Some PGA of America Golf Professionals find their calling on the lesson tee, dedicating themselves to helping golfers improve. Others build careers in golf operations or executive management, running facilities and overseeing businesses. Still others branch out into media, sharing their expertise with wider audiences through broadcasting or writing about the sport.
PGA Master Professional Brian A. Crowell has done all of that and more. His highly prolific and non-traditional career path has earned him the profession’s highest honor: 2026 PGA of America Golf Professional of the Year.
Crowell, 59, has spent three decades building a career that defies easy categorization. His day job is PGA of America General Manager of Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx, New York, where he oversees a staff of 150 employees at a thriving high-end daily fee golf course that hosts PGA Jr. League and PGA HOPE programming – and where he’s part of the team helping build a $4 billion-plus casino property. He also finds time to get on the lesson tee as a PGA of America Professional who’s taught thousands of students and serves on the PGA Education Committee, using the knowledge that has also served him as the author of four golf instruction books.
Crowell has also become one of the busier broadcasters in the business, working with the CBS Sports team at the Masters Tournament and PGA Championship, and hosting the weekly “On Course” show on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio with PGA of America Member Frank Darby. With so many media bona fides, it’s no surprise that Crowell became the first PGA of America Professional to serve as the President of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association.
Oh, and in his spare time, Crowell is also a musician – playing in a band with a number of golf industry professionals – and a distiller, having founded American Brick Bourbon with his son, Kevin. If this all sounds like the resumé of three different people, Crowell will tell you it’s all part of the same golf journey.
“I do tend to keep a lot of projects going at once, and that’s something I’m very proud to do, but to me it’s all about balance and variety,” says Crowell, who was elected to PGA of America Membership in 1994 and became a PGA Master Professional in 2022. “The PGA of America has presented so many doors to me, and I’ve tried to knock on all of them and see everything that golf has to provide. I would say that there’s no other industry I know that allows as much variety and as many ways to succeed as golf.”
Crowell’s entry into the golf business was inspired by a few swings with his grandfather’s clubs in his hometown of Wallkill, New York, as a pre-teen. “We had a lot of land up there, fields and woods, so we were just aiming at the field on the other side of the street from my grandparents’ house,” Crowell recalls. “I grabbed one of his old Northwesterns and was taking some swings with my dad and my grandfather, and I was pretty frustrated at first. And then I caught one clean. I think we all know that moment in time when you catch it on the sweet spot and the ball just gets small really quick. That shot took off, and I was hooked.”
Crowell’s grandfather proceeded to cut holes with coffee cans around his property, leading to impromptu matches and practice sessions before Brian’s grandmother bought him a junior membership at Osiris Country Club in Walden, New York. The game remained a passion for Crowell throughout his college years at Syracuse University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in advertising design.
Following college, Crowell took jobs as an art director in New York City and Connecticut, but didn’t find the hoped-for satisfaction from his chosen career. His golf game, however, was thriving thanks to a lesson from his buddy Paul Radetsky.
“The slice vanished, my scores dropped and my game went to another level, and I thought for the first time that maybe there was more for me in golf than just loving it as a hobby,” Crowell says. “So I called up Jim Dwyer, the PGA of America Head Professional at the club where I’d been a junior member, Osiris, and asked for his opinion on getting into golf as a PGA Professional. Jim and the whole staff gave me tons of encouragement and said, ‘If you want to do this, now is the time. And I think you should give it a try.’”
With the backing of his wife Wendy, Brian took a sizeable pay cut to leave advertising and become an assistant professional at Leewood Golf Club in Eastchester, New York, while working on becoming a PGA of America Member. That was the beginning of an epic career within the Metropolitan PGA Section, leading to positions at clubs like Sleepy Hollow Country Club, GlenArbor Golf Club, Silo Ridge Field Club and now Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point, which was Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point when Crowell came aboard in 2021.
Along the way, Crowell says his Met mentors helped shape him into the PGA of America Golf Professional he is today. That list includes Dwyer, Gene Toth, Jim O’Mara, Gene Borek, John Kennedy, Nelson Long, Darrell Kestner, Tom Henderson, Chris Kenny, Carl Alexander, Jim McLean and many more. Crowell learned the nuts and bolts of teaching, running a golf operation and managing a staff from this all-star team of New York PGA Professionals. And he also internalized one key lesson that jump-started his pursuit of experiences outside of the traditional golf professional job description.
