Louis Cherubin has a new home at one of the most recognizable addresses in American resort golf. Marriott Golf has named Cherubin the new Head Golf Professional at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Grande Lakes, in Orlando, Florida — a Greg Norman-designed championship course that hosts the PNC Championship every December.
It is a significant chair to fill. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, part of the 500-acre Grande Lakes Orlando resort, is a par-72, 7,122-yard course set on a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, and it has been the home of the PNC Championship since 2012. The Head Golf Professional there runs the daily golf operation — coaching, member and guest experience, and the team that delivers both.
A Career Built Across the Army, Federal Service and the Fairway
Cherubin does not arrive by the usual route. In announcing the appointment, Marriott Golf pointed to a career that spans the golf industry, the U.S. Army and the Social Security Administration — a background the company credited with shaping his leadership in coaching, golf operations and membership relations.
He is a PGA Class A Professional with a specialization in Executive Management, and he is completing a further specialization in Golf Operations. Most recently, he served as Head Golf Professional at Arlington Ridge Golf Club in Leesburg, Florida, where he led all aspects of daily golf operations — recruiting, onboarding, training and developing the golf services team.
“Started Later, Struggled, and Rebuilt”
Cherubin’s coaching profile tells the other half of the story. He came to golf later than most professionals, and he does not hide it. “Today, I’m a PGA Class A Golf Professional,” he writes, “but more importantly, I’m someone who understands what it’s like to start later, struggle, and rebuild.” That perspective has made him a sought-after coach in Central Florida, where he has taught out of the Leesburg and Ocala area.
It is also the perspective he now brings to Grande Lakes, where the membership and guest list runs from resort visitors playing a bucket-list round to serious players preparing on a tour-tested course. Golf’s leadership ranks are still opening up — BBR has tracked that shift in its coverage of the game’s Black-owned courses and clubs — and Cherubin’s appointment puts a Black PGA professional in one of the most visible clubhouse roles in the Marriott Golf portfolio.
Read next: Top 10 Black-Owned Golf Courses & Clubs Worth Traveling For
What Comes Next at Grande Lakes
The timing could hardly be bigger. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club reopened on November 1 following a comprehensive regrassing project across its tees, fairways, rough and greens — the course was closed from late April through October 31 — so Cherubin’s first weeks in the role are also the club’s first weeks back in play. Every guest walking through the clubhouse door this month is, in effect, meeting the new operation and its new Head Golf Professional at the same time.
Then comes the club’s biggest week of the year: the PNC Championship returns to The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club December 17–20, 2026 (championship play December 19–20), bringing 20 major champions and their family partners to the course he now runs. This year’s field is already shaping up as a headline one — world No. 1 Nelly Korda returns, Cameron Young and Brooks Koepka make their PNC debuts, and a record four women are in the field. For a professional whose career has moved through service, operations and coaching, it is a fitting stage — and a name Black golfers in Central Florida will know well.
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