Rhode Island mid-amateur great Bobby Leopold has learned most of golf’s indispensable lessons in his standout amateur career. Now the 38-year-old mid-am is imparting that wisdom on the golf team at Bishop Hendricken High School, a small all-boys Catholic school in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Leopold unexpectedly became the team’s head coach during a sudden series of events. He is a frequent golf partner of Rick Angeli, the squad’s former coach who had invited Leopold to be an assistant last year. Leopold thought he had sound advice to offer and coaching had always interested him, so it was a nice starting point to learn from an experienced leader.
And then Angeli left to be the assistant golf coach at nearby Bryant University, a Division I job he couldn’t refuse. Angeli, who had been the high school’s golf coach for 10 years, asked Leopold if he would replace him.
“I didn't expect him to step down,” Leopold told Global Golf Post. “I was hoping for a couple more years of being an assistant, but it was kind of like, ‘all right, you are getting thrown right into the fire,’ kind of thing.”
While Leopold’s coaching experience is limited, few Rhode Island amateurs have accomplished more in competition. And many of the experiences he had in his youth could be valuable for teenagers hoping to play the game at a high level.
Leopold was born in Albany, New York, and grew up in Surrey, England – his English accent varies in thickness when he talks – before returning to the states to play at Division II Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He graduated from Rollins in 2007 and then moved to the Northeast, where he earned a master’s in finance at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Leopold played for the Falcons’ golf team, also a Division II program, and was the 2007 NorthEast-10 Conference player of the year.
He contemplated turning pro but never went through with it, instead starting a career in the insurance business that has spanned 12 years. In the meantime, Leopold cemented himself as a Rhode Island amateur golf stalwart. He has won three Rhode Island Amateur titles, four state mid-am championships and a New England Amateur and also reached match play in the U.S. Amateur three times. In 2011, he knocked off eventual Ryder Cupper Harris English on the way to the round of 16. A year later, he reached the sweet 16 once again.
More recently, Leopold has been embedding himself on the national mid-am stage. He finished runner-up in the Gasparilla Invitational a year ago and earned an invite to the Coleman Invitational at Seminole Golf Club last year (and again this year). Last weekend, he competed in the Terra Cotta Invitational, a tournament full of mostly college kids, for a sixth time.
But at this point in his life, Leopold wants to do more than compete. He remembers when he was a teenager with a handicap north of 25 – Leopold didn’t get serious about golf until late in his childhood, opting for cricket instead – so he feels uniquely qualified to coach wide-eyed high-schoolers.
“I was playing cricket until I was 15, 16 years old,” Leopold said. “And I was playing golf for fun at the time. But you know, these kids that are that age, I told them that if they want to get better, you can do that. Between the ages of 13 and 18, I went from (a 25 handicap) to scratch. It just depends on what your commitment level is and where you want to go with it.”
It’s a truncated golf season, one that starts in late March, if the weather cooperates, and ends in June when the school year finishes. The kids don’t have the luxury of hitting balls every day throughout the year, like Leopold did growing up in England, so a lot of improvement occurs on the course rather than on the range. Leopold is trying to get them to understand the finer nuances of the game, such as using proper course management to turn a double bogey into a bogey. The kids are fully aware of his expertise and often try hard to impress him because of that, Leopold said, but he preaches patience and following your own golf journey.
“I keep trying to reiterate to them that they need one shot that they can lean on at all points in time,” Leopold said. “When things go bad, they can rely on that one shot to kind of get it around as best they can.”
A couple of seniors on the team are scratch players, and there are others with low-single-digit handicaps. The Hawks finished second in the state championship last year and are hopeful to win this season under Leopold’s leadership.
Leopold still plays a fair amount of competitive golf, but it’s the ultimate mid-am mindset to get the most out of your performance despite managing a ton of responsibilities.
Anyone who has played high school golf knows that the term “coach” has a wide array of meanings. Oftentimes, the golf coach is an academic-focused teacher taking on extra responsibilities. Some are knowledgeable in golf, but some may not even know the basic rules of the game.
Leopold is an outlier, taking a more hands-on approach as he tries to figure out whether future roles in college coaching could be a possibility down the road.
“I'm trying to find whether that's a good approach or not because I was speaking to someone the other day who was like, ‘Oh, so you actually coach them instead of standing around waiting for the kids to finish?’ ” Leopold said. “I just try to help them with certain shots, and if they have any questions, I'm happy to answer anything they have.
“If I enjoy it and the kids enjoy having me, then, you know, it's one of the things down the road when I get older, it could happen. If I was to do it, I would want to do it somewhere warmer with a longer season.”
Mid-amateurs are known for time constraints, and Leopold is the definition of busy. He has three boys, ages 4, 7 and 10. A part of him is hoping that his kids will get interested in golf because of his high school coaching. So far, they aren’t biting, but Leopold himself wasn’t interested in golf at that age, either.
In addition to his own golf schedule, family and his insurance work, Leopold also recently helped launch a premium hard-seltzer brand called Good Dogg. The drink is available in a handful of states, and a part of the profits go toward animal shelters and to companies that provide service animals for children with rare diseases. He and his wife, Taylor, are among the co-owners in the business.
“So I have like a million things going on,” Leopold said. “We had a meeting with Winn-Dixie on Tuesday trying to get (Good Dogg) into Florida. And then I got high school golf and then I got Terra Cotta and then I got my insurance side of things. I’m just trying to juggle it all.”
It doesn’t leave much time for practicing golf. Leopold still plays a fair amount of competitive golf, but it’s the ultimate mid-am mindset to get the most out of your performance despite managing a ton of responsibilities.
“I vividly remember playing with Tim Jackson in the Terra Cotta a long time ago, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘At what age are you old enough where your swing doesn’t change anymore?’ ” Leopold said. “I feel like now that I’m 38, my swing is kind of the same thing every time. I’m in that spot where it’s so predictable, it’s like riding a bike.”
It took a lot of work to reach that point. That is one of the many lessons golf has taught Bobby Leopold.
Now it’s time to pay those lessons forward.
E-MAIL SEAN