Former NJSGA Caddie Scholar Now Director At USGA

Deanna (Mackey) Molina has never met a challenge she didn’t like.

Today, she is the Director of Compensation and Employment for the United States Golf Association in Far Hills and how she got there from her beginnings as a female caddie at the Rockaway River Country Club in Denville is quite the story.

Throw in the fact that she is one of a handful of young ladies to receive a college tuition scholarship from the New Jersey State Golf Association’s Caddie Scholarship Foundation, and Deanna is easily perceived as a role model.

The first female NJSGA Caddie Scholar was Laura D’Alessandro of Toms River and Woodlake Golf & Country Club in 1986.

Following her brother James, older by four years, to Rockaway River, Deanna began caddieing at age 14 and continued through college and beyond, until age 24.

“It was part of my competitive nature. To me, it was ‘Why shouldn’t a girl do this?’ And then I started making good money,” she said. “At first, James said, ‘I guess you can tag along with me.’

“Then it became a family joke when I’d start getting good golfers who had light bags and he didn’t. James took it in stride. He was a good big brother.”

Deanna, then known as Dee, wasn’t shy about carrying two bags, either. Caddie master Mike Barrett didn’t believe female caddies could do the job.

“First he tested me with one bag. He’d ask members how I did as a caddie. When they said, ‘She’s fine,’ things got better.”

After a couple years, she’d loop in the morning, then either work in the bag room or in the pro shop. Head pro John Stoltz and the new caddie master, Arnie Nielsen, made sure she was as busy as possible.

“I was always treated with respect,” Deanna said. “Arnie was a big booster and he treated me like any other caddie. I busied myself. I’d take bags out of members’ cars and by age 16, I was an assistant in the pro shop as well as a caddie.

“I started playing golf by age 17 or 18. I loved being outdoors. My appreciation for the game grew. I remember the old saying, ‘A caddie should be seen and not heard,’ but I made connections with a lot of the members over the years. It was fun.”

Deanna, who grew up in Boonton, attended Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown. She played varsity soccer and basketball and ran track, and was captain of all three teams. She was a finalist for the Wendy’s High School Heisman, which recognizes the nation’s top high school seniors based on sports, academics and extracurricular activities.

She also earned an Army Scholar Athlete award for academics and sports as well as becoming a four-year recipient of the NJSGA Caddie Scholarship Foundation grant.

“The NJSGA really helped me with my tuition. It was my primary scholarship,” said Deanna, who attended Duke University. She was accepted at Duke the same year her brother, James, who now works for NATO in Belgium, was graduating from Princeton.

“Caddieing was a challenge and I was up for it. It gave me a lot of confidence in myself. It helped me in college and in the work world. It also taught me respect for the game of golf, and my respect for golf is tremendous.”

She continued to caddie during her college years. Her next big challenge came at Duke when Deanna decided to be the manager for the Duke men’s lacrosse team.

“I was the first female to manage the team for four years. It basically took up the entire second semester each year. Practice started in January and games in February. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t get cold in North Carolina.

“I was there every day. It became my work study. It was a fantastic experience. It was as if I had 40 big brothers. They respected me because I was out there every day with them. They appreciated the fact I had a sports background.”

Deanna graduated Duke with a major in psychology and minor in Spanish. Prior to her junior year, she had an internship in the marketing department of Revlon.

She did not achieve the first job she interviewed for, at Liz Claiborne in New York. About a month later, they called her back, thinking there might be a fit in the human resources department there.

“I think part of it was having attended Villa Walsh, an all-girls school, where you had to be confident to succeed, then having gone on to Duke, and being a caddie and having that work experience,” she said of her hiring by Liz Claiborne.

“I enjoyed my time there, but the last few years, I was in charge of letting people know of their layoffs. It got to me. I finally decided to leave and it was mutual. Just before I left, I tore my Achilles heel playing volleyball.

“So I was on crutches when I first interviewed with the USGA last spring. I was looking for something that combined sports and human resources,” said Deanna, who enjoyed being part of the NJSGA Caddie Scholars dinner in December at the USGA Museum. “It was a three-month process before I was notified I had the job in June.

“I was thrilled. One of the things that drew me here is the fact that the USGA was going through a transformation and some dramatic changes,” said Deanna, one of eight people in her department. The USGA has about 300 employees at its campus in Far Hills.

“The human resources department is evolving. I spend a lot of time reviewing policy and making recommendations.

“From a human resources perspective, there is an opportunity to put things in place for the future and I’m excited about it.”

For Deanna (Mackey) Molina, it’s another challenge she will gladly take on. In 2007, she married Johnny Molina, a co-worker at Liz Claiborne she met on the basketball court. The couple resides in Paramus.

“I’m really proud of being an NJSGA Caddie Scholar. It’s an achievement when you consider I’m one of only 10 or less female caddies who have received it over 65 years.”