Cameron Doan Kicks Off 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA with Opening Tee Shot

When competitors tee off at the 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas, this week, the first ball to fly will belong to Cameron Doan, the PGA Director of Golf at Preston Trail Golf Club in nearby Dallas.  

The multi-year Northern Texas PGA Section Award winner and 2018 PGA of America Bill Strausbaugh Award winner will kick off the second major of the PGA Tour Champions season with the opening tee shot. Section CEO Mark Harrison felt a Northern Texas PGA Section Professional should have that honor in recognition of the Section’s role in PGA Frisco coming to fruition and made the request to tournament officials.

With the tournament in Doan’s backyard, he had extra motivation to do well in last fall’s Senior PGA Professional Championship at Twin Warriors Golf Club, which by the way is in his home state of New Mexico. His T-3 finish secured the bid into the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship event this week. 

With Doan’s busy season at Preston Trail typically in the spring, he usually doesn’t spend much time with a golf club in his hand. That’s changed a bit this year, as he prepares for his first senior major. 

“I’m playing a little bit more, hitting more balls than I normally would at this time of year and getting into better shape for the tournament,” Doan explains. “I’m not doing anything necessarily different, but I am doing it earlier than usual and with more frequency.” 

Doan says he’s gotten a preview of Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco by walking the course without clubs recently, but was looking forward to his practice rounds earlier this week.  

When he walks up to the first tee Thursday morning, Harrison will be on his bag. As an acknowledgment of the instrumental role he’s played, the Northern Texas PGA Section CEO will caddy for Doan on the first hole before relinquishing the bag to Doan’s son. 

“This shot isn’t about me. It’s for Mark [Harrison]. It’s for guys like Lindy Miller and Perry Arthur and the many great players that we’ve had in the Northern Texas PGA Section. It’s for Joe Black, who’s a past president of the PGA,” Doan says. “It’s a culmination of all those guys and everything they’ve done. I’m going to be thinking about them and I’m going to be thinking about my dad.”