By John Steinbreder
As the head professional at Laurel Valley Golf Club for more than three decades, Chris McKnight stands out for longevity alone. But he has distinguished himself in many other ways.
Start with the Four Seasons service he has consistently provided the very discerning members and guests of this western Pennsylvania retreat. Then, there is the way he so deftly leads the golf operation at Laurel Valley, which was one of Arnold Palmer’s home clubs, whether organizing a corporate outing, running member-members or serving as the host professional for a major golf championship, as he did with the 2005 Senior PGA. And few places on the planet boast a more complete and attractive pro shop, which explains why McKnight has twice been named the Tri-State PGA Merchandiser of the Year for a private club. So does the fact that he typically sells some $3 million worth of merchandise in what is only a 25-week season.
An A-1 member of the PGA of America since 1992, he has also proven to be a player, especially – and perhaps remarkably – after turning 50. Qualifying for four Senior PGA Professional Championships speaks to that. So do winning the Tri-State Senior Professional Championship in 2018, the Tam O’Shanter Open three years later and the Frank B. Fuhrer Senior Invitational in 2023.
“Chris is one of the best. Not many people last that long at one club. And not many are more highly thought of for all he has done in golf.”
Bob Ford, retired Head golf Professional, Oakmont Country Club
In addition, McKnight has demonstrated a willingness to give back to the game, whether mentoring his assistant professionals or sitting on the board of the Tri-State PGA, so named because the section encompasses parts of western Pennsylvania and western Maryland as well as Mineral County, West Virginia.
It is for all those things that the now 62-year-old father of three – and grandfather of two – is Global Golf Post’s Pro’s Pro for 2025.
That makes McKnight the 11th person honored with this award since its establishment in 2015. Quite appropriately, the inaugural winner was another man who made his mark in the western reaches of the Keystone State, Bob Ford. He knows McKnight well and appreciates all he has done in his career.
“Chris is one of the best,” says the now-retired Ford, who served as head golf professional for 37 years at the Oakmont Country Club, which is located some 50 miles northwest of Laurel Valley. “Not many people last that long at one club. And not many are more highly thought of for all he has done in golf.”
Growing up in Cadiz, Ohio, as the son of a coal miner, McKnight was certainly not thinking about a life in golf.
“Cadiz is a very blue-collar town near the West Virginia and Pennsylvania borders,” he said. “There was a steel mill, some coal mines and farms. The town’s claim to fame for a while was having the largest earth mover for strip mining in the world.”
His father, Jerry, was a coal miner for 41 years. “He and his brother ran a gas station in town after World War II had ended and once my father had returned home from the Pacific,” recalled McKnight, whose only sibling is a sister 10 years older. “But then he went to the coal mines, and his brother went to work in the steel mill.”
Jerry toiled underground in the mines, coming home from his shift covered in coal dust. “We put a shower in the basement, and he’d go down there as soon as he got home to hose off,” McKnight said.
His mother, Gladys, worked in a local bank, as the secretary to the bank president.
Although McKnight’s father died in 1999, of prostate cancer at age 75, Gladys is still alive and 100 years young.
“It’s amazing that my dad did not get black lung given all the time he spent in the mines,” he added.
A town of only some 2,500 people, Cadiz had a small and rather unremarkable golf club. “It was considered private, but if you wanted to join, you got in,” McKnight said. “It started as a nine-holer, probably back in the 1930s, and then members built a second nine on land that had been reclaimed from strip mining.
“My dad played and was the one who got me into the game,” he added. “I started working at the club when I was 12 years old.
“I’d walk there from school during the school year. And in the summers, my mother would drop me off in the morning. First, I was in the pro shop, which was a funny thing to call it because the club did not have a pro. I’d sell the few things we had in the shop and clean the carts. And caddie. My dad would get off his shift in the afternoon and come down to the club, to play golf or cards with his friends. Then, I’d drive home with him. With both my parents working, golf in many ways became my babysitter. The club had a small putting green with rudimentary lighting, so I could putt at night while my dad and his friends played cards. They had three or four tables inside the clubhouse and would play a game called ‘Around the Bend,’ for a nickel or dime a point. They also had an old soda machine in which they put bottles of beer. Sometimes, he’d have too many of those, and I would drive him home. And that was before I had a license.”
