Standout West Penn duo passing torch at Notre Dame
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • April 5, 2024
It’s a chilly, windy Midwest night in North-Central Indiana, and a pair of college students — separated by four years — are sitting down in the elder’s South Bend house to connect over a shared interest: the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Friends, teammates and fellow Yinzers, Palmer Jackson and Rocco Salvitti are connected through their backgrounds. Through the toughness that shapes young athletes from Western Pennsylvania. Through a love of sport and a desire to be the very best at theirs.
The two student-athletes, who are at opposite ends of their careers with Notre Dame’s men’s golf team, are currently going through a metaphorical passing of the torch, as one standout Pittsburgh-area golfer is set to depart the program this spring while the other is just beginning his journey in college golf.
“I always knew of Rocco,’ says Jackson, a grad student and Murrysville native who rapidly rose to become one of the region’s top golfing products in the mid-to-late 2010’s. “I’m four years older than him, but even when I was in high school, you always heard about this kid. ‘He’s going to go to Central Catholic, he’s amazing, he’s the next great player.’”
Salvitti certainly knew of Jackson, as well.
“I remember playing at the West Penn Junior at Wildwood,” recalls Salvitti, a freshman from Canonsburg. “I was on the back nine somewhere and saw the Duke coach and one other college coach ahead of me and was like, ‘okay, that has to be Palmer’s group.’ That was the first time I saw him.”
Now, the two see each other just about every day, with Salvitti joining the Irish this past fall after he tapped Jackson for information on both the school and the golf program during the recruiting process.
“It wasn’t too difficult,” says Jackson of the sales pitch to Salvitti. “I didn’t do much, to be honest. Our coaches are pretty good at selling Notre Dame.
“But hopefully Rocco saw that this is a place that someone from a northern climate can get better at and excel. You don’t have to go to a Wake Forest or Duke to make your game a lot better. And that this was a place that he could come in and play right away.
“I think Rocco understood that and he’s done incredibly well.”
Salvitti has undoubtedly benefited from Jackson, walking onto campus in South Bend with an experienced player looking out for him and leading.
“It’s been great,” Salvitti says of his connection with Jackson. “It’s nice that we have those Pittsburgh ties. He’s been helpful to me. We’re roommates on most of our trips and he keeps me going.
“His experience really helps. He’s played most of these golf courses before… And then just preparing me for what’s to come, whether that’s saving energy, or how to keep at your best when we’re on these long trips. He’s prepared me for the year.”
As Jackson is in his final year of college golf, guiding the program with his play — and his knowledge — is paramount, particularly after a 2022-2023 season in which the Irish finished only as high as fourth in any event.
“Last year, I felt like we had a good team and I thought I was a good leader, but the team didn’t do great,” he says. “I looked back and thought, ‘what can I do better?’ I felt like I learned a lot from what happened. I’ve tried to develop more one-on-one relationships with guys and show them I care. Because I do.”
The Irish have already have five top three finishes in 2023-2024, including a pair of team victories.
“We have really good camaraderie right now and I feel like a lot of that falls on Palmer,” Salvitti adds. “He’s constantly trying to get us over to his house to hang out. We’re both Penguins fans, so we watch games together, and we’re just making team dinners whenever we can. He does a really good job of making the team first.”
The two young men were well accomplished before joining the college ranks. Jackson was a two-time WPGA Junior Player of the Year, a PIAA state champion and became the first player to ever win the C.R. Miller Match Play event three times — including a win at 14 years old in 2015, making him the youngest to ever claim victory in the competition.
Salvitti, meanwhile, won a team WPIAL and PIAA title in 2022 with Central Catholic. He ended high school finishing top ten in the state all four years of individual play. He placed second at the WPGA Spring Stroke Play Championship in 2023, second at the Tri-State Open Championship and top 15 at Pennsylvania Amateur Championship.
“Looking back on my junior career with West Penn and now transitioning to more of an amateur career, I really enjoy being able to represent West Penn and the Pittsburgh area,” Salvitti says. “I’m not sure I understood it whenever I was younger, but looking back and seeing the support that Palmer and I have from the West Penn area, it’s really cool.
“I’m not sure people can see or understand what we have through the West Penn versus the associations they were with.”
Jackson knows that he benefited from the structure of amateur and junior golf in his home state, as well.
“The West Penn does an awesome job of giving junior golfers the opportunities to succeed,” he says. “I know both of us are so thankful for people like Sean Knapp and, for me, Kevin Fajt, Nathan Smith. These are guys who I looked up to that helped me and helped expedite my process.”
And that support has also come with a battle-tested upbringing.
Salvitti grew up on Southpointe Golf Club and is a member at one of the nation’s toughest courses in Oakmont Country Club. Jackson, a member at Hannastown Golf Club, battled the same challenging conditions that the icy greens, sloped fairways and blind shots of Western Pennsylvania present.
“We haven’t played courses that are more extreme than what you see in Western Pennsylvania,” says Jackson, who does add that the whipping Midwest wind does provide a unique challenge to golfers in Indiana. “I remember coming in as a freshman, you didn’t see greens with as much slope or natural slope. And back home, you get a ball above your feet, below your feet, uphill, downhill. It gives someone like us an advantage because we’re used to it.”
While the two have been confronted with the country’s more challenging courses, they also got the chance to face one of golf’s marquee venues, St. Andrews, when the Irish traveled in the fall to the historic Scottish course for the inaugural St. Andrews Links Collegiate.
“It was really cool,” Salvitti says. “I’ve never played golf anywhere quite like St. Andrews. The links style is definitely much different. We thought we were pretty prepared, but you can’t compare it to anywhere in the States.”
“So many people have played St. Andrews and know the golf course,” Jackson adds. “For them to be able to share something with us and vice versa was pretty cool.“
Now, well back from Scotland and ready to take on the ACC and NCAA’s top competition this spring, the pair is set on improving the Notre Dame program, and winning. They feel it's possible thanks to the chemistry building within the group that, in large part, is due to the team sports that its players have participated in before college.
Salvitti, for instance, was a four-year hockey player at Central Catholic. Jackson, meanwhile, was a strong pitcher on the baseball diamond at Franklin Regional.
“Our team’s camaraderie is much better than other team’s we’ve played against or been around, and I think it’s because we have so many multi-sport athletes on our team that have been a part of a team,” Salvitti says. “Whether it was me playing hockey or him on the pitcher’s mound, you can kind of build off your team in some way.”
Jackson, who has had his share of athletes and opponents while at Notre Dame, saw right away that the diverse background of Salvitti would be beneficial to Notre Dame golf — and that the Irish were welcoming in a special player.
“I knew from day one when Rocco came in that he’s the most competitive guy I’ve seen at Notre Dame and one of the most competitive players I’ve played against,” he says. “There may be guys more talented than us, but we grew up playing multiple sports. That drives our competitiveness and helps a lot in golf.”
Jackson’s not too shabby himself when it comes to the push to win. He still has plenty of goals to achieve at Notre Dame — like another finish on the All-ACC list and much more — before the next step in his already spectacular career.
“Just win more golf tournaments somewhere, that’s the goal,” he says with a laugh. “I’ll be playing professional golf starting, ideally, in June.
“For me, I don’t really care where I’m playing this summer. I’m more focused on the team right now. I just want to be playing well and getting better, because I know that Notre Dame has helped me become the player I am.”
But, until then, there are just a few more chances for him and Salvitti to watch the Penguins, eat a few meals together and compete on the golf course while continuing to pass that Western Pennsylvania torch in South Bend.
For media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.