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UC San Diego Alumna Karen Hunter Moraghan
Stays the Course with 15-Year U.S. Open Connection
Judy Piercey | June 16, 2008
Karen Moraghan, a UCSD alumna, helped handle media relations at the U.S. Open on the Torrey Pines Golf Course.
With the U.S. Open Golf Championship to playing in UC San Diego’s backyard the week of June 9 to 16, Karen Hunter Moraghan ’81 couldn’t be more proud of her alma mater. A Third College (now named Thurgood Marshall College) graduate with a double major in communications and sociology and a Visual Arts minor, this will be her 15th year involved with one of the world’s premier golf championships.
Moraghan and her firm, Hunter Public Relations * Special Events (HPR), have earned a stellar reputation in the worlds of hospitality and golf. Earlier this month, she coordinated the grand re-opening of the United States Golf Association (USGA) Museum and dedication of the Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History at the association’s headquarters in Far Hills, N.J..
Last week , she facilitated player interviews and assisted 1,200 media from around the globe in the U.S. Open Media Center at the Torrey Pines Golf Course. In her position in what is called the “flash” media area, Moraghan and her fellow team members will move the best golfers in the world through a battery of interviews with broadcast, print and Internet journalists.
“I’m thrilled that the eyes of the world will be trained on La Jolla, Torrey Pines and the UC San Diego campus during the U.S. Open,” said Moraghan. “On a clear day, the shots from the blimp will be spectacular. I hope that there will be a few sidebar media stories highlighting the magnificence of our campus… not just its physical beauty, but on the intellect and learning that goes on here every day.”
The U.S. Open is staged annually in mid-June by the USGA. It is one of four major championships in golf and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. About 45,500 attendees were expected per day at the Torrey Pines Golf Course, plus 156 players and 6,000 volunteers, for a total of 50,000 to 55,000 on site daily.
For 18 years, Moraghan and her sister and business partner, Kristen, have worked with golf resorts, courses, communities and spas to raise their profile among key target audiences, including the 26 million golfers in the United States. Among their firm’s more interesting projects have been “The Donald” (HPR handled all media relations for Trump Golf for five years), the restoration and re-launch of Bedford Springs Resort (a $120 million historic property in the Allegheny Mountains, outside of Pittsburgh) and The TaylorMade Kingdom at Reynolds Plantation, near Atlanta, a high-tech club fitting and teaching environment for the best golfers in the world … and for those who aspire to be!
Moraghan is a longtime U.S. Open media volunteer. In 1992, she ran the entire show, serving as championship director of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. In the process, she met her husband, Tim, the former USGA director of championship agronomy, who today runs his own golf consultancy, ASPIRE Golf.
Moraghan credits her position at UC San Diego as Sports Information Director (a student job in 1979-81) for laying the foundation of communications, including attentiveness to the information needs of media and juggling tasks. And her membership on the women’s crew, cross country and track teams honed the discipline necessary to run a business and travel 180 days a year. Being creative and setting her clients apart from the competition have served her well, as did the flexibility of the curriculum and schedule while at UC San Diego.
Golf is her life, but with her business booming and travel a large part of her job, Moraghan doesn’t get to play much. “There’s just no time,” she lamented. “I think I played three nine-hole rounds this year.” Maybe after June 16….
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