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Blanton Tessin, Director of Golf at the Timuquana Country Club, was recently on the On The Green Podcast to share his golf career journey as well as some exciting tournament news. Below, we go over some of our favorite highlights from our conversation with Blanton, but listen to episode 15 of the podcast to get the full story of Blanton’s humble beginnings and all of the wonderful things Timuquana Country Club has in store.
Blanton knew for as long as he could remember that he wanted to work in the golf industry, and he would take whatever route he could to get there. His first golf job was at Francis Lake Golf Club washing carts. It wasn’t glamorous, but as we see many times in the golf industry, one small opportunity often leads to something bigger. He then moved his way up into becoming a caddy, and then into operations, and eventually into his current Director of Golf position.
Since he’s originally from the Jacksonville area, coming back to Jacksonville to work at Timuquana Country Club felt like a homecoming for Blanton. Timuquana is known as one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the Jacksonville area, and Blanton credits the course’s rich, golf-centric tradition as the reasons why he was excited to come back. “The people at Timuquana Country Club have a deep appreciation for the game of golf,” he said.
If you’ve ever been to Timuquana Country Club, you can see that Blanton’s words are true: The course feels and looks incredibly well-loved. Timuquana Country Club is an old classic Donald Ross golf course that has tree-lined fairways and smaller greens. Although there aren’t many stressful tee shots, the course still finds ways to challenge golfers in every aspect of the game.
Timuquana Country Club is home to an exciting and interesting tournament called the Underwood Cup, a unique event that pits local PGA of America professionals against local golf amateurs. This event has been going on since 1992, making it one of the longest running events at Timuquana Country Club.
You may be surprised to learn that over the past few years, the amateurs actually hold the lead over the PGA professionals! Blanton says this might be because there’s a great amount of amateur talent in the Jacksonville area. “They’re tough and young,” said Blanton. “As golf pros, we’ve got to work harder!” The next Underwood Cup is happening this February, so the pros better get to work!
Blanton has been working on some other exciting tournaments for Timuquana, including bringing the Constellation Furyk and Friends event to the club as part of PGA Tour Champions in 2021. Listen to the full podcast episode above to get all the details!