Cat Slade has been involved in golf at Bethpage State Park for years.
“I originally started as a member of the Kelley Brooke Golf Channel Academy for two years in around 2019, and then I started volunteering and I continued with volunteering for two years, and then I have worked for the last three years,” said Slade. “So I’ve been here for a very long time.
On Saturday at Bethpage Black, the 19-year-old from East Rockaway was one of 250 locals who participated in the PGA of America’s career exploration day ahead of the Ryder Cup which begins on Friday.
As someone who knows the grounds and recently discovered that she wants to pursue a career in golf, Slade — a sophomore on the Adelphi women’s golf team and the 2024 Newsday Golfer of the Year at Kellenberg — had a surreal experience.
“I can’t even begin to describe,” she said. “I’ve had a smile on my face for the last four hours. I can’t tell you a time that I remember that happened last. It is breathtaking to be here. And I’m very grateful to have all of these people, and it’s great to learn everything we have today, the backgrounds of so many people. It takes a lot of people to get here in marketing and sales and just the workers building, and I’m so grateful to learn everything today.”
The free event, which included high school and college students and those looking for a career change, featured stops at the 61,880-square foot Ryder Cup Shops tent, the driving range, the media center and the stadium seating above the 18th green and first tee. Attendees heard from several PGA of America officials, including director of recruiting Chris Kulinski, recruiting and member engagement specialist Matt Hiner and championship director Bryan Karns among others.
“I’m a little biased, obviously, but golf is growing like crazy right now,” Hiner said. “Golf is a $104 billion industry with over 2 million jobs available, and we’re just trying to highlight some of those pathways. If you have a desire to work as a head pro or an assistant pro or in marketing or finance, there’s a need for those types of roles all over the industry. And there’s definitely opportunities, no matter where you look.
“So that’s really what we’re hoping to do, is highlight, ‘Hey, where can I get started? What do I need to do? Who do I need to talk to?’ And we’re hopefully here to be that resource for those people.”
Among the high school golfers at Bethpage Black were Michael Lupo and Zack Henschel, both 14-year-olds on the MacArthur boys team.
“Our high school coach, he actually posted it in the Google Classroom,” Henschel said of how he learned about the day. “So I clicked on that and I emailed Matt Hiner, and I was able to come here, and I thought it was really cool.”
Though he started playing only three months ago, Lupo wants to pursue a career in golf. He said a perfect future job would be as a golf course superintendent. Experiences like Saturday opened doors toward that path.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Three months, I never thought I would be where I am, what I’m doing. It’s an amazing experience.”
Slade coaches young golfers at Bethpage. Coaching ultimately could be the professional route she takes, but Saturday presented options she previously had not thought about.
“I’ve seen so many opportunities come about today, and that there are so many other jobs that I wasn’t aware of,” she said. “So today definitely opened my eyes a little bit that I could do something else with golf, and it doesn’t have to be just teaching. But I think it might start there.”
The PGA of America’s career exploration days started ahead of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and only 20 people attended. Now, the younger generation’s interest in the golf industry has never been greater.
“This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the different career paths in this industry,” Hiner said. “Honestly, we’re just hoping to kind of light a fire and plant a seed and hopefully see it grow from there.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins’ teams.
