Innovation key to Victorian PGA award winners - PGA of Australia

Innovation key to Victorian PGA award winners


Finding new ways to do things has been thrust upon society in 2020 and this year’s winners of the Victorian PGA Vocational Awards have each advanced the game’s cause by challenging convention.

In an exceptional field of nominees recognised, Haydn Thompson (Deep Creek Golf Club-Pakenham), Sandy Jamieson (Oakleigh Golf Course), Tim Wood (Rosanna Golf Club) and Alan Patterson (Patterson River Golf Club) stood out for the innovative ways they have each approached their area of expertise.

Thompson was named the Management Professional of the Year for the community connection he has helped to foster as CEO at Deep Creek Reserve, Jamieson’s 1Club Golf concept saw him awarded the Game Development Professional of the Year, Wood’s biomechanics-inspired philosophy to the golf swing earned him Coach of the Year honours while Alan Patterson was named Club Professional of the Year for the way he has engaged the membership at Patterson River Golf Club.

“Obviously COVID-19 has forced us as an industry to look at the way we do things but these PGA Professionals were already examining new ways to deliver golf programs and engage with the broader community,” said PGA Senior State Manager, Victoria, David Barker.

“It’s innovative thinking such as this that not only energises existing golfers but shows those thinking about playing that they are welcome and that there are programs tailored specifically to meet their needs.

“This is also why PGA Professionals represent such an important asset in advancing our golf facilities not only in Victoria but throughout the country.”

Management Professional of the Year

Haydn Thompson (Deep Creek Reserve-Pakenham)

It was as simple as a $6.90 Parma Night but that too-good-to-refuse offer three years ago represented a dramatic shift in how the then Pakenham Golf Club east of Melbourne was perceived by its community.

Joining the club originally seven years ago as its PGA Professional, Haydn Thompson progressed quickly to the role of General Manager. The timing was critical as he championed a club that wanted connection with its community over any exclusionary perception that may have existed.

“We actually approached the local council about becoming a more community-minded facility which to be honest caught them a bit by surprise,” Thompson explains.

The result is a $14 million refurbishment that has seen the clubhouse relocated, two new holes built to accommodate the reconfiguration and construction of a new driving range.

But perhaps the most significant asset in the club’s repositioning is the all-abilities playground that is proving to be a magnet to local families.

“The whole idea of the parma night was to offer an affordable family meal where people would come to the golf club for no other reason than to have a night out,” Thompson adds.

“We were conscious of never talking golf and our social media to this day reflects that, to get people to understand that we are here for so much more.

“By starting with that we could take people on the journey of what the new complex was going to look like, what the playground was going to look like and how awesome that was going to be.

“It was that conscious decision of really trying to talk up those things that were going to be of interest to the majority of people who live in the area, not necessarily the golf.”

It was a shift intended to secure the club’s future for the next 50 years and beyond and has already begun to provide the club with some financial stability.

In lockdown for four months, those who had been enticed initially by a $6.90 parma eagerly took up the club’s offer of takeaway meals.

“There was a point where we were putting through 500-600 takeaway meals a week,” Thompson says.

“Without that income it would have been extremely difficult for the club to keep staff employed and helping to them to just get by.

“We came out of that period a lot better than we thought and in many respects it was business as usual.”

And further establishing the club as a treasured community asset in the process.

Coach of the Year

Tim Wood (Rosanna Golf Club)

As a talented young player in the Victorian Institute of Sport, Tim Wood spent nearly five years trying to create a position in the backswing that his body wasn’t willing to accommodate.

A former PGA Trainee whose first interest was coaching, when Wood brought an end to his playing days he turned his attention to developing a methodology that would allow him to fit a swing to a player’s physical capabilities, and not the other way around.

Wood’s star pupil of the past 12 months is long-time friend Josh Younger, the 2019 NSW Open champion who in the space of three weeks late last year rose from 966th in the world to 272nd.

Given the events of 2020, Younger’s ability to secure his playing future on the Asian Tour more than likely saved his career… and validated to Wood that what he was teaching could withstand the greatest pressure professional golf can exert.

“I was so nervous watching that playoff,” Wood says of Younger’s showdown with Travis Smyth.

“We’d worked on correcting this shot he hits left under pressure all winter and then on the 72nd hole he hits his driver left, it hits a tree and goes into a pond.

“So then in the playoff he’s got to face up to those demons again and I’m watching it thinking my job was on the line.

“He hits a good drive, stiff his approach to three feet and makes birdie to win the tournament.

