During Hispanic Heritage Month, Abe Hernandez & Miguel Aguilar Share Why Golf is Where They Belong

A simple invitation is all it takes.

PGA of America Golf Professionals Abe Hernandez and Miguel Aguilar, Assistant Golf Professionals at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, Texas, are products of a simple invitation to learn the game, leading to not only a fulfilling career, but perhaps more importantly, a place to belong.

A typical day for the duo might include anything from mingling with the legendary Lee Trevino, coaching a PGA Jr. League team, or volunteering at a local high school, showing a soon-to-graduate senior how to hold a golf club for the first time.

According to the National Golf Foundation, there are 3.31 million Hispanic on-course participants. The Hispanic golfer population in the U.S. is at its highest level in the nearly 20 years on record, and since 2019, has grown 24 percent. Hispanics represent 12 percent of traditional, on-course golfers today. 

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we talked to Hernandez and Aguilar about their introductions to the game and how they are now providing the same opportunities within their community and at Royal Oaks.

Before Aguilar ever considered swinging a golf club, he was working for Dallas Athletic Club in 2008 as a houseman when he was 22, setting tables and cleaning bathrooms. When the stock market crashed, he was one of many in the country who lost their job.

Fortunately, his unemployment only lasted two days. His former manager at Dallas Athletic Club called and asked if he’d be interested in working in the bag room instead.

“I didn't know anything about golf,” Aguilar said. 

After learning the ins and outs of working the driving range, washing and staging golf carts and creating relationships with staff and members of the club, he was invited to the driving range by his former colleague in the bag room, Thomas Camper. As employees, they had access to play and practice at the facility.

“I told him I didn't know anything about golf,” said Aguilar. “So he proceeded to give me my first lessons in golf. He gave me my first clubs, my first golf bag and my first golf shirt.”

After several lessons, Aguilar hit that one shot on the range that every golfer experiences in their golf journey.

“It was in November, it was very cold, very misty and I just hit that one crisp shot. I was hooked, it felt so good.”

Not only did Aguilar fall in love with the game, he fell in love with the profession. He started the Professional Golf Management (PGM) Associate Program in 2014, worked his way up to Assistant Professional at Dallas Athletic Club, all while earning his PGA of America Membership, which he obtained in 2021.

For Hernandez, growing up in the small West Texas town of Andrews, it was the competitive juices kicking in after losing to his girlfriend on the golf course.

“Golf wasn’t even on my radar,” said Hernandez. “I was born and raised in a small town in West Texas where football is king; still is to this day.”

During his junior year in high school, Hernandez played football and was dating a girl who played on the golf team. She invited him to join her on the course.

“She beat me, and I was like ‘no, no, no, that’s not going to work.’”

Hernandez started to practice, borrowing clubs from a friend’s dad. He became a regular at Andrews Municipal Golf Course, but not in the traditional sense. 

“I would go hit balls at the school or sneak onto the golf course,” he said. “We just had one little municipal golf course and for the longest time we would sneak on to play,” he said. “I never played 18 holes, but I’d sneak on number two and get off on 17.”

Years later, after Hernandez actually started working in golf, he connected with Alan Pursley, the PGA of America Golf Professional, now retired, who served as the longtime Head Professional of Andrews Municipal Golf Course.

“I actually went to him and wrote him a $200 check,” Hernandez explained. “He just laughed. He never cashed the check, he just put it up on his bulletin board and said, ‘you know what, I’m glad it worked out for you.’”

Hernandez graduated from the University of Texas Permian Basin, with a finance degree and hopes to become a stockbroker, though he started to have second thoughts about his career.

“When you’re 24 and look like you’re still wearing your dad’s suit, no one is going to give you $5 to invest, let alone a couple of million.”

On the weekends he was working in the bag room at Mission Dorado Country Club in Odessa to make ends meet. He was soon promoted to work in the golf shop and it was here that he noticed the joy he experienced from working in golf.

“That’s when I decided, this is what makes me happy.”

Hernandez has never looked back since. He started the PGM Program in 2002 and became a PGA of America Member in 2007, working at various facilities in Dallas. 

He even solidified his love for his career with a tattoo of the PGA of America logo on his arm.

“The PGA logo is the logo of my journey. It’s a sense of belonging. I’m a part of the PGA and the PGA is a part of me.

“I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world, I get paid to go hang out with my friends and play golf; be around like-minded people. If you’re getting paid to do what you love, it doesn’t really feel like work. I owe so much to the PGA.”

Hernadez has been at Royal Oaks since 2015, Aguilar since 2022. On any given day they could be around the number-one golfer in the world Scottie Scheffler, or giving a lesson next to World Golf Hall of Fame Member, and trailblazer for Hispanics in the game, Lee Trevino. Both are club members.

“Lee Trevino is the poster child for the Hispanic community when it comes to professional golf,” Hernandez said. “The first time I met him, I was giving a lesson at Royal Oaks. Lee rolls up and gives a lesson to his grandkid right next to me. He’s got such a big personality, you know, he commands the entire range. But at one point he says to his grandkid, pointing at me, ‘hey, listen to what he is saying, listen to the pro.' ”

For Hernandez, that was one of many moments in his career that confirmed he made the right career choice.

Today, both Hernandez and Aguilar are involved in several programs that help foster the game at Royal Oaks and within the community. Whether it’s coaching PGA Jr. League teams or running the women’s league, their day-to-day is providing others the opportunities that were provided to them.

Hernandez won the Northern Texas PGA Section Youth Player Development Award in 2018 and the Section’s PGA Player Development Award in 2020, among other awards throughout his career. He takes a logical approach when it comes to bringing more people into the game, no matter their background. 

“If you don’t have a parent playing golf, the kid probably isn’t going to either. In most Hispanic cultures, it’s soccer that's on the TV, and in Black cultures, it’s maybe basketball on the TV. If the parents are playing golf, the kids are more than likely to want to play golf.”

Aguilar volunteers with the Northern Texas PGA Section in a program called Fairways to Success. After work on Wednesdays in the spring and fall, he teaches seniors at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas how to play golf.

“The Northern Texas PGA and Deloitte provide scholarships to seniors,” explained Aguilar. “Part of that process is for them to participate in after-school golf. That’s where I come in. I teach them and help them learn the game.”

Aguilar and Hernandez have discovered that a simple invitation can be a powerful catalyst for change, offering not just a career but a sense of belonging. As they continue to open doors through the game within their community, they honor the opportunities that shaped their own journeys.