Kevin McGuire is like so many from the Grand Strand. He used to visit his parents when they retired to Myrtle Beach from New Jersey. After quite a few trips, it was clear that the beach and the warm weather were for him, too. He took a job at the Waterway Hills Golf Club bag drop in March 1996 and has been in the golf industry ever since. McGuire is now the head golf professional and general manager of Willbrook Plantation Golf Club, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
Shortly after taking that bag drop job, McGuire was promoted to the golf staff at Waterway Hills as an assistant golf professional. It was then he found his calling. He transferred to Long Bay Golf Club in 1998 to gain experience at a semi-private golf facility. Just a year later, he was promoted to first assistant to the head golf professional. In 2001, he was named head golf professional at Willbrook Plantation.
McGuire had no plans to make golf his career. He worked in sales and owned a wholesale produce business in New Jersey. But since his move to the golf capital of the country, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“Making the move to Myrtle Beach is one of the best things I’ve done,” said McGuire. “The people here are great and make coming to work as much fun as you can have on the job. On top of that, I got to be close to my parents and now my sister has moved down and my nephew’s at Coastal Carolina University. We absolutely love being a part of this community.”
“Kevin is such an integral part of FGI,” said Steve Mays, president of Founders Group International. “Willbrook Plantation is such a historic place and we’re honored to have Kevin at the helm for 17 of the golf course’s 30 years.”
Willbrook Plantation was created 220 years ago on land that was once a thriving rice plantation. In 1988, Willbrook Plantation Golf Club was built on that land. The Dan Maples course has wide fairways winding around lakes and over wetlands. You’ll see two-hundred-year-old moss-draped live oaks framing several holes and often find herons, fox, deer, osprey, and alligators along the course. Applauded as both fun and challenging, it is consistently awarded 4.5 out of 5 stars in Golf Digest’s “Places To Play” listing.
