Marty Michaud hadn’t seen his step-brother, Shawn Kelly, in nine years before Kelly showed up in Norfolk, Virginia, where Michaud was stationed in the United States Navy.
Kelly suggested they go play a round of golf.
“He said he’d buy the beer so I decided to go,” said Michaud, who has been named the new golf pro at the Rocky Knoll Country Club in Orrington.
Michaud instantly fell in love with the game and it served to help him through a difficult time in his life. He had lost his 20-month-old son, Jesse, to congenital heart failure a year earlier.
“Golf helped me deal with the grief. I stopped sitting around and moping,” Michaud said. “I stopped spending money on beer and started spending it on golf equipment.
“Once you hit those one or two good shots in a round, something clicks,” he said.
When he retired after 20 years in the Navy in 2005, Michaud went to work at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Bangor and worked in the golf department under PGA pro Mark Hall.
“Mark mentored me,” said Michaud who worked a children’s golf clinic with Hall.
He went on to work at Lowe’s in Brewer but when they told him they could only guarantee him 10 hours a week, he decided to use the GI Bill to attend the Golf Academy of America in Apopka, Florida, near Orlando.
He spent 18 months in Florida and earned his degree in golf operations and management. His specialty was in teaching.
“Teaching is what I love to do,” said Michaud who called the experience “fantastic” and noted that he got the opportunity to meet PGA Hall of Famer Lee Trevino and current LPGA star Paula Creamer.
Michaud returned to the Bangor area and looked for golf jobs. There weren’t any so he kept working at Lowe’s and it was there that he met Stella Morgan, who was a frequent customer, who took over ownership of Rocky Knoll in March.
“I told her I read that she had bought a golf course and, in passing, I told her she was going to need a head pro there,” said Michaud. “I had told her I was a certified professional.
“She set up a little interview and here I am,” said Michaud who grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, and the Aroostook County towns of Keegan and Caswell.
“He has a lot of good ideas,” said Morgan. “He is enthusiastic, he has positive attitude and he is forward-thinking.”
The 51-year-old Michaud “absolutely loved” his first week being a golf pro.
He doesn’t get a salary but gets paid for golf lessons and is determined to try to get more golfers to the course, especially youngsters.
“We’d love to get more young people involved. Golf is a passion for me and I want to help people get better at the game,” he said. “We want to do anything we can to promote and grow the game of golf. We want to put more golf clubs in people’s hands.”
Michaud uses a tablet computer to help teach golfers as it gives him and them a chance to analyze their swings.
He said they are trying to dispel the notion that Rocky Knoll is primarily for older golfers.
“When they opened up the 18-hole course, they put together a real nice design that works well for all skill levels,” said Michaud.
The course was originally a nine-hole layout.
He also said that even though Morgan is a businesswoman who doesn’t have a golf background, she is working “very hard’ to make the course as desirable as possible.
They intend to run some golf clinics throughout the summer and Michaud said one thing he has observed is golfers work almost exclusively on driving the ball and putting it while ignoring the short game “which is the part of the game where golfers lose the most strokes.”
He said in addition to working with them on their swings, he intends to “teach them good practice habits” which means not just teeing the ball up and trying to hit it as far as they can.
Michaud, who still works at Lowe’s, intends to leave the area after his daughter, Kellie, graduates from Brewer High School next year. His wife, Angel, is currently working in Tampa, Florida, and he wants to sell their house and move down there.
And this job is an important one for him because it will enhance his resume as he hopes to expand his life as a golf pro in Florida.
“To be able to teach and play golf, what better like can you ask for?” he said.