Ryan Lenahan was just nine holes from securing a spot in his first major championship, and he striped a driving iron into the fairway on the par-4 10th in the final round of the PGA Professional Championship. His playing partner also found the fairway, with a 3-wood.

Given the club choices, it seemed logical Lenahan was the shorter of the two tee shots, so he stepped up to the shorter ball and hit his approach, finishing just over the green. Then, his playing partner got to the farther ball, and Lenahan’s heart sank. Lenahan had hit the wrong ball — he was playing a Titleist 3 with a red dot, and his partner was playing a Titleist 3 with a black dot, and it didn’t help that Lenahan is color blind.

That gaffe earned Lenahan a two-stroke penalty and led to a double bogey, an ill-timed mistake as he was grinding to finish in the tournament’s top 20 and secure a spot in the PGA Championship.

“I’m a very particular person. I can’t believe I let this happen,” Lenahan said in a recent conversation with The Detroit News.

“I’ve never had that happen.”

Lenahan, like so many pro golfers, has seen a whole lot on the golf course, including a whole lot of heartbreak. Last week, even after the wrong-ball fiasco, there was no more heartbreak. He bounced back on the very next hole, the tough, 200-yard, par-3 11th hole on the Wanamaker Course at PGA Village, hitting a knockdown 6-iron into the wind to about 6 inches for a tap-in birdie.

That steadied the ship, and the nerves, as Lenahan, a Metro Detroiter who is the PGA director of instruction at South Lyon’s Walnut Creek Country Club, closed with a 75 in tough conditions to finish 3 under for the three-day tournament, finishing tied for fifth.

The finish earned him his place in the 156-player PGA Championship, the season’s second major, next week at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Lenahan once lived and where two of his three kids were born.

“It was such a great experience, just to be right there the whole time,” said Amy Lenahan, Ryan’s wife, who was in attendance with their three boys, just like they will be at the PGA. “I was so proud of him for hanging in there and keeping his composure.

“I do think there’s some maturity and confidence that comes with all the experience.”

Golf is a whole lot like life ? in that, it’s so darn unpredictable, and how do you respond to sudden adversity? After all, even the best golfers ever, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus included, lost way more tournaments than they won.

Lenahan, 40, who lives in New Hudson and grew up in Grosse Pointe Shores, has had a whole lot of highs on the golf course, like playing in the 2014 John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour. In high school at Grosse Pointe North, he twice was named all-state, and as a senior he finished fifth at the state finals.

But there have been plenty of lows, too. One of them in particular led to a lot of self-disbelief over the years, like, would his time in the sun ever come?

That heartbreak came in 2013, at U.S. Open sectional qualifying in Ohio. He made it into a playoff for a spot in the U.S. Open, with three players vying for one spot. Lenahan, on the first playoff hole, hit his approach to 10 feet, while his opponents were off the green, one long and one short. It looked good, until it didn’t. Both of his opponents chipped in for birdie, and while Lenahan made birdie to keep the playoff going (“the hole seemed like the size of a loose impediment” on that putt, he quipped), he lost on the fourth extra hole.

Lenahan was named first alternate to that year’s U.S. Open, at famed Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania. That usually gets you in. But Lenahan watched 156 golfers tee off; none withdrew before their tee time (two did after they teed off).

“I thought my window was closed. I didn’t really think that this would happen,” said Lenahan, who was back giving lessons just 48 hours after securing his spot in the PGA Championship. “I believed in myself and all that, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna play in a major.

“I remember how that felt,” he said of the U.S. Open qualifier, “and this makes it that much sweeter.”

Lenahan is one of two Metro Detroit natives set to play in next week’s PGA Championship, along with former PGA Tour member Justin Hicks, a Wyandotte native who now lives and teaches in Florida. The PGA Championship is unique, in that it reserves 20 spots for the lifeblood of the sport at the grassroots level — the club pros, i.e. the teachers.

Lenahan left college at Nebraska looking to make competitive golf his career. But he eventually decided teaching might be his path. And a few years back, he noticed that the 2025 PGA Championship would be at Quail Hollow, in Charlotte, where he lived with Amy, who then was a physician assistant at a downtown hospital. Their first and second child were born there. And Lenahan, a few years back, started thinking about how great it would be to play in the Quail Hollow PGA. So he set out to become a PGA member, which requires completing a long and grueling PGA Professional Management Program. He completed it ahead of time, to be eligible.

He finished third in the 2024 Michigan PGA (bouncing back from a second-round quintuple bogey 9) to qualify for the 2025 PGA Professional Championship last week in Florida. Next stop, a return to Quail Hollow, where he’s played just once before. He’s got an honest-to-goodness tee time.

“Big thrill for Ryan,” said longtime Michigan teaching and playing pro Dave Kendall, who is a co-owner of Washtenaw Golf Club in Ypsilanti (where he was following Lenahan’s round on his phone during a round last week) and who founded the Kendall Golf Academy, where Lenahan taught before Walnut Creek.

“We are so happy for him.”

The interesting thing about teaching pros is they don’t play nearly as much golf as you’d think. They’re too busy, you know, teaching, earning their paycheck with signup sheets chock-full of one-hour lessons. Teaching pros in the north are at even more of a disadvantage, given the winter doesn’t lend itself to much outdoor golf. Entering the PGA Professional Championship, Lenahan had played a few rounds of nine holes. He’s not sure he played a full 18.

No matter, his game was on point in Florida — and he’s busy getting ready to make sure it’s ready to go against the best of the best at Quail Hollow, after, you know, he’s done with all those lessons.

He’s heading to Quail Hollow today, and the rest of the family, including his boys, 9, 7 next month and 3, are heading down Sunday. The boys know it’s a big deal for Dad, but the full extent of just how big probably won’t hit them until they see the crowds on the grounds for the PGA Championship, won the last five years by guys named Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson and Collin Morikawa.

“Oh my goodness, I don’t envy his position,” laughed Amy Lenahan, now a PA at University of Michigan Hospital. “Obviously, he’s made for that. That’s what he does. He’ll do great.

“He’s worked so hard and put in so much time. It’s kind of fun. He always resigned himself to the fact, ‘OK, this is more of a teaching career.’ It’s so cool to see his dream just wasn’t over yet.”

The dream, of course, would be to make his mark at the PGA Championship — winning is one thing, making the cut and drawing some buzz (like Michael Block in 2023; Block has qualified again in 2025) is much more realistic.

Making the 36-hole cut, of course, would get him a paycheck, and a paycheck that would be worth the equivalent of hundreds, if not thousands, of teaching hours. A check also would help make up for that wrong-ball fiasco in Florida.

Without the double bogey, he would’ve finished in third place alone. The error cost him five figures in cash. Not that he was too worried about in the immediate aftermath, as his cell phone had hundreds of congratulatory texts.

He had travel arrangements to make. He’s going to the PGA Championship.

“Let’s put it this way,” Lenahan said with a chuckle, “that definitely takes away the pain, that’s for sure.

“Now, I’m gonna start playing a yellow ball.”