Northwest’s McLean inducted to Hall of Fame

The PGA of America recently announced its 2025 Hall of Fame Class, and among this year’s inductees is Northwest native and PNGA Hall of Famer Jim McLean.

Along with McLean, the other 2025 inductees include PGA of America Past President Jim Richerson, PGA; Ronny Glanton, PGA; JD Turner, PGA; LPGA Tour Legend Nancy Lopez; and PGA of America Honorary Member and adaptive trick-shot artist Dennis Walters. They will be inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame at the 109th PGA Annual Meeting during a special ceremony on November 5, 2025, at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas.

McLean is one of the most influential PGA of America Golf Professionals in the world, recognized globally for his teaching excellence. In 1991, he founded the Jim McLean Golf School at Doral, which has grown into an internationally respected academy with locations across the U.S., Spain, Mexico and South Korea, and currently headquartered at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla. His schools have produced 420 certified teaching professionals, with more than 250 serving as Directors of Golf or Instruction.

Now a PGA Master Professional, McLean has taught thousands of golfers, including over 100 PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour professionals, including Cristie Kerr, Keegan Bradley, Tom Kite, Peter Jacobsen, Lexi Thompson, Gary Woodland and Bernhard Langer.

McLean won three PNGA Men’s Amateur titles – 1969, 1971 and 1972. He was inducted into the PNGA Hall of Fame in 2003. By the age of 16, Jim began to serve notice that he could play the game as well. He twice won the Washington State Jaycees Junior title (1966, 1967) and also won the Washington State Junior title in both those years. He won the PNGA Men’s Amateur three times (1969, 1971, 1972), the 1970 Northwest Open (competing against the PGA Professionals), the 1970 Seattle Amateur, the 1971 Pacific Coast Amateur. Later he became an All-American at the University of Houston. In addition, he played in two U.S. Opens and the 1971 Masters, where he made the cut. He was inducted into the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame in 2003.