As an only child raised by a single mother who worked as a State Farm insurance agent to make ends meet, Jason Ballard no doubt needed mentors growing up in the Northern California city of Santa Rosa, and also later in life. Fortunately, he found some good ones.
First came his grandfather Jim, who introduced Ballard to the game at a local muni called Bennett Valley Golf Course. And it was at that track where young Jason met Jim Knego, a PGA professional who took a liking to the lad – and took to educating him about different aspects of the sport.
Years later, there was Rick Burton, another PGA golf professional as well as the president and CEO of the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, who hired Ballard as an assistant. Also, Tony Sessa and J.J. Weaver, the longtime co-head golf professionals at Augusta National, who induced Ballard to leave East Lake to work at the home of the Masters in a similar position.
Then in 2014, Ballard took his first head professional job, at the Oak Hill Country Club, a 36-hole golf facility near Rochester, New York, that has been the site of three U.S. Opens, two U.S. Amateurs and one Ryder Cup. And this week, it is staging its fourth PGA Championship, with the now 44-year-old Ballard serving as the host professional as well as the golf operations director of his association’s most important championship.
Credit his mother, Terri, who succumbed to cancer nearly two years ago at the age of 63, for helping to make that happen. But that very unlikely path from muni-course range rat to the top of his industry was also blazed with the help of those and other mentors.
And this week, Ballard can bask in the glow of where he now finds himself and how he made the journey.
His is truly one of the best feel-good stories of the tournament.
“I never met my father,” Ballard said. “But my grandfather and I were very close. He worked at Bennett Valley for fun, for his son, Don, who was the course superintendent. And we started going down there together. I’d pick the range and help him and Uncle Don with whatever other work needed to be done.
“Eventually, Jim Knego took me under his wing. When I was old enough, I’d ride my bike there in the summer, with my clubs on my back. I’d be there all day.”
“But after a while, I realized that living paycheck-to-paycheck and being on the road all the time was not for me. I still wanted to be in golf, however, so I started thinking of becoming a PGA club professional.” – Jason Ballard
Ballard played high school golf in Santa Rosa and also competed in some junior tournaments, becoming good enough to walk on to the golf team at San Diego State during the 1996-97 school year. “But I got pretty homesick and ended up moving back to Santa Rosa,” he said.
Ballard enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in the fall of 1998 and played on the golf team there, earning All-State honors the one year that he competed. But then he moved out of town again, this time to Scottsdale, Arizona.
“I want to give the mini-tours a try,” Ballard said. “But after a while, I realized that living paycheck-to-paycheck and being on the road all the time was not for me. I still wanted to be in golf, however, so I started thinking of becoming a PGA club professional.”
He accomplished that in fairly short order, earning his membership in 2004 after working at a couple of golf facilities in the Grand Canyon State.
At that point, Ballard had ambitions to find his way to a historic club with a highly rated course, or courses. And when he came upon an online post about a job opening at East Lake, where a superb Donald Ross course served as the centerpiece of what had been Bobby Jones’ home club, he applied.
“I had never been east of Arizona when I went to Atlanta for that first interview with Rick Burton,” he said. “He had me back a second time and then offered me the position.
“Rick did not say a lot to me the first couple of months, but then he called me into his office and laid out what the business was all about. That included the pros and cons, just so I knew what I was getting into.”
East Lake was a year-round club, and Ballard was there from 2004 to 2008, soaking up everything he could about being a golf professional from Burton, who was regarded as one of the best. Among Ballard’s duties was managing the East Lake golf shop during the Tour Championship from 2004 to 2007.
“I was at East Lake when I learned about the job opening at Augusta National,” he said. “The two clubs shared lots of members, so that network helped me in the interview process, which was pretty grueling.
“I remember Rick inviting me over to his house before that started. He had brought in a tailor who then fitted me for the suit that I wore for my interviews at Augusta. And Rick paid for it.”
That turned out to be a good investment, and in the end, Ballard secured a position at Augusta National. He stayed there for six years, from 2008 to 2014, rising to senior assistant golf professional and taking on a number of key roles, such as managing the member golf shop and also overseeing practice tee operations for several Masters.
“I learned so much from Tony and J.J. and also just from being at the club itself,” said Ballard, who was 30 years old when he started at Augusta.
An avid landscape photographer as well as an aficionado of vinyl records featuring music of a wide range of genres, Ballard also learned from other mentors in the summers, when Augusta National closed down. Like John Lyberger, the longtime director of golf at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., where Ballard worked from 2008 to 2012. And Ballard’s friend and former colleague Derek Brody, who had left Augusta National while Ballard was still there to take the head job at the Inverness Club in 2013.
“Working for those people at those places gave me opportunities to expand on my skill set and further broaden my horizons,” Ballard said. “I learned a lot from John, and it was exciting to be a part of the 2011 U.S. Open, which was Rory’s Open. Being with Derek during his first year at Inverness in 2013 was especially helpful in that it showed me the challenges a first-year head professional was likely to face.”
Much to his delight, Ballard found himself in a similar situation when he assumed his first head position, at Oak Hill the following year.
Nine years later, he continues to make the members of the search committee who hired him look good. His being named the PGA’s National Merchandiser of the Year in 2020 is evidence of that. So is his creation at the club of a comprehensive continuing educational program called Oak Hill University that is based on personal and professional goals tailored to each individual staff member. Ballard also has distinguished himself for the way he has mentored his assistants as well as the dozens of Professional Golf Management interns that have worked at the club during his tenure.
Oak Hill has turned out to be a win for Ballard personally, too, as Rochester is where he met his wife, Tami, a dental assistant whose daughter, Alexis, is now attending college.
His mother, and his many mentors, must be very pleased indeed.