Just 32 years previous, Matt Cahill is on the prime of his recreation. Along with being the pinnacle skilled at Seminole Golf Membership in Juno Seaside, Florida, he additionally has proved to be a powerful participant, having certified for – and performed in – the 2023 PGA Championship whereas holding down one of the crucial demanding jobs within the business.
To make sure, these achievements are testaments to his abilities. However Cahill is fast to aver that his successes are additionally the results of the mentoring he acquired from PGA professionals by means of the years. The long-lasting Bob Ford, for whom Cahill labored at Oakmont and Seminole. Additionally, Jack Druga and Pat Gunning, who employed him as an assistant at Shinnecock Hills and Kittansett, respectively. And Dan Hager and Don Legislation in Florida, each of whom guided Cahill as a junior golfer, with Hager being the one who planted the concept within the teenager’s head of at some point changing into a membership skilled.
“I discovered a lot simply listening to those guys and watching them do their jobs,” Cahill stated. “They taught me play and follow. Easy methods to suppose on a golf course, and run a golf operation.”
For a lot of PGA membership professionals, mentoring is a crucial a part of their work. And in these fellows, Cahill had a few of the highest within the recreation.
Born within the spring of 1991, Cahill grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, the youngest of two sons. His father is from County Sligo, Eire, which is why Cahill has an Irish passport in addition to one from the US.
That connection to Ireland additionally would possibly clarify his purple hair and his very personable nature.
“My dad and mom performed a bit of,” he stated. “However my curiosity got here largely from watching golf tournaments on TV. In time, my father began dropping me off at a public course in Boynton Seaside. He’d depart me there within the morning and decide me up on the finish of the day after giving me cash for hen fingers for lunch. Dan Hager was the skilled, and he gave me classes as he additionally saved a watch on me. There have been different children, too, and we’d play golf and have chipping contests.”
Cahill discovered the sport to be lots of enjoyable.
“I favored the main target you wanted with the intention to play properly,” he stated. “And that no two pictures throughout a spherical had been ever the identical. That made me wish to grasp each type of shot.”
Cahill additionally performed a bit in Eire.
“We’d go over there in the summertime to go to household,” he stated. “I by no means performed any of the well-known hyperlinks. However there was an area monitor known as Tubbercurry, with 9 holes and two units of tees, and I’d tee it up there on a regular basis.”
Clearly, Cahill discovered rather a lot at FSU and in addition in his jobs after faculty. And proper after Seminole hosted the Walker Cup in 2021, he succeeded Ford as head golf skilled there.
Cahill was additionally drawn to the sport as a spectator and remembers his dad taking him to the Gamers Championship as a child. “He cherished Pádraig Harrington, and so did I, and we adopted him round that day. I used to be even capable of meet Pádraig, and we took an image collectively,” he stated.
By the point Cahill was 15, he was enjoying at a fairly excessive degree for his age.
“Don Legislation had opened a driving vary in Boca Raton, and I began working there for him,” he stated. “He would drive me to junior tournaments and speak to me about greatest put together for them.
“As for Hager, he was my swing coach. He’s the one who taught me play.”
The work Cahill did with each of these PGA professionals paid off, and after qualifying for the 2008 U.S. Junior Newbie at Shoal Creek, when he was 17, he made it into the 2009 U.S. Newbie at Southern Hills (although he didn’t make it to match play after two rounds of qualifying).
Cahill has been immersed in golf from a younger age, posing for a photograph as a boy with Pádraig Harrington (left) after which re-enacting the shot at this yr’s PGA Championship.
Despite his aggressive successes, nevertheless, Cahill got here to appreciate that changing into a tour skilled was not within the playing cards.
“It crossed my thoughts,” he stated. “However ultimately, I made a decision to focus on my research. That’s how I ended up at Florida State, which had a really robust PGM program.”
It turned out to be an excellent choice, and never solely due to the schooling he acquired within the classroom.
“We needed to safe summer season internships as a part of the PGM program, and I began fascinated about who could be the most effective individual to work for and be taught from,” Cahill stated. “The title that saved popping up was Bob Ford, who on the time held the pinnacle jobs at Oakmont and Seminole. A buddy who had labored for Bob at Oakmont launched us, and I ended up working there as an intern after my junior yr.”
Cahill graduated within the fall of 2013.
“I had stayed in contact with Bob and requested about coming to work at Oakmont within the spring,” Cahill stated. “He wished to know what I used to be doing for the winter and advised I come to Seminole to caddie and work in exterior operations.”
So Cahill did, and for the following couple of years, the lad who had grown up enjoying solely public golf toiled at two of essentially the most prestigious non-public golf equipment in America – and for one of the crucial extremely regarded membership professionals of the trendy period.
By these positions, Cahill met a pair of PGA professionals who additionally would have a huge impact in his golf life.
One was Gunning, who was an assistant at Seminole when he assumed the pinnacle job on the Kittansett Membership in Marion, Massachusetts. And the opposite was Druga, one other former protégé of Ford’s who had turn out to be head skilled at Shinnecock Hills.
“I went to work for Pat at Kittansett in 2015 and 2016 after which to Shinnecock in kind of the identical capability for Jack for 3 seasons after that,” he stated. “And I saved working at Seminole within the winters.
“I discovered a lot in all these jobs. Jack is the most effective professional I’ve ever seen from an organizational standpoint, and Pat picked up lots of that from working for Jack through the years. It was additionally so useful watching Pat in his first yr as a head skilled at Kittansett and seeing him adapt and modify to that place.
“And with Bob, it was nice to see how he mingles and mixes with folks and ensure members and visitors alike are having an excellent time.”
Clearly, Cahill discovered rather a lot at FSU and in addition in his jobs after faculty. And proper after Seminole hosted the Walker Cup in 2021, he succeeded Ford as head golf skilled there.
“I keep down right here yr spherical,” he stated. “I did the North-South commute for eight years, however that was sufficient. We’re closed right here for 5 months, so it’s good to take a while to recharge the batteries. And there may be nonetheless lots of work to do, even within the offseason.”
One of many issues Cahill did within the offseason this yr was compete within the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. He certified by tying for second within the PGA Skilled Championship and says he performed fairly properly at Oak Hill, lacking the lower by 5 pictures.
“It was an incredible expertise, being on the vary subsequent to Brooks (Koepka) and Rory (McIlroy) and enjoying in the identical match as these guys,” Cahill stated.
However maybe the spotlight was having fun with a follow spherical with Harrington and re-creating that photograph they took collectively on the Gamers greater than 20 years earlier than.
“Once I first began enjoying golf, essentially the most thrilling time of the day for me was driving right into a course,” Cahill stated. “I nonetheless really feel that method.
“There’s additionally one thing concerning the folks this sport attracts and the locations it’s performed. And to be a component it day-after-day could be very, very particular.”
Images: Courtesy Matt Cahill
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