“I learned from my mentors that one of the most important qualities of a PGA Professional is personality: creating an atmosphere and providing entertainment, and understanding that’s what we do,” Crowell says. “That connection to people is what it’s all about, and having those connections is what leads to endless opportunities.
“Whether it’s writing books, hosting radio shows, having my own show on Golf Channel and going on to NBC Sports and then CBS Sports – everything I’ve done ties into everything that came before it. So I’m just blessed to have hit that Northwestern iron on the screws in my grandfather’s backyard, because it led to tons of opportunities over the rest of my life.”
Moving From the Practice Range to the Broadcast Booth
While Crowell was building his reputation as a PGA of America Golf Professional in the Metropolitan PGA Section, another opportunity emerged that would add a new dimension to his career. Broadcasting came calling, and Crowell answered.
“I was playing the host role for a tournament, and I was having some fun at the microphone getting players ready for a shotgun start,” Crowell says. “An NBC executive was playing that day, and he pulled me aside and said, ‘You need to do this on television.’ That’s a perfect example of golf putting you in this network of people who are not only entertaining and good people, but they’re also well-connected. So just being myself started to open doors.”
Those doors have opened onto some of golf’s biggest stages. He’s appeared as a broadcaster and analyst for NBC, CBS, Golf Channel, USA and MSG, covering numerous major championships and having a regular presence as an analyst, and through “On the Range” broadcasts at the PGA Championship and Masters. Crowell will broadcast from his 16th consecutive Masters next month, followed by his 15th PGA Championship when he signs on from Aronimink Golf Club outside of Philadelphia in May. Crowell’s on-screen broadcasting work also led to his current role as host of “On Course” on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, not to mention his recurring role as a host for presentations on the PGA Industry Stage at the PGA Show.
“I’ve approached broadcasting like I have the rest of my career: You get an opportunity, you try to make it as good as you can, and you make an impact,” Crowell says. “I think what makes me different is that I like to keep moving and adding new things so I can have an impact on as many audiences as possible, which is something that golf allows us to do.”
Leading at Ferry Point
While his media work has given Crowell a platform beyond the golf course, his day-to-day focus remains on running Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point as PGA of America General Manager of the daily fee property. The Jack Nicklaus-designed municipal course in the Bronx opened in 2015 as the first new course built in New York City in a half-century and features priceless views of the city.
Crowell was brought aboard as General Manager in 2021, when the course was managed by the Trump Organization, and he stayed in the position when Bally’s took over the contract in 2023. He credits Soo Kim, the Chairman and CEO of Bally’s, Eric Trump and Discovery Land Company Founder and CEO Mike Meldman as three people who have shaped his success as a businessman and leader.
“These are the people who have been positive influences from a business standpoint,” says Crowell, a Past President of the Metropolitan PGA Section. “I’ve been given so much inspiration about how to run a project, motivate groups of people and make a difference in the community.”
Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point is likewise proving to be a place of inspiration in terms of golf and business under Crowell’s leadership as General Manager. The facility hosts PGA HOPE programming for Veterans and active-duty military members, as well as PGA Jr. League and Drive, Chip and Putt events at a busy public facility.
As GM, Crowell is also playing a key role in a massive new project at Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point. Bally’s was awarded a license to build a casino on the property in December 2025, and construction is now underway on a $4.2 billion casino hotel project.
“We have a great team here on the ground, and I’m fortunate to work with department heads that are sharp and keep things going,” Crowell says. “We’ve already created a very cool golf experience here, which I call ‘Scotland in the Bronx,’ but it’s only going to get grander when we have 600 hotel rooms here to accommodate buddy trips and golf events for years to come.”
It’s an opportunity that comes with three years of construction that will impact the golf experience at Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point, as well as ongoing work with local officials from New York City Parks and the Bronx. Crowell is ready for the intermediate challenge and the ultimate outcome.
