Johnny Miller is retired, and Bryson DeChambeau is no guarantee to contend. Still, if you watch a big tournament on TV these days you might just see a product of the storied Northern California Section of the PGA of America. He is by his own admission not that great a player, and he’s also 70 years old. He has such a sonorous voice that friends say he could have been in radio, and bears such a striking resemblance to former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh that it once fooled even his wife.
He is Ted “Teddy” Antonopoulos, Honorary Golf Professional at Mayacama Golf Club in Santa Rosa and Senior Vice Chairman of the PGA of America Rules Committee.
Part of a traveling band of experts on the Rules of Golf from the game’s five ruling bodies – PGA of America, USGA, PGA Tour, R&A, Augusta National – he will work some dozen events this year including three majors (missing only The Open) and the Ryder Cup. He’s also a tournament official for the NCGA.
“We never want to be seen on television,” Antonopoulos said in a phone interview, “but there are the odd events where you get caught on camera making a ruling. I’d really prefer to be on camera with my golf clubs and a golf ball but unfortunately that’s not happening.
“This is kind of the next best thing,” he added.
As retirement gigs go, Antonopoulos admits, this one is sweet. Guys tell him he has their dream job, and he agrees, even if he travels so much – he’ll also work the PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie, Florida; NCAA Championship at La Costa; U.S. Amateur Championship at Olympic Club; and Walker Cup at Cypress Point – that he and wife Susie joke that she’s a member of Parents Without Partners. (She is not.)
“I'm not going to say he’s busier,” she said, when asked to compare his old life as the 23-year head professional at Mayacama to his new one. “But it’s more time-consuming. This thing he’s doing right now is his dream. I don’t see how he does it, but he loves it so, and he can do back-to-back trips because it’s what he wants to do.”
Antonopoulos’ paternal grandfather was the first to come to America. He bought land amid a sizable Greek community in Augusta, Georgia, and returned home to fetch his wife. His son, George, would own a couple of restaurants and a shoe store, and have four kids, the last of whom was Teddy. He was dropped off each day at The Patch, the town’s famous municipal course that is undergoing a yearlong restoration.
Wanting to become a pro like his older brother Buddy, who worked at Medalist in Jupiter, Fla., Teddy succeeded and then some, crisscrossing the country to work at Carmel Valley Golf & Country Club (now The Quail Golf Club); TPC Sawgrass; TPC Eagle Trace; PGA National; Cypress Links (now Dye Preserve); and Fisher Island Club in Miami before Mayacama.
What he realized amid those adventures with Susie and, later, their daughter, Amber, was that he especially enjoyed handling rulings in a way that respected both the game and its players. Keen to have someone who knew the Rules to run club championships, the club supported Antonopoulos as he attended workshops.
“He just works at it constantly,” said Zach Makilan, Mayacama’s head golf professional. “He’s studying the Rules book before he goes to teach a class, which is the best way to learn. I wouldn’t say he’s an encyclopedia, but he knows what questions to ask to figure out intent and make players feel at ease in a potentially difficult situation.”
Ned Zachar, a Mayacama club champion who works in finance in New York and is president of the Metropolitan Golf Association, has gotten rulings from Antonopoulos over the years and noted the skill with which they were adjudicated.
“He shows up and asks, ‘How can I help?’” Zachar said. “He wants to know the situation instead of coming in hot and saying you’re supposed to do X, Y, or Z. That’s his EQ (Emotional Quotient), which is quite high. We’ve all run into that official who thinks he knows everything. Ted wants to protect the field but also get to the best possible outcome for the player.
“He’s got an incredible presence as a public speaker with his radio baritone voice,” Zachar continued. “He reminds me of Dave Marr Sr., in that he’s folksy, interesting, and is a huge historian. When he tells stories, everyone is listening.”
Wife Susie calls Antonopoulos, “the opposite of confrontational. He charms you into seeing where he’s coming from; it’s the Southern thing where he’s kind of slow and calm. People like him wherever we go. He’s very popular and beloved.”
Makilan gets emotional talking about how Antonopoulos was there for him when he unexpectedly lost his dad, Lloyd, at age 62 last November. “He’s been like a second father to me,” Makilan said.
Susie, who met Teddy at sea when the two were working for a cruise line in 1978, noted that when Antonopoulos worked last summer’s Olympics in Paris, spouses were not allowed, so he resolved to bring her back in October. “He called it a make-up trip,” she said.
That describes his retirement career, too. Antonopoulos, who played golf in high school (Augusta’s Richmond Academy) but not college (Middle Georgia College), wasn’t good enough to travel the world with his clubs. Officiating is another matter. He’s also on the USGA Rules Committee and next year will begin a two-year stint as Chairman of the PGA of America Rules Committee. After that, he may dial back his schedule, which sees him still working a few NCGA events when he’s not at golf’s most storied championships.
“I’m 2-under, 70 years old, which is hard for me to say,” he said. “I don’t feel like it. I still love to play and to try to figure it out. When I was the head pro my goal was to play 100 rounds a year and it’s still my goal. I’ll still get over 50; I’ve got about 20 already this year.
“I thought I’d retire when I shot my age,” he continued, “but at the rate I’m going I don’t want to keep working until I’m 80.”