4 Rinkers live to play the game
There are trophies everywhere in the Rinker household. Big trophies. Small trophies. Solid marble trophies. Heavy brass trophies. Transparent trophies.
There are trophies shaped like plates, dishes, cups and even one that looks like a small version of the Stanley Cup.
"No," says Joanie Rinker, smiling. "We don't eat Cheerios out of it."
Members of the Rinker family, Marty, 50, Joanie, 48, Jenna, 18, and Brett, 14, have accumulated all this hardware by driving, chipping and putting their way on golf courses from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
Golf is the family sport. A dimpled golf ball the family crest.
Attached at the tee
Marty and Joanie were high school sweethearts at Monaca High School. Marty taught his future wife golf at a driving range while former major league baseball player and current Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona took his hacks in a nearby batting cage.
Marty played at California (Pa.) University for four years, reaching the national tournament three times, then tried twice to earn his PGA card before joining the Space Coast Tour in Florida for two years.
"I made enough to feed myself and pay my rent," Marty said.
Meanwhile, Joanie spent time on the golf course with her mother-in-law.
She still remembers the best round of golf she ever had: a nine-hole score of 39.
"It was during the drought and it was like a bowling alley," Joanie said. "The ball rolled and rolled forever."
Marty has since served as the head golf pro at Armco Golf Club in Slippery Rock, which is now Oakview, and as the head men's golf coach at Slippery Rock University before that program was cut.
Marty now is the head men's golf coach at Clarion University.
Since Marty always has been around golf, so have his children, Jenna and Brett.
"We lived over at the club," Marty said. "They were always around it."
Brett has had a golf club in his hand since he was 3."I don't even remember my first golfing memory," Brett said. "I guess it was hitting ball at the range at Armco."Brett won his first tournament when he was 8 and the list of his victories and high finishes at youth tournaments is longer than a 3-wood.He's won three Plantation Junior Golf Tour events this year and recently won the West Penn Boys Championship at Beaver Valley Golf Club, firing a 1-over-par 73.He's dominating the youth circuit with finesse, not brawn."Brett is going up against kids who are 15 and are my size — 6-foot-1," Marty said. "These kids are hitting the ball 40 yards by him, so he's hitting a 5-iron at holes and they are hitting a sand wedge. But's he's still beating these kids because he has a real good short game."Brett is largely responsible for getting his sister Jenna hooked on golf.
While Brett was making tournaments a matter of routine when he was 8, Jenna was content to just smack a bucket of balls just for fun."I would just go out and hit balls if I was bored," Jenna said. "I would do that maybe once a month."But being around the game so much gave Jenna an advantage when she did catch the golfing bug at 14.Jenna saw Brett's success and watched girls her age compete at tournaments and thought, "I can compete with them. I can do that," she said.Jenna entered her first tournament at 14 and finished second."I was so nervous," Jenna said. "I was actually thinking about pretending I was sick or something so I wouldn't have to play. I just remember being on the first tee and hitting it six feet from the pin on a par-3 with a 7-iron. It was an amazing shot.""Then I three-putted."Still, Jenna was hooked.She was rough around the edges and spent three hours a day at the course with her father. It was a bonding experience for the two, but it also had its moments of tension."I really had no clue what I was doing," Jenna said. "He would definitely get on my nerves sometimes."Jenna has had her own success on summer golf tours.She has won a Plantations Junior Golf Tour event, as well as two events on the Kings Tour.Her biggest win came at the Western Pennsylvania Women's Golf Association Championships at Shadow Lakes Golf Club in Aliquippa, where she shot a 77 to best the field.Jenna also was solid at Slippery Rock High as a member of the boys team. During the postseason, she competed against girls in District 10 and reached the PIAA Girls Golf Championships twice.Now, Jenna will play at Clarion University in the fall, where she will be reunited with her father."I'm really excited because it is a very new team," Jenna said. "It will be nice to have (him) around. He can help me with my swing if something happens to it."Jenna might not need dear old Dad's help any more.She recently beat Marty by a stroke at Oakview, shooting a 73."That was the first time I had ever beaten him," Jenna said. "It was nice. I get to rub it in his face a little."
