Students from the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management and the Klein College of Media and Communication gained hands-on industry experience working at the 2026 PGA Championship in May.

In mid-May, golf’s biggest stars came to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown, Pennsylvania, for the 2026 PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships. As superstars like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth battled it out on the fairways and greens to win the PGA Championship, Temple students worked behind the scenes to make sure the event and its broadcast ran smoothly. 

“There’s a huge practical component to our programs,” said Joe Mahan, professor of sport and entertainment management at the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM). “Industry experience is really critical in terms of complementing the classroom experiences that our students get. The biggest thing about this tournament is that we were able to merge the two. Students got that industry, hands-on experience, but coupled with a classroom environment.” 

Mahan taught a special topics course in the spring 2026 semester, called Outside the Ropes: Corporate Hospitality at the 2026 PGA Championship. The course is the product of a partnership between STHM’s Center for Industry Engagement and the PGA of America, which runs the PGA Championship. Brandon Mayer, director of the Center for Industry Engagement, and Andrew Lovell, director of partnerships and alumni relations at STHM, spearheaded Temple’s involvement. 

During the class, 11 undergraduate and two master’s students learned about the ins and outs of corporate hospitality at large sporting events, and they sat in on panel discussions with hospitality professionals from the Philadelphia Flyers, Comcast and the PGA of America. 

But the highlight of the class was the opportunity to gain hands-on experience as hospitality volunteers for the 2026 PGA Championship. 

“I want to work in professional golf, so this was the perfect opportunity for me,” said Sam Hornak, a sport and recreation management major from the Class of 2027. “Working at this large-scale event has really opened my eyes, not only as a golfer but as a person, to what I want to do in life.” 

Hornak and his classmates spent the tournament, which ran from May 14–17, working in hospitality areas throughout the golf club and assisting the tournament’s spectators and corporate partners.  

They gained valuable experience in a real-world championship setting, and they worked alongside staff from the PGA of America, Aronimink Golf Club, and corporate sponsors like Rolex and T-Mobile. 

“We had a couple of students who are interested in golf, but the majority of them had not been to a golf tournament before, and certainly had not worked a golf tournament before,” Mahan said. “This was a great opportunity for our students to recognize the breadth and depth of opportunities available to them with their degree.” 

Hornak was primarily stationed in Rolex’s hospitality suite, where he checked guest credentials, scanned them into VIP areas and assisted PGA of America staff in a variety of other ways. A lifelong golf fan, Hornak got to meet and interact with legends of golf and the broader sporting world, like Jim Nantz, the iconic broadcaster and voice of CBS’s golf, NFL and college basketball broadcasts. 

“Gary Player was a guest one of the days,” Hornak said. “He’s one of the greatest golfers of all time, so it was really cool seeing these people and being able to have a small talk with them.” 

Ceara Barnes, a sport and entertainment management major from the Class of 2028, worked in the 18 Tee Suites, one of the largest hospitality suites at the tournament, where she got to interact with a few local VIPs. 

“We had the Eagles in our suite, so that was a really great experience. I got to meet a couple of the players and some of their staff, like Big Dom, so that was really nice,” said Barnes, who hopes to one day work in basketball operations for a WNBA team. “Tournament staff put a lot of trust in us and gave us the freedom to really learn how to handle a big event like the PGA Championship.” 

As Barnes and Hornak tended to the tournament’s hospitality areas, another group of Temple students were down on the course bringing CBS’ broadcast to life. 

A group of 17 students from the Klein College of Media and Communication had the opportunity to join the local IBEW union and work directly for CBS Sports as utility workers, and camera and audio assistants throughout the tournament. 

These students first arrived at Aronimink Golf Club, a roughly 45-minute drive from Temple’s Main Campus, on May 6 to assist with the setup of CBS’ broadcasting equipment. 

When golfers teed off on May 14, the Klein students were on the course assisting CBS’ camera operators and audio technicians.  

Danny Leakan, a sports media major from the Class of 2029, spent the first three days of the tournament working with a camera operator following Spieth and McIlroy, the reigning Master’s champion. During Sunday’s final round, Leakan and his operator followed the group featuring Aaron Rai, the eventual winner of the tournament. Leakan was mere yards from Rai when he sunk a 70-foot putt on the 17th hole, a crucial moment that helped propel Rai to victory. 

Students like Leakan and his friend Ben Nicholas, a media studies and production major from the Class of 2028, assisted their camera operators by navigating them around the course and setting up, adjusting and tearing down tripods.  

For a golf broadcast, a lot of work goes into mapping the course to ensure cameras are optimally placed for capturing the action. 

“It was a lot of pre-planning,” Nicholas said. “For the first couple of days, all I was doing with my camera operator was going out and scouting the golf course. We were figuring out the angles and where the best place to be positioned was. It’s very adaptive—you have to adapt to the course.” 

Nicholas and Leakan have had opportunities in sports media since high school. Like Hornak, they came to Temple to prepare for careers in the sport industry after graduation.  

The experience they gained at last month’s PGA Championship affirmed that they are in the right place. 

“The biggest thing I took from this event is that this is the industry I want to stick with,” Nicholas said. “I gained the resources, the skills and the knowhow to understand what my role is going forward.” 

“When people would ask us where we are from, they knew that Temple makes a big statement in this industry,” added Leakan. “We were carrying forth the name of Temple all week. We’re hard workers, determined, always going to show up, always going to work our butts off until the day ends. I think that was beaming through all of us: that we belong here, we deserve to be here and we own everything we do.”