It’s never easy for an aspiring tournament professional to admit to him or herself that they just don’t have what it takes to make the big time, but a few EuroPro tour events were enough to convince Darren Moore that tour life wasn’t going to work out.
Fortunately, that wasn’t his only goal, and from a young age, he’d dreamed of having the ability to pass his knowledge and passion for the game onto others.
“Any pro who claims they didn’t have those tour aspirations would probably be lying to you,” Moore admits, “but it was never the be all and end all for me.
“My mother found an essay that I’d written when I was a kid and in it, I said that I wanted to have my own driving range and teach golf, so when I realised that I didn’t have the game for the pro tours, that gave me another path into the industry and I’m still in the game some 25 years later.”
Moore grew up close to the Dublin-Meath border and though nobody in his family – bar one uncle – played golf, the opening of a Pitch-and-Putt in Julianstown, right on his doorstep, was his first experience with the game.
“That sparked my interest and it was there that I first held a golf club,” he recalled. “Then Gormanstown College was about two miles away so I managed to sneak out there and play a few times, but I couldn’t get into a golf club at the time.
“My uncle was a member in Bettystown and I had a neighbour who was a trustee there as well, but membership was full and they weren’t accepting any juniors who didn’t have a parent already there.
“My dad worked in a factory in Drogheda and when Seapoint opened, a few of them joined there and I managed to get in too, but even then, I was the first junior member not to have a parent in the club.”
While the lack of family connections to the club had almost thwarted his bid for membership, it actually proved beneficial when he began working in the Pro Shop as a 16-year-old.
“It couldn’t come back on them if there were arguments or anything like that,” he laughed, “but I started working there and I’ve been in the industry ever since. I spent 10 years there working with David [Carroll] and he took me on as an Assistant Pro for the final seven when I left school in ’99.”
In 2005, he decided to branch out and began working at the driving range in Mornington as a fully qualified PGA Professional, before moving on to Delvin Castle in 2012. The unexpected closure of the club in late 2016 forced him to reassess his options, but a phone call from Brendan McGovern at Headfort started a new chapter.
“Brendan was going on the European Seniors Tour, and he was looking for somebody to manage the business for him, so I took him up on it and worked for nine years with Brendan until he retired in October 2025.”
Over the course of those nine years, Moore had made himself indispensable and that made him an easy candidate to replace McGovern as Head Professional.
“He indicated to the club that he thought they already had the right successor in place, and thankfully, since I’d built great relationships with the members over the nine years, they agreed so the job wasn’t even advertised,” Moore said.
And he soon set about putting his own stamp on the place.
“In conjunction with a small budget from the club and with lots of help and goodwill from the members, we’ve transformed the Pro Shop,” he explained. “We’ve opened up doors, knocked down walls, and again, that was thanks to members donating their free time to do it and we’ve managed to develop a driving range as well that’s just recently opened.”
It’s not a one-way street though. Moore and his two fully-trained fellow PGA Professionals – Pat Fay and Wyatt Faraday – contribute in their own way and help to prepare club teams with tailored coaching sessions.
“That’s what being a club is though, isn’t it?” he said. “It’s not easy to get staff because so many people have their own playing ambitions and the role generally requires weekend and bank holiday work, so I’m lucky to have the really good staff that I have. There is also a progressive management committee structure at the club which is a big help.”
There are several support networks out there for PGA Professionals running a business, and TGI is one of the most trusted and widely availed of and Moore takes full advantage of the services they provide.
“I’m a new TGI Partner,” he explains, “but Brendan was a TGI Partner before me, so I was introduced to them through him. They provide lots of different services, but one of them is the buying service which means we can get all our equipment at the best possible prices and if there’s something that we don’t have in stock, we can get it within 24 or 48 hours as the partners all help each other out.
“And they’re a great help when it comes to positioning stock and merchandise so that there’s a nice flow to the shop. I attend their retail conference every year, and along with the great ideas and help that’s offered there, it’s a great way for pros to meet up and pick each other’s brains as well.
“Personally, I’d advise every Head Pro who’s not a TGI member to sign up.”
All in all, it’s been an extremely successful first six months in the role for Moore, and he feels that the only way is up for the club as all factions are pulling together in the right direction.
“The profile of the golf club is continuing to grow,” he said. “We’ve had a few big events over the last few years like the Irish Challenge and both the Irish and Women’s Close Championships, and we’ve got two fantastic golf courses on offer.
“Now, with the addition of the driving range and hopefully adding a swing studio in the near future, we’ll continue to grow in stature, and we’ve got a great Golf Course Superintendent in Seamus Clerkin too and three really good chefs who serve up what I think is the best golf course food offerings you’ll find anywhere in the area. We also have a great backroom team in marketing and admin in the office and they keep everything running smoothly.
“It’s all part of the bigger picture and we all have to work together to keep delivering on expectations.”
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