STATE COLLEGE — State College native Jeb Boyle didn’t have far to roam from home to find his true love — golf. Boyle, who begins his 30th season as the head golf professional at Centre Hills Country Club,
had mentors right in his own backyard.
The Boyle family name is synonymous with the game of golf locally. The patriarch of the golfing clan was Joe Boyle, Jeb Boyle’s father, the legendary Penn State golf coach who died at age 87 in 2008.
Jeb Boyle is a 1980 Penn State grad. Following graduation, he became an assistant to Tom Hanna at Centre Hills. He then headed south to become an assistant at Rosemont Country Club in Orlando, Fla. He ventured back home in 1983 to become an assistant to Jim Masserio at Toftrees Golf Resort.
Two years later, the opportunity to become the head professional sent Boyle back to Rosemont for a couple of years. He returned again to Happy Valley as head PGA professional at Centre Hills.
“I’m a State College native, so it’s a natural to be here at Centre Hills,” said Boyle. “It’s been a quick and great 30 years for me here at the club, and, hopefully, for the members as well.”
Besides the obvious mentoring from his father on the finer points of the game of golf, Boyle said others who influenced his passion included former Penn State coach Earl Boal, Jim Masserio and David Leadbetter, one of the leading golf instructors in the game.
“Earl Boal and I were real close,” said Boyle. “And I learned an awful lot from him, as well as working for Jim Masserio at Toftrees, and David Leadbetter.
‘The great thing about this game is you never stop learning. I love being around the game and getting to know people and develop relationships.”
But, as in every profession, there is always the minus that brings on a little gray sky in an otherwise sunny day on the golf course.
“The downside is the huge time constraint,” said Boyle. “For me, it’s only part of the year, but it’s all time consuming. That’s six days a week, 10 to 12 hour days, but still really enjoyable.”
Once the golfing season is over in the Centre region, Boyle heads south for a little competitive golf. The PGA sponsors several tournaments for club professionals and Boyle made it through the two-stage process of the Ace Classic in Naples, Fla., this winter by qualifying in a nine-hole prequalifer and an 18-hole qualifier. He’s also been fortunate to play with PGA tour members Bobby Clampett and Jim Nelford in two rounds of a PGA event.
As he celebrates his 30th anniversary at head golf professional at Centre Hills and his 37th year in the golfing business, Boyle has no plans for retirement any time soon.
“I still enjoy working,” said Boyle. “I’ve never really thought of doing anything else in the future, so I guess I’ll just have to see what happens.”
LINKS TO HISTORY
Boyle’s father began his Penn State life in 1941 when he enrolled as a freshman. After his first year, he left Happy Valley to serve in the Navy during World War II. He then returned to Penn State in 1946, where he began playing on the golf team. A true link to the very beginning of Penn State golf, Joseph Boyle was the captain of Penn State’s 1949 team, which was led by the Nittany Lions first coach, Robert ‘Pop’ Rutherford.
From 1946 to 1949, Joe Boyle competed on the men’s golf team and played on Penn State’s 1948 Eastern Intercollegiate Championship team, the first non-Ivy League team to claim the title.
The elder Boyle graduated from Penn State in 1949 and chose to remain in Happy Valley to serve as assistant coach to the men’s golf team under Rutherford’s son Robert Jr. He remained assistant coach until 1957, when he took full responsibility as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
Joe Boyle guided the Nittany Lions for 25 seasons, leading Penn State to seven Eastern Intercollegiate Championships (1963, ’64, ’66, ’67, ’71, ’72, ’73), two Big Four Championships (1971 and ’72) and a 197-38-1 record in dual meet competition.
Jeb Boyle said his father was a big influence on him and his brothers when it came to the game of golf, but mom is due credit, too.
“Obviously, our father was a big influence in our lives both on and off the golf course. But our mother, Dolly, was the family anchor, having to put up with three sons who played sports and a father that was a golf coach. We are what we are because of her.”
Boyle’s brother Jim is the PGA professional at Cadillac Country Club in Cadillac, Mich. Brother Mike, president of Brooks Courier in Wilmington, Del., is a member at the DuPont Country Club, where he won the Dupont Open in 2015 and in the last 10 months has recorded three aces.
