Robert Duke had never been to Denver until just recently, but now he’ll be calling the area home for the foreseeable future.
The 26-year-old paid his first visit to the Mile High City when interviewing for a position with the CGA. And a successful interview it was, as Duke will be the association’s new director of rules and competitions, effective Feb. 1.
“This is a new chapter for me,” Duke said in a phone interview this week. “I’ve done it (relocating to a new area of the country) a few times before — to Florida, California and Chicago. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I enjoy meeting new people and it’s refreshing to start somewhere new. And I’ve tried to learn something new each time.”
Duke (pictured above, in glasses) brings with him a remarkably varied background in golf tournament administration, given his age. He’s worked junior events with the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour and as an intern in his native Tennessee, for that state’s golf association. He was a P.J. Boatwright Intern for the Northern California Golf Association. He was exposed to the PGA Tour when he did a two-month internship on the operations staff for the 2015 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. And, most recently, he spent the past two years working with PGA professionals as the director of rules and competitions for the Illinois PGA.
“I’ve peeked in for a lot of organizations,” Duke said. “That will help me going forward in running and planning events. I’ve had a well-rounded education and I’ll certainly learn more. You never stop learning.”
So after previous stops in Tennessee, Florida, California and Illiniois, Duke has landed somewhere in the middle of it all, in Colorado.
“He reminded a lot of us of Thomas Pagel (the former CGA staffer who now serves as the USGA’s senior director of Rules of Golf and Amateur Status),” said Ed Mate, the CGA’s executive director. “At the CGA, we have a track record of hiring young ambitious (staffers) such as Pete (Lis, a rules official with the LPGA Tour) and Thomas. I’d rather have the upside of energy and (the possibility of promising individuals) going on to bigger and better things. Robert very much fits that mold.
“He’s a former Boatwright intern, which is a great indication that he understands state and regional golf associations, coming from one of the best in the country (Northern California). He has experience on the golf course running competitions. And when you work for a PGA Section, he knows about working with golf professionals. And he has a passion for the Rules, which is a building block for anyone who works for the CGA.”
Added Dustin Jensen, managing director of operations for the CGA: “His Rules of Golf knowledge is fabulous.”
Duke was born and grew up in Nashville, graduating with a degree in mass communications from Belmont University in that city in 2013. He played some high school golf — he said his current handicap would be about an 8 — and determined through his college-era internships that tournament administration was his cup of tea.
“I was really lucky to grasp what I wanted to do early on,” he said. “With my internship with the Tennessee junior tour, I really liked what I was doing and if you can also get paid for it … As soon as I realized that, it was something I’ve kept pursuing. I love to administer events for people who love to play.”
And though he’s spent little time in Denver, he’s looking forward to his next professional stop.
“I enjoy being out on the course and being outdoors,” Duke said. “And you look at what the CGA has to offer — it’s a great area, they run top-caliber tournaments and USGA qualifiers. That really excites me. And I’m really into the Rules.”
So what can Colorado tournament players expect from Duke?
“I bring consistency, the same level of professionalism to every event,” he said. “Across the board, I’m pretty even-keeled. The most important thing is that people have fun” at tournaments and events.
