River Club golf pro earns LPGA honor

RIVER CLUB — Jane Read isn’t comfortable in the spotlight.

Even after playing competitively at golf’s highest level, the Sarasota resident and River Club teaching professional is content letting others shine in the spotlight. After all, those moments will only be ingrained in people’s minds for so long.

For Read, it’s not about the recognition. It’s about what you do for the people around you. It’s about the game to which you have given 46 years of work.

So when Read learned she had been nominated for the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Hall of Fame two years ago and was asked to write about her contributions to the LPGA and the golf industry, she was at a loss for words.

“It’s hard to write about yourself,” Read said. “It’s very difficult. The selection committee was mainly CEOs of the industry, so it’s not a personality contest. It’s a who-is-qualified contest.”

On Nov. 14, Read was honored for those contributions, as one of four members inducted into the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Hall of Fame during a banquet at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando.

Read was nominated for the honor by six of her peers in 2009. Following an intense, yearlong paperwork process, Read received a letter in the mail informing her of her nomination.

“It was overwhelming,” Read said. “When I got the nomination it was like, ‘Oh, really? OK.’ It’s all about the moment.”

A native of Ohio, Read moved to Florida and began playing golf when she was 11 years old after her parents bought a house on a nine-hole golf course. Read’s parents were avid golfers, and it didn’t take long for her to follow.

“Before I knew it, I was out there, too,” Read said. “Golf is my passion — even when I was doing other sports. The thing that’s so wonderful about golf is that it teaches you so much of today’s values. It’s an honor game.”

After winning the Florida State Junior Tournament, Read earned a scholarship to Rollins College, where she became the first woman to earn five varsity letters during her freshman year. In addition to golf, Read lettered in softball, basketball, swimming and volleyball.

Read left Rollins College and moved to the Northeast, where she spent two years playing as an amateur before joining the LPGA in January 1965.

During the next two years, Read taught 24 lessons a day and had every intention of moving to Pittsburgh, where another job was waiting for her — until she played a series of tournaments in Florida.

Read finished in the top 70% and was handed a tours division players card. After her parents’ friend offered to sponsor her, Read played on tour from 1968-1969. During that year, Read also volunteered to chair the LPGA teaching division, developing the division’s first testing and educational programs that would help keep teaching methodology more consistent.

Read left the tour in November 1969 after marrying her husband, Todd, and decided to start a family. After one year, she resumed her duties with the teaching division. During the next three years, Read wrote new tests and developed long-range plans to establish five geographic sections.

“That was the start of it,” Read said. “We started with less than 50 members, and now, we have 1,400-plus. It made my heart swell, because my hope was to some day see all three (factions) come together. The LPGA teaching division teaches teachers how to teach, and of that, I’m very proud.”

Today, Read teaches part-time five days a week at the River Club.

“I enjoy watching the success of the student and seeing the light bulbs go on,” Read said. “It’s very gratifying and fulfilling.”

When she’s not teaching, Read enjoys swimming and spending time with her husband, two children and four grandchildren.

“My biggest joy is being with my grandchildren,” Read said. “They’re the joy of my life.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].