Photo: Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal
By Kim Constantinesco
U.S. Army Major Timothy Jenkins has made a life out of giving.
With 17 years in the military, he has put the country on his shoulders to the tune of three overseas deployments. It should come as no surprise, then, that four years ago, Jenkins decided to put the PGA TOUR on his shoulders, rucksack-style, too.
The PGA TOUR is powered by its selfless volunteers, who enable each tournament to generate millions of dollars for their respective charities.
Jenkins is one of those committed volunteers. The 37-year-old from Avon, Ohio has served on-site as part of the mobile device team at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron for the last four years. However, in August of 2015, he learned that he would be deployed to Kuwait.
His stint overseas threatened to end his PGA TOUR volunteer streak. His goal of earning a five-year volunteer pin? Squashed. Then he discovered a way to continue his run, by serving as a volunteer recruiter from Kuwait, fulling his duties using email, texts, and social media.
“Being in the military is one of those things where you have to give up your own personal needs and put the needs of the organization first,” Jenkins told us. “Being a part of the Bridgestone family has allowed me to carry that same core value over to my personal life. It’s an opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself.”
In addition to recruiting volunteers, Jenkins has been participating in the PGA TOUR Volunteer Challenge, a “vote for me” contest, formed to raise money for charity while recognizing the talent, passion, and commitment of the TOUR’s more than 100,000 tournament volunteers across the country.
His service doesn’t stop there. In the past, he has been part of Birdies for the Brave, a national military outreach initiative, which honors and celebrates the courageous members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families.
A Tee Box into Volunteering
Jenkins serves as the senior intelligence officer for Area Support Group (ASG) – Kuwait, where he is responsible for providing intelligence analysis related to enemy capabilities and intentions that affect operations and force protection for all Department of Defense personnel in Kuwait.
He’ll return home in early July for about 30 days before leaving his wife and four children behind again to work a full year for NATO Allied Land Command in Izmir, Turkey.
The predictability of his lifestyle lies in its unpredictability, much like the game of golf.
Jenkins knows the sport well. He learned how to play from his older brother about 16 years ago, while he was still in college. When in the U.S., he plays once or twice a week.
Photo: World Golf Championships
“After years of playing, I turned into a huge golf fan and so that’s how I kind of got involved in the PGA, starting with the volunteerism there,” Jenkins said. “I’ve always enjoyed being outside and being on the golf courses.”
In 2012, the Army transferred him from California to Cleveland. New to the area, he started looking for things to do when he saw that there was a golf tournament coming to Akron.
I said, ‘I’m going to look into getting some tickets so I can go and watch some golf.’ As I’m trolling around on the website, there were advertisements for volunteering,” Jenkins said. “I thought, I’m not going to pay $75 to be a volunteer. They should be paying me. I got to thinking, and decided maybe it would give me a chance to get close to the stars of the game; an opportunity to get closer to the game as a fan.”
Jenkins was originally scheduled to be a marshal, the person responsible for telling the crowd behind the ropes to be quiet while players are hitting. However, when he went to his first meeting, he met the head of the security committee.
“He thought I would be great on the new cell phone committee they had, called ‘mobile device,'” Jenkins said. “My job was to go around a police people who were misusing their cellphones. I really enjoyed it and was pretty good at it.”
What started as a “selfish” act, turned into a real desire to make his community a better place.
“In the Army, we have what we call ‘Core Values.’ One of our seven core values is selfless service,” Jenkins said. “This is a way for me to put the needs of the community before my own. I have a sense of a call of duty; to serve my country and my community. It’s just congruent with the way I live my professional life in the Army.”
Military Support from Abroad
Jenkins has all kinds of fun stories from being a PGA TOUR volunteer, but one of his favorite is the time he met Rory McIlroy’s father, Gerry.
During his second year as a volunteer, Jenkins was following McIlroy on the course when an apparent run-of-the-mill fan saw his airborne pin clipped to his hat, and struck up a conversation.
“I had no idea who he was. He had a foreign accident,” Jenkins said of Gerry. “He started up a conversation about my career, and was very interested. He appeared to be very genuinely supportive. He spoke very highly about the military from his country. He spoke very highly about the military from our country. He was just very thankful and appreciative.”
That’s when Jenkins felt the need to give this stranger one of his challenge coins. All leaders in the military have special coins that are used to reward someone on the spot for doing something good. After Jenkins left his company commander position, he had about 50 coins left, so he continually carries one around in case he wants to reward someone for excellence.
Photo: Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal
“I felt the urge to give a coin to this guy. He never said who he was,” Jenkins said. “Two days later, I was walking by and he saw me and he still had my coin. He introduced me to someone who he was with. I never put two and two together until after the tournament when one of my buddies told me it was Gerry McIlroy. The following year, I ran into him and he remembered me. It was just a pleasant exchange between two strangers that made a connection.”
Sand Play
Golf holds its own special place in the military. Jenkins has several people with whom he serves with who are just as passionate about the sport as he is.
“Once a month right now, we’ve been putting together trips to go into Kuwait city on Sundays, and play a round of golf,” he said. “It’s a great way to get away from the daily grind here.”
Aside from getting good “bunker practice” in the Kuwait sand, on Monday mornings, Jenkins and his golf friends gather around the newspapers and talk about how Sergio held steady to claim Sunday, or how Jordan “finally” won again.
“We use that as an opportunity to connect with each other and see what we have in common,” Jenkins said.
Golf, a sport in which discipline is required to be successful, resonates with servicemen and servicewomen for a reason.
“Golf is one of those things where if you’re not continually practicing and trying to improve, just like in the military in always looking for that next job; that next opportunity, you’re not going to be successful,” Jenkins said. “If you’re standing still, you’re going to get left behind.”
Wise words from a volunteer always on the move.
