The PGA Master Professional Program was established in 1969 to recognize PGA of America Members who make a significant effort to improve themselves as golf professionals and maintain the highest degree of excellence for themselves and their operations. As of press time, 478 individuals have achieved PGA Master Professional status since the program began. For more information about the program, log on to PGA.org or email PGAMEMBEREDU@pgahq.com, or call 866-866-3382 and select option 6.
The highest designation a PGA of America Golf Professional can achieve is PGA Master Professional status. The program was recently updated as part of the PGA Certified Professional Program to provide additional support to those hoping to reach this rarified achievement. Pursing this designation allows applicants to study in the career path they’ve chosen – Executive Management, Golf Operations or Teaching & Coaching – and, after being employed for 10 years, an individual can apply for the PGA Master Professional program through the PGA Education department.
Once in the program, candidates will serve as a mentor to five PGA Certified Professionals while being assigned a mentor of their own from the roster of current PGA Master Professionals. We recently talked with PGA Master Professional candidate Heather Angell and her mentor, PGA Master Professional Ed Ibarguen, about what it takes to complete the curriculum and how having a mentor helps the process.
Ibarguen, the national 1995 Bill Strausbaugh Award recipient and winner of multiple awards in the Carolinas PGA Section, became the 86th PGA Master Professional when his thesis – “Your Future Career as a PGA of America Golf Professional” – was approved in 1991.
“I was tremendously impacted by PGA of America Members who had already achieved PGA Master Professional status, like Gary Wiren, John Gerring, Michael Hebron, Mark Darnell, Bill Eschenbrenner and Don Kotnik, who are all PGA educators who set the standard by giving back to fellow members by volunteering their time,” says Ibarguen, the PGA of America Director of Golf and General Manager at Duke University Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina. “After becoming a Class A PGA Member in 1983, I immediately began fulfilling my PGA Master Professional requirements, and completing the process in April 1991 was a career milestone and one of my proudest PGA moments.”
Ibarguen has since helped mentor several of his peers through the PGA Master Professional process, including 2026 PGA Golf Professional of the Year Brian A. Crowell, 2024 PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year Joe Hallett and 2016 PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year Mike Adams. He recently began mentoring Heather Angell, the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Fiddler’s Creek Golf Club in Naples, Florida, as she navigates the PGA Master Professional process.
“Heather and I have just begun the process, and she’s already a very active and excellent golf coach, and is pursuing her PGA Master Professional status in Teaching & Coaching after considering selecting the Golf Operations path,” Ibarguen says. “She is fully committed and I will help her through every step of the process, up to a final presentation and live lesson at the Home of the PGA in Frisco.”
Angell has known Ibarguen since she was on the golf team at the University of North Carolina – Ibarguen’s alma mater – making them a natural pair as mentor and mentee.
“I am excited to work with Ed as I pursue my PGA Master Professional status,” Angell says. “Our career paths have been similar in that we’ve both worked with PGA Golf Management University Program students. He’s the perfect mentor for me.”
Angell is an education aficionado who completed a master’s degree in sport management while competing on tour, and became a PGA Certified Professional in the areas of Teacher & Coaching, Player Development, Golf Operations and Executive Management once she became a full-time PGA of America Golf Professional.
“I am a lifelong learner who’s always wanting to be better in my craft and give my students the best instruction,” Angell says. “Becoming a PGA Master Professional is just a natural progression in my pursuit to become the best instructor I can be.”
Ibarguen believes Angell will successfully navigate the process and enjoy the benefits of PGA Master Professional status the way he has for more than three decades.
“I can’t begin to describe the overall positive impact being a PGA Master Professional has had on my professional career,” Ibarguen says. “It’s helped differentiate me among other golf instructors, as well as identify me as unique in the eyes of thousands of students over the three decades following my achievement, and as a PGA of America Golf Professional who always wants to continue to im prove my knowledge and skills.”