PGA of America Names Kelly Gilley, PGA Northern / Southern Texas Sections Employment Consultant

NTPGA • June 28, 2017

PGA Employment Services is pleased to announce the addition of Kelly Gilley, PGA to the expanded team of 18 employment consultants now serving PGA Members and employers across the country. The addition of eight new field consultants will provide the team a unique opportunity to forge stronger relationships with both PGA Members and PGA employers through the overall smaller geographic territories each Consultant will manage. Gilley will serve both the Northern Texas and Southern Texas PGA Sections.

Gilley previously served a five-year stint with the Southern Texas Section, where she was responsible for overseeing Business and Foundation Development, as well as Section Communications. A PGA Member since 1998, Gilley spent the first 15 years of her career in golf in Georgia and was selected as the 1998 Assistant Golf Professional of the Year in the Georgia Section. Gilley is a former Board Member of the Georgia PGA Section.

Gilley holds both a Bachelors of Science in Public Relations and a Masters in Communication from Florida State University, where she competed for the Lady Seminole Golf Team and was a three-time Academic All-American.

After two seasons on the Futures Tour, Gilley accepted an assistant golf professional position at The Tradition Club in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. She worked for a year with the Sea Island Company, before spending 15 years with Canongate Golf Clubs, where she moved from Assistant Professional to Head Professional to Operations Manager. Gilley was one of two key team members who assisted with the sale of the portfolio of seven clubs to Sequoia Golf in 2003. Under Sequoia’s ownership, she became a Regional Manager, overseeing as many as 144 holes of golf, as well as the company’s player development program and staff. Additionally, she was lead for a number of acquisitions for Sequoia from 2003-2007.

In 2007, Gilley began to focus solely on marketing for Sequoia. With the continued growth of the organization into Texas, she moved her family to The Woodlands in 2010, in order to take the lead marketing role for Sequoia properties in Texas and Colorado. In 2011,her efforts earned Sequoia Golf the American Marketing Association’s Marketer of the Year Award for Houston.

Gilley joined the staff of the Southern Texas PGA initially as Director of Foundation Development in 2012. She was charged with building Foundation programs, as well as developing new websites and tools to better communicate with PGA Professionals. Since 2015, she has also overseen Section business development in her role as Director of Marketing & Membership.

Gilley lives in The Woodlands, with her husband, Steve, and two daughters.

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Irving, Texas (August 25) – The Nelson Golf and Sports Club hosted two Northern Texas PGA Major Championships this week, the Club Car | XXIO Northern Texas Senior PGA Professional Championship and the Lajitas Golf Resort Women’s Section Championship. Clayton Friend claimed the Senior title, and Kim Paez claimed the Women’s title. Kim Paez, PGA Member at Ping Inc., claimed the Lajitas Golf Resort Women’s Section Championship title, carding rounds of 70-72–142. Paez finished the Championship at 2-over-par, winning by four strokes. She began the final round one stroke back of Katie Flinn, director of instruction at Topgolf - Fort Worth, and her 2-over-par final round was enough to come from behind and secure the win. This is Paez’s first victory with the Northern Texas PGA since joining the section in 2025. “I stuck to my game plan this week, which was fairways and greens,” Paez said. “I think I missed only one or two fairways yesterday. I played pretty conservatively, but it paid off in the end.” Reflecting on her final round performance, Paez said, "It was a little bit windier today. It made me calculate a lot more on the tee shots.” It was an up-and-down round for Paez, but she hit her approach on hole 18 to two feet and tapped in for birdie. “The last three holes are pretty gettable, so I just had to remind myself that no matter how the round was going, I was going to have opportunities to close it out at the end.” Next week, September 3-5, Paez joins four other PGA female PGA Teaching, Coaching and Club Professionals from across the country to represent the United States in the fourth Women’s PGA Cup. They will take on Australia, Canada, Great Britain & Ireland, South Africa and Sweden in a 54-hole stroke play format at Carden Park Golf Resort in Chester, Cheshire, United Kingdom. “It is the biggest honor. When I first got my PGA Membership, and I found out about the PGA Cup, it became one of my biggest goals,” said Paez about making the team. “I was constantly checking the rankings, and coming into the KPMG [Women’s PGA Championship] and the LPGA Professionals Championship, I knew I had to lock in and give myself the best chance.” “I am so excited and so proud to represent the Northern Texas PGA as well, so hopefully I make everyone proud,” added Paez. This 36-hole Northern Texas PGA major championship is the fourth of five individual stroke play events that comprise the Woman Player of the Year points standings. The 22-player field competed for a purse of $7,500, and Kim Paez took home $1,050. The Lajitas Golf Resort Women’s Section Championship was presented by A.PUTNAM and XXIO. The Nelson Golf and Sports Club Par: 35-35–70 Women’s Championship Yardage: 5,878 yards
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