My PGA qualification was the gateway to the world for me

For Kelan McDonagh, his American dream started with a five-minute conversation in Lahinch in 2016. 

While studying the PGA Training Programme, McDonagh was working in Lahinch that summer and a chance conversation with an American visitor turned his dreams into a reality and he has gone on to do great things as Director of Instruction at Metedeconk National Golf Club. 

The Athlone native had always wanted to work in the golf industry in the United States and he knew that doing the PGA qualification would be the doorway to doing that. But he needed the key to get in the door and it was duly handed to him. 

“I was on the range and an American on the course came up and introduced himself to me and straight up asked what I wanted to do with my life. He said I could be as crazy as I wanted, so I said I wanted to work and live in the US in the golf industry. 

“I wrote my name, email and number on a Lahinch scorecard and he said I would hear back from someone in a couple of weeks. When a few weeks went by I thought it was too good to be true but in late September I got a phone call from a club called Fiddlers Elbow in New Jersey. 

“They invited me over for four days to see the property. This is all from a five minute chat with a stranger back in June. I flew out in October and met everybody and they sponsored me for a visa after I finished the PGA qualification.” 

McDonagh always looked destined for a golf career in some capacity. 

The now 35-year-old took up the game when he was eight years old, caddying for his father at the weekends in Athlone Golf Club before taking it seriously aged 13. 

McDonagh managed to make himself a stalwart of Connacht underage panels during his teenage years before getting selected for Irish Boys panels. 

A talented amateur, McDonagh won the Irish Youths in 2009 and Mullingar Scratch Cup in 2010 either side of representing Ireland at the 2009 Home Internationals in Hillside, Liverpool. 

But McDonagh was unsure about what he wanted to do. The lure of the professional game never took his fancy so he worked in the banking industry for two years before finally deciding that golf was the path for him. 

“One morning I was walking into work and I said to myself I didn’t fancy doing this anymore so I went on to the PGA website and there was an opening in Tullamore Golf Club with Bernard Quigley.  

“He gave me some great insight into what the life of a PGA Professional is.” 

The move from Tullamore to Lahinch in 2016 proved to be pivotal in his golfing journey however, and McDonagh had already had a love affair with the golf course having played regularly in the South of Ireland and was once a beaten finalist. 

But Lahinch will forever be remembered as the place where his life changed and with a golfing instructor job at Fiddlers Elbow in New Jersey waiting for him, he moved from Lahinch to the Golf Ireland Academy in Maynooth for two and a half years to finish his PGA qualifications. 

Then in June of 2019 he was off to live the American dream. 

“You need the PGA qualification to work in the industry properly. It’s a license to go anywhere. When I moved here in 2019 the Hall of Fame Director of Instruction at Fiddlers Elbow, Mike Adams, took me under his wing,” explains McDonagh. 

“He taught me all his ways. Everything to do with the golf swing I learned and understood before he told me to go out on my own. He got me some interviews and that’s how I ended up as director of instruction at Metedeconk National Golf Club. 

McDonagh has excelled in his six years Stateside and has been named on the Golf Digest ‘Best in State’ Instructors list and last year he was named on the ‘Best Young Teachers in America. 

“It’s pretty cool to be honest. When I think back to my time in Ireland doing my PGA qualification, the idea of moving to America was my only option to be honest. I just take one day at a time. 

“On the hour, every hour I am giving 100% of myself. If you give a good golf lesson, word of mouth spreads so the lists are definitely great but they are not just given to you they come from doing the hard work.  

“Moving to the USA has been a lifechanging situation.” 

McDonagh was recently granted US citizenship meaning his dreams have become a reality and having dabbled in casual work with Korn Ferry and LPGA Tour professionals, he hopes to keep progressing in his career.