Can I really do this?’: The veteran golfer revelling in his second shot as a PGA Professional
From Texas to Tbilisi, and a quarter of a century after first giving it a go, 53-year-old Steven Fraga is proof anyone can become a PGA Professional
“I wanted to finish something I’d started and to try and inspire my kids,” says Steven Fraga, leaning into his phone screen from the bays of a Tbilisi driving range.
It’s been quite a journey for the 53-year-old American – from the fairways of Waco, in Texas, to the first 18-hole golf course in the Georgian capital – spanning some 25 years.
Now a first-year Trainee on the Foundation Degree in Professional Golf Studies, combining the rigours of essay writing with his role teaching juniors and beginners as a coach at Tbilisi Hills Golf Club, Fraga says “to a certain point, it feels like I’ve been born again”.
He’d completed the first stage of the PGA of America’s programme in 2000 but didn’t finish the course – “I ended up getting married, having kids, and actually left golf altogether for a good little bit”.
Fraga forged a career as a restauranteur, but when Covid upended so many lives he moved to Eastern Europe and Tbilisi.
That geographical shift combined with his eldest daughter’s imminent return to the United States to start college, prompted a period of reflection.
“I was contemplating that,” he explained. “Thinking, ‘it’s been a long time and where’s time gone?’ It just popped in my head, ‘Man, I want to do this PGA thing again’.
“It was the thought of her leaving and thinking, ‘you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it’.
“I did a little investigating, and I saw I could do it through the PGA of Great Britain & Ireland. That started the journey all over again.”
He has found the programme both challenging and inspiring. He enjoyed the first year residential at The Belfry – “I was looking around the cohort and thought, ‘I’ve got 30 years on some of these guys’” – and a simulator exercise gave him confidence that he could hold his own.
“We were hitting five shots [with an 8-iron] and mine were going 140 to 150 yards. But as I got done, Joey (a fellow trainee with whom Fraga hit it off) says, ‘I’ve never seen that before’.
“I really didn’t pay attention to the screen at all and, when I turned round and looked at it, all my highlighted lines were almost on top of each other. He said, ‘I bet you don’t ever miss a green’”
Returning to study was also a different challenge.
“I’ve been out of any kind of formal education for years, so to start writing 2,000-word essays again: In the beginning it was, ‘can I really do this?’
“But I’ve been pushing through it, with the help of my wife Hannah, who was an education major and had been in the classroom for 10 years before we moved to Tbilisi. It's nice to have her to help out."
Modules around personal branding, and custom fitting, have made a big impression on Fraga, who admits he’s like a “sponge trying to soak all that in”.
He can’t wait to see what comes next. “I’m only a couple of months into it but it’s just so rewarding,” he said. “To a certain point, it’s like I’ve been born again.
“It’s exciting to see what I can do and it may take me a little while but eventually it will happen. The dream will come true of being a PGA Professional.
“It’s just exciting and inspires me to keep going.”
Steven Fraga was speaking ahead of the first PGA Open Day in 2026, which will be held online on April 15. For more details, and to sign up, click here.