SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce’s latest iteration of “Men in Business” provided lessons in golf and life alike Thursday at Shawnee Country Club.
The “Fairways and Fellowship” outing, held in honor of the U.S. Open taking place this weekend, featured the University of Findlay’s assistant men’s and women’s golf coach Steve Mulcahy as its keynote speaker. Mulcahy recently won his second Northern Ohio PGA Teacher of the Year award and has been in Golf Digest’s list of the best teachers in Ohio for the past 20 years — ranking first in eight of them — in his 35-year coaching career.
The event also welcomed a talk from Alter Ego owner Marc Bowker on “heroic leadership,” a chat with head golf PGA professional Asa Donaldson and a putting competition.
Despite winning an individual state golf championship in high school, Mulcahy recalls he was “probably 10 days away from going to John Carroll University and playing basketball.” A visit to the University of Toledo for golf changed his trajectory.
“The golf coach said, ‘Hey, let’s go over to Inverness.’ So we went and played nine holes at Inverness,” Mulcahy said. “We had lunch out on the terrace by hole 18, and I’m like, ‘Why would I be in the gym when I’m in Greece?’ So that’s how I ended up going to Toledo to play golf.”
From Toledo, Mulcahy followed friends he met through golf at Kent State and Ohio State universities to play in tournaments across 40 states and seven different countries. With imminent prospects of raising a family, however, Mulcahy soon became averse to the traveling.
The teacher credited his college golf coach for making some phone calls that got Mulcahy into coaching at Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland — a “top 100 club,” Mulcahy said. Mulcahy acknowledged the power of networking in all the subsequent doors that were opened for him.
“When you’re out networking in Lima, Ohio, and you’re meeting people, you never know when that connection or that relationship will help you,” Mulcahy said. “I’m here to say I had so many people do things for me, and I was in the right place at the right time.”
Mulcahy ended his talk with some golf lessons through his daughter, who has played in two Palmer Cups among “the best 24 amateurs in the world.”
“She’s going to practice for six hours. Here’s what the six hours looked like. She putted for two hours … then she went down to the short game area, and she chipped, pitched and hit bunker shots for two hours. Then she went to the driving range, and had a wedge in her hand the last half hour” Mulcahy said. “… Most of you would get off work at 5, drive to the back of the range, make full swings for 55 minutes, slap some putts and drive home, and you’re only practicing 40% of the game.”
Reach Peter Bonasso at 567-242-0399.