“We’re going to have a transitional experience of golf for the next three years, but we’re committed to making it a fantastic experience for those who visit during this huge construction project,” Crowell says. “The light at the end of the tunnel is bright, and we’re all blessed to be a part of a very special chapter here in the Bronx and New York City that will begin when the casino opens in 2029 or 2030 – and blessed that Bally’s is putting an emphasis on golf as the project unfolds.”
A True Family Affair
If Crowell’s golf career seems packed with diverse pursuits, he’s also found time to explore passions beyond the course. Music has been a part of Crowell’s life since his youth, thanks to his mother Carolyn, who has been the organist at the Wallkill Reformed Church for 65 years.
“If you wonder where I get the inspiration to push myself, my mom is still trying new material and practices every day to get better,” Crowell says. “Every Sunday is a new performance for her, and I admire her tremendous dedication to personal improvement and always getting better – Mom has always set a great example for me and my sister, Lynne.”
Crowell’s late father Stewart and Carolyn were both teachers, which also made a great impact on Brian, and he’s also followed their lead in maintaining the importance of family even as his career has grown over the years. Crowell has always been driven by family. He credits his parents, his wife Wendy, and their children and grandchildren as inspirations.
“I’m so blessed with my parents and my family, and my wife is 100 percent a partner in everything I do,” Crowell says. “Wendy is an educator in Manhattan, but she also worked with me at Silo Ridge as Director of Outdoor Pursuits and was in the golf business for four years.”
Wendy is also part of the band Faze3, the cover band in which Brian plays bass and the entire lineup is made up of golfers and golf industry veterans. Crowell is also collaborating frequently with his son, Kevin, in golf and on the American Brick Spirits company they co-founded. The company is named in honor of J.B. Crowell & Son, a business founded in 1872 by a previous generation of Crowells that made brick moulds in a building that may or may not have produced whiskey during prohibition.
“I’m proud to say all three of our kids have gorgeous golf swings, and the girls have incredible clubbed speed,” Crowell says. “But Kevin has taken golf and business to another level and has stepped into the industry as part of the sales team for the Discovery Land Company project in the Hamptons called The Hills. He has a unique resumé with engineering and real estate, and I’m proud of him following me into the business, and it’s fun being his partner on the bourbon front.”
The Through-Line
Thirty years into his career, Crowell shows no signs of slowing down or narrowing his focus. Between managing Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point, hosting his radio show, broadcasting from the PGA Championship and Masters, playing regular gigs with his band and running a spirits company, Crowell finds his peace within a schedule that is often bursting at the seams.
When things get especially hectic, Crowell stops to remember the lesson that propelled him and his career forward. The lesson took place in 2004, during his first season at GlenArbor.
“It was still my early days of teaching, and that particular lesson was just so impactful to that person,” Crowell remembers. “The student had a typical and horrible slice. I was so pleased with how I connected during the lesson and how the hour flowed. The guy saw immediate improvement and was instantly a better player. I realized how valuable that hour was, but I was sad that only one student was impacted by it.”
That’s when Crowell decided to pursue opportunities to share the joy of the game with as many people as possible: Through group lessons, through writing books, through PGA of America governance and broadcasting gigs.
“Since then, my career has been designed to cast a wider net and hit as many people as I can with all the good this game can do,” Crowell says. “Being a PGA of America Golf Professional gives me a chance to choose any or all of the areas of the game that appeal to you, and I’m glad to share what I’ve done and see if it speaks to this next great generation of PGA Professionals we have coming up. There’s no time like now for variety in golf.”
For a profession that often requires specialists, Brian Crowell has proven that being a generalist – or perhaps, more accurately, being genuinely curious and talented across multiple domains – can lead to a career as rich and varied as the game itself. From the lesson tee to the broadcast booth, from the written page to the general manager’s office, and beyond golf to music and spirits, Crowell has spent three decades proving that passion and talent don’t have to follow a single path.
“There are more opportunities in golf than ever before, and I hope I’m proof that the PGA of America Golf Professional is right in the pocket to make all those choices and drive all those platforms,” Crowell says. “Because my career is a little different, I hope I can be an inspiration and an example of how to make the most of all the different options the golf industry provides people.”
