Matt McQuillan’s golf story started in Kingston, Ont., and irrespective of the place the sport took him, Kingston remained on the coronary heart of it.
Golf Canada joins the Canadian golf neighborhood in mourning the passing of McQuillan, a former PGA TOUR member and longtime instructing skilled. He was 45.
McQuillan was one in all Canada’s most promising younger golfers within the late Nineteen Nineties. He rose to the No. 1 nationwide junior rating in 1999, a season through which he gained the Ontario Junior Championship and the AJGA’s Tucker Anthony Championship.
He additionally completed second on the 1999 Canadian Junior Boys Championship. Two years later, he reached the semifinals of the Canadian Males’s Beginner Championship and represented Canada on the staff that gained the 2001 4 Nations Cup at Lambton Golf and Nation Membership in Toronto.
Though a person Golf Canada nationwide championship eluded him, these performances established McQuillan among the many main Canadian amateurs of his era.
He performed collegiate golf at Oklahoma State College and the College of Georgia earlier than turning skilled in 2003.
The trail that adopted was not a straight one.
McQuillan spent years competing on developmental circuits, together with the Canadian Tour, now a part of PGA TOUR Americas. He gained the 2005 TELUS Edmonton Open however, throughout a tough stretch in his profession, stepped away from match golf and labored as a bartender in Kingston.
He ultimately returned to competitors and saved chasing the purpose.
That persistence was rewarded on the last stage of PGA TOUR qualifying college in 2010, the place McQuillan earned his card for the 2011 season.
His breakthrough got here that summer season on the John Deere Basic. McQuillan opened with a 7-under 64 and matched it with one other bogey-free 64 on Sunday, ending tied for third at 17-under-par.
It was the most effective results of his PGA TOUR profession and earned him $261,000.
McQuillan added two extra top-10 finishes that season, tying for sixth on the Reno-Tahoe Open and seventh on the Frys.com Open. He completed a career-best 145th within the FedExCup standings.
In all, McQuillan made 32 PGA TOUR begins, with 9 made cuts, three top-10 finishes and $603,785 in official earnings.
Two of these begins got here in Canada’s Nationwide Open.
McQuillan made his RBC Canadian Open debut in 2011 at Shaughnessy Golf and Nation Membership in Vancouver. A gap-round 68 left him one stroke off the lead. He adopted with rounds of 73, 74 and 70 to complete tied for thirty first with a 285 whole—his greatest outcome within the championship.
He returned to the RBC Canadian Open in 2012 at Hamilton Golf and Nation Membership in Ancaster, Ont. McQuillan recorded rounds of 70, 67, 77 and 69 to complete tied for seventy fifth with a 283 whole.
He made the reduce in each of his Nationwide Open appearances, incomes a mixed $43,732.
There was at all times extra to McQuillan’s relationship with golf than match outcomes. His PGA TOUR biography listed watching his father break 70 as his favorite golf reminiscence. Requested to decide on a dream foursome, McQuillan chosen Fred {Couples}, David Feherty and his dad.
Lately, he introduced his expertise again to Kingston as a instructing skilled. After travelling the lengthy highway from junior golf to the PGA TOUR, McQuillan remained a part of the neighborhood that had supported him from the start, sharing what he had discovered with different golfers.
His profession might be remembered for the Sunday 64 on the John Deere Basic, his appearances in Canada’s Nationwide Open and the dedication it took to succeed in the PGA TOUR. In Kingston, he may even be remembered as one in all their very own—a gifted golfer who carried the town’s help with him and in the end introduced his expertise house.
Golf Canada extends its honest condolences to McQuillan’s household, pals, college students and everybody within the Canadian golf neighborhood who knew him.
From Canadian Golf:
Ah – unhappy information certainly. Former PGA Tour participant Matt McQuillan of Kingston has handed away. https://t.co/qRxMGzY4y3
— Adam Stanley (@adam_stanley) August 7, 2026
Gone too younger. Kingston, Ont.’s Matt McQuillan, whose golf profession took him to the PGA Tour, has handed away. https://t.co/6JwZGTwWHi
— Bob Weeks (@BobWeeksTSN) August 7, 2026
