By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
You may recall reading Kelley Brooke’s great article in our March Golf Range Magazine issue on excelling in golf as a woman despite the industry’s male dominance and lack of diversity over the years. She highlighted some of the challenges women have faced in golf and offered optimism about the opportunities available in the future.
This month, we’ll celebrate Brooke’s first Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional award and place a broader focus on her life and career, how she got her start in golf and the people who were by her side to provide guidance and mentorship.
Brooke’s path in golf was forged early in her life growing up in Iowa. Her parents put a putter in her crib and she had a set of plastic golf clubs when she was just learning to walk. She played competitive junior golf and strove to get to her parent’s level – her mom was a city champion and club champion and her dad was a single-digit handicap golfer. She recalls all three of them winning their respective competitions on the same day, along with her grandfather who took the senior championship.
Brooke played at the University of Iowa on a full scholarship and then spent a year on a professional mini-tour. She says it wasn’t for her, and she decided that she’d dedicate her passion to teaching.
“When I started teaching in 1993, I made a conscious choice not to let certain challenges get in my way,” she explains. “I pulled out an index card and reverse-engineered my plan. I decided that in 10 years I would own my own facility and therefore jump over the industry obstacles that I was faced with. I then constructed a plan that would allow me to achieve my goal. Rather than relying on others to shape my career, I took control of it myself by analyzing the industry in New York City, finding holes and filling those holes. I found that women and junior golf was almost non-existent in NYC.”
Brooke worked as an independent contractor at a golf range on Staten Island, and in addition to giving private lessons, she worked on her “Index Card Plan.” She started the NYC Junior Golf Club, a not-for-profit that provided instruction, league play and tournaments for NYC youth. She also started the Police Athletic League Golf Program for 4,000 economically challenged kids. Additionally, she created women’s clinics, leagues and tournaments.
“You see, by giving back, I circumvented the old boys’ club restrictions and built a resume worthy of winning the rights to operate my own facility,” she boasts.
In 2003, ten years after creating her “Index Card Plan,” she won the rights to operate Brooklyn Golf Center and Riis Park Golf Course, both federal properties. Since then she’s operated four other large golf venues. Today, Kelley is the CEO of Brooke Management Group, operating the five golf courses at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York and Montauk Downs Golf Course on the eastern end of Long Island. She also recently earned the contracts to manage Merrick Golf Course and Lido Beach Golf Course, both also on Long Island.
“Although I still spend most of my day teaching, I am still responsible for ensuring well-run operations across all of our facilities and golf courses,” Brooke says.
Her purview includes the golf shop, driving range, player development programming, the golf cart fleet and caddies, with golf course maintenance and tee times being handled by the State of New York or municipality.
In addition to her parent’s and grandfather’s encouragement, Brooke says Butch Harmon was a family friend and a big influence on her getting into the business. After college, she moved to Texas to learn the ropes from Harmon, one of the true legends in golf instruction, player development and professional development.
She also credits Scott Bunker, now the PGA of America Director of Golf at Red Mountain Ranch Country Club in Mesa, Arizona, with helping to develop her playing skills as her golf pro growing up.
Kelley Brooke was the 2018 LPGA Golf Professional of the Year and is the Secretary of the Northeast Section.
“Who knows what the future holds?” she asks. With all her accomplishments, it’s really whatever she wants it to.
