From one hour to the next, Grace Lennon can find herself teaching a five-year-old to swing a club for the first time, to an 85-year-old whose love for the game will not abate.

Proud of the fact that as a PGA Professional she can tailor a golf offering to suit the needs of any player she comes across, Lennon meets a wide range in her role as a Teaching Professional at Albert Park Driving Range in Melbourne. Ultimately, however, regardless of their skill-level, age or background, one thing remains the same.

“I just want to help people to enjoy the game,” she concludes.

Delightfully simple, it’s a philosophy that Grace, and more than 2,000 PGA Professionals right around the country adopt as they work passionately to help more people fall in love with golf than ever before.

“I know the game can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, so helping someone to get the ball in the air or shoot under par – whatever their goal might be – helping them to achieve that is a success,” she explains.

With that as her definition of success, Grace works hard to ensure that wherever her students might be on their golfing journey, after lessons with her, they are set on a path to become rusted-on golfers.

“Now that I have the opportunity to help people, I am conscious of keeping things as simple as possible,” Lennon notes. “We don’t want to give so much information that a player might become overwhelmed.

“In that way, they can continue to enjoy the game.”

With extensive experience as a player on the WPGA Tour of Australasia as well as overseas, Lennon is well-placed to help everyone appreciate the nuanced lessons that golf provides.

“It’s not always the fairest game,” she laughs. “But I’ve learnt that it generally pans out overall and the more you stick at it, it tends to come together. These are the skills and broader life lessons that golf teaches you.”

After completing the PGA Bridging Course in 2020, Lennon now has the chance to impart these lessons on the next generation of golfers.

Not something she takes lightly, it is a responsibility that she believes PGA Professionals need to embrace in order to help golf thrive.

“Ultimately, we all want to see golf boom and have more people – especially the younger generation – involved in the game,” says Lennon. “As PGA Professionals we are all working to try and make golf as fun as possible and show people what a great game it is.”

Something she witness first-hand on a daily basis, Lennon was thrilled to play in the history-making ISPS HANDA Australian Open alongside the men’s and All Abilities fields and knows that the flow-on effects of this coming together will be positive at the grass-roots.

“We have already seen a big spike in golf over the last little while,” she says. “Generally speaking, there are more people, especially women getting into the game and coming to the range and getting started. That’s the biggest thing I’ve seen.”

As this new wave of golfers receive the time, dedication and care from PGA Professionals like Lennon, they are bound not only to enjoy the game, but to form an enduring and life-long connection to it.

Golf’s boom in the past two years has been particularly noticeable at club level, where memberships and playing opportunities have been in hot demand.

A 36-hole facility that sits just on the New South Wales side of the border with Queensland, Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club is not only providing the foundation for a strong future for its membership, it is also actively promoting both ends of golf’s spectrum

The club boasts a proud history of hosting high-class tournament golf.

Greg Norman returned as the reigning Open champion to win the 1986 Queensland Open at ‘Cooly-Tweed’ – in front of an impressionable Karrie Webb, no less – and last year alone the club hosted the Ladies European Tour co-sanctioned NSW Women’s Open and the Queensland Amateur.

But the COVID-19 induced golf boom has not only bolstered Coolangatta’s membership base but provided new opportunities, such as hosting the Women’s Golf Network, which the club will do for a second time in March 2023.

Whether it is the popular member events, external tournaments or corporate days, General Manager Nicole James is tasked with bringing them to life.

A graduate of the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program in 2000, James has held numerous roles throughout the industry over the past two decades and plays a critical role in ensuring Coolangatta-Tweed helps to foster all levels of golf.

“From a club perspective, we try to do our bit to support the industry,” explains James.

“We’ve held lots of big tournaments and lots of very prominent names have played here so it’s nice to keep that going.

“We need to be growing the game. Not only as a club and our membership but providing opportunities for new golfers to come here. Whether that’s as part of a coaching clinic or social play, it’s about exposing people to the game.

“That will help to keep the game really solid and help us to all retain the current influx of players.”

With a background in management and golf operations that extends back to her time at Avondale Golf Club on Sydney’s North Shore as a 25-year-old, Purcell enjoys setting a direction for the sport.

Alongside her husband James as co-Head Professional at Wagga Wagga Country Club and now as a Board Director for Golf New South Wales, Purcell is driven to create an environment where golf is set up for long-term success.

“I want to continue to provide a resource to clubs so they can continue kicking along and getting more people into the game,” she explains. “We need to continue to offer people exactly what they want in golf.”

“I always liked the running of golf in an overall sense,” she says. “I liked the idea of running it at a higher level. That management background helps to open your eyes to what the golf club needs.”

Having also worked at North Ryde Golf Club, Highlands Golf Club in Mittagong and now back in her home town of Wagga Wagga, Purcell has a good sense of what different clubs need, and this is something she is looking forward to bringing to life in her new role on the Golf NSW Board.

“Because of that (the time at different clubs) I had a broad range of experience of what golfers wanted and what clubs might be struggling with,” she adds.

“Being involved in the sport at a higher level is really interesting to me.”