(L-R) Norman Blanco – Bobby Donson Dec. 2016
(Friday, January 20, 2017) Norman Blanco and Bobby Donson parlayed senior-year internships in the University Maryland Eastern Shore’s (UMES) PGA Golf Management Program into assistant club pro jobs at the renowned venue overlooking the Pacific Ocean along the central California coast. Blanco and Donson graduated Dec. 16 (2016) and immediately headed to the West Coast to start their careers. “I’m trying to be humble about the whole experience,” said Blanco, who grew up in New Orleans. “But, yeah, I have to pinch myself when I think about it.”
According to Billy Dillon, director of UMES PGA golf management instruction, it is rare for Pebble Beach to offer full-time jobs right away to interns.
“Having the opportunity to intern at the number one public golf course in America was priceless,” Blanco wrote in an essay published in Eastern Shore Golf Magazine. “It was an educational feast; learning from the best of the best was invaluable.”
Since its inception in 2008, the UMES golf management program has cultivated a network of golf-course internship opportunities at such high-profile locales as Caves Valley outside Baltimore, Congressional near Washington and on Martha’s Vineyard. The Pebble Beach relationship, now underscored by employing two UMES alumni, elevates the university’s profile across the multi-billion dollar golf industry.
“We all jockey to get our students the best possible internships – internships that can change lives and careers,” Dillon said. “The Pebble Beach internship is at the top of that list.”
Enrolling at UMES proved a turning point in Donson’s life after an injury playing college baseball at another institution near his Gaithersburg, Md. home short-circuited his pursuit of that game as a potential career. “Being able to use what I’ve learned from hotel tourism management classes and golf management classes and tying it all in together has worked out perfectly,” Donson said.
The UMES-Pebble Beach internship opportunity has its roots in the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, where UMES golf management students encounter and seek out potential employers who can help them fulfill degree requirements with hands-on work in the field.
The PGA Golf Management Program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore prepares students for a career in the golf industry. The PGA Golf Management Program attracts and educates bright, highly-motivated men and women to service all aspects of this developing industry while working toward membership in the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.
It is a comprehensive degree program that integrates all the curriculum requirements of a Hospitality and Tourism Management major with the knowledge base of the PGA Golf Management Program including sixteen months of structured internship experience and a Playing Ability Test (PAT). UMES is one of 20 universities in the country with such an undergraduate degree that combines instruction in the hospitality industry and playing competitive golf at the professional level.