“That was very cool.”

A chance meeting with Hall of Fame coach Mike Adams at a conference in Melbourne five years ago and a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate his wife’s 30th birthday paved the way for Wood to tap into the minds of the game’s foremost thinkers on the golf swing.

Armed with that insight Wood achieved a perfect score in the Biomechanics in Golf online course offered by Pennsylvania State University and continued to develop his own style centred around a person’s physical limitations.

“I spent three days with Butch Harmon and I lived with Mike Adams for a week and it just showed me a whole new world of coaching, a whole new way of doing it,” Wood says.

“I started to understand human movement better and I was sucked in straight away.

“Because of my chest size, I’d spent five years trying to fix something in my swing that essentially couldn’t be fixed in the traditional way. Imagine if I’d spent five years on my short game and hitting better shots rather than chasing positions that I now know weren’t actually achieveable.

“Before I work with anyone I have a page with 10 questions and a sheet of measurements. The first thing I do before they hit a shot is to measure six things on their body: Wingspan, length of forearm, which leg is stronger, how their shoulder wants to move – which affects their grip – and how their lower body creates power.

“I then understand what their swing will look like before they’ve even picked up a club.

“So many pros are coming to me because when they have a lesson I make only minute adjustments. I don’t try to rebuild them because we understand what their swing should look like.”

Game Development Professional of the Year

Sandy Jamieson (Oakleigh Golf Course)

If the simple things in life are truly the best, it’s little wonder the 1Club Golf concept pioneered by Sandy Jamieson has struck such a chord with new golfers.

The former PGA Professional at Commonwealth Golf Club for nine years and a 25-year PGA Professional, Jamieson looked at the downward trend in golfers and identified the perception that it was difficult, serious and expensive.

He wanted it to be easy, fun and affordable, just as it was when he fell in love with the game as a kid.

“I went back to the public courses where I played as a kid and they were empty,” Jamieson says.

“Given there was space available I wanted to coach new golfers on the golf course and to do that I needed to make it as simple as possible.”

Jamieson developed a golf club that was easier to hit and designed a program where after a 15-minute introduction new golfers were on-course and playing the game.

Prior to the onset of COVID-19 Oakleigh had witnessed a 50 per cent increase in both player numbers and turnover in just six months, females outnumbering men among the social players on a daily basis.

“I believe everybody already possesses the skills needed to play golf; I just need to help them to apply those skills on the golf course so they can play straight away,” he adds.

“For $100 a group of four can come and get a lesson and play nine holes and be a good golfer inside an hour. My definition of a good golfer is someone who can play safely, move at the right speed, understands their ability and looks after the course.

“I don’t teach grip, stance, posture or alignment; I teach them how to play golf and then refer them on for lessons elsewhere if they choose.

“I’m in the business of creating new golfers. PGA Professionals, golf clubs and equipment companies will all benefit on the back of new golfers coming in.”

Club Professional of the Year

Alan Patterson (Patterson River Golf Club)

Alan Patterson could have kept doing things the way they’d always been done.

It is the default setting for the majority of the population but it is not a sustainable way to do business.

Concerned by a flatlining of the golf industry within Australia, Patterson could see where the path was taking him and decided to redirect his focus.

The result is a thriving membership culture within the Patterson River Golf Club just south of the Melbourne Sandbelt and an atmosphere that makes going to work a pleasure.

“We place a big emphasis on customer service and giving members and guests a really good time when they come to the club,” Patterson explains.

“When they come to the club it’s their leisure time so we like to make it a happy place.

“When they walk into the pro shop they have a laugh and they’re smiling and they’re happy when they walk out the door.”

In addition to developing more flexible membership categories, Patterson River staff engage with new members to ascertain exactly what they want out of their golf club.

The Wednesday Twilight Comp is so popular that it has to begin at 2.30pm to accommodate all the players and the Golf Extravaganza on December 17 will include a nearest-the-pin competition from the back terrace to the chipping green, long drive comp in the PGA blow-up tent using FlightScope and a putting competition that anyone can participate in.

“If something isn’t working then we’ve got to try something different,” says Patterson, who is nearing 12 years at Patterson River.

“In my opinion the industry has been stagnant for a long time so we just wanted to do something different that gets as many people to the facility as possible.

“It’s just about getting as many people as possible into the club, especially our new members.

“Our whole retention plan is around giving them the opportunity to come to the facility more often and bring their partners and friends.

“That’s how it becomes their club as opposed to a place they come to play golf.”


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