple Masters winner trophies, tournament used items from some of the greatest golfers in history, and of course, the record setting sale – auctioning Tiger Woods’ irons from the “Tiger Slam”, often referred to as the greatest stretch of golf in history, which sold for $5.15 million dollars in the summer of 2022.
In this episode, we discuss the rise and global expansion of Golden Age Auctions, as well as how Ryan first began his partnership with the Ouimet Fund. Over the last six years, Ryan’s work on behalf of The Fund has helped raise more than $1 million for need-based Ouimet Scholarships, something Ryan is deeply proud of. Through this work, Ryan has helped keep the Ouimet legacy in the forefront by spreading the story of Francis and Eddie to new supporters each year.
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Tom Hynes is the Co-Chairman of Colliers International Boston. Through more than 50 years in the industry, Tom has represented a wide array of clients, and is an active participant in real estate organizations in the Greater Boston area as well as throughout the country.
Tom has an incredibly unique connection to the story of Francis Ouimet. In 1999, Tom befriended the owners of Francis Ouimet’s house at 246 Clyde Street in Brookline, and said to them “When you’re ready to sell your house, I’m your buyer.” In 2019, the option to purchase came to fruition, and since then Tom has been working nonstop to renovate what has become a modern day museum to an essential location in American sports history.
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This episode features a discussion with entrepreneur Josh Belinsky, Co-Founder of Slate Milk, a rapidly growing all-natural canned chocolate milk and latte brand, founded by Josh and his good friend from Northeastern, Manny Lubin. Josh and the team at Slate have taken an idea – that the love of chocolate milk as an adult is not only okay, but can be a healthy alternative to other drinks – and turned it into a multi-million dollar business which is currently undergoing a $10.5 million Series A fundraising to widen its expansion. But long before Josh was a successful entrepreneur, he could be found at Blue Hill Country Club in Canton, MA, where he worked as a caddie for 10 years through high school and college. This experience led him to learn about the Ouimet Scholarship, which he earned as he entered his freshman year at Northeastern. Josh was such a standout Ouimet Scholar that he was chosen to be the Student Speaker at the 2018 Annual Banquet and wowed the crowd with his humor, his openness about his mental health struggles, and his entrepreneurial spirit. Today, Josh is on the Ouimet Fund’s Board of Directors as a young Alumni leader, and has been giving back since graduation.
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Susan J. Curtin grew up in California, and returned home to her family’s roots to attend The College of the Holy Cross and enlist in the United States Coast Guard Reserve. In addition to running a private family foundation and business, Sue has dedicated countless time to serving on several non-profit boards. A founding member of Boston Golf Club, which boasts one of the largest caddie programs in New England, she can frequently be found competing in local and national golf championships. For all her efforts on behalf of the Ouimet Fund mission, Sue is also the 2023 recipient of the Richard F. Connolly, Jr. Distinguished Service Award.
In this episode, Sue discusses her father, J.D. Power III, the family business, her golf and educational journey, her dear friend and co-founder of Boston Golf Club – the late John Mineck, as well as chairing the effort for the National Coast Guard Museum.
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Richard F. “Dick” Connolly, Jr. is the Managing Partner of The Connolly Group at Morgan Stanley based in Boston. Dick is an acclaimed financial professional who has been managing investment portfolios for more than 50 years. Dick Connolly was a Ouimet Scholarship recipient at The College of the Holy Cross and considers the award one of the proudest moments of his life. As one of the top financial advisors in the country today, it all started for him as an eight-year-old caddie at Woburn Country Club. He has never forgotten where he came from, and how he was helped, and thus Dick and his wife Ann Marie have made a lifelong commitment to charitable giving.
In this episode, Dick discusses his dear friend Arnold Palmer, his love for golf and caddying, and of course, Woburn, Massachusetts and the family and friends who shaped who he is today.
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