Former PGA Tour player Matt McQuillan passes away at 45
Golf Canada
Matt McQuillan’s golf story began in Kingston, Ont., and no matter where the game took him, Kingston remained at the heart of it.
Golf Canada joins the Canadian golf community in mourning the passing of McQuillan, a former PGA TOUR member and longtime teaching professional. He was 45.
McQuillan was one of Canada’s most promising young golfers in the late 1990s. He rose to the No. 1 national junior ranking in 1999, a season in which he won the Ontario Junior Championship and the AJGA’s Tucker Anthony Championship.
He also finished second at the 1999 Canadian Junior Boys Championship. Two years later, he reached the semifinals of the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship and represented Canada on the team that won the 2001 Four Nations Cup at Lambton Golf and Country Club in Toronto.
Although an individual Golf Canada national championship eluded him, those performances established McQuillan among the leading Canadian amateurs of his generation.
He played collegiate golf at Oklahoma State University and the University of Georgia before turning professional in 2003.
The path that followed was not a straight one.
McQuillan spent years competing on developmental circuits, including the Canadian Tour, now part of PGA TOUR Americas. He won the 2005 TELUS Edmonton Open but, during a difficult stretch in his career, stepped away from tournament golf and worked as a bartender in Kingston.
He eventually returned to competition and kept chasing the goal.
That persistence was rewarded at the final stage of PGA TOUR qualifying school in 2010, where McQuillan earned his card for the 2011 season.
His breakthrough came that summer at the John Deere Classic. McQuillan opened with a 7-under 64 and matched it with another bogey-free 64 on Sunday, finishing tied for third at 17-under-par.
It was the best result of his PGA TOUR career and earned him $261,000.
McQuillan added two more top-10 finishes that season, tying for sixth at the Reno-Tahoe Open and seventh at the Frys.com Open. He finished a career-best 145th in the FedExCup standings.
In all, McQuillan made 32 PGA TOUR starts, with nine made cuts, three top-10 finishes and $603,785 in official earnings.
Two of those starts came in Canada’s National Open.
McQuillan made his RBC Canadian Open debut in 2011 at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver. An opening-round 68 left him one stroke off the lead. He followed with rounds of 73, 74 and 70 to finish tied for 31st with a 285 total—his best result in the championship.
He returned to the RBC Canadian Open in 2012 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ont. McQuillan recorded rounds of 70, 67, 77 and 69 to finish tied for 75th with a 283 total.
He made the cut in both of his National Open appearances, earning a combined $43,732.
There was always more to McQuillan’s relationship with golf than tournament results. His PGA TOUR biography listed watching his father break 70 as his favourite golf memory. Asked to choose a dream foursome, McQuillan selected Fred Couples, David Feherty and his dad.
In recent years, he brought his experience back to Kingston as a teaching professional. After travelling the long road from junior golf to the PGA TOUR, McQuillan remained part of the community that had supported him from the beginning, sharing what he had learned with other golfers.
His career will be remembered for the Sunday 64 at the John Deere Classic, his appearances in Canada’s National Open and the determination it took to reach the PGA TOUR. In Kingston, he will also be remembered as one of their own—a gifted golfer who carried the city’s support with him and ultimately brought his experience home.
Golf Canada extends its sincere condolences to McQuillan’s family, friends, students and everyone in the Canadian golf community who knew him.
