James Ondo grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three boys and a good athlete who participated mostly in baseball, hockey and wrestling. He frequently played just about every sport imaginable – except golf.
“The first time I touched a golf club wasn’t until I was 14 when I went to a local course with my dad and brothers,” say Ondo, PGA, Head Golf Professional at The Apawamis Club in Rye, New York, and the 2025 PGA of America Merchandiser of the Year for private facilities.
“I will never forget that day. The sun was shining perfectly, the grass was beautifully manicured. If you had asked me then, I would have said it was Augusta National, when, in reality, it was just a local public course in western Pennsylvania. I think I shot 122, but I fell in love with the game.”
Ondo started playing golf whenever possible and decided to write a letter to the Head Professional at a local course explaining his interest and asking if there was any way he could play there.
“He invited me to have lunch and play nine holes, and at the end of the afternoon offered me a special junior membership for $40 a month,” Ondo explains. “That opportunity changed the trajectory of my life. I was there every day.”
He soon started caddying at Oakmont Country Club and at age 16, qualified for the Pennsylvania State Open. In 2001, Ondo enrolled in the PGA Golf Management University Program at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He did internships at St. Clair Country Club in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, TPC at Jasna Polana in Princeton, New Jersey, and Pebble Beach in California before graduating in 2004 and landing his first job at The Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, Florida.
The following summer, Ondo took a position at Grandfather Golf & Country Club in Linville, North Carolina, eventually becoming the First Assistant under John Buczek, a national 2025 Merchandiser of the Year. After earning PGA Membership in 2006, Ondo followed Buczek to Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, as the First Assistant and Golf Shop Manager.
“John taught me the nuts and bolts of running a great golf operation,” he says. “I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in, owning a golf shop and winning a Merchandiser of the Year Award 20 years later, without the knowledge I gained from John.”
After Buczek retired in 2010, Ondo worked the next three-plus years for Mike Gilmore, who he calls “the most incredible people person I have ever met. He taught me the soft skills of the business, and we’re still incredibly close today.” In the fall of 2012, the job at The Apawamis Club opened, and Ondo was immediately interested. Shortly after he had arrived in New York during the winter of 2006-07, when Winged Foot was closed for maintenance following the previous year’s U.S. Open and he was looking for a place to play, Apawamis was the first name that came up in the directory.
“I called the pro there, Jack Perkins, and he said, ‘Sure, come on over,’” Ondo recalls. “I thought, what an awesome spot; it would be so cool to be here someday and, lo and behold, seven years later I was selected as their Head Professional.”
At age 29, he was one of the younger Head Professionals in the Metropolitan Section but received an immediate vote of confidence from the Apawamis Board, Golf Committee and Golf Chair Matt Casey, who tasked Ondo to completely renovate the golf shop and reshape the operation as a whole, hiring and training a whole new staff.
“They gave me and our team a blank canvas, a clean start on what I wanted the operation and merchandising concession to be, and also the experience we were going to provide the membership,” he says. “When the new golf shop opened right before Opening Day in 2013, the membership loved it and has supported us every day since.”
The golf shop exudes the traditional feel of Apawamis, which was founded in 1890 and is one of the six oldest private clubs in the country. Its cherry wood displays are decorated with the many antiques Ondo has collected over the years, including a working Singer Treadle sewing machine from the early 1900s. There are also pieces of the club’s heritage – old paintings and documents Ondo found in the archives when he arrived – showcasing Apawamis’ rich history.
The brand selection reflects the upscale nature of the club and includes Peter Millar, johnnie-O, Greyson, Polo, Holderness & Bourne, B. Draddy, IBKUL, Straight Down and Zero Restriction. But Ondo’s merchandising philosophy revolves less around selling product than spending time with his membership, as he plays dozens of rounds with members at Apawamis each year and travels six or seven weeks with them annually.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love having a successful business, but that’s just a byproduct of loving the game and loving my role as a PGA Golf Professional,” he says. “I love to play, compete, teach, tee it up with my staff and learn more each year about the 600 families here with golf privileges.
“Apawamis has allowed me to be myself and see the shared benefits that result from just loving golf.”
Ondo attributes his success at Apawamis to the life principles he learned from his parents, such as the value of working hard every day, treating people right, having integrity and the importance of family. And in a world where the experts say to be successful you have to learn how to say no, he has always taken the opposite approach.
“When I was a young assistant and someone would ask if I wanted to caddie on my day off, I’d say, ‘Yes.’ Or did I want to go with members to Florida in the off-season? ‘Yes.’ Do you want to serve on a Section committee or board? ‘Yes.’ Do you want to go to dinner with a vendor rep or fellow professional? ‘Yes,’” he says.
“It’s harder now with a young family, but for 20 years I said yes to everything. This allowed me to build relationships and gain experience at an accelerated pace, all the while allowing me to have incredible life experiences along the way.”
