{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | The journey for a PGA member is not always an uncomplicated one, and the route many take through their careers is rarely direct. But as uncertain as the road may have been at times for Matt Viguerie, he nonetheless found a way to rise to the upper reaches of the game, first as the head golf professional at Mission Viejo Country Club outside of Los Angeles and most recently at the California Golf Club of San Francisco, where he holds a similar position.
To be sure, there were plenty of big moments along the way for Viguerie (pronounced VIG-ary). Earning a bachelor’s degree in 1994 from New Mexico State in marketing and professional golf management, for one. He also managed to win a handful of tournaments of modest import as he taught golf after college in Scottsdale, Arizona, and worked toward becoming a PGA of America member.
But the man endured plenty of down days as well. Like the time Viguerie’s left arm hurt so much from the tendinitis he had developed working out with a weighted club that he could barely make a swing. The missed cuts on the mini-tours, too. He also caddied for a spell in the wake of 9/11 when a first assistant’s job in Hawaii fell through after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Viguerie even started working part-time for a medical device company. “I was teaching full-time, and I absolutely loved to teach,” he said. “But I needed the money and stability the other job gave me, even though I hated working in an office. So, I started teaching only on weekends.”
But things fell nicely into place when Viguerie assumed the top job at Mission Viejo in autumn 2008. Six years later, he moved to the Cal Club. At 48 years old and the father of two girls, he prospers as its head professional to this day.
“Matt’s a very good teacher and communicator and has helped a lot of our members with their games,” said Al Jamieson, a Marine and past president at that prestigious retreat as well as a former club champion. “He runs his department well, and the quality of everyone on his staff, whether they are assistants, interns or kids in the bag room, is impressive. He knows how to run a tournament just right as well, and he has the interpersonal skills to deal with a place that has its fair share of egos.”
Jamieson added: “And Matt can play. He scores well here all the time, and the 63 he shot some years ago at Bandon Dunes remains the course record there.”
Born in central Texas, Viguerie spent his teenage years in the Northern California city of Los Gatos. And it was there that he developed his interest in golf.
“My grandfather would take me to Peter Hay, the par-3 course named after the old Pebble Beach professional, and I’d play 100 holes a day, stopping only to eat cookies in the golf shop when I got hungry.”
Matt Viguerie
“One day I decided to sneak onto the course at La Rinconada Country Club,” Viguerie said. “But the head professional there, Charlie Eddie, caught me and asked what I was doing. I was 12 years old, wearing my best Larry Mize outfit, and I said that I loved the game and needed a place to play. Charlie looked me over and said he needed a kid to pick the range on Mondays and Tuesdays. He could not pay me, he added, but would let me play and practice as much as I wanted.”
Soon after, Viguerie also started playing local public courses with his father. “I’d also bring my clubs with me when I went to visit my grandparents,” Viguerie recalled. “They were down in Carmel, and I’d ride a Greyhound bus there and stay with them for a while. My grandfather would take me to Peter Hay, the par-3 course named after the old Pebble Beach professional, and I’d play 100 holes a day, stopping only to eat cookies in the golf shop when I got hungry.”
Viguerie certainly developed a hunger for golf and says that he boasted a scratch handicap by the time he was 15 years old. “I played a fair amount of junior golf,” he said. “I liked competing, and I really liked practicing and taking lessons. I’d hit balls for hours.”
Not surprisingly, Viguerie wanted nothing more as a high schooler than to play the PGA Tour. “But my father thought it would be a good idea for me to go to college, so I had an alternative if competitive golf did not work out,” he said. “At the time, there were only a few schools that offered (PGA Golf Management) programs, and one of those was New Mexico State. Again, if the tour did not work out, I figured I could always teach.”
Viguerie played on the golf team all four years that he attended New Mexico State. One of his teammates was Rich Beem, who would turn pro in 1994 and go on to win the 2002 PGA Championship and two other events on the PGA Tour.
There’s no doubt Viguerie would have liked to follow a similar path. But it turned out that instruction and running an elite golf program was his destiny.
He built his chops at a trio of facilities in Southern California, beginning with Spanish Hills Country Club and continuing with stints at the Nike Golf Learning Center at the Lake Forest Golf and Practice Center, and at Shorecliffs Golf Club.
Then came the offer from Mission Viejo, where his students included current PGA Tour professional Beau Hossler. “I spent seven years there and really loved it,” Viguerie said. “We did 40,000 to 50,000 rounds a year and always seemed to have a lot going on. It really accelerated my growth as a golf professional.”
The experience also made Viguerie a very attractive candidate to the people at the Cal Club, which is a historic, golf-only facility which boasts a highly rated course that counts Alister MacKenzie and Kyle Phillips among its designers. And the club chose Viguerie to be head professional from a pool of 170 applicants.
It was a well-deserved triumph and the latest in what has been an interesting ride as a PGA golf professional.
E-Mail john