From Leading the U.S. Open to Teaching Golfers Every Day, Justin Hicks' Love for Golf Burns Deep

It's the 2008 U.S. Open, and a relatively unknown pro named Justin Hicks shoots an opening-round 68 to share the lead after day one. He's at the top of the leaderboard at a major championship, right there with the game's biggest names.

Fast forward to today, and that same competitive fire still burns. This weekend, Hicks tees it up at the Senior PGA Professional Championship at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It's 264 of the country's best PGA Professionals aged 50 and older, battling through 72 holes of stroke play on both the Wanamaker and Dye courses. A top-35 finish means you're heading to the 2026 Senior PGA Championship.

For Hicks, now a PGA Teaching Professional at Stonebridge Country Club in South Florida, this tournament represents something bigger than another trophy. "I think qualifying and playing in both the PPC and Senior PPC are just as special as any of the tour events," he says.

And the guy's been on a tear — seven championships at the Chapter and Section levels in 2025 alone. When you're 50 years old and still winning at that clip, you're doing something right.

Justin Hicks was born on October 28, 1974, in Wyandotte, Michigan. He played college golf at the University of Michigan from 1994 to 1997, although he admits he "wasn't able to make the starting lineup very regularly." That could be what lit the fire.

After turning pro in 1997, Hicks did what thousands of aspiring tour players do: he got to work. He bounced around the Golden Bear Tour, the Gateway Tour, the Tarheel Tour, and the Minor League Golf Tour, where he won the money list in both 2006 and 2017. That's eleven years between money titles, still grinding, still believing.

His breakthrough came in 2008. At the Wayne Gretzky Classic on the Nationwide Tour, Hicks found himself in a playoff with Casey Wittenberg. One hole. Winner takes all. Hicks made par. Wittenberg didn't.

But the real story from 2008? That U.S. Open. Opening round 68. Co-leader. A guy who'd been grinding mini-tours for over a decade was suddenly tied for the lead at one of golf's four majors.

Two years later, he won again on the Nationwide Tour at the 2010 BMW Charity Pro-Am. He finished 25th on the money list. That was the magic number: 25th was the last automatic qualifying spot for the PGA TOUR.

In 2011, Justin Hicks became a PGA TOUR rookie. Over his career, he made 116 starts on the big tour and made 54 cuts. His best finish? Third place at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open. All told, Hicks made 153 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour and competed in seven major championships.

And even in 2025, at age 50, he teed it up at both the Cognizant Classic and the Punta Cana Championship. He also played the 2025 PGA Championship and U.S. Open. "I never thought I would be 50 years old and still playing PGA Tour events," he admits.

The decision to step away from full-time tour life didn't come easy. Hicks lost his PGA TOUR card in 2016, and for three years, he tried to claw his way back. But by 2019, reality set in.

"I realized I was 44 years old, with an 8-year-old son and a wife," Hicks explains. "The players had become much younger, more athletic, much stronger and faster with clubhead speeds. It just felt like it was too much of a challenge and I didn't want to continue missing out on my wife and son's life with all the travel."

There's an honesty in that admission that most tour players won't voice. The game moved on. The bodies got younger. And Hicks made the hardest call a competitor can make: it was time for something different.

"I certainly miss the paychecks, being my own boss, and even some of the travel," he says. "It just became financially very difficult to keep playing qualifiers and trying to work back up the money list."

After years of battling on tour, Hicks became a PGA Teaching Professional at Stonebridge Country Club. But he didn't stop competing. He just started competing differently.

Think about what he brings to the lesson tee. This isn't a guy who read about playing under pressure in a book. He's led the U.S. Open. He's stood over putts that meant keeping or losing a tour card.

"I spent 25 years trying to be great at golf in tournaments," Hicks says. "I've worked with several nationally recognized swing instructors, short game instructors, golf trainers, and sports psychologists. A number of which I paid quite a few to hear their expertise. So with all of that experience, I'm now able to present that knowledge to my students."

His 2025 season speaks for itself: seven championship victories. The schedule is punishing. He averages over 20 hours of lessons per week in the summer during tournament season, then closer to 40 hours of instruction during the winter months. "I don't have very many days off," he admits. "I'm either at the club teaching or at tournaments playing."

And when he does get a day off? He's playing golf with his 14-year-old son, a scratch golfer who's closing the gap. "Maybe that's what keeps me going at 50, is having a 14-year-old scratch handicap trying to run me down off the tee and beat me with his score every time we play.

What keeps a 50-year-old competing at this level? According to Hicks, it's simple: "I try to think of this game the way I thought of it as a young child: fun, exciting, and can't wait to see what might happen each day on the course."

He credits Dr. Bob Rotella for helping shape his mental approach, but the real secret is relentless improvement. "Somehow, with the harder I worked, I was able to see incremental improvement year after year."

When he talks to students about handling pressure, his advice is straightforward: "At that level of golf, you need to really believe in your abilities. Trust that the same swing you use to hit your 100-yard shot at your home course will be the same swing you use at a major tournament on television."

It sounds basic, but Hicks knows the difference between knowing and doing. "It's easy to second-guess yourself and think you're just not deserving of being out there with all those great players."

As Justin Hicks prepares for the Senior PGA Professional Championship, he's got nothing left to prove. He's already had the career most players dream about.

But here's the thing about true competitors: they don't play to prove anything. They play because they can't imagine doing anything else.

"I will continue to compete at a high level as long as I can and enjoy it," Hicks says. "I have a true love affair with golf. I love teaching it, playing it casually and playing it competitively." He jokes that tournament golf is just his side gig now, but the fire in that statement tells a different story.

So when Hicks steps onto the first tee at PGA Golf Club this week, he won't be thinking about his resume. He'll be thinking about making birdies. About posting a number. About earning one of those 35 spots to the Senior PGA Championship.

Twenty-seven years after turning pro, Justin Hicks is still competing, still teaching, and still showing that the fire never really goes out. It just finds new ways to burn.