By Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
Golfers spend years trying to control the ball. Olivia Jatczak has learned something even more valuable: not letting where the ball goes control her. Whether she is playing well, recovering from an errant shot or competing in a playoff with a close friend, the 17-year-old rising senior at Cape Cod Academy makes a deliberate effort to smile, laugh and enjoy where the game has taken her.
Now, it’s taking her farther than ever.
Jatczak earned the opportunity to represent First Tee – Massachusetts in the PURE Insurance Championship from September 18-20, making her first trip to California to compete at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course. Prior to the event start, she will also participate in practice rounds at both courses, attend the Pairings Party, and play in a special event at The Hay, Pebble Beach’s renowned par-3 course.
“It’s Pebble Beach,” Jatczak said when asked about the excitement level. “It’s every golfer’s dream. I feel like it speaks for itself.”
The 54-hole event brings together 80 nationally-selected First Tee juniors, 80 PGA TOUR Champions professionals and 160 amateurs. Jatczak will be the first participant representing First Tee – Massachusetts since Jared Winiarz in 2017. Winiarz now serves as Mass Golf’s Member Services Coordinator and has competed on the USGA stage as a standout mid-amateur.
For Jatczak, the opportunity represents everything she has come to enjoy about golf, whether it’s the constant pursuit of improvement, the places it can take her and the promise that every course might show her something new.
She will arrive wanting to play well but equally determined to enjoy everything around her. That balance has come to define Jatczak’s approach to the game. During a round with First Tee participants and leadership on Monday at Franklin Park, one shot found a bunker and the next found another, yet her friendly disposition never wavered.
“She goes out of her way to be happy on the golf course,” said Kyle Harris, Director of Operations for First Tee – Massachusetts. “Whether she’s playing well or playing poorly, you would never know the difference. She’s always smiling, joking and laughing.”
Growing up in the Barnstable village of Marstons Mills, her journey began in 2019, almost entirely by chance. First Tee appeared in a recreation pamphlet that came home from school, and Jatczak, then a fourth-grader with no clubs or experience, decided to see what would happen. During one of her first sessions at Hyannis Golf Course, coach Dave Donnellan offered some advice before she swung an 8-iron. Jatczak struck it cleanly and watched the ball land safely on the 5th hole.
“That is the moment I thought, ‘This is for me,'” Jatczak said. “I remember so well the feeling of a good shot.”
She soon received a green U.S. Kids Golf set that made her feel “like a professional golfer.” Those clubs now reside in the storage shed at Hyannis, but they opened the door to PGA Jr. League, the Cape Cod Junior Golf Association and a growing appetite for competition. She has since competed in the Massachusetts Girls’ Junior Amateur and Massachusetts Women’s Amateur, advancing to match play in the 2025 Girls’ Junior.
She also works at Holly Ridge Golf Club in Sandwich, surrounding herself with the game even when she is not playing.
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Her development has extended well beyond tournament results. Jatczak is part of the ACE program, the highest designation offered by First Tee, and was selected for Pebble Beach after submitting an application detailing her academics, community service and golf résumé.
“Above all else, Olivia is a leader,” said Donnellan, her longtime First Tee coach. “She can bring a group together, she’s a great peer teacher and she’s amazing with the younger kids. She’s always smiling and always looking to improve. I couldn’t be happier or prouder of someone more deserving.”
The whole chapter saw her leadership on display during last year’s First Tee – Massachusetts Chapter Championship. Jatczak, the runner-up for the second consecutive year, opened a playoff against her close friend Jenna Saini with an errant tee shot. Rather than react in frustration, she laughed with her friend and recovered to save par. Saini won on the second playoff hole, and Jatczak was the first to congratulate her.
“She did it with a giant smile,” Harris said. “It showed incredible mental toughness and resilience to bounce back from that first shot in the playoff. Then she demonstrated humility and grace despite not reaching her goal of winning. Olivia is very impressive, and she is a great example of how First Tee kids conduct themselves on and off the course.”
First Tee has already taken Jatczak far beyond Cape Cod. For the past two years, she has represented her chapter at the Chubb Classic First Tee Champions Challenge in Naples, Florida. During one trip, she attended a clinic led by New England’s own Brett Quigley and later spoke with him about the struggle of developing into a pro despite winter conditions that aren’t conducive to the game.
Whoever joins her group will meet a player with an ever-present positive attitude coupled that also comes with a precise set-up. Jatczak carries one tee in her left pocket for non-driver shots and another in her right exclusively for the driver. Her ball marker stays on the right and her pencil on the left.
While this superstitious routine will travel out west, she expects to make lifetime memories at one of the most iconic places in the world of golf.
“I’m sure Pebble is going to throw some things at me that I don’t expect,” she said. “You have to expect the unexpected with it.”
In 2003, Mass Golf was selected by First Tee to join its national network with the goal of bringing an affordable junior golf program to youth and communities that did not have them.
Since that time, Mass Golf has introduced 11 program locations: Cyprian Keyes Golf Club (Boylston), D.W. Field Golf Course (Brockton), William J. Devine GC at Franklin Park (Boston), Hyannis Golf Course (Cape Cod), Cranberry Valley Golf Course (Harwich), Fenway Golf Center (Springfield), KOHR Golf (Natick), Sagamore Spring Golf Club (Lynnfield), The Links at Mass Golf (Norton), The Ranch Golf Club (Southwick), and The Reggie Lewis Center (Roxbury).
As part of the curriculum, the children progress through a series of golf lessons where they are introduced to the different aspects of a golf course, including the green, tee, fairway, rough, bunkers, and water hazards. The participants are also introduced to the basic elements of the game of golf and the swing, including distance and accuracy control, course management, how to score, pace of play, honor, and proper grip, stance, and posture. As participants grow and improve their golf skills, they will meet new challenges and potentially earn opportunities to play and compete on the local or national level.
In addition to golf, participants are introduced to the First Tee Program, a curriculum of age-appropriate life skills that is interwoven into our golf lessons. Participants develop resilience, grit, and integrity as they experience lessons that fall into one of our five Key Commitment categories: Pursuing Goals, Growing through Challenge, Collaborating with Others, Building Positive Self-Identity, and Using Good Judgment.
Mass Golf is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing golf in Massachusetts by building an engaged and inclusive community.
With a community made up of over 145,000 golf enthusiasts and over 360 member clubs, Mass Golf is one of the largest state golf associations in the country. Members enjoy the benefits of handicapping, engaging golf content, course rating and scoring services along with the opportunity to compete in an array of events for golfers of all ages and abilities.
At the forefront of junior development, Mass Golf is proud to offer programming to youth in the state through First Tee Massachusetts and subsidized rounds of golf by way of Youth on Course.
