'It’s a big leap, but I’m pursuing a dream': At 53, Pleasant Valley's Brendan Hester is giving pro golf a shot
Brendan Hester figured the time was now or never for him to follow his dream of becoming a professional golfer, and he chose now.
After a very successful amateur golfing career highlighted by a victory in the 2001 Mass. Amateur Championship, Hester, 53, of Northbridge turned pro last fall, and he’s doing his best to make it on PGA Tour Champions, the tour for pro golfers ages 50 and older.
“It’s a big leap, but I’m pursuing a dream,” he said, “and a lot of that started with Pleasant Valley.”
Hester has been a member at the Sutton course since 1987, and he has won 16 men’s club championships there. In 1998, PV owner Ted Mingolla gave Hester a sponsor exemption to play in the final PGA Tour event at Pleasant Valley, the CVS Charity Classic. Hester missed the cut, but he experienced big-time professional golf for the first time.
Hester got another taste of pro golf when he qualified to play in the U.S. Senior Open last summer.
“The odds are stacked against me for sure,” he said. “It’s a difficult tour to gain status on, but I’m really enjoying the process. I’m working extremely hard every day to try to live my dream and to accomplish the goals that I have set out. It’s a big leap.”
With no status on PGA Tour Champions, he must play in Friday pre-qualifiers to earn the right to play in Monday qualifiers to then earn a spot in PGA Tour Champions events.
Hester played in four Friday pre-qualifying tournaments last fall, and he shot a 66 in one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to advance to the Monday qualifier for the Sanford International. There he shot a 72 and didn’t qualify for the PGA Tour Champions event.
Hester went to the first stage of PGA Tour Champions Q-school in Mississippi and led after shooting a 2-under 70 in the first of the four rounds, but he didn’t end up advancing to the second stage of qualifying.
This winter, he has played in a few Friday qualifiers but hasn’t advanced so far. He’s scheduled to play in his next Friday qualifier this week, at Firewheel Golf Park in Garland, Texas. If he advances, he’ll play in the Monday qualifier at the same course, with the chance to earn a berth in the Invited Celebrity Classic in Irving, Texas, April 19-21. If he doesn’t get that far, he’ll try his luck in another Friday qualifier on April 19 in Georgia in the first step of finding his way into the Mitsubishi Electric Classic April 26-28.
Hester said his wife, Marcy, and his sons, Jack, an Assumption University junior, and Owen, a Bryant University freshman, urged him to chase his dream.
Marcy, Jack, Owen and Hester’s parents, Carol and Jack, flew to Florida to spend Easter with him.
Hester certainly has the game to make it, but so do many other golfers. He is 53, but he said he’s in the best shape of his life after losing 20-25 pounds in recent years.
Hester said on his list of priorities golf always ranked behind his family and running his own business. He sold his human capital management company in the fall of 2022.
“Golf has never been something that I’ve worked really hard at,” he said, “but I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of good golf over the years on the amateur level. So let’s go all in and see where it takes us.”
In addition to capturing the Mass. Amateur, he won the Hornblower Memorial at Plymouth CC and the Tarlow Invitational at Thorny Lea GC in Brockton. He also played in 18 USGA events and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2005. He advanced to match play in the U.S. Amateur in 2004.
Hester said he has no regrets about not turning pro when he was young.
“I wasn’t ready for it at the time,” he said. “My dream at the time was to create a family and do well in business. That dream has been fulfilled. I wasn’t ready at the time. I made the right decision. I don’t look back on it, but my family said, ‘How many 50-year-olds have an opportunity to pursue their dreams and you’re in a position to do that. Go ahead and do it. Don’t look back on it.’ So we’re going all in on it.”
Hester would love to return to the U.S. Senior Open this year because it will be played at Newport CC in Newport, Rhode Island, only an hour and a half from his home in Northbridge.
He’s scheduled to play in an 18-hole qualifier at Franklin CC on May 21. Only two golfers will advance from the qualifier.
Last year, Hester shot a 2-under 70 at Vesper CC in Tyngsborough to grab the second of the two qualifying spots in the U.S. Senior Open at SentryWorld Golf Course in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
In his first mini-tour event in late January at Indian Springs CC in Boynton Beach, Florida, Hester was paired with Owen Quinn, the son of his friend Fran Quinn of Holden. The two rode in a cart together, and Owen kept track of Hester’s scorecard.
Fran Quinn wasn’t there that day, but he got a kick out of the pairing.
“It’s hilarious, isn’t it?” Fran Quinn said. “It really is.”
Owen beat Hester that day, but Hester finished a shot better during the tournament.
“It was awesome,” Hester said. “Playing in my first mini-tour event, I was rooting harder for him than I was for myself. It was a great day, and he’s such a great kid. So it was fun.”
Fran Quinn, 59, knows how difficult it is to make it on PGA Tour Champions. He has had to overcome injuries while trying to secure his playing card. Although he’s exempt from playing in the Friday pre-qualifiers, he must play well in the Monday qualifiers to earn spots in PGA Tour Champions events.
“It’s a hard path that he’s trying to go through, trying to pre-Q,” Quinn said, “and then go into the qualifiers. That’s not a job for the weary.”
If Quinn could offer any advice, he said it would be, “Shoot as low of a score as you can shoot because that’s the only thing that matters these days.”
Quinn said pre-qualifiers usually have 120 golfers vying for five spots in the Monday qualifiers, and the Monday qualifiers have much more experienced golfers vying for three spots in the PGA Tour Champions events.
PV head pro Paul Parajeckas believes once Hester earns his first berth in a PGA Tour Champions event, his confidence will soar.
“Can he play with those guys out there? Absolutely,” Parajeckas said. “It’s getting there that’s tough.”
But it’s still worth a shot.
“He has all the tools to go out there, no question about it,” Parajeckas said. “He’s very consistent. He hits it a long way, but they all do out there, and the golf courses are not short.”
Watching Hester work hard on his golf game the past couple of years reminded Parajeckas of doing the same thing while he tried from 2000 to 2007 to make it on the PGA Tour Champions, then called the Champions Tour. Parajeckas qualified to play in about 40 events and was able to hang out with his friends, Champions Tour stars Dana Quigley and Allen Doyle.
But it can be a grind to play in qualifiers every week and then try to compete against the regulars who are exempt from qualifiers.
“You give it your best, and if it happens, it happens,” Parajeckas said. “I wish him well, but it’s hard. The travel, getting to places, caddies, hotels, it’s a hard, hard life, unless you’re exempt.”
Hester still has a locker at PV. It’s locker No. 67, and Parajeckas believes that’s fitting because he’ll need to shoot a lot of 67s in the qualifiers.
“He is right about that,” Hester said. “That is the new par.”
If Hester needs any swing tips, he can contact his brother, Shawn, who is director of instruction at TPC Boston in Norton. Golf Digest has ranked Shawn several times among the Best Teachers in Massachusetts. Fran Quinn has been among Shawn’s students.
Brendan Hester’s decision to turn pro means that he won’t try to add to his club-record 16 men’s club championships at PV this year. He won the men’s championship as recently as 2021, and he captured the men’s senior club championship last year, but he is no longer eligible to play in either championship after turning pro.
Hester has his sights set on other goals now.
Tee off with ideas
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—Contact Bill Doyle at bcdoyle15@charter.net. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @BillDoyle15.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Why not?: At 53, Pleasant Valley's Brendan Hester is giving pro golf a shot
