Scott Kirkwood, Director of Golf at the exclusive Monterey Peninsula Country Club in California, talks about his 30-year career as a PGA Professional that has taken him from his native Scotland to the west coast of America via Dubai and New Jersey, and passes on the lessons he has learned along the way for those looking to broaden their horizons in an international role.
How did you get into golf and when did you first think that you would like to have a career in the game?
I grew up in Gullane in East Lothian, so I had very little chance of golf not being part of my life. My family history goes back a long way in the game, with both my dad and my grandmother being decent players. I was more into football and rugby when I was a kid and it wasn’t until I watched Mark Calcavecchia win The Open at Royal Troon in 1989, when I was 15, that I got bitten by the golfing bug.
After I left school at 18, I went out to college in the States to play golf at Walters State Community College in Tennessee. I loved my time there so much that I came away from that experience knowing that I wanted to have pursue a golf career in the US at some point in my life.
What has been your career path to date?
After college I turned professional and worked for Jimmy Hume at Gullane Golf Club. Jimmy is one of the legends of the game and had a vast network of PGA Professionals he had trained and had helped find jobs around the world, many of them in the Middle East.
So, after three years at Gullane, Jimmy helped me to secure a job at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, where I spent six years teaching members and guests. It was an amazing time and really helped develop my ability to teach the game to a wide variety of people.
In 2003 I got my chance to return to America. We had a family friend called Jay Davis who was in line for a director of golf job at Metedeconk National Golf Club in New Jersey and he said he might need an assistant if he got the job. I flew from Dubai to Atlanta to meet him and he interviewed me in a restaurant in the airport. Thankfully Jay got the job, and I was able to fulfill my dream of getting back to America.
I worked in New Jersey for seven years – two years at Metedeconk, three years at Hidden Creek GC, and then three years back at Metedeconk, but this time as head professional.
In 2010, I got the opportunity to become the Director of Golf at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida, one of the largest private clubs in America. It was an amazing opportunity for me to grow as a professional. After 10 years there, I moved to California in 2020 to take up the Director of Golf position at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Although it is a country club by name, it is strictly just golf here and it feels like a proper golf club. It has given me the opportunity to be more of a golf professional again – playing and teaching and running the shop.
What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of your role?
The most rewarding part is seeing the pros that I work with moving on and getting the jobs that they want. I work very hard at that and spend a lot of my time training, mentoring and helping them get what they want to achieve.
The most challenging element is balancing the time at work and the time at home with my family. I travel a lot, which is great for networking, but it takes me away from the club and my family, so finding that balance is challenging, but critical.
How do you see your role developing in the years ahead?
I delegate a lot of things that come my way because I have to, but it also gives my fellow professionals the chance to learn and grow. I see that continuing and the longer I’ve been in this role, it becomes more about planning future capital projects.
How did your PGA training prepare you for taking on a Director of Golf role?
It was the basis and start of my golf education and gave me a well-rounded foundation to develop my career. I gained a good understanding of all the different elements of the golf business, which is exactly what you need as a Director of Golf.
How is the British PGA qualification generally viewed in the States?
I think it makes you stand out from the rest of the professionals here in America and, as one of my mentors once said to me, ‘it’s another arrow in your quiver’. The more that you can do to separate yourself from others helps you achieve what you want, and the British PGA Qualification definitely does that in the US.
Have you had any mentors during your career or people who you have been able to lean on for advice?
This is basically my career in a nutshell. I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the great PGA Professionals that I was lucky enough to work for and who have passed on so much knowledge about the business of being a professional.
I have been fortunate to work for seven different PGA Professionals from which I have basically learned everything that I know –
Jimmy Hume at Gullane; Peter Downie in Dubai; Jay Davis and Ian Dalzell in New Jersey; Michael Leemhuis and John Lyberger in Florida, and JJ West in California. They all had their own strengths in certain aspects of the golf business which helped me to become the golf professional that I am today.
What do you know now that you wish you’d had known when you first started out?
Maintaining and developing your network is crucial and I wish I had been better at that from the beginning. Maintaining relationships once they have been established is a very big part of being successful in any part of work and life.
What advice would you pass on to other PGA Members who may be interested in working in the United States?
Work very hard at trying to get your start in America. It is a great place to live with such a massive number of opportunities since the country is so big and the game is so important to so many here.
Again, for me it goes back to developing relationships and doing everything you possibly can to open any doors over here. I would recommend hiring a very good immigration lawyer as that can help navigate the work visa applications. I would also use the PGA to help you connect with the British PGA Professionals that are already over here and might be able to help put you in touch with them.
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