Editor’s Note: Jack Bonifant qualified for the 2025 U.S. Adaptive Open after this story was printed in the May/June 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
“I don’t remember not playing,” Silver Spring resident Jack Bonifant, 34, says of getting his start in golf.
Bonifant began hitting the ball with a kid-size club at Argyle Country Club in Silver Spring when he was about 2 years old with the encouragement of his parents, Jim and Debbie. He was competitive on the local junior golf circuit, played in high school and walked on to the Division I golf team at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He excelled despite an accident when he was 6 weeks old that fractured his skull and resulted in partial paralysis on the left side of his body.
“My parents always wanted me to figure it out myself and not use my left side as a reason not to play with everybody,” says Bonifant, who went through years of physical and occupational therapy. He walks with a slight limp and wears a left foot and ankle brace for stability when he golfs.
Three years ago, Bonifant began competing in the U.S. Adaptive Open, a tournament sponsored by the U.S. Golf Association for players with a variety of disabilities. In a field of 96 players, he placed seventh in 2022, 12th in 2023 and 11th in 2024. Bonifant hopes to qualify in the coordination impairment category for the 2025 U.S. Adaptive Open, which will be held at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville from July 7-9. Bethesda Magazine is a tournament sponsor.
“For years I played [golf] in spite of my left side, and with the [Adaptive Open], that’s the first thing that I’ve ever played in because of my left side,” Bonifant says. “Growing up, I just wanted to be better than everybody. The main goal was to play Division I golf, and I’m a pretty determined person.”
At JMU, Tim Driver was a senior when Bonifant showed up for practice. “He was mature beyond his years and was focused,” says the 39-year-old Driver, who lives in Holly Springs, North Carolina. “Even though he was a freshman and a walk-on, he was a leader right away.”
Bonifant has a natural swing, Driver says, although it was apparent he had to overcome obstacles. “That probably made him develop and become so mature so quick,” he says. “It made him stronger.”
Bonifant says he was into baseball as a kid, but stopped in high school when the game got faster. Football was out because of the potential for a head injury. “Golf just leveled the playing field for me, I think more so than any other sport,” Bonifant says. “I felt like I could compete, and it wasn’t so glaring.” Bonifant was on the golf teams at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney and Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, making The Washington Post’s All-Met First Team in 2008 as a senior.
Bonifant acknowledges he had a bit of a temper on the golf course when he was younger. Now, his pre-game ritual includes stretching, putting, hitting a few balls and putting again before going to the first tee. That routine, along with listening to music, puts him in a place of “calm confidence,” Bonifant says.
As life gets busier—he’s a federal account executive for Salesforce and lives with his wife, Genna, and son, Carter—Bonifant says he likely won’t play in as many tournaments this season but is focused on training more efficiently. He is active at Argyle, where he’s served on the board of directors for the past six years.
Bonifant says he hopes his son will enjoy the same love of golf that has been central to his life. “It’s such a great game, I can’t wait to teach my kid,” says Bonifant, who gave Carter his first golf club when he turned 1 in March.
This appears in the May/June 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
