JACKSONVILLE (Florida Sports Wire) – The Jacksonville Area Golf Association announced its 2024 JAGA Award winners at the organization’s end-of-year Annual Meeting at Deerwood Country Club.
The honorees are:
Club Executive of the Year – Tony Street, Jax Beach Golf Club
Community Service Award – Susie Fonde, First Coast Women’s Amateur Championship
Director Emeritus – Fred Seely, Timuquana Country Club
Earl & Eleanor Kelly Long-Term Service Award – Duke Butler III, TPC Sawgrass
JAGA Director of the Year – Gregg Deiboldt, Sawgrass Country Club
Professional of the Year – Dean Grunewald, The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach
Superintendent of the Year – Alan Brown, Timuquana Country Club
CLUB EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Tony Street, Jax Beach Golf Club, Head Golf Professional
Presenter: John Milton, JAGA Past President and JAGA Director, Jax Beach Golf Club
From the first day of his arrival Tony Street embraced Jax Beach Golf Club’s ethos of providing a fun, welcoming golf experience for all. First-time players and touring professionals alike have come to enjoy the Jax Beach vibe. When not overseeing a tee sheet which saw some 65,000 rounds in 2024, Tony has ensured players have great course conditions, a welcoming staff and a well-stocked pro shop reflecting the Jax Beach ‘Muni’ feel. Importantly, Tony has provided access throughout the year to numerous events and groups including Brooks Rehabilitation, the North Florida Junior Golf Tour’s First Coast Junior Amateur, Florida State Golf Association tournaments, a Furyk and Friends Tournament pre-qualifier, the Jax Beach High School Varsity Invitational, high school regional and sectional tournaments, the JAGA Kids-Am, the JAGA Family Championship, the First Tee Learning Center (new instructional building), as well as hosting four sessions of PGA Hope this year. Jacksonville Beach GC is truly a model club for the PGA of America’s mission to grow the game. Tony Street and his team are drivers of that mission.
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Susie Fonde, Committee Member, First Coast Women’s Amateur Championship and Member, Jacksonville Golf and Country Club
Presenter: Cary Helton, JAGA President and JAGA Director – San Jose Country Club
No stranger to the local Jacksonville golf community, Susie Fonde grew up in Jacksonville and is the daughter of the late lifetime PGA of America member Buster Reed. Her playing titles are numerous and include winning the inaugural First Coast Women’s Amateur and two subsequent titles, in addition to five Jacksonville Women’s Golf Championships over the span of four decades. Susie has also been a winner in the world of giving back to the game. The Jacksonville Golf and Country Club member has served on the board of the Florida State Women’s’ Golf Association, and though discontinued in 2002, the First Coast Women’s Amateur was resurrected in 2013, largely due to her efforts and leadership. In 2015, she approached JAGA for assistance in running the FCWA, which resulted in JAGA providing promotional and administrative backing. She also secured a long-term sponsorship from Brooks Rehabilitation that remains in place today. As chairperson of the FCWA and with the support of JAGA, the event has become an elite tournament, beginning as a two-day event and evolving into its present three-day status that attracts a top field of both local amateurs, college golfers and seniors from around the state and outside of Florida, with World Amateur Golf Ranking points available. Fonde has coached and mentored a number of young golfers in the Jacksonville area, and the First Coast Women’s Amateur donates to several local charities, including JAGA’s Scholarship Trust fund, the North Florida Junior Golf Foundation, and the Moore-Myers Children’s Fund.
DIRECTOR EMERITUS (Special Recognition Award)
Fred Seely, JAGA Past President and JAGA Director, Timuquana Country Club
Presenter: Cary Helton, JAGA President and JAGA Director – San Jose Country Club
Fred Seely is JAGA’s longest-serving member, having joined JAGA in 1979. He is a three-term president (1983, 2016 and 2017). His vast knowledge of and contacts within the Jacksonville-area community, its leaders and the golf scene have been instrumental in the growth JAGA has experienced during his 45-year tenure. Be it in a high-profile leadership role or his behind-the-scenes involvement, Seely’s contributions have been numerous and ongoing since his first year with JAGA. He was instrumental in the development of two very important JAGA signature events, the Underwood Cup and the Celebration of Golf Banquet presented by Circle K and has always been a leader when it comes to presenting new tournaments, fundraising and administrative ideas. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, his career positions in Northeast Florida included editor and sports editor of the Florida Times-Union and an executive role with the Daytona International Speedway Corporation.
