Kerrilyn Curtin
Stats and metrics are her game
Many golfers’ exposure to the realm of data begins and ends with figures spit out by their nearest Trackman. Most are unaware of the complex statistical network that runs just beneath the sport’s surface, informing the decisions of the game’s leading organizations.
Kerrilyn Curtin, the LPGA’s vice president of business intelligence, has made a career out of strategic, data-driven decision making in the sports management world. Curtin has wielded tangible metrics as a weapon for organizational improvement in the golf industry and beyond, carving herself a niche as one of the foremost data analysts in the game.
Despite her current occupation, Curtin did not play golf early in life, but the game proved to be the bedrock on which her future was formed. While she was growing up on the east end of Long Island, Curtin’s father held a longtime bartending job at Shinnecock Hills, one of the nation’s most prestigious clubs. Through him, Curtin landed her own position as a server at the club when she began college.
Her decision to work at Shinnecock proved pivotal. Not only did it further expose her to the sport that she would make her career, but Curtin also met her future husband, Brian, within the clubhouse’s history-rich walls.
“In a strange twist of fate, golf ended up being essentially the foundation of my family,” she reflected.
Although Curtin would not take up the game until later, she was still an avid sports enthusiast. She was a three-sport athlete for most of her life, even playing field hockey in college. What’s more, she spent a good chunk of her adolescence watching New York Knicks games at a place with which she would soon become intimately familiar – Madison Square Garden.
“At about nine years old, I told my dad I was going to work there one day,” Curtin said with a laugh.
“I always tell people when I meet with them that my job is essentially to make your job easier. I see myself as trying to make everyone in our organization smarter and arm them with the right information.”
Her elementary school proclamation proved prophetic. After graduating from Pennsylvania’s York College with a degree in sports management, she parlayed a previous internship into a full-time analyst role at the New York sports mecca.
During her time at MSG, Curtin developed the knowledge, acumen and technical skills that would eventually guide her to leadership within the LPGA. She received mentorship from Lois Friedman, a legend in the world of data and market research.
Friedman’s teachings stretched beyond practical knowledge. She set an example of ambition and leadership that Curtin would strive to emulate.
After a successful, decade-long tenure at the Garden, Curtin departed for a position with NBCUniversal, focusing on data analysis for large-scale media efforts such as the World Cup. From there, she spent time with a tightly run media startup before a nagging career desire became too loud to ignore.
“It always came back to trying to be in sports full time,” Curtin said. “That’s how I ended up at the LPGA.”
Now in her eighth year with the tour, she has leveraged her accumulated expertise to facilitate planning, decision making, and strategic vision across all departments.
“I always tell people when I meet with them that my job is essentially to make your job easier,” Curtin said. “I see myself as trying to make everyone in our organization smarter and arm them with the right information.”
A critical new data pipeline that Curtin helped construct has been the LPGA’s relationship with SeatGeek. This partnership with the ticketing giant has given the organization a firsthand look at exactly who is going to see the LPGA’s stars on the ground.
Curtin’s passion for her position extends far beyond the metrics in which she has become an expert.
“What got me here was being in sports,” Curtin reflected. “What’s kept me here is really what the LPGA stands for.”
Daniel Polce
