Former All-American and veteran of 30 PGA tour events, Shawn
McEntee feels at home
He’s played championship practice rounds with Lee Trevino, was
an All-American in two National Championship teams and has played
in more than 30 PGA Tour events.
Clearly, Shawn McEntee can play the game, but for now he’s
content teaching it and running the show at Coyote Creek Golf Club
in San Jose where he has been the director of golf since the first
of the year.
Former All-American and veteran of 30 PGA tour events, Shawn McEntee feels at home
He’s played championship practice rounds with Lee Trevino, was an All-American in two National Championship teams and has played in more than 30 PGA Tour events.
Clearly, Shawn McEntee can play the game, but for now he’s content teaching it and running the show at Coyote Creek Golf Club in San Jose where he has been the director of golf since the first of the year.
“I live in Los Gatos. My family is all here and I know a lot of people in the area,” McEntee said. “I had a lot of opportunities but I like this area. This facility has 36 holes, a great driving range and two great golf courses. I like it here.”
But that doesn’t mean that the thought of playing on the Champions Tour hasn’t entered into the 48-year-old golfer’s mind.
“It’s still in the back of my mind,” said McEntee, who did nothing but play mini and regular tour events from 1981 to 1985 before he got into the business side of the game. “My body is still in good shape and I’m playing fairly well. I’ll try to qualify for some of the bigger events just through the opportunities I have as a club pro.”
McEntee just missed making the most of those opportunities in last month’s 39th PGA Professional National Tournament in Verona, New York. McEntee fired rounds of 71-71-74-73 and just missed qualifying for next month’s PGA Championship in Medinah, Ill. by two shots.
McEntee grew up in San Jose and gradated from Pioneer in High School in 1976. That year he captured the Central Coast Section Championship before going on to Cal State Stanislaus where he played both No. 1 and No. 2 on a talented squad that captured two NCAA Division II Championships. In both 1979 and 1980 McEntee was named to the All-American team.
Shortly after graduating from Stanislaus State, McEntee began to heavily pursue his childhood dream of playing professional golf.
“I decided to tee it up for some cash,” he said. “I played everything back then, mini and regular. That was before there was an all-exempt Tour so I did a lot of the rabbit thing for a while back then.”
Rabbiting to professionals was known as the constant hopping from PGA Tour event to event with the hopes of qualifying for one of a handful of the final spots that were awarded to professionals based on their play in one-day qualifying tournaments that took place on Mondays.
By 1985 McEntee was still playing in tournaments whenever he could, but by then the bulk of his career had shifted to the business side of the game.
Although he never officially earned his Tour card, McEntee’s play was solid enough to get him into roughly 30 PGA Tour events, including two PGA’s (1989 and 1991) and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1992.
From 1985 to 1986 he worked as an assistant professional at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club before moving to the desert where he did a five-year stint as an assistant pro at the La Quinta Country Club, which was managed by Landmark properties.
Since many touring pros back then were sponsored by the California-based company, McEntee had numerous opportunities to spent time hanging out and playing with them. It was during that period in the California desert where his game really excelled.
“Fred Couples, Tom Purtzer, Bob Tway, Willie Wood and Jeff Sluman were all with Landmark,” McEntee said. “I got to play with them, ask questions and really talk with them about the game. That’s when I really got better.”
During the same period Lee Trevino was at La Quinta quite a bit fine-tuning his game for the Senior Tour.
“Lee Trevino took me under his wing a bit,” McEntee said. “When I qualified for the 1989 PGA he came up to me and said that he wanted to play all of his practice rounds that week with me. Lee was the type of guy that made you feel loose and gave you a lot of confidence. Playing with him was a fun memory.”
Another memory was the year he was paired with Tom Watson and on national television in the third round of the L.A. Open.
“I had a lot of friends call me and said they saw me on TV,” McEntee said. “Those were all pretty special memories.”
In 1990, he left La Quinta for Santa Cruz to become the director of golf at Pasatiempo for the next 14 years.
Prior to taking the position with Coyote Creek, McEntee had been working as a consultant for Landmark.
Nowadays McEntee enjoys running the golf operation at Coyote Creek and still plays as much as he can. He also gets a lot of enjoyment teaching polished players with aspirations similar to what he had growing up.
“I still give lessons,” he said. “I enjoy private lessons and working with the better players. I like to take someone with the same vision that I had and help build them up.”
McEntee’s teaching philosophy is to keep things simple.
“We’re not trying to recreate the wheel,” he said. “Since the swing is unique I try to work with everyone individually, and try to work with the fundamentals of their swing.”
To book a tee time at Coyote Creek or a lesson with Shawn McEntee, call 408-463-1400.