EARL & ELEANOR KELLY LONG-TERM SERVICE AWARD
Duke Butler III, JAGA Director, TPC Sawgrass and Life Member, PGA of America
Presenter: Fred Seely, Past JAGA President and JAGA Director, Timuquana Country Club
Duke Butler III has dedicated his life to playing, promoting, teaching and officiating what he likes to refer to as “the greatest game” through his affiliations with the PGA TOUR, PGA of America, Houston Golf Association, JAGA, junior golf, Moore-Myers Children’s Fund, and numerous other charities and organizations. Having grown up in College Station, Texas and relocated to Northeast Florida to join the PGA TOUR headquarters staff in the early 1990s, Butler has never stopped spreading his love and knowledge for the game. He’s received numerous accolades, which include being a Life Member of the PGA of America, a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Texas A&M Lifetime Achievement Award. At JAGA’s season-ending Annual Meeting on Dec. 10 at Deerwood CC, he was elected president of JAGA for 2025, making him the first PGA of America member to hold the office.
JAGA DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Gregg Deiboldt, JAGA Director, Sawgrass Country Club
Presenter: Jeff Johnstone, JAGA Director – Sawgrass Country Club
Gregg Deiboldt has been a JAGA member since 2014 and active in every aspect of the organization. He embodies the spirit of JAGA’s mission and has been a key player in developing tournament schedules, recruiting and organizing clubs and volunteers, and directing all facets of its major championships as well as one-day tournaments. In 2022, he was co-VP of Tournaments, and, in 2024, been instrumental in deploying JAGA’s new Golf Genius tournament management platform that helps the organization run its tournaments and events. Deiboldt is an active member at Sawgrass Country Club and is currently on the Greens Committee. He has also played a key role in ensuring the JAGA Scholarship Trust program remains a priority for the club. His commitment to golf has carried throughout the state of Florida. For ten years, he served as the Florida State Golf Association’s Course Rating Captain for the greater Jacksonville area as well as Tournament Director for the FSGA’s one-day tournaments in the area. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Deiboldt is an accomplished golfer, a retired British Airways pilot, and when not involved in golf, can be seen cruising the St. Johns River in his speedboat, enjoying music or sharing his fine wine collection with fellow golfers and friends. Gregg and his wife Laura have resided in Jacksonville since 1999.
PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR
Dean Grunewald, Director of Golf, The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach
Presenter: Ron Smith, JAGA Director – The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach
Dean Grunewald joined The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach in February 2023 as Director of Golf, continuing a career of accomplishment and achievement in the Northeast Florida golf community, which has been marked by many personal relationships and fostering positive golf experiences for golfers of all ages and abilities. Grunewald’s 30-plus year career started in 1993 at Timuquana Country Club, and was followed by stops at The Ravines Golf Club in Middleburg, Long Point at the Amelia Island Club and Eagle Harbor Golf Club. Throughout his career, Dean has been a strong JAGA supporter, and in 2024, The Plantation hosted the JAGA Fall Four-Ball Tournament and the First Coast Women’s Amateur along with a U.S. Open qualifier. Dean graduated from Mississippi State University’s Professional Golf Management Program.
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE YEAR
Alan Brown, Director of Course and Grounds, Timuquana Country Club
Presenter: Cary Helton, JAGA President and JAGA Director – San Jose Country Club
Alan Brown graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design, with a concentration in Turfgrass Management. He initiated his career in south Florida as an assistant superintendent, making stops at several prominent clubs – Pine Tree, Seminole, Old Marsh and Lost Tree Village. His first head superintendent role was at The Floridian. He was also golf course manager at The Alotian Club. In 2020, he was named a top-five finalist for National Superintendent of the Year. Over the last ten years, his leadership and talents have been on full display for those who have played Timuquana Country Club or attended the PGA TOUR Champions event held there the last four years in October. Brown’s work is also familiar to anyone who has experienced the prestigious Underwood Cup, which the club hosted every year from its inception in 1992 through 2021 and again in 2024. Brown and Timuquana will host the JAGA Jacksonville Amateur Championship presented by Synovus for the first time in 2025.
The 2024 JAGA Awards Nominating Committee consisted of Cary Helton, Jeff Johnstone, Jim Loftin, John Milton, Fred Seely and Ryan Wharton.
