2025 SFPGA Hall of Fame Inductee - Jack Shoenfelt, PGA
If an individual's life can be traced not by the spotlight one seeks but by the work they quietly shoulder, then Jack Shoenfelt, PGA stands as one of the true craftsmen of the South Florida PGA.
Along with fellow Professional, Karl Bublitz, Shoenfelt enters the South Florida PGA Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2025, joining a lineage of 51 others who helped shape the identity, values, and excellence of the Section. For someone who rarely sees himself as anything but a “simple Midwestern kid who worked hard,” the recognition feels almost surreal.
“Oh, it was very humbling,” Shoenfelt said. “I called Karl and told him, they must be running out of ideas to have us in there.”
That humility is part of what makes Shoenfelt beloved. But behind the quiet manner is a life in golf marked by grit, stewardship, mentorship, and a work ethic forged long before he ever set foot in South Florida.
An Akron, Ohio native, Shoenfelt grew up in an environment where family mattered, work was expected, and nothing was handed to you. His early jobs in golf as a kid weren’t in the golf shop but on the course itself, mowing greens, cutting holes, raking bunkers, doing whatever needed to be done at his friend's family-owned 9-hole golf course.
“We did everything,” he said. “I actually thought I was going to end up being a superintendent.”
Shoenfelt didn’t start playing golf seriously until high school, but earned a scholarship to Malone University in Canton, Ohio.
Upon graduating, Shoenfelt took a job in Akron where the head professional offered blunt advice.
“He told me, ‘Son, you don’t want to get in this business.’ Told me all the negatives. He said, ‘call me tomorrow if you still want the job.’ So I called him. I said, ‘Yeah, I want the job.’”
Eventually tired of the northern climate and with a desire for year round balance, Shoenfelt moved south.
“You’re working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. up there,” he said. “It wasn’t good if you wanted a family.”
Shoenfelt worked seasonally for three years before taking a permanent job in Florida, a move that would shape the next four decades of his life.
Shoenfelt’s professional foundation in South Florida was built at Boca Grove Golf & Tennis Club in Boca Raton, where he spent nearly a decade rising from assistant professional to director of golf.
“I loved Boca Grove,” he said. “The people treated me fantastic. I wouldn’t have left if this opportunity hadn’t come up.”
That opportunity was ownership, the dream he had carried since those teenage years working on his friend’s family golf course.
When longtime PGA Professional Burl Dale sent word he intended to sell Oriole Golf & Tennis Club in Margate, Fl, Shoenfelt saw his future.
Ownership, for Shoenfelt, was never about prestige.
“There’s a million reasons,” he explained. “Being your own boss, doing your own thing. A lot of that came from working at my buddy’s course.”
Today, more than two decades later, Shoenfelt is still the one turning the key in the morning, still fixing roofs and toilets, still doing whatever the facility needs.
“It’s like buying a job,” he said. “But I enjoy coming in every day. I come six days a week.”
When Shoenfelt took over, Oriole had a reputation.
“It was always the lowest-end course around,” he shared. “Known for cheap rates and never closing.”
For 10 years, the goal was simply survival. But slowly, steadily, with careful investment and patience, Shoenfelt rebuilt the reputation.
“About 10 years ago we put in new greens,” he said. “That was huge for us. And we just continue to make improvements. I think we get better every year.”
At the Chapter and Section levels, Shoenfelt didn’t seek leadership roles but rather was put into a position of leadership in the Southern Chapter.
“They just put me on the ballot,” he said laughing.
Once elected, he embraced the work, serving as treasurer, vice president, and president over six years, helping create pro-ams, annual youth summer camps and emphasized participation that reshaped the chapter’s culture.
“We’d have 60, 70, 80 kids in the annual summer camps,” he said. “We went to three or four different facilities in Broward and Dade.”
These programs left a deep legacy that others carried forward.
As far as playing accomplishments, which he certainly downplays saying, “I’m a middle-of-the-road PGA pro,” Shoenfelt qualified for and competed in the Honda Classic, the Doral Ryder Open, and Nike/Web.com Tour events.
He also won the SFPGA Senior PGA Professional Championship in 2021, his highest Section playing accomplishment and the one he is most proud of.
When it comes to receiving recognition, that has never been Shoenfelt's motivation. Over his time as a member of the SFPGA, Shoenfelt has been nominated for several annual awards, but has never filled out the application, not wanting to take an opportunity away from someone else.
“One of those awards can help the kids,” he said. “Good for their resume. But I don’t need it. I’m not going anywhere. I’m right where I want to be.”
While that mindset has always been the same, being inducted into the Hall of Fame is different.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Shoenfelt said. “Very humbling. Very honored.”
The South Florida PGA is honored to recognize Jack Shoenfelt as a member of the Hall of Fame not only as a Hall of Fame professional, but as a Hall of Fame person. The kind of person who lifts up others without seeking credit, and builds a community by simply showing up, every day, with purpose.
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