One of Us: Jennifer Borocz

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A Nocatee resident, Jennifer Borocz is the women’s golf head coach at Jacksonville University.

Can you please briefly tell us about your background?

I was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. I was a multi-sport athlete in high school and chose to pursue a college scholarship to play golf at Sam Houston State University. I excelled in the classroom and on the golf course. I was the first graduate of the Professional Golf Management program in 2009, with a 3.72 cumulative GPA. My collegiate playing career was highlighted by being named the 2008 Southland Conference Golf Student Athlete of the Year, a four-time Southland all-conference selection, team captain and by leading SHSU to the Southland Conference title in 2004 and 2007. Throughout my career, I was an individual medalist and runner-up in numerous events and was named to all-academic and all-scholar teams. Upon graduation, I was elected to PGA Membership and began working for the TPC Network.

I worked at TPC Twin Cities as a PGA assistant golf professional and during the winter months transferred to TPC Sawgrass. While at TPC Sawgrass, I was able to continue playing golf at a high level and won numerous PGA tournaments including the 2011 PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship, 2010 North Florida Section PGA Assistant’s Championship and the 2010 and 2011 North Florida Section PGA Women’s Championship. In December 2011, I left TPC Sawgrass to start a family. In August 2012, I was offered the head women’s golf coach position at Jacksonville University. I am currently in my sixth season at the helm, and we continue to have unparalleled success each season, both on and off the course.

Can you please tell us about your team’s recent success in October? What’s this mean for the program?

We’ve been making progress each year both on and off the course. This year’s team has the most depth we’ve ever had, and it has shown in our first three events of the year. We are led by Michelle Forsland (sophomore), the 2017 ASUN Freshman of the Year and first team all-conference, and Amanda Detmer (junior), who was named to the 2016 ASUN Freshman Team.  We added local Ponte Vedra High graduate Hannah Berman to our roster, and she has been a steady addition to our program. Our first event of the year was canceled due to Hurricane Irma, and we missed eight days of practice so I wasn’t too sure how that was going to affect our team.  The team worked hard once we resumed practice, and we won our home event at Marsh Landing CC, the 10th Annual Jacksonville Classic. Michelle and Amanda shared individual medalist honors as well as Co-ASUN Golfers of the Week. This gave the team a lot of confidence as we traveled to Pinehurst Resort to compete in our next event. It was here where we set individual and team records including low 36-hole individual, low 54-hole individual and low 54-hole team. In our final event of the fall season, we finished as team runner-up at the 40th Annual FIU Pat Bradley Invitational. Michelle finished the event T3, and we had four players in the Top 25.      

What are your goals for the team moving forward?

The ultimate team goal is to win the ASUN Conference Championship in April. In the meantime, we want to win at least one more tournament, bring the team scoring average under 300 and achieve the highest team GPA. It’s tough to go into a two-and-a-half month break before we begin competing again.

What’s your best advice for a student athlete in the Ponte Vedra/Beaches area who is hoping to play sports in college?

The best advice I can give is to do your research and go somewhere that you will be able to play. Nobody likes to sit on the bench and not get any playing time, and this happens more times than not. Recruits get blinded by material things and don’t realize that they will never get a chance to play. This leads to a bad experience, and they will likely end up transferring, thus going through the recruiting process again.

What do you enjoy most about living in Nocatee?

Nocatee is a great place to live, and we couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in Jacksonville. We enjoy the family-friendly atmosphere, and all of the amenities offer so much to do. We recently got a golf cart so we are enjoying riding around Nocatee. We are excited to ride around and enjoy the holiday decorations that our fellow residents put out.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I don’t have a lot of free time as I’m currently working towards my master’s degree and am the tournament chairperson for the Northern Chapter of the North Florida Section PGA. I also volunteer to coach our son’s sports, and we are currently coaching PVAA baseball. We do enjoy going to Disney World when we have time, and we try to play some golf as a family.