Kent Paisley’s path to his current job was non-linear and took him all over the country, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Now a writer for Golf Digest covering the LPGA, Kent has made his way through Northern California, Texas, New York and Florida in just the last six years.

After earning his degree in accounting with minors in broadcast journalism, economics and political science, Kent received a job offer from prestigious Ernst & Young in San Jose. A job, he says, taught him a lot about himself.

“At the end of my Ernst & Young tenure, I worked 38 out of 39 days (two 19 consecutive day stretches with Super Bowl Sunday off) in 2017, averaging 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM. I learned a lot about myself: I could work hard, but I wasn’t working towards what I wanted.”

Within two years of working for EY, Kent knew he wanted to do something different with his life, enrolling at Syracuse University to get his master’s in Television Radio and Film with an emphasis in Sports Communication. A year later, he completed his degree while working for ACC Network Extra and Lax Sports Network.

Knowing he wanted to get back to the golfing world, Kent secured a job with All Pro Tour, a mini-tour (the technical term for minor league golf) based in Dallas, Texas. Kent spent a majority of his time travelling around the south and midwest, conducting on-camera interviews, running social media accounts, taking photos, and writing pre/post tournament content.

After a successful few months on the All Pro Tour, Kent moved on to the big leagues – the LPGA.

“My main focus was as an internal sports reporter, where I wrote daily features on-site for LPGA.com and interviewed players on camera for the website. I moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, for this role and traveled for 13 tournaments during my one year there. I covered four of the five majors that year.”

Kent’s position was terminated due to restructuring, but he made his way back to the women’s golfing world earlier this year writing for Golf Digest, travelling to Los Angeles for the Hugel Air-Premia LA Open at Wilshire Country Club (interview pictured above). His next tournament: 76th U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic Club.

Kent credits his time on the Chapman golf team with helping him through his winding journey to Golf Digest and the LPGA.

“There’s a tenacity that golf taught me, to keep going and give each shot the best you can. That’s the beautiful part of golf as the NCAA sport I played: it is all on you. That level of responsibility has been a great lesson not only for competitive golf but life.”

A fierce advocate for women’s sports coverage, Kent is using his platform for something that is long overdue in today’s sports world: bringing awareness to professional women’s golf.

“Through my experiences covering women’s sports, I learned that despite women making up half the population, they only receive 4% of sports coverage, per a study conducted by the New York Times. Four percent! That’s crazy, and most notably, wrong,” Kent said. “I’m humbled to be contributing to making that percentage go up, and that’s my biggest drive for working in sports media.”

It seems Kent has finally found his path in life, and we can’t wait to see the impact he makes on the world of women’s sports.