By: Jeff Day

SCARSDALE, N.Y. (October 5, 2012)– James Jiggetts of Mount Vernon, N.Y., is a second-year MGA Foundation GOLFWORKS intern at Fenway Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. The soft-spoken 17-year-old has a smile that will light up anyone’s face and is a 2012 graduate of St. Raymond’s High School for Boys in the Bronx, where he starred on both the boys varsity golf and baseball teams. He is mentored by his golf coach and MGA Foundation GOLFWORKS recruiter Greg Scott, who helped Jiggetts attain his position at Fenway, and considers his internship to be a life-changing experience.

“Working here at Fenway, I’m learning how to be better person and the importance of responsibility,” says Jiggetts. “I’m learning what to do and what not to do, to be cordial, to have things done on time, and to do things correctly the first time around.”

Jiggetts’s responsibilities at Fenway include working in the bag room and on the driving range.

“I’ll retrieve members’ golf bags and set them up for play on the course or practice on the driving range,” he says.  “Then I’ll clean and store them in their correct place when they are returned. I also work on the chipping green and driving range – overall maintenance of those areas, making sure the range balls are picked up, cleaned and the buckets are replenished as well as raking up all the divots off of the grass range so that the range looks presentable and neat at all times.”

As perk and privilege of working at a golf club, Jiggetts, who is a two-year varsity letterman for golf at St. Raymond’s, also has the chance to play on Fenway’s A.W. Tillinghast layout on caddie days, which are typically on Mondays. Fenway assistant golf professional Wendy Modic is Jiggetts’s supervisor and has been instrumental in helping Jiggetts along the way. In addition to being a boss, Modic, serves as a role model to Fenway’s GOLFWORKS intern.

“Wendy is a great boss,” says Jiggetts. “She knows what she is doing and she is a very patient person who has taken her time to teach me how to do my job the right ways, which has helped a lot.”

And the respect is mutual from supervisor to intern, as Modic has been very impressed with Jiggetts’s performance over the past two years.

“The guy’s great – he’s a home run,” Modic said. “James is hard working, reliable and a very nice young man. He’s a really good person and it is a pleasure to have him with us at Fenway.”

Jiggetts will be attending Westchester Community College this fall, where he will pitch for the Vikings baseball squad. He hopes to transfer and continue playing baseball at the State University of New York at Purchase for his sophomore year and credits his GOLFWORKS internship for making him more accountable and for getting him on the correct path towards college.

“Working has really taught me a lot,” says Jiggetts “Before I started working I wasn’t the most responsible kid, I was the kid who would hand in homework late if at all. But I feel like I’m more responsible now because the consequences are greater when you don’t do things on time or correctly here; I would lose my job instead of getting a bad grade. So I started being more punctual and actually getting my work done [at school] as a direct result of starting my job here; it’s the same premise and this job has really taught me to be more responsible.”

About GOLFWORKS
Founded in 1994, the MGA Foundation’s GOLFWORKS program is designed to give its participants—high school aged students—exposure to the many career opportunities within the golf industry by providing meaningful summer work experiences. The young adults who participate in GOLFWORKS complete an internship in an environment that revolves around golf, which in itself can teach the lessons of honor, integrity and tradition and provides an activity that can be enjoyed for a lifetime. In addition, GOLFWORKS provides a good salary as well as networking opportunities to its interns, and a way for interns to learn the skills necessary to pursue their career interests.