How Kerry golfer Sean Quinlivan landed the top job at Shinnecock Hills

Irish golf professionals hold down some of the top jobs in the game and Kerry man Sean Quinlivan is the latest to hit the big time following his recent appointment as head professional at Shinnecock Hills

Sean Quinlivan set to be head professional at famed Shinnecock Hills.

Shinnecock Hills. It’s an institution in American golf — the oldest incorporated golf club in America (1891) and one of five founding members of the USGA.

Set on sandy terrain in Southampton on Long Island, it stands alongside Augusta National, Pine Valley, Merion, and Cypress Point as one of America’s most exclusive clubs.

From January 1, it will have an Irishman as its head professional — just the fourth in its entire history — as he continues a remarkable journey that has taken him from caddying in Ballybunion to heading up one of golf’s great places.

Listowel native Sean Quinlivan was one of the top Irish amateurs of the late 1990s, winning the East of Ireland and the Mullingar Scratch Trophy in 1997 before reluctantly turning down the chance to win a full Irish cap in that year’s Home Internationals so he could try for his European Tour card in the clashing Q-School pre-qualifier.

His journey in the professional game saw him play in four Irish Opens and make 24 Challenge Tour appearances and several trips to Q-School on both sides of the pond.

He played the Buy.com Tour in the US (now the Korn Ferry Tour) but also dabbled in the Canadian Tour, the PGA Tour Latinoamérica and the mini-tours in Florida before deciding to move into club golf.

“I had made a deal with myself that if I was not on the main tour by the time I was 30, I would pull the plug on it and get into this side of the business and that’s what I did,” recalled Quinlivan, whose passion for the game was evident from the time he decided to forgo a family holiday to compete in the 1991 Munster Boys Championship at Cork Golf Club and won the title.

“I got to the second stage of Q-School again that year, but I didn’t progress to finals and at that point, my sponsors had just bought a golf course. Eoghan O’Connell was part of that group and I started my career in the club side of the business with those guys.”

With fellow Munster man O’Connell guiding him, Quinlivan worked his way up the PGA of America ladder, learning the ropes at The Fox Club in Florida before becoming an assistant professional at nearby Lost Tree Club in North Palm Beach. He then went back to the Fox Club as head professional for a season and a half before moving to Piping Rock Club on Long Island after a friend suggested he’d be a great fit for the job.

From 1 January, he will be on the books at Shinnecock Hills as its head professional and it’s a pinch-yourself moment for the affable Kerryman, who is just one of many Irish professionals achieving great things far from home.

To put his appointment in perspective, he replaces Pittsburgh native Jack Druga, who in 2007 replaced Don McDougall, who had been the head pro for 45 years. Prior to McDougall, Charlie Thom had been the head professional at Shinnecock for 55 years.

“I was the third guy in 100 years,” said Druga, whose duties included playing 36 holes with Tiger Woods when he was getting ready for the 2018 US Open captured by Brooks Koepka.

“Thirty-six holes with Tiger on your own course, prepping for the US Open?” Druga said. “You can’t dream that up.”

Landing one of the biggest jobs in US golf is the stuff of dreams for 46-year-old Quinlivan, who started his love affair with the game by caddying at Ballybunion.

“I’m absolutely thrilled; it’s a big job over here for certain,” he said. “For me, this would be my version of winning a major, it really is. It’s a huge honour and we are humbled to be, I think, only the fourth head professional in the history of the club.

“It’s a club that has hosted five US Opens, the second-ever US Amateur, the US Women’s Amateur, and the Walker Cup. It is certainly an iconic club in the United States, and you could argue that it is one of the world’s iconic championship courses.”

Shinnecock has a linksy quality that makes it play more like one of the great seaside courses of Ireland and Britain and Quinlivan tries to get home often with his wife Heather and daughter Kate and reconnect with his roots.

“I am still good buddies with David Higgins and Graham Spring and we connect anytime I am home,” he said. “I was born and raised in Listowel and played my golf in Ballybunion, caddying there before falling in love with playing when I was 13 or 14. All I wanted to do was play golf and I still enjoy playing. It’s still a big part of my life.”

