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How former AJGA employee, Caila Roberts, excelled in the golf industry

From no golf knowledge, to earning a position at one of the top golf agencies
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Coming from a minimal golf background, Caila Roberts took a chance on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) as a place to start her career. As both a woman and a minority, Roberts is passionate about making golf more inclusive and serves as a role model and representative of hard work paying off.

Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Roberts didn’t have much golf background. “My family was more into golf than I was. We went to Quail Hollow for events, but I never really played,” Roberts shared. The AJGA wouldn’t cross the North Carolina native's path until attending a career fair at Elon University her sophomore year of college. At the time, she was not old enough to apply for the internship but kept it in the back of her mind for the future. When junior year came around, Roberts was still interested in working in the sports industry and decided to apply for the 2016 AJGA traveling operations internship. During the interview process, Roberts got invited to Intern Recruiting Weekend (IRW) at the AJGA. Essentially, IRW is a time for selected applicants to come to the AJGA’s Headquarters to meet the staff, interview, and work with other applicants. “At IRW, everyone on my team had a golf background and I remember thinking there is no way that I am getting hired,” Roberts said.

“I think that is what is so special about the AJGA and IRW. The opportunity to showcase my qualities outside of the technical side of golf set me apart from other candidates. You can have tons of golf knowledge, but if you don’t have certain skills and traits that make you a team player and coachable, then some organizations may not be interested in pursuing you.”  
Caila Roberts

Not long after IRW, Roberts was hired as an Operations Intern that traveled predominately in the Northeast region. After a few weeks of the internship, she began to grasp a better understanding of the game and enjoyed it enough to come back in an elevated internship Tournament Assistant (TA) position. After graduating college in 2017, Roberts began her position as a TA and found herself back on the road. “Becoming a TA was the most important part of the job for me. I felt that I had no business being in the position that I was being both a woman and a minority. I had to work ten times harder than everyone around me because I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to question my abilities.”

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After the TA internship ended, Roberts was hired as a Tournament Director (TD), a position she held from 2018 to 2019. During those first two years full-time at the AJGA, she kept the same mentality throughout the internship and studied non-stop for the rules test. “I absorbed every bit of information about the golf industry because I wanted to have intelligent conversations with committee members, head professionals and anyone else that I would meet along the way. Having limited golf knowledge, I was already two steps back from my peers. I needed to have confidence in myself in those situations which I believe ultimately led to my success as a TD.”

"Caila came to us with no golf background and she worked really hard. We are an organization built from strong work ethic, we saw hers, and she advanced on her own. She did a really great job of networking and her success is a good indicator that our DE&I work is paying off."
Stephen Hamblin, Executive Director, AJGA

After continued success in the Operations Department, Roberts felt she needed a new challenge. The AJGA is an organization that prepares those for their next opportunity, which is what they did for Roberts in October of 2020. With a promotion to the Tournament Business Affairs Department, she would take on her new role as Regional Manager, Northeast, for the next two years. During this time, among other things, she contributed to the success of tournaments by working with sponsors, helping locate golf courses for future events and many more core responsibilities.

With the relationships she created during her time with the AJGA, opportunities soon began to arise. One of these opportunities was being the Tournament Director for the Mack Champ Invitational in 2021. Hosted by the Cameron Champ Foundation, the invitational was named in honor of Cameron Champ’s grandfather, Mack, and showcased the best junior golfers of diverse backgrounds. Ultimately, the invitational become a passion project for Roberts, and she returned in 2022 as Tournament Chair.

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“Golf is taking steps in the right direction regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion but still has a long way to go. The AJGA does a great job of using their resources to support grass roots organizations and foundations that are providing access and opportunity to minority junior and amateur golfers.”
Caila Roberts

The success of Roberts' career didn’t solely come from the AJGA, but her willingness to take risks and challenge herself to better her knowledge of the golf industry. “Through my two years as an intern and four years full-time, the AJGA has helped build great relationships which ultimately led to this opportunity. Having the confidence and building the relationships have contributed to my progress and put me in a better position to succeed.” Towards the end of 2021, Roberts earned another promotion to Regional Director, Northwest, where she worked for a couple of months until a new opportunity unexpectedly presented itself.

Roberts started her new role as a Tournament Manager, Golf, Excel Sports Management in February of 2022. Currently, Roberts is involved in putting together the first-ever Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, an LPGA event taking place September 5-11 at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio.