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Paving the way for success from the AJGA and beyond

Learn about the journey of Stephanie Rogers and Rachel Sadowski.
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In honor of Women's History Month, we are highlighting the impressive careers of Rachel (Graves) Sadowski and Stephanie (Dittmer) Rogers. Sadowski and Rogers both worked numerous years at the AJGA, in different departments. They have impacted thousands of junior golfers during their time, and continue to find success in their respective career paths.

Stephanie (Dittmer) Rogers
Last Role at the AJGA: Communications Manager
Years with the AJGA: 2
Current Role: Vegas Golden Knights, Sports Marketing and Fan Engagement Pro

Stephanie Rogers started her AJGA journey during the 2012 Intern Recruiting Weekend. Rogers had experience in sports and athletic communications through a previous role at the University of Iowa during her college years. After visiting the AJGA's headquarters during IRW, Rogers wanted to pursue more opportunities with the association and was asked to partake in the 2012 summer internship as a traveling communications intern.

Rogers' favorite part of the internship was her team. "My intern team was a group of the funniest people I have ever met in my entire life," said Rogers, and they ended the internship as one big family. After the summer internship ended, she accepted a full-time position with the AJGA as a Communications Coordinator.

What surprised me the most was how much responsibility the staff has to run a massive business. If you think about it, it's a bunch of people right out of college, running the ship. Any events that you're working with that has a PGA or LPGA TOUR member, you're probably working with their manager, or brand representatives. That's big time stuff.
Stephanie Rogers

Rogers was referred to the Digital Marketing Specialist, Tournament Marketing role at the PGA TOUR in 2014. Although she was not actively looking for a new role a the time, the opportunity was presented to her through an unrelated informational phone call with Laura Neal, who is now the Vice President of the PGA TOUR. Her new role was focused on social and digital marketing for the PGA TOUR events around the world and Rogers was able to introduce social advertising as a business tool. Rogers had complete control over the direction of the team. She was able to focus on the data behind marketing, which is what she enjoys. Rogers then graduated to a Digital Marketing Manager position in 2017, a Senior Manager in Tournament Marketing, in 2019, and then to Director, Corporate Partnerships Strategy and Innovation in 2022.

Rogers spent over seven years working for the PGA TOUR. While she was on the Business Development team with the TOUR, Rogers found herself missing the fan engagement and marketing aspect of sports entertainment. She stumbled upon the role of Vice President of Marketing for the Vegas Golden Knights. Rogers immediately knew that this role would challenge her with its' responsibilities to drive revenue and ticket sales.

When asked about her advice for women in the workforce, Rogers admits that there are moments where she has self-doubt, even with her decorated career. Her advice is to face your self-doubt and prove to yourself that you can do it.

It's okay to have those moments because one, you're human and two, it means that you're respecting the opportunity that's in front of you. You're not so overconfident and arrogant, you're respecting those around you, the challenge, or whatever the project may be.
Stephanie Rogers

Through her experience and different roles, Rogers admits that curiosity and the willingness to be vulnerable and to share ideas is going allow women in the industry to go a long way. Rogers has seen strong female leaders use their platform to tear other women down because of the idea that there is only room for one. In reality, that platform should be used to showcase why she is an amazing leader and why there should be more female leaders.

Be very humble. Be the hardest worker. Keep a good tribe around you. Keep good friends around you. Talk things out. Have an unending thirst to be better, or to be smarter, or be more efficient, be more something, that comes from a place of being curious and being excited to improve.
Stephanie Rogers

During Rogers' exceptional career in the sports industry, she has constantly tried to push herself to be the best that she can be. Through her strong work ethic and motivation, she has been able to take her long-standing golf career and bring it to the world of professional hockey. Rogers is a prime example of a strong, female leader.

Rachel (Graves) Sadowski
Last Role at the AJGA: Tournament Director
Years with the AJGA: 6
Current Role: Championship Director (U.S. Women's Amateur, Curtis Cup, U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball) at the United States Golf Association

Rachel Sadowski grew up playing golf across the pond in England. Although she was a competitive junior golfer, she did not know what the AJGA was at the time. Sadowski was recruited to play college golf at Coastal Carolina University, and even overlapped most of her college experience with AJGA alumnus, Dustin Johnson. She became acquainted with the AJGA after a recruiter went to a career fair at Coastal Carolina University. During her summer internship, Sadowski's team was regionalized in the Texas/South Central area. She valued the relationships that came with working at the AJGA, and seeing the same players and families. This allowed Sadowski to feel the impact that her team and the organization had on these juniors. Getting to know the juniors and parents, and sharing her experiences with them, was a relationship that Sadowski did not expect to have but is something she still cherishes.

The internship helped Sadowski to find a job path with her Sports Management degree. After her summer operations internship, Sadowski took on an in-house finance internship before ultimately starting a full-time position in the Operations department as a Tournament Coordinator.

You certainly take on a lot of responsibility very quickly. It's a transition. You go onsite at 22-years-old and you're technically the most senior person there. You're managing a staff of anywhere from eight to 13 people.
Rachel Sadowski

Sadowski enjoyed serving as a mentor to the interns once she assumed her full-time position. She also liked that the AJGA trains their employees to become experts, particularly when it comes to the rules of golf. Each year, the Operations department partakes in rules seminars and classes to prepare for the USGA rules test. Sadowski admitted that it took her a little longer to succeed, as it took her three tries to pass the exam. She missed passing the exam by one point after her second year, and she dealt with a lot of frustration, especially because of her background in golf. There was a lot of pressure at the time to pass the rules test quickly, but now after taking the exam for the past 12-13 years, Sadowski laughs about the memory.

You can't help but compare yourself to everyone else that was hired at the same time and doing the same job. But I saw my career as a marathon and not a sprint. I got it on that third year and that was fine. At the time I felt upset, but now that I look back at it, it didn't stunt my growth in the department at all.
Rachel Sadowski

One opportunity that the Operations department provides is the ability to be apart of a Rules Committee at a USGA event. Sadowski went to the U.S. Girls Junior for multiple years in a row. In 2013, she had the opportunity to meet Mark Hill, who at the time was the Senior Director of Championships at the USGA. Sadowski went up to him just to thank him for the opportunity to be there. A few months later, Mr. Hill reached out to Sadowski's boss about her and stated that he was very impressed by her introduction. After that, Sadowski received a role with the USGA that was too good to pass up.

At the USGA, Sadowski started by working as the Championship Director for the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur and U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Now, she serves as the Championship Director to the U.S. Women's Amateur, Curtis Cup and the Women's Four-Ball event. One of her favorite memories, was handing AJGA alumna, Gabi Ruffles, the U.S. Women's Amateur trophy in 2019.

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Sadowski, pictured third from the left, at the 2013 Wyndham Cup.

Another full circle moment for Sadowski was seeing AJGA alumnus, Colin Morikawa, at the 2019 U.S. Open scoring tent. Morikawa walked into the tent and immediately recognized Sadowski from the 2013 Wyndham Cup, where she served as the assistant captain to the West team.

Be true to yourself. Some women feel like if they are going into a male-dominated industry that they need to go in with a thicker shell. I really don't think you need to do that. I've always been pretty authentic, and I continue to build relationships.
Rachel Sadowski

One of Sadowski's biggest takeaways from her personal career path is to be open to exploring different areas and opportunities. Whether it is helping another department or volunteering for different events, these experiences allow someone to be more well-rounded. The more well-rounded you are, the more opportunities will open up. Sadowski's success can be largely attributed

Rogers and Sadowski both started their careers with the AJGA and left with lasting impressions. In their current roles, the work that they produce speaks volumes about the type of people they both are. The AJGA family is so lucky to have these two stellar, female role models.