Learning The Tools Of The Trade: Noonan, Sparrow Enjoying Their Time Within Penn State's Professional Golf Management Program

Sean Noonan wakes up every day just waiting to get to class at Penn State.

That’s because the 2019 Hampton Bays graduate gets to immerse himself in his favorite sport, golf, just about every day as part of his professional golf management major at the State College, Pennsylvania, campus.

Noonan, 2019 Southampton graduate Luke Collum and 2018 Westhampton Beach graduate Noah Sparrow are all part of the program, and it’s probably safe to say that joining the major has been one of the best moves they’ve each made in their early lives so far.

“My junior year, I wanted to be a science teacher in high school,” Noonan, a five-year varsity golfer at Hampton Bays, said. “I didn’t really know much about the golf program at Penn State until I went on a visit there and set up a tour with a professor. I learned a lot there about what it is and that was it.

“Outside of golf, I don’t think a lot of people know this major exists,” he continued. “What’s great about it is you can go and do a wide range of things after you graduate, from being an assistant pro at a golf club, or you can just get a business degree from it. But it’s so much more golf oriented. You learn everything from giving a lesson to properly running a golf shop. But I know people have taken this and gone on to be a general manager of a golf club. And there is 100 percent job placement upon graduation.”

According to the PGM course program from Penn State, the PGA of America has accredited the school’s professional golf management program since 1990. And while the program, “prepares students for a career in the business of golf,” it has a strong business focus and draws from several nationally recognized academic disciplines on campus, including hospitality management, turfgrass management, recreation, park and tourism management in addition to general education courses. Students also gain membership with the PGA of America as a Class “A” PGA Professional upon graduation.

While the major is geared toward golf, students have gone on to have careers in other industries, such as other sports, entertainment, business and entrepreneurship, finance, travel and recreation.

Included in the program are trips to some of the world’s best courses, including spring break trips to Scotland and Bandon Dunes, Oregon. There is a selection program that can be quite tough, though. Scotland, for instance, is one of the most sought after trips by students because it includes playing on one of the most historic courses in the world, St. Andrews, referred to as the “home of golf.”

With less than 30 students chosen out of the 130 or so in the program, the selection process is done on a first come, first served basis, based on how many credits a student has completed. This typically allows for more seniors to go on the trip than underclassmen, but Noonan, a junior, made sure to get his name on the list as early as he could.

This Friday morning, Noonan, along with Sparrow, will be heading to Scotland, where they’ll immerse themselves in the country’s history and culture, studying golf course architecture and facility design while actually playing golf on each course they visit just about every day during the weeklong excursion.

“I live with three other guys who are in the program, so all four of us are going and all we’ve talked about the past two weeks is this trip. I was walking out this morning and said to the guys, ‘We leave in five days.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, we know.’”

“I had a lot of hope that I would be making the list to go, but I didn’t know how many seniors were going to sign up,” Noonan added. “I was trying to figure it all out, like, who will be going, who may not be going. It was easy to pick out the juniors because I am one, so I had a good idea of who was and who wasn’t going, but I got kind of lucky there weren’t too many seniors who signed up. After I saw my name, I was more than happy to be on the list.”

Sparrow is no stranger to Scotland, having spent his first three-month internship at Royal Dornoch Golf Club his freshman year. He was actually the first PGM student from Penn State to have an internship abroad, which has led to him starting the first-ever study abroad program within the major.

For someone who admitted he wasn’t sure he was even going to attend college while he was still in high school, Sparrow, a Remsenburg resident, said he’s thoroughly enjoyed his time at Penn State and he’s already got his first job lined up when he graduates this year — he’ll be an assistant golf pro at Cape Kidnappers Golf Course on New Zealand starting in November.

“I’m loving every part of the PGM program here. I’m very happy with my decision to come here,” Sparrow said. “I’ve created a program here where we reach out to other universities abroad and try and connect with more people overseas. The one thing I found in all of my traveling with this program is that golf memberships are really cheap in other areas of the world. I’m one of the youngest American members at Royal Dornoch, so I’m trying to get more people to go overseas and really see what’s out there.”

One thing that the PGM program boasts is its internships. While three and a half years of the four year course work is done in the classroom, it’s also required that the students complete 16 months of an internship, which is a lot when compared to some other majors.

Noonan just recently found out that he landed his big summer internship at Los Angeles Country Club, being one of just two students out of the many that applied selected. He said that Penn State receives emails from any one of 300 different courses throughout the country asking for interns, and being that the director of instruction at the club is a Penn State alum and his mentor, that may have helped, Noonan said. But having previously worked as a caddie at Shinnecock Hills, and elsewhere, also helped.

Noonan heads to the West Coast in May and will be there until about Thanksgiving.

“I always wanted to be at that high end club since it’s where I’ve grown up, where I live,” he explained. “At the same time, I wanted to get away from Long Island. I wanted to go somewhere warm the whole time, somewhere near water, not someplace inland like in Iowa. L.A. wasn’t my first thought, but it is open year round, whereas back home, come like Election Day, all of the courses are closed. So I kind of kept an open mind and thought the West Coast could be fun, and I was lucky enough to be one of the two going.

“It should be a good time. I’m excited to get out there.”