This week, the AJGA Trailblazers Spotlight Series features Angela Ding, who currently serves as a Communications Coordinator within the AJGA’s Communications Department. Her journey with the AJGA began as a junior golfer, coming full circle to starting her career with the same organization where she competed in four events. Ding has worked with the AJGA since October 2022 after completing both a traveling and in-house communications internship earlier in the year.
Originally from San Diego, California, Ding naturally gravitated towards the golf world due to the almost perfect weather conditions year-round. A family friend recommended the sport, as it provided opportunities for women in sports, which led to Ding’s interest. She picked up golf when she was 11 years old and knew she wanted to take the sport to the next level. She played in competitive golf circuits from age 12 and made her AJGA debut at 15 years old.
“I knew I wanted to be in the AJGA circuit because that is where a lot of the college coaches were recruiting,” Ding said. “The AJGA teaches a lot of great life skills that all golfers should learn like pace of play, how to care for the course, and code of conduct. I knew the AJGA would give me a solid foundation to be a great golfer.”
The platform to compete at a high level gave Ding the confidence to continue to pursue golf collegiately. Ultimately, she was recruited and played Division I golf at Lehigh University. Still, she never stopped thinking about the AJGA’s impact as a junior and what career opportunities it could lead to. She had an interest in the social media and sponsorship aspect of the sports industry, and the AJGA provided that alignment.
“I remember that the staff always made the tournaments memorable, whether I had a positive interaction with one of them or just remembering how fun they made it,” Ding said. “I had an overall positive outlook on how the AJGA staff treated the juniors so that inspired me.”
In 2022, Ding embarked on an internship journey, starting as a spring traveling intern and later assuming a Communications Assistant (CA) role. As a CA, she was in between traveling on the road or working at AJGA Headquarters. Despite lacking extensive experience in social media content creation, the AJGA provided her with a chance to develop and hone her skills.
“I knew that I brought my strong golf background along with my marketing major, but I didn’t have a ton of experience with content creation for social media,” Ding said. “It was great they took a chance on me because I was able to develop and learn a lot of the skills I use now. Not a lot of companies will give you that responsibility right from the start so that was amazing for my career development.”
Her time as a CA also marked a significant step forward for her career development. She was allowed to serve in a leadership role, helping the traveling interns with their assignments and responsibilities. Moreover, being within the office gave her the vision to see herself working with the organization in the future.
“It was a huge step for me responsibility-wise because it was not too long ago, I was in their shoes, but now I’m mentoring, managing, and approving their posts,” Ding said. “I was able to do a great job and being in the office enabled me to get to know the staff better and have the kind of stability that helped me to envision a full-time role at the AJGA.”
Ding was hired after the summer of her internship and started full-time in October 2022 as a Communications Coordinator. Since that time, she’s been tasked with storytelling, social media content creation, signage for tournaments, and training interns before they set out on the road.
“I’ve developed a passion for mentoring,” Ding said. “Tim [Jackman, Vice President of Communications] trusts me to lead them, and being able to teach interns about content creation, AJGA standards, and then seeing them apply it to a real tournament is surreal to me.”
Ding was always aware of the impact that the AJGA staff had when she was a junior competing in tournaments. Now, seeing the impact that she can have on those juniors as a staff member is something she finds inspiring. Additionally, the relationships she has been able to build with the very same people who worked on tournaments she played in aren’t something she thought she’d have, but something she’s grateful for.
“It’s been awesome being able to travel and work these tournaments knowing that I’m probably affecting juniors that I saw myself in their shoes so that’s been rewarding,” Ding said. “Also, getting to work with people that once ran my tournaments and now we’re friends. It is a cool full circle moment and crazy how it all works out.”
Ding has learned how close-knit the AJGA can be and the relationships that are built along the way. She lives with another staff member who interned on her team in the spring, Tournament Coordinator Harlie Valinho. As she walks throughout the building and speaks with different departments, she hears names like 'AD' or 'Dinger' being used to greet or get her attention.
“I used to never have any nicknames, but it’s just something that happens walking through the office,” Ding said. “It’s just little things that I just had never experienced but it’s very endearing. I would consider everyone a friend at the AJGA.”
From working and covering stories at the Butterfield Bermuda Junior Championship, where she covered AJGA junior alum Caleb Surratt making his PGA Tour debut with the partnering PGA Tour event, to highlighting AJGA Staff Alum Stephanie Rogers and Rachel Sadowski in a feature story, to having a story published for Global Golf Post Women, Ding credits the organization for allowing her to push her limits and try different things. She likes that the AJGA is always advocating for networking, building relationships, and enhancing her skills.
“The AJGA invests a lot in their staff, and they care about me as an individual to help me grow personally and as a woman in the sports industry,” Ding said. “It’s important to have this environment where you’re not afraid to go and try different things, so I owe a lot of that development to the people that are surrounding me and pushing me to go forward.”
From junior golfer to full-time staff, Ding's story exemplifies the transformative impact of the AJGA on both personal and professional growth. Her trajectory reflects not just a career path but a testament to the AJGA's commitment to fostering talent and creating a supportive environment for individuals to flourish in the dynamic world of junior golf.
