Jack Burke will never forget his first official high school golf shot, with the words “Atta boy!” ringing in his ears.
It wasn’t as good as it sounds.
Burke had never golfed much before entering Nottingham. He had played baseball for HTRBA and Babe Ruth, but his links experience was basically hitting balls with his dad and grandfather.
Convinced he wouldn’t make the baseball team and realizing he enjoyed golf more, Burke went out for the Northstars. In the season opener at Nottingham’s home course of Springfield, a numbers issue forced Burke to be the first man to tee off, when it’s customary for the visitors to lead off.
“I didn’t realize I was hitting first until we got to the tee box,” Burke recalled. “I was already nervous, now I was double nervous because I had to tee off first.”
The 9th grader addressed the ball, took a majestic swing and aimed it right down the middle.
“I hit it 10 yards,” he said. “It went seven yards forward and three yards to the right. I just topped it.”
Burke then discovered how Orlando Arcia would make Bryce Harper feel two years later in the NLDS.
“Scott Kieffer was in the second group, he was one of the seniors I looked up to,” Burke said. “He just yelled, ‘Atta boy!’ and told me to keep on walking. He was pretty positive about it, and got in some good one-liners.”
Burke “hit it around” a couple more times and got an eight on his first-ever hole of organized golf. “Max was eight, so I maxed out,” he said.
It was an auspicious start, but the story got better. Burke finished with a 46 that day and followed with a 50 against West Windsor-Plainsboro North. By the end of his freshman season, he had lowered his 9-hole average to 45. He dropped to 40 as a sophomore, and finished at 37 each of the past two seasons.
As a sophomore, he qualified for the Central Jersey Group II sectional tournament, and the following year, he finished tied for second in sectionals and qualified for the Tournament of Champions.
Due to an unpopular rule change this season, Burke was unable to qualify for postseason. In the past, any individual at four-over or better qualified for sectionals. This year, the individuals came from the 24 teams that qualified, and a handful of individuals after that reached the ToC. Burke finished 10 spots from getting in.
“The whole season we’re asking them to reconsider,” Northstars coach Kyle Seeley said. “I’m talking to other coaches about this. No one knew what was going on. Some didn’t know the rules changed, other coaches knew the rules changed, but thought it was a different way. It was total confusion.”
Burke was obviously disappointed, but the fun-loving senior wasn’t going to stress over it.
“It was a little frustrating being that close and not qualifying,” he said. “It was tough but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Nonetheless, Burke can look back proudly on a career that took him from hacker to golfer with nothing more than hard work and determination.
“I played baseball, so at least I knew how to swing something when I started,” he said. “I probably picked up a club around eight years old and I’d go to the driving range or play a little mini golf, but nothing coursewise. I used to love baseball but a few things went wrong and I didn’t play anymore. I thought maybe I could have a career in golf.”
After a freshman season of growing pains, Jack “realized I could be really good and I just had to practice.”
He started going to Mercer Oaks after school and playing as much as possible. The summer after his sophomore year he was hired at the Oaks and had “all the amenities you get with that. It really just helped me practice more and take me to the next level. That was the main thing. I just practiced a lot. I wish I could tell you how much, I just know I’m there a lot. I’m Mr. Mercer.”
Seeley admires Burke’s work ethic.
“To say he’s obsessed with golf is an understatement,” the coach said. “He can’t get enough of it.”
Aside from high school golf, Burke also enjoyed success in small tournaments sponsored by the Mercer County public courses, and had a top-five finish on the New Jersey Junior PGA Tour, which features players from around the state.
“In the PGA tournament you play some nice courses,” he said. “I played good in some of them and bad in some of them. There wasn’t much breaking boundaries for me, but I’m doing it for the exposure, it’s fun.”
In assessing Burke’s game, Seeley noted that he has a strong short game, and on days he’s struggling with his woods or irons, “he can always fall back on his chipping and putting to get him out of trouble.”
“I feel like that foundation really allows him to grind it out on a tough day,” the coach continued. “When everything else is working, and he’s hitting fairways and hitting greens, he starts racking up the birdies because his putting is so good. He’s never gonna have that real blow-up round because of the short game.”
Nor will he have a blow-up hole because he lets a bad shot get to him.
“He shakes it off, he knows he’s good enough to recover and has a positive outlook no matter what’s going on,” Seeley said. “He can be going really bad or really well, he’s always locked in and mentally there.”
Burke has a unique mindset when it comes to shrugging off a bad shot.
“In my eyes, if you hit a bad shot the next one is gonna be more fun,” he said. “My best holes come from bad shots. It’s more impressive. I try not to get in my own head too much. But there’s definitely instances where I have.”
Such as?
“At the Mercer County Tournament this year I lost my mind a little bit,” he admitted. “The whole day was tough, I kind of forgot how to play golf for a while. And then I thought it doesn’t matter, I’m getting into my head too much and I’m being too hard on myself. I ended up having a really good time even though I played really bad.”
Good times are what Burke thrives on, not just for himself, but for others as well. He actually recruited his best friend, Henry Angelucci, to come out for the team along with several others. The result was a 9-9 record for Nottingham, its best since the glory days of the early 1990s.
Seeley said it was not uncommon to see Burke helping not only his teammates, but other school’s players on the driving range after matches.
“He’s the nicest kid,” the coach said. “Even if he has a bad day out there, he’s still a good teammate first, always picking up the guys around him. He’s always looking to help people. Every time we play a match the coaches on the other team are like ‘How’s Jack doing? We love Jack.’ They’re always looking forward to seeing him. He has good vibes, it doesn’t matter what else is going on.”
Upon hearing that, Burke said, “That makes me feel great. I just try to be fun, and make everybody have as much fun as possible. There’s no need to be super overly serious, we’re just trying to have some fun.”
His fun and education will continue next year at The College of New Jersey, where he plans on majoring in accounting “because I’ve always liked math and money.” There are hopes of possibly getting into the golf industry. Bobby Kauth, the General Manager and PGA pro at Mercer Oaks, provided some tutelage.
“For a while I thought about being a manager at a golf course,” Burke said. “He said that one of the best ways to do that is get a business degree in college, then go to PGA Tour School. I’m not sure yet, it will be whatever I feel is right.”
Atta boy!
Nottingham High School senior golfer Jack Burke on the tee. (Photo by Julie Burke.),
