Kiddie, Carpineta recognized by PGA of America with two of its national awards

   The Philadelphia Section PGA recognizes the best club pros in the region each year, highlighting the efforts of the men and women who do the job of promoting the game at the grass roots.

   They are always there, teaching the game, stocking the pro shop, keeping track of the tee sheets, running the club tournaments, working with junior golfers, the future of the game. Their jobs are far removed from the people playing for millions of dollars on TV each week, but their efforts are essential to the overall health of the game.

   That’s why it was nice to see a couple of Philadelphia Section pros, each of whom has received plenty of recognition in our area, get a little love on the national level.

   Last week at the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla., it was announced that Aronimink head pro Jeff Kiddie was named the PGA Golf Professional of the Year and John Carpineta, an assistant pro at Bensalem Township Country Club, was the winner of the PGA Patriot Award for 2023.

   It is the first time a Philadelphia Section PGA professional has received these national PGA of America awards in the respective categories.

   And it is absolutely a point of pride, not only for Kiddie and Carpineta, but for the Philadelphia Section and all its members.

   “Both Jeff and Johnny have helped grow the game at their facilities, at the Section level and nationally and are truly model PGA professionals,” Geoffrey Surrette, the Philadelphia Section’s executive director, told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “Our entire Section is proud of what they have accomplished and are thrilled to celebrate with them this year.”

   Kiddie and Carpineta will receive their honors at the PGA of America’s National Awards Ceremony, which is one of the feature events at the PGA Annual Meeting. Not sure when and where that is, but the 106^th PGA Annual Meeting was held in early November last year in Phoenix.

   The PGA Golf Professional of the Year award won by Kiddie is the highest honor the PGA of America gives to one of its members and goes to a professional who exhibits leadership, strong moral character and a substantial record of service to the Association and the game of golf.

   That is Kiddie in a nutshell. He has been a PGA professional for 23 years, the last 15 of them as the head professional at Aronimink, the Donald Ross gem in Newtown Square that has taken on an increasingly high profile on the national scene during Kiddie’s tenure. Before Aronimink, Kiddie spent seven years as the general manager and head pro at Applebrook Golf Club in East Goshen.

   Kiddie has served the Philadelphia Section in numerous roles, including president, vice president, secretary, District director, director of Section affairs and as a member of the PGA of America Rules Committee.

   Kiddie was elected the Philadelphia Section president in 2019 and his two-year term included a year in 2020 when club pros faced unimaginable challenges with the arrival of a novel coronavirus.

   That was also the year that Aronimink was scheduled to host the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June. The event, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, was ultimately rescheduled for October and, unfortunately, played without fans.

   But Aronimink, pandemic protocols and all, pulled it off. Staging a major championship is a huge challenge in the best of circumstances, but the obstacles popped up on a daily basis in 2020 and I’m sure Kiddie was right in the middle of overcoming all those hurdles.

   The PGA of America will be back at Aronimink in 2026, staging its crown jewel, the PGA Championship, one of the four major championships in men’s professional golf.

   The PGA Tour has also visited Aronimink during Kiddie’s tenure for back-to-back playings of the old AT&T Championship and for the next-to-last stop in the FedEx Playoffs, the BMW Championship, in 2018.

   This is not the first time the PGA of America has recognized Kiddie. In 2011, he was the national winner of the Merchandiser of the Year for Private facilities award. That same year, Kiddie was named the Philadelphia Section’s Golf Professional of the Year. Kiddie has been named the Merchandiser of the Year for Private facilities in the Philadelphia Section in 2007 and ’10.

   Kiddie was the winner of the Philadelphia Section’s Bill Strausbaugh Award in 2021 and the Horton Smith Award (renamed since to the PGA Professional Development Award) in 2016.

   A product of Gannon College in Erie, Kiddie has been an instructor for PGA and USGA Rules of Golf workshops.

   Kiddie considers mentoring the young professionals who work under him as his most important role. Since becoming a head pro in 2001, 12 of his assistants have gone on to become head professionals at golf courses across the country.

   Having covered the high school golf scene for the last couple of decades, I can vouch for the fact that somebody is doing something right when it comes to producing talented junior golfers at Aronimink. From Michael Davis, Matt Davis and John Updike at Malvern Prep and Max Siegfried at The Haverford School to current scholastic standouts Hunter Steteson at Episcopal Academy and reigning PIAA Class AA champion Nick Ciocca at Devon Prep, the pipeline of solid youngsters coming out of Aronimink never seems to run dry.

   Don’t think anybody will be questioning the credentials of Carpineta, the PGA Patriot Award winner, an honor that goes to a professional who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who serve and protect our country with their service.

   The Philadelphia Section could probably just give Carpineta its Patriot Award every year. He’s only won it three times in 2017, ’18 and ’20.

   Carpineta became a PGA member at age 63 and now, at 81, he is the driving force in leading the growth of the PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) program in the Philadelphia region.

   A U.S. Army veteran, Carpineta advocates developing golf programs that can be used as a form of therapy for veterans. Through Carpineta’s efforts, more than 500 veterans have been reached through these programs.

   Carpineta, of course, is a strong supporter of Patriot Golf Day, making it one of the biggest days on the golf calendar at Bensalem Township Country Club.

   Carpineta was the Philadelphia Section’s Golf Professional of the year in 2019 and was the winner of the Section’s Player Development Award in 2015.

   He has been the co-chair of PGA HOPE at Bensalem Township since 2016, a member of the Philadelphia Section’s Player Development committee since 2016 and a member of the Section’s Education Committee since 2011.

   It will mark the second straight year that a Philadelphia Section pro will be honored at the PGA of America’s National Awards Ceremony.

   Last fall, Andy Miller, the head of instruction at LedgeRock Golf Club, received the PGA Youth Player Development Award at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix. Miller’s creative use of social media kept junior golfers busy with drills they could accomplish even while they were homebound in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

   The Philadelphia Section PGA has some of the most talented and dedicated club pros in the country and the recognition guys like Kiddie, Carpineta and Miller are receiving just proves it.