In this AJGA Trailblazers article, we highlight Emma Varela, an Account Manager on Octagon’s Client Services team and former AJGA Communications staff member. Varela’s career in the golf industry began while she was studying for her degree at the University of Arkansas.
“I went to a PGA TOUR event when I was a freshman in college, wound up falling in love with it, and I told myself, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
During her sophomore year, she began working in the media center with former AJGA employees Stephanie Rogers and Katie McBee, who both encouraged Varela to apply for the internship. In 2018, Varela worked as a Summer Traveling Communications Intern in the Southeast region, starting in Florida and worked up the East Coast to Upstate New York, Maine, and Connecticut.
“It was me and eight other people, and I absolutely loved my team,” Varela stated. “Some of them are still my best friends – myself and three other guys from my team were all hired full-time, so it was really fun to start at the AJGA with some of my teammates alongside me.”
Varela returned to the AJGA in 2019 as a Communications Assistant and In-House Communications intern, working half the summer on the road and half the summer in the office. Following her second summer internship, Varela joined full-time in the AJGA Communications Department in 2020 for the following four and a half years.
“I was a business marketing major in school, so everything journalism and communications-wise, I taught myself on the road that Traveling Intern summer or during my CA summer,” Varela said. “It was so cool to learn it all hands-on and on-the-fly.”
Following her time at the AJGA, Varela joined Octagon and works now as an Account Manager on their Client Services team. Octagon is a global sports agency, and Varela is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with its client, Delta Air Lines. She manages different assets and opportunities under the golf umbrella – Delta is the official airline of the PGA TOUR , one of six tournament partners of the Masters Tournament and a tournament partner of the Latin America Amateur Championship and the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship. Additionally, Delta is the official airline of the Mizuho Americas Open, which is an LPGA Tour and AJGA event.
“That one's really fun for me to get to go back to now every year. We have nine player ambassadors who are on the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour, including Rose Zhang and Luke Clanton. Those two were juniors when I worked with the AJGA, so it's fun to see them now as professionals and get to work with them as adults."
From the PGA TOUR events in college to the AJGA internship to her work with Octagon, Varela states the growth of golf in recent years and the relationships she has built along the way as some of the shaping factors of her career.
“I feel like every contact you have is a good contact,” Varela stated. “I joke with people now that when I go to events, I can't walk more than 50 yards without running into somebody I know. I went to THE PLAYERS Championship for the first time this year, and left and right, I was running into either former AJGA interns, former AJGA staff or people that I met over the years, like sponsor contacts. The relationships that you build while you work there definitely follows you for a long time, and it's just a very special place in that regard.”
