A Springfield Story

BY JOH NNY GARSTKA CO MMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

My parents joined the Club back in 2003, and my siblings and I grew up spending time together at SGCC. I recall days at the pool in the summer, enjoying half-price burgers on the patio, cutting my teeth at tennis in the old tennis bubble, and taking lessons on the driving range from a number of the golf pros.

The time I spent at SGCC increased when I was 16 and caught the golf bug. I recall leaving West Springfield High School at the end of the school day and heading straight to the driving range and short game practice area to get some reps in until dark. I also competed on the WSHS golf team my junior and senior years. Thinking back, I would say that the period from fall 2008 through summer 2010 is when I really fell in love with the game and it changed my life forever.

My mom, Diane Nixon Garstka, is a current SGCC member and played college golf on the West Coast. She has won multiple Club Championships at SGCC, and I will forever be in debt to her for introducing me to the game of golf.

One of the biggest reasons I fell in love with the game is that my mom never pushed me too hard to start playing. She introduced it to me and my siblings a few times, and eventually it stuck for me and my brother, Andrew. I played a number of other sports growing up, and when I was burned out from soccer in high school, I really leaned into golf and the rest is history.

As I started spending more time at the Club, I began to make friends with a handful of people. Alexandra Austin, Brandon Luxenburg, Tres Currie, and I all grew up at SGCC and played a good amount of golf together during high school and college when we were back home on breaks.

We are all now Legacy members at SGCC and still call each other friends. We are also all members of the Bobby Bowers Memorial Junior Golf Tournament Board. We grew up playing in the event and have now come full circle to help run the tournament on an annual basis.

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I am extremely grateful for the legacy membership program at SGCC in that it has allowed me and my peers to continue to enjoy the Club and build on the roots that we put down during our grade school years. Additionally, I feel fortunate that my brother Andrew and I get the chance to tee it up together on a regular basis since he joined SGCC as a Legacy member last year.

When I left for college, I really wanted to keep the ball rolling and build on my momentum from my high school days at SGCC. I joined the club golf team at Clemson University and competed for several years. As time went on, I stepped into a number of leadership roles for the team. We built the club out, enjoyed a good run of success in Southeast Regional play, and eventually advanced to Nationals on a number of occasions. The culmination of all of this work and one of the biggest highlights from my time at Clemson was winning the fall 2014 Club Golf National Championship at Dancing Rabbit Golf Club in Philadelphia, MS. In the classroom at Clemson, I majored in finance, and minored in accounting and management information systems.

My undergraduate studies and experiences with the club golf

Continued on page 8 team eventually led to two internships with the American Junior Golf Association and a full-time job as a tournament director. From there, I returned to Clemson University to work on my MBA while I served as a graduate assistant for the men’s and women’s varsity golf teams. This was an incredible experience across the board, and I am extremely grateful for my time with the varsity programs.

Eventually, I made my way back to Northern Virginia. Steve Harvey, a long time SGCC member and former head of the Membership Committee, recruited me to join his independent financial planning and wealth management firm. Given my educational background and prior work experience in sales and operations at several organizations, this was a natural landing spot for me. I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of our firm and I cannot thank Steve enough for the opportunity. I feel more confident in the direction of my career today than I ever have before.

Today, I am a member of both the Communications and Membership Committees at SGCC and I help run the Bobby Bowers on an annual basis. I play as much golf as my schedule allows at SGCC and around the state of Virginia with my brother, mom, and friends throughout the golf season. I also enjoy spending time in the bar and on the patio with the many incredible friends I have made here over the years.

SGCC has played a huge role in my life for over twenty years. I fell in love with the game of golf at SGCC and this drove many of the decisions I have made since my early days at the Club. Without SGCC and the game of golf, I am not sure what my life would look like.

SGCC and golf in general have helped forge me into the man that I am today. I will forever be in debt to our Club and the many members who have made a positive impact on my life. As time goes on, I look forward to continuing to serve the SGCC membership and give back however I can. Thank you SGCC, my life would not be the same without you! 

Congratulations to SGCC’s own Alexandra Austin on being named the 2022 VSGA Women’s Golfer of the Year. Alex won her second VSGA Women’s Stroke Play title in 2022 and earned her second Women’s Golfer of the Year distinction, the first coming in 2016 when she also won the Women’s Stroke Play. She teamed with Lauren Greenlief for a runner-up finish at the VSGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship. Those two also reached the round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur FourBall Championship. Alex reached the round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, where she lost to eventual champion Krissy Carman. She finished the year atop the VSGA Women’s Player Rankings. Alex received her trophy at the VSGA Annual Meeting on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at Salisbury Country Club. 