In 1901, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie sold his company to a group led by J.P. Morgan. The $480 million sale (about $18 billion in 2025 dollars) made Carnegie one of the world’s richest men, and it launched the US Steel empire that still operates today. The foundations for one of the largest corporate mergers of all time were not hatched in a board room, but on a golf course.
Legend has it that Carnegie Steel president Charles M. Schwab, who foresaw the financial windfall of a sale to Morgan, met Carnegie for a round at Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., to try to convince him to make the deal. Louise Carnegie, Andrew’s wife, hinted to Schwab that her husband was always in a better mood after winning at golf, so Schwab buttered him up with a few intentional shanks. The plot worked, as Carnegie accepted the offer the next day. More than a century later, it is considered one of the largest business transactions ever constructed on a golf course.
Golf is the ultimate networking sport. While not every round involves nine-figure mergers, four hours of undivided attention with one’s playing partners provides ample time for conversation. For Bucknell junior James Key, his hopeful career path as a sports agent was hatched at The Country Club at Mirasol, his home course in Florida.
“I’ve always wanted to be involved in sports,” said Key, whose father Jimmy spent 15 years as a lefthanded pitcher in the Major Leagues and won the World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. “My dad was obviously a huge influence, and I’ve always loved sports growing up, especially golf. I got introduced to a sports agent down in Florida who’s a member of my club. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at the time, but I played a round of golf with him and told him I wanted to get involved in the sports business world. He told me about his job, and it sounded interesting to me. After that, I did some research and ran with it.”
James has interned with two sports agencies over the last year. Last summer, he worked with Resolute Sports Advisors in his hometown of Jupiter, Fla. His primary role was researching companies that might have an interest in sponsorship opportunities with athletes. He was given a list of 50 to 100 companies and was tasked with compiling information about their marketing leadership to pass along to the agents.
More recently, he has worked as an athlete and talent analyst with Players Group Management, a role that leveraged James’s golf expertise. He took data and video from various sources to create predictive models for player performance. The reports helped the agency identify potential clients.
“I take a list of about a hundred guys and rank them based on a bunch of different metrics, things like stroke average, how far they hit the ball, where they go to school, and what courses they play. So then when an agent goes to a tournament, he can look at my spreadsheet and find out a lot more information on a player. They are starting to identify kids at a young age now, and college players have become so much more important in the agency world in the NIL era. Being in college golf myself, I think I can give them a good perspective when it comes to evaluating certain guys. That’s why I think this career could be a good fit. Stepping from college golf into this field could be really interesting for me.”
James naturally played some baseball growing up, but he recalls not enjoying the practices, so he migrated to golf. Like many Major League starting pitchers, Jimmy Key played a lot of golf on the days when he knew he would not be pitching, and after he retired from baseball, he played golf competitively in amateur tournaments.
“When I was 12 or 13, I was getting a little burned out of baseball since I had been playing it since I was like four. I got introduced to golf and loved it right away, which is kind of weird because my personality as a kid was more like wanting to do everything at once. I was very hyper, and golf is more of a mellow sport, but I fell in love with it.”
James recalls that the best advice his dad gave him was persistence, a trait that helped him win 186 games in the big leagues with the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Orioles.
“From a young age, he instilled in me to never give up. That’s something that I think about every time I go out on the course. If I get off to a bad start in a tournament, I’m not going to throw in the towel and start thinking about the next round. That’s a trait that I learned even going back to junior golf. In team golf, you don’t always know how the rest of the guys are doing. So even if you’re not having a great day, your score might count and that next putt could be big.”
James quickly found competitive success. He was a three-time First Team All-County and two-time First Team All-Area selection while leading the golf team at The Benjamin School to four district titles, three regional championships, and four state tournament appearances. He was the runner-up at the Florida state championship in both 2019 and 2020, he won back-to-back club championships at Mirasol, and he qualified for the 2021 Junior Amateur Championship at Pinehurst.
“In my sophomore year, I got my first win at a local tournament, and then I thought, OK maybe I can be pretty good at this. That really propelled me to want to pursue golf in college and see where it goes.”
Most student-athletes choose Bucknell because of the dual opportunity to play Division I sports while receiving a world-class education. James was no different.
“I knew I wanted to go to a good academic school. I knew I was good enough to play college golf but probably not professionally, so I wanted to find a school where golf would help me get a good education. That’s why Bucknell stood out to me. I heard great things about it from people at my school, and when Coach Binney reached out, I was very interested. I took a visit and loved the campus and the golf facilities.”
James has been a steady presence in Bucknell’s lineup since day one at Bucknell. He shot 75-73-72 at Colgate in his first collegiate tournament and has averaged right around a 75 for his career so far. He will make his third Patriot League Championship appearance next weekend, when the Bison host the tournament at the Bucknell Golf Club.
He has also made the Dean’s List while majoring in economics, and he is a member of Igniting Leaders within the Bucknell Athletics Leadership Institute.
“My transition to college golf was not as difficult, because at my high school we traveled all the time for tournaments. So I was used to working with teachers to make up work, and competitively we played very good teams. Golf is so big in Florida, and there are so many really good players. I thought if I could compete with the top kids in Florida I would be OK in college. I made the lineup for my first event as a freshman and played pretty well, so I never really felt intimidated.”
Coach Mike Binney makes it a priority to take his team to top golf courses around the country, and his team appreciates the opportunity to play in those marquee events. Earlier this spring, the Bison played in UC San Diego’s tournament on the South Course at Torrey Pines, a famous track that has hosted two U.S. Opens and is a regular PGA Tour stop.
“We’ve definitely had the opportunity to play some great courses. We played Torrey South this year, which was really hard. It was like 7,500 yards, and I don’t hit the ball very far. We played Sebonack last year. One of the best things about playing golf at Bucknell is that you get to play all these amazing courses. I’m very grateful for that.”
James is optimistic about the team’s chances on its home course next week. In terms of his own game, he says he has been working hard on his putting and even made a putter switch last week at Penn State. The new blade felt good, and his putting stats improved over previous weeks.
The team will be looking to extend its season with a Patriot League championship and the resulting automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, and then James will be returning to work with Players Group Management again this summer. He says it’s a remote role, so he will be able to head home to Florida and work on his own game as well.
And who knows who he might just meet out there on the course.
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