He has hugely fond memories of his amateur days in Ireland, especially that magical summer of 1997 when he held off Garth McGimpsey at Baltray and then ran away with the Mullingar Scratch Cup.

He’d threatened to give up the game completely not long before that breakthrough, so much had it deteriorated during a two-and-a-half-year stint at the University of Central Florida. But the former Boys and Youths international heeded his mother’s advice and decided to visit the Leadbetter Academy at Mount Juliet, where she was heading for a ladies clinic.

“She said to me, ‘Why not go down and see what they do there’. You’re quitting golf anyway, so what’s the worst that can happen’.”

Quinlivan hooked up with coach Nick Bradley and went on to have a stellar summer, outgunning McGimpsey for the East at Baltray before winning Mullingar by four shots, setting a new course record of 65 in the third round to lead by six before easing over the line.

It was an era in Irish golf when Pádraig Harrington had just turned professional and the likes of Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy, and US-based Keith Nolan and Richie Coughlan were all taking the plunge.

“It’s always a guess,” he said when asked why his tour career never took off. “I think I gave it a fair shot. My gut feeling is that it was most likely my mindset, my self-belief.”

He will get to see the greats of the game tee it up at Shinnecock Hills in the US Open in 2026, but the arrival of a major championship is just part of the job at one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.

“Shinnecock Hills, in addition to being the first golf club on Long Island, the first in America to be incorporated and the first to have a clubhouse, assured itself one further distinction: it was the first golf club to establish a waiting list,” the great Herbert Warren Wind wrote of the club (which included women from day one) in his history of American golf.

“My job involves running day-to-day golf because in the US, it’s the club pro who runs the golf events,” explained Sean, who must also teach and play with members. “So you have your club events, which is really just your member events, and then you have outings and then you have teaching.”

Merchandising is another huge part of the job, but it’s people skills that are most highly valued, and Irish professionals have been particularly successful in the US in that regard with the appointment of former Portmarnock Golf Club assistant Rory Sweeney as head professional at The Los Angeles Country Club a case in point.

“The Irish tend to be fairly easy to get along with and ultimately we’re in that industry where we’re trying to let people have a good time, so I rate those interpersonal skills pretty highly,” added Quinlivan, who has helped fellow Kerryman JD Guiney establish himself in the US.

“JD has worked with me for the past five years and this winter he’s working at The Grove, Michael Jordan’s place in Florida and next year he’s working for a really close buddy of mine, Darrell Kestner at Deepdale here on Long Island.

“When we are putting together our teams, one of the first things that we ask ourselves is, do people like to be around that person. People love to be around JD. And that’s what we bring to the table. It’s second nature to us.”

Shinnecock’s season does not start until late April, but Quinlivan knows how proud they are of one of the most iconic courses in the game, and he hopes he can leave his mark in some way.

“I have big shoes to fill replacing Jack and the pros that came before me, but goal one is to rise to the standard that was there before me,” he said. “Whatever I can bring to the table in addition to that, I will do my utmost to do that. But in the beginning, my role is to get a feel for the culture of the club and the people, do the job put before me and work with the incredible team they have in place. Over time, if I can add value, that’s the ultimate goal.”

Success in golf is not always measured by what you achieve on tour, but Quinlivan would encourage all those dreaming of making it big to give it a shot.

“I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t roll the dice,” he said. “There’s no way I would be where I am today without the experiences that have led me to here, and so I am grateful for every moment I was grinding out there.

“I think you learn a lot about yourself, so if someone was to ask my advice about trying to make it on tour, I’d say, ‘yes, absolutely, go for it’. But you’ve got to work really hard and grind pretty hard because there’s a lot of guys out there trying to do the same thing.”

Quinlivan can’t wait for the 2022 season to come around.

“As I said earlier, this for me was my major,” he said. “If you had said it to me six weeks ago that I was going to be head professional at Shinnecock Hills, I would’ve said you were crazy. It’s exciting, but it’s humbling. We can’t wait.”