Frank Emmet was born in Boston and graduated from Boston College. He moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, and became business manager of the Georgetown Preparatory School, where he oversaw the design and construction of a nine-hole golf course. When the course opened in 1927, he invited high schools within a 100-mile radius to compete and thus born a junior golf league. This was the first step in what would become the largest junior golf program of its time in the United States. The program grew to about 35 junior tournaments each summer, including national and international qualifiers in the Washington, D.C. area, for more than fifty years. In 1934, he hosted the first Schoolboy championship at Georgetown Prep. To this day, this is considered one of the premier Junior Championships in the area. In 1983 the Washington Metropolitan Golf Association renamed it the Frank Emmet Memorial Schoolboy. Junior programs around the country were modeled after him.
In 1947, Mr. Emmet approached the USGA about hosting a Junior Championship. They thought it a brilliant idea, named him a permanent Member of the USGA Junior Committee, and hosted the first Junior Boys Championship in 1948 and the first Junior Girls Championship in 1949. Maryland has hosted four U.S. Junior Amateurs and three U.S. Girls’ Junior championships.
In 1980, the MAPGA honored the founding father of junior golf in America, by naming him, “Mr. Junior Golf”. In 1982 the PGA Tour presented Mr. Emmet with the Card Walker Award for outstanding contributions to Junior Golf. The 1983 recipient was Jack Nicklaus.
As the father of junior golf, Mr. Emmet stressed the importance of education and instilled the values of the game in juniors. He made clear that the junior golfers were guests of the host club, that they dressed properly, knew the rules, had good manners, and most of all, he focused on sportsmanship. His motto was, “Off the streets and on to the fairways”. Mr. Emmet was never compensated for his work with Junior Golf. In 1977, he allowed his name to be a part of a scholarship program, which the WMGA continues to administer.
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