3 minute read
THE PRO FILE
If there is such a thing as a Canongate degree, Todd Ormsby would certainly have a PhD. The 40-year-old father of three graduated from riding his Big Wheel to riding a golf cart in the family yard just off No. 3 at Flat Creek. And for the most part, he’s been living a golfing life ever since.
Here, he lets us in on his goals, his weaknesses and his (definitely!) better half.
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FIRST GOLF MEMORY: My parents bought me a sandbox and a set of plastic clubs, and I ended up hitting plastic golf balls out of the sandbox. Maybe that’s why I am a decent bunker player now.
GOLF HISTORY: I started in the Atlanta Junior Golf Association and did pretty well. Won some little events. Won the Grand Championship a couple of times. Eventually I got into some American Junior tournaments. I ended up winning three in a row and was a first team Junior All-American. I was a first team All-American, ranked sixth in the country in 1990. I went to North Carolina State, graduated in ‘95 and then turned pro. Played mini tours for three-and-a-half years after college.
TIGER TRIUMPH: When I was 17, I made the Canon Cup team. It’s the best 10 juniors from the East against the best 10 juniors from the West. We played at the Eisenhower Golf Course in Colorado Springs. Tiger was on the West team. I also played with Tiger in two rounds at the Rolex Tournament. There were rounds of stroke play, and then you qualified for match play. I ended up winning the tournament, but I think he beat me in stroke play. He was only 14, but he was really, really good.
ON THE JOB: I had been selling food supplies to restaurants when Flat Creek head pro Mark Owen called me out of the blue and asked if I was interested in an assistant’s position. That was 10 years ago. I’ve been with Canongate ever since.
CANONGATE COUPLE: I met my wife, Angela [Jerman], at White Oak. She was in sales, and we met at a function. I was head pro, and she became the assistant pro. When I went into teaching, she took the head pro job. Now we’re both at Braelinn teaching full time.
PROUD HUBBY: She’s a great player. She played at the University of Georgia and was part of their only national championship team. She actually did better than I did after college. She played on the LPGA for seven years full time. She went through Q-school three times. She played in 13 majors.
TEACHING: Angela and I talk about it all the time. It’s just amazing when you’re giving a lesson, and there’s that “aha” moment when a person gets it. It means that they’ll enjoy golf more, and that leads to everything—whether it’s getting their spouse out to play or getting the whole family involved.
GUILTY PLEASURE: Hers is The Bachelor, and mine is Castle. We love movies, and we love going out to eat.
RECKONING: But we’ve got to tone it down. We started The Biggest Loser Peachtree City, and we’ve got nine or 10 people. We had a public weigh-in the other day. It was very humbling.
SURPRISING TRAIT: I keep a lot of stuff in and I’m a tough read, but I’m a crier. TV, commercials, anything. Movies especially crush me— Hoosiers, Remember the Titans—I’m a nose-running, bawling mess.
GOLF GOALS: This year I made the cut in a web.com event. Angela was on the bag at the web. She’s a really good caddie. The LPGA and PGA Tour U.S. Opens are both at Pinehurst No. 2 on back-to-back weeks, and we are both going to try and qualify. It would be awesome if she could get into hers and I could get into mine, and then we could caddie for each other.
HUSBAND VS. WIFE CAREER MATCH-UP: She beat me once (“Twice!” she yells from the kitchen), but the day she beat me, I actually won the money. So I can still claim victory.
