Just 32 years old, Matt Cahill is at the top of his game. In addition to being the head professional at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, he also has proved to be a strong player, having qualified for – and played in – the 2023 PGA Championship while holding down one of the most demanding jobs in the industry.
To be sure, those achievements are testaments to his talents. But Cahill is quick to aver that his successes are also the result of the mentoring he received from PGA professionals through the years. The iconic Bob Ford, for whom Cahill worked at Oakmont and Seminole. Also, Jack Druga and Pat Gunning, who hired him as an assistant at Shinnecock Hills and Kittansett, respectively. And Dan Hager and Don Law in Florida, both of whom guided Cahill as a junior golfer, with Hager being the one who planted the idea in the youngster’s head of one day becoming a club professional.
“I learned so much just listening to these guys and watching them do their jobs,” Cahill said. “They taught me how to play and practice. How to think on a golf course, and how to run a golf operation.”
For many PGA club professionals, mentoring is an important part of their work. And in these fellows, Cahill had some of the very best in the game.
Born in the spring of 1991, Cahill grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, the youngest of two sons. His father is from County Sligo, Ireland, which is why Cahill has an Irish passport as well as one from the United States.
That connection to Eire also might explain his red hair and his very personable nature.
“My parents played a little,” he said. “But my interest came largely from watching golf tournaments on TV. In time, my father started dropping me off at a public course in Boynton Beach. He’d leave me there in the morning and pick me up at the end of the day after giving me money for chicken fingers for lunch. Dan Hager was the professional, and he gave me lessons as he also kept an eye on me. There were other kids, too, and we’d play golf and have chipping contests.”
Cahill found the game to be a lot of fun.
“I liked the focus you needed in order to play well,” he said. “And that no two shots during a round were ever the same. That made me want to master every kind of shot.”
Cahill also played a bit in Ireland.
“We’d go over there in the summer to visit family,” he said. “I never played any of the famous links. But there was a local track called Tubbercurry, with nine holes and two sets of tees, and I’d tee it up there all the time.”
Clearly, Cahill learned a lot at FSU and also in his jobs after college. And right after Seminole hosted the Walker Cup in 2021, he succeeded Ford as head golf professional there.
Cahill was also drawn to the game as a spectator and remembers his dad taking him to the Players Championship as a kid. “He loved Pádraig Harrington, and so did I, and we followed him around that day. I was even able to meet Pádraig, and we took a picture together,” he said.
By the time Cahill was 15, he was playing at a pretty high level for his age.
“Don Law had opened a driving range in Boca Raton, and I started working there for him,” he said. “He would drive me to junior tournaments and talk to me about how to best prepare for them.
“As for Hager, he was my swing coach. He’s the one who taught me how to play.”
The work Cahill did with both of those PGA professionals paid off, and after qualifying for the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur at Shoal Creek, when he was 17, he made it into the 2009 U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills (though he did not make it to match play after two rounds of qualifying).
Cahill has been immersed in golf from a young age, posing for a photo as a boy with Pádraig Harrington (left) and then re-enacting the shot at this year’s PGA Championship.
In spite of his competitive successes, however, Cahill came to realize that becoming a tour professional was not in the cards.
“It crossed my mind,” he said. “But in the end, I decided to concentrate on my studies. That’s how I ended up at Florida State, which had a very strong PGM program.”
It turned out to be a good decision, and not only because of the education he received in the classroom.
“We had to secure summer internships as part of the PGM program, and I started thinking about who would be the best person to work for and learn from,” Cahill said. “The name that kept popping up was Bob Ford, who at the time held the head jobs at Oakmont and Seminole. A friend who had worked for Bob at Oakmont introduced us, and I ended up working there as an intern after my junior year.”
Cahill graduated in the fall of 2013.
“I had stayed in touch with Bob and asked about coming to work at Oakmont in the spring,” Cahill said. “He wanted to know what I was doing for the winter and suggested I come to Seminole to caddie and work in outside operations.”
So Cahill did, and for the next couple of years, the lad who had grown up playing only public golf toiled at two of the most prestigious private clubs in America – and for one of the most highly regarded club professionals of the modern era.
Through those positions, Cahill met a pair of PGA professionals who also would have a big impact in his golf life.
One was Gunning, who was an assistant at Seminole when he assumed the head job at the Kittansett Club in Marion, Massachusetts. And the other was Druga, another former protégé of Ford’s who had become head professional at Shinnecock Hills.
“I went to work for Pat at Kittansett in 2015 and 2016 and then to Shinnecock in more or less the same capacity for Jack for three seasons after that,” he said. “And I kept working at Seminole in the winters.
“I learned so much in all those jobs. Jack is the best pro I have ever seen from an organizational standpoint, and Pat picked up a lot of that from working for Jack over the years. It was also so helpful watching Pat in his first year as a head professional at Kittansett and seeing him adapt and adjust to that position.
“And with Bob, it was great to see how he mingles and mixes with people and make sure members and guests alike are having a good time.”
Clearly, Cahill learned a lot at FSU and also in his jobs after college. And right after Seminole hosted the Walker Cup in 2021, he succeeded Ford as head golf professional there.
“I stay down here year round,” he said. “I did the North-South commute for eight years, but that was enough. We are closed here for five months, so it is nice to take a little time to recharge the batteries. And there is still a lot of work to do, even in the offseason.”
One of the things Cahill did in the offseason this year was compete in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. He qualified by tying for second in the PGA Professional Championship and says he played pretty well at Oak Hill, missing the cut by five shots.
“It was a great experience, being on the range next to Brooks (Koepka) and Rory (McIlroy) and playing in the same tournament as those guys,” Cahill said.
But perhaps the highlight was enjoying a practice round with Harrington and re-creating that photo they took together at the Players more than two decades before.
“When I first started playing golf, the most exciting time of the day for me was driving into a course,” Cahill said. “I still feel that way.
“There is also something about the people this sport attracts and the places it is played. And to be a part it every day is very, very special.”