Even after he was legally able to get behind the wheel of a car, McKnight kept going to the club.
“We lived only two miles away, and he was there every day in the summer,” he said. “So was I. I mowed the fairways, tees and greens. We watered the course at night, and I’d be there at 3 in the morning doing that. The club had a fish fry every Friday night, and I’d drive to a seafood store in Wheeling, West Virginia, to buy a batch of frozen fish for that.”
McKnight says he played a “little competitive golf” in high school and competed in a handful of local tournaments. He enrolled at Kent State University in the fall of 1981, becoming the first member of his family ever to go to college. But he did not exactly excel there.
“I tried out for the golf team and made it as a walk-on,” he said. “But I decided not to go to many classes and soon was academically ineligible.”
That led McKnight to transfer to Fairmont State University in West Virginia – and to take a much more serious approach to his schooling as well as his golf once he arrived there.
“I went to class and got good grades,” said McKnight, who earned a B.S. in business administration, receiving his degree in May 1986. “I also played for three years on the golf team. I started all three years and was All-Conference each one of those. I also competed in two NAIA National Championships.”
“I played against some pretty good players. They were so good, in fact, that I decided that becoming a club professional might be a better idea.”
CHRIS McKNIGHT
McKnight thought about playing professionally after college and gave the Space Coast Tour a try, entering 15 events. His best finish was sixth place at Disney World on the Magnolia course.
“I played against some pretty good players,” he recalled. “They were so good, in fact, that I decided that becoming a club professional might be a better idea.”
McKnight had actually been working as an assistant professional at the Wildcat Run Country Club in Estero, Florida, while he was competing on the Space Coast Tour. And it was there that he made the acquaintance of Curt Siegel, who was well known for his trick-shot artistry and also for being the head golf professional at Laurel Valley, a club that boasted a Dick Wilson course that was eventually revamped by Palmer and catered primarily to the corporate community in Pittsburgh.
“I still remember the day that I met Curt,” McKnight said. “Wildcat Run was an Arnold Palmer course, Curt knew Arnold Palmer and he wanted to see what Arnold had created here. He pulled up in a 1972 Cadillac that was as long as the trailer that was serving as our pro shop and clubhouse. We started talking, and eventually he said he was looking for an assistant.”
McKnight spent his first season at Laurel in the summer of 1987 and went back down to Wildcat Run for the winter. He returned to Laurel Valley for the following season and never left, becoming the lead assistant in the fall of 1988 and the head golf professional in April 1993.
By the time he assumed that position, McKnight had married.
“Laurel Valley hosted the 1989 U.S. Senior Open, and Rita and I wed the Saturday after that tournament had ended,” he said. “She is from Steubenville, Ohio, which is very near where I grew up.”
Two years later, they welcomed their first child, Samantha, with Thomas and Morgan arriving in 1995 and 1998, respectively.
“They’re all gainfully employed and living in the Pittsburgh area,” said McKnight with a chuckle. “Samantha has two young daughters, and Thomas is named after Rita’s dad. His middle name is Jeremiah, which was my father’s (name).”
This spring will mark 38 years since McKnight came to work at Laurel Valley. And he still talks excitedly about the job.
“It’s all about the people,” he said. “We’re in the service business, the people business. We have a wonderful club with a membership that is full of high-end, CEO types. It’s a top-customer entertainment sort of place. Our members are very proud of their club and very happy to be here. And we want to be sure they relax when they are here and have the best possible time.”
They invariably do, thanks to this year’s Pro’s Pro.
PHOTOS COURTESY CHRIS McKNIGHT