The PGA of America is one of the largest sports organizations in the world with over 1,100 employees and around 29,000 PGA Professionals. They are based out of Palm Beach Gardens, FL but will move to Frisco, TX in 2022 when their new headquarters is complete. The PGA of America offers many types of internships and jobs all across the country from operations, marketing, diversity/inclusion, and more.
With that being said, I was fortunate enough to be able to have two different PGA internships for consecutive summers. I first interned with the Northern Texas PGA section, located in Dallas, TX in the summer of 2015. This is one of the largest sections in the country and they hired close to 20 interns to help out with the massive junior golf program they run in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
This internship taught me a lot on the tournament operations side of things as we ran over 100 junior golf tournaments during the course of the summer. It was great to build relationships with many different interns and full time staff, learning a little something different from each one. Overall, the position was an integral part of where I am in the golf business today and I have applied many of the skills learned during my time in Dallas.
The following summer I interned with the Southern Texas PGA section, in Houston, TX. This internship was a bit different in that there was only five of us, so we got a lot more hands on experience and wore different hats during our internship. Along with tournament operations, we were able to learn more things on the tournament administration side, from membership registration to tournament sign ups. Working with Bluegolf and providing the best customer service we could was very important, especially when dealing with over 3,000 junior golfers!
Having a PGA internship on your resume is a real boost to any golf job that you are applying to because the brand is so well known and the opportunities are unmatched. Experience is definitely the most important part when trying to secure a full time job so getting your feet wet in many different parts of the golf business is key and should put you in a good spot moving forward.
To learn more about the PGA of America and the internships available click here.
