As a teenager growing up in Queens, N.Y., Erika Larkin did not have the typical golfer's experience. Practicing indoors with Wiffle balls in the high school gym was a far cry from the manicured golf courses of the suburbs, but Larkin, 26, persevered in the sport.
After competing in events such as Metropolitan PGA Girls' Junior Tour events and Junior Worlds, she went to James Madison University on a golf scholarship. She now works as a golf instructor at the International Country Club in Fairfax. Today, she is one of around 10 PGA Certified Professional women in the U.S. and is this week's People Profile.
What brought you here? I went to James Madison University … I came down to look at the school with my mom, we drove down, and I just really liked the campus. The student body felt really nice and it just felt really different than the student body I grew up with in the city. Between that and the golf opportunity, that is why I chose there. I went from James Madison with a marketing degree and knew that I wanted to get into golf. I wasn't sure that I was really good enough to play right away, coming out of school, because it was so competitive. I got a job in this area, and the company was American Golf Corporation. They hired me as membership director/marketing person to manage three golf courses in the area.
Family: I'm an only child. My parents are wonderful people. My dad is Russian and his parents immigrated to Venezuela after World War II. They made it to Venezuela where they had friends and family, and when my grandmother had my dad and his sister they stayed there for about 13-15 years or so after they were first born and then they headed to the States. They made it to Bridgeport, Conn. My dad and his sister learned English, went through the school process and he met my mom, and she also grew up in that area. They certainly exposed me to a lot of different things as an only child … if I had grown up in a different area, or had different parents, golf may never have happened. In Queens, of all places.
Activities/interests/hobbies: If I have time outside of teaching, I like to play golf. We just got into road biking. I like to swim for exercise, to keep active. I enjoy photography too, I did that in high school and kept an interest in that. I played the piano for 11 years and still play casually. And cooking, my dad has been an influence there.
How did you get into golf? My parents were adventurous, and there is this little golf course in Flushing Meadow Park called Pitch 'N' Putt. My parents had been there once or twice and had enjoyed it and took me. I was 8. They gave me golf clubs they thought would fit me, but I remember them being so big. They didn’t have the kind of junior equipment they have now. Every hole there was really short, and it was a little golf course made during the World's Fair back in the ‘60s. But it was fun, and a great learning ground because it wasn’t intimidating … When I got a little bit older, my mom started finding out about junior clinics in the area, driving ranges and public golf courses in Queens. Other than that we pretty much taught ourselves. Books, videos, and I remember my dad buying infomercial stuff. When I was 11 or 12, I shared equipment with my mom. We invested in a full set and decided to go out and try the "big course." We went out one day, probably looked like a bunch of fools the first time.
What does Certified Professional involve? When I first started teaching on the side and decided I wanted to pursue a certification process to become a teacher as a part of the PGA association, I had to do a couple different things. I had to take a playing ability test, and it's almost like your entrance exam to the PGA program. I did that in the summer of '03 and passed on my first try. My husband [Mike] — he wasn't my husband at the time, he was my caddie — he caddied for me at the time and I passed. There are three levels you need to get through, and they can take anywhere from three to six or eight years to do. I was fortunate to be able in the winters to take care of my education stuff and get it knocked out fairly quickly. In essence, the PGA has this program for people who want to become members, it's the Professional Golf Management program. You do the PGM program to get into the PGA … you go through the program, you go through the three levels of self-study, you go to Florida three times and test out of each level, and there's a final process at the last level where they interview you and give a formal presentation on an industry topic. It’s like a graduate degree for golf, and when you become a full PGA member the next level of the program is the Certified Professional program. I went ahead and did it right after I got my membership; I got my membership in September and in January studied for another exam to get further certified in instruction.
What draws you to golf? It's such a challenging game. As much as I've played and learned and studied and taught people, I'm always learning something new about the swing, about how to approach strategy. Playing golf in itself is a hard thing to do well because it's not a game you can necessarily perfect. There's a lot of thinking involved. When you play golf with other people too, the whole social aspect of the game really appeals to me. It takes four hours to play a game, maybe longer. Even if you've never met a person before, in four hours you get to know a lot about them: their body language, the way they act, the conversations you have. When is there ever a time you get to spend four hours with somebody that you don't know, in a closed environment and beautiful setting? As a female, there's so much opportunity for me in golf right now. Women are the fastest growing market of the game with juniors. Those two groups of people — I was a junior, I am a woman — I really understand those markets and I want to appeal to them with the teacher I want to be.
Favorite place to spend time in the community: We really like the wine country, actually. When we have a day off together it's one of the first things that comes to our minds, to explore the western part of this area. It's peaceful, gets you away from the traffic.
Community concerns: I really like the area. I think Fairfax County does a great job with keeping things clean and under control. I don't have to deal directly with traffic, I know that's a big issue. I'd probably say the infrastructure, making it a little bit easier with transportation.
What is your main goal for your golf students? I think I want them to come away from the lesson feeling motivated about golf. Being there to support them and understanding that it's a learning process, that even at a high level you're always going to be learning, changing and tweaking.
What is the last book you read and the last movie you watched? I did read "Culture Warrior." My husband's pretty political-minded and it rubs off on me, so I try to keep myself up to speed so I have some ammunition as well to talk about with people. I'm a fan of that. Movies, "Blood Diamond" was really good. The biggest thing I took away was how good we have it in the U.S. We have inner turmoil here, but not like that.
If you could take a road trip anywhere in the U.S., where would you go? I'd like to see some national parks. I've never been out West. I'd probably take a northwesterly route up to Yellowstone and that area.
Personal goals: I would like to be recognized as a top 100 instructor. A lot of magazines have a top-100 list they put out every year. I'd like to be there before I'm 30. I would like to grow my business [Larkin Golf LLC] through publications I'd put out. My goal would be to either write a book or put out a DVD, something I could market on a larger scale. We're trying to grow the game on such a grassroots level that there's got to be some other way to reach more people. I feel like between my husband's knowledge and my knowledge and our abilities — he's also a sales and marketing kind of guy — we have an idea of what we want to put out there as a product. It's just a matter of getting together and doing it.
— Lea Mae Rice