Boatwright Brothers Carrying on Family Golf Legacy at Amateur Four-Ball

Not long after slogging through damp and rainy conditions to share medalist honors in a U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier with a 9-under-par 63 at Torrington Country Club in Goshen, Conn., last Sept. 18, Graham and Jack Boatwright pulled into their parents’ residence in Fairfield, Conn.

They didn’t have to wait long to share the news of earning a spot in the 9th iteration of the championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club that will be played May 25-29.

Standing at the end of the driveway with a bottle of champagne to celebrate this monumental feat was their mom, Cathy. 

“She popped it right in our face,” said Jack.

Cathy Boatwright, a longtime Rules volunteer who has received the Ike Grainger Award for 25 years of meritorious service to the USGA, fully grasped the importance of this momentous occasion. A second generation of Boatwrights were going to tee it up in a USGA championship.

If the surname sounds familiar, it should. P.J. Boatwright Jr., the late grandfather to Graham and Jack, was one of the most influential individuals in the annals of the USGA. Hired at the USGA in 1959 from the Carolinas Golf Association, he succeeded Joseph Dey as the Association’s Executive Director in 1969 when the latter left to become the commissioner of the PGA Tour.

Not long after his death in 1991, the USGA established the P.J. Boatwright Internship Program, which provides individuals the opportunity to gain invaluable experience in golf administration at Allied Golf Associations. Currently, the USGA has 16 full-time employees who are Boatwright Internship alums. Many key AGA staffers have also graduated from the program, including the current executive directors at the Metropolitan Golf Association (Brian Mahoney) and Mass Golf (Jesse Menachem).

Graham, 30, and Jack, 23, unfortunately never met their influential grandfather, as he passed two years before the former was born. But their father, P.J. III, and mother have shared many stories as well as his passion for the game.

P.J. Jr. was not only among the foremost authorities on the Rules of Golf, but also a very good player. He qualified for four U.S. Amateurs and made the 36-hole cut in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, just a few miles from where his grandsons will compete in their first USGA championship. 

His son and future daughter-in-law were also immersed in the game. P.J. III, a former publishing executive at Fortune/Time, tried five times to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur and once for the U.S. Amateur. He later became a member of The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Cathy, who played collegiately at the University of North Carolina, competed in many top amateur competitions but said she was too intimidated to qualify for a USGA championship.

Through a friendship with recently retired USGA Executive Committee member Kendra Graham, a past USGA staffer who happens to be a Rules aficionado, Cathy was invited to join the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship Committee in 1994 and has worked dozens of championships and college events as a volunteer Rules official.

So, it’s no surprise Graham and Jack were introduced to golf at an early age. Jack has a photo of himself as a toddler wearing a New York Yankees jersey, along with a Bob the Builder hardhat while wearing a FootJoy golf glove on his left hand.

As he became more competitive in high school and traveled to events throughout the Northeast, Jack would run into officials on the first tee asking if he was related to the late USGA executive. Before defeating Will Celiberti in the final of the 2018 MGA Junior, Jack chatted with the association’s executive director (Mahoney), and he told Jack that at least three-fourths of his staff were past Boatwright Interns. 

“I realized he was pretty darn good at what he did,” said Jack. “He left a pretty lasting legacy.”

To date, that is Jack’s biggest competitive win, although he was once medalist at the Connecticut Junior.

“That was a life-changer,” said Jack, who was also an alternate that summer for the U.S. Junior Amateur. “I was improving all the time but could never carry it over to competitive [events]. Then that happened and it opened up the floodgates. I started to play much better in tournaments.”

Early on, Graham didn’t get the competitive golf bug like his younger sibling, preferring to hit a baseball over a golf ball. He played one season on the Ludlowe High golf team in Fairfield before enrolling at Clemson University to study material science and engineering. He went on to work for Tetra Pak, a Swedish multinational food packaging and processing company that is headquartered in Switzerland but has a Chicago-area office. 

It wasn’t until after he moved to Chicago that he began to get serious about golf. Since working with Glen View Club-based instructor Chris Green, Graham has seen his handicap drop from a 5 to a plus-1.

Jack, meanwhile, spent three semesters on the golf team at the University of Connecticut, but left school when COVID-19 hit. One semester at Clemson didn’t change his view of higher education. So just like his grandfather, he has yet to obtain a college degree. 

A friend suggested he come to Boynton Beach, Fla., and work at Pine Tree Golf Club. He’s been in south Florida ever since, having just moved over to Medalist Golf Club in Jupiter, which boasts a membership roster of many PGA Tour pros, including Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay.

Jack, in fact, caddied at Pine Tree during the January Curtis Cup practice session, working with Catherine Park (USC), Rachel Kuehn (Wake Forest), reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champion Kiara Romero (Oregon) and teenage phenom Gianna Clemente, who won the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with Avery Zweig and was just named to the inaugural U.S. National Junior Team. 

“It’s not something I’m thinking about as a career,” said Jack, who also caddied for pro Michelle Estill in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn Country Club, the club where he and Graham first learned the game. “I have no intentions of being a PGA professional. I am just trying to figure out what I want to do [for a career].”

Neither had any delusions of grandeur last September when they teed it up at Torrington Country Club. Birdies just kept coming, and when they posted the 63, it was good enough to garner one of the two available spots. When they reached the scoring area, a volunteer asked if the two were related to P.J. Boatwright. He had been a past intern.

“It makes me wish I knew him,” said Graham. “There are so many good stories. You build up this image of him in your head. I don’t know if pressure is the right word, but it makes me want to follow that legacy a little bit. Jack and I are not working in the world of golf, but it makes us want to contribute in the future, whether it be volunteering or another capacity.”

Added Jack: “People always tell me he was a bit of an intimidating figure. He was a stickler for the Rules. That was his job. All of the stories put him in such a good light. It doesn’t put pressure on me to play well. We just want to keep the Boatwright name in good faith and keep that good relationship it has with golf. We just want to represent him well by playing the game with the honor that it requires from its participants.”

Neither Boatwright is quite sure how they’ll perform once the competition commences at Philadelphia Cricket Club. Graham has sent his brother swing videos and he’s tried to stay sharp through the winter by hitting on a simulator. Jack has had more time to play, given that he resides in Florida.

Both realize there will be many more talented sides on property, but they aren’t going into the championship with expectations set too high. They plan to enjoy the experience with family members onsite. P.J., III is going to caddie for Graham and sister Casey will loop for Jack. On the sidelines will be Graham’s wife, Kate, and a very proud and emotional mom. 

“Don’t be surprised to see her on the first tee with a couple of tears running down her face,” said Graham. “She might get wrapped up in the moment.”

And up above, someone will be popping some champagne.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.