Jordan Burton returned to the Central Valley after graduating from the University of Nevada as a member of the Wolfpack golf team. Photo contributed

Jordan Burton picked up her first club at 4-years-old.

Little did anyone know she would go on to become the first woman golf professional at a Central Valley country club.

The Idaho native ventured into golf in Coeur D’Alene but moved to Ahwahnee, California, in 2000 at age five. Once her family moved to the Golden State, she started her roots in golf, learning the game from her dad.

She started competing at seven. Her first competition was for the Junior Golf Association of Northern California and other junior events that took her around the state.

“One of the vivid memories I have of competitive Junior Golf was when I was seven. It was one of my first tournaments,” Burton said. “Paula Creamer was one of the girls in the older division. I remember seeing her, watching her play, and then following her throughout her career and seeing what she did. As a little kid, it was inspiring to see a girl doing these amazing things in this sport. I just fell in love with the game.”

Today, Creamer is a top-ranking player on the LPGA tour.

In 2012, Burton qualified for the US Girls’ Junior Championship at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, which marked an experience she would never forget. She competed with players including Lydia Ko, who started her rookie career in 2014 with the LPGA.

Burton attended Yosemite High School and played all four years at the varsity level. She had the opportunity to compete alongside her sister and even played in the Southern Section Championship in Southern California for three years. 

“I loved the game and was dead set on wanting to play professionally. From the time I first started and all the way up through college, that was always my goal and my vision,” Burton said.

Burton’s collegiate career would come to life at the US Junior championship. The assistant coach of the University of Nevada, Chad Spencer, recruited her to join the Wolfpack.

In Nevada, Burton played under head coach Kathleen Takaishi, which greatly impacted her playing career.

“It was an awesome place to go to school. I met a lot of great people, had a great team and learned a lot there, golf and obviously education-wise,” Burton said. “Once I graduated from school, I kind of realized that professional golf probably wasn’t really for me.”

After five years, Burton graduated with her B.S. in statistics in 2018. She explained how golf can be an expensive route, and after healing from an injury, she couldn’t see herself playing professionally anymore.

Teaching golf was something Burton didn’t see in her future either, but after reconnecting with her old coach Mike Schy, she found herself in new territory.

“Since then, I have been teaching nonstop, and I love it. I’ve only gotten better at teaching at different skill levels and ages,” she said.

 

Now, Burton is the head golf professional at Fresno’s San Joaquin Country Club (SJCC).

Her career as a golf professional started at the Dragonfly Golf Club in Madera, where Schy is based. In 2020, she moved to her next journey at SJCC, where she began coaching and was promoted to first assistant for then-golf professional Nick Musolino.

Burton attributes her strength in teaching to Musolino and Tommy Masters, SJCC director of golf operations. Their knowledge of the industry and how to interact with people while teaching have helped her grow outside of golf.

In April, Burton began as the first woman golf professional at a country club in the Central Valley.

“It’s kind of surreal,” she said. “I have lots of people that have mentioned it to me, and it’s fabulous for the game and the area. The members on the board here at San Joaquin have enough faith in me to take that step and trust me with everything that they do, and it’s a big thing. I think it speaks volumes to what women in this industry can do.”

Burton has found many new challenges in her position — the biggest has been managing people. But she has faith in her crew to provide the best service to members.

Juniors are her favorite age to teach. Burton explained how exciting it is to teach children ages 5-9. Kids being very impressionable makes them attentive enough to learn a new sport.

“I was truly thinking that at some point, I was going to make that jump and try to start playing professionally at some point. And then the more that I dug my heels in and really started to invest in, OK, what kind of teacher do I want to be if I were learning this game again?” Burton said.

She hopes to one day create a teaching facility where she can coach the sport she loves all day. She also wants to grow junior golf in the area to give kids the opportunity of an early start in golf the way she did.

As an expensive sport, many underrepresented groups go unnoticed in the sport. Burton hopes she can see the sport grow and thrive with new people.

She explained that many open opportunities for women in golf go untouched because of the low number of females that compete. These opportunities include college scholarships that can even help send someone to university.

“Even outside of this area, I’m just very passionate about the next generation learning the game from all different walks of life, ethnicity, gender, different socio-economic backgrounds, because the game historically it’s seen as a rich man’s game,” said Burton.

The First Tee is something Burton hopes to invest time in because she had the chance to participate in it when she was younger.

The First Tee helps kids learn the fundamentals of golf, but it also helps them learn life skills. They have greatly impacted the community, she said, reaching lots of different schools and kids that don’t have access to golf professionals.

“If I had some spare time, I would probably invest it with the First Tee and take some of those kids that maybe don’t have the opportunity to pay whatever you have to pay to take a lesson from a golf pro and share my knowledge that way,” Burton said.