Innovation is at the heart of our sport, whether technologically, in the equipment sphere or coaching methods. Meet three PGA Professionals who are changing the game.

Hip to be Square
A rising tour pro recognised the putting aid he helped develop could assist every golfer.

West Australian Jason Scrivener is slowly but surely forging a prosperous career on the European Tour, however his most significant contribution to golf to date began off the course.

A few years ago the 28-year-old devised his own putting training aid that has caught the attention
of his fellow players. Called the Putting Square, Scrivener’s contraption looks like a T-square that a draftsman, architect or technical drawer might use in their professions, but has been equipped to suit a putting green.

Golfers use the tool principally to improve alignment and reinforce the feeling of a square-to-target-line putterface. The longer portion of the ‘T’ points towards the cup; the shorter crossbar at the end promotes the putterface to sit flush to the target line, while also allowing tees to be placed at specific distances apart to hone stroke path.

The Putting Square began as a simple idea and was ultimately devised by Scrivener’s girlfriend’s father, who is a builder.

“I asked my girlfriend’s dad to make me a putting tool that I came up with and he designed me something similar to what I described,” Scrivener says. “I just did it for myself but then abunch of other pros started asking me about it and started liking it and saying they wanted one – and it just went from there.”

Other players to ask Scrivener for one include Brett Rumford, Matt Jager, Daniel Popovic and Ryan Lynch.

“It’s just a very simple tool, basically. It’s not rocket science or anything; it’s just something I feel helps my putting. It’s very much alignment-oriented for start-line and striking the putt [with better alignment]. It’s helped my putting.”

New BeginnersBathurst-founded Easy Tee Golf presents a refreshing new approach to growing the game.

At one of the homes of the Australian goldrush, Bathurst Golf Club head professional Matt Barrett had his own Eureka moment.

Barrett picked up the ladies tee markers, marched halfway up the fairway and replanted them during a junior holiday clinic. The result? A group of 40 children finished nine holes in less than two hours – and most had never played golf before.

“I just decided in the moment the quickest way to get these kids through was to move the tees up,” Barrett recalls. “The kids absolutely loved it; they weren’t intimidated because it wasn’t too far from the green. Most walked away from the clinic wanting to come back and try golf again.”

After half that day was spent rushing each set of tee markers back to their original spots, Barrett realised he’d need to create a whole new set to be left permanently. And so Easy Tee Golf was born.

“I was lucky the greenkeepers at Bathurst and the club itself were very supportive of the idea; they mowed areas on the edge of each fairway permanently for kids, ladies and families to have another choice to tee from.”

The idea gained traction at Bathurst Golf Club during a Swing Fit class – a Golf Australia initiative supported by the PGA, designed to combine fitness and golf in a friendly environment for women.

“The women loved Easy Tee Golf. It’s such a great way to get ladies enjoying golf without the frustration of a 500-metre par 5 where they put four balls in a water hazard. Eventually, when they improve, you can move back to regulation tees,” Barrett says.

Soon after, Bathurst members saw the benefits in working on their approach shots in a similar style
to par 3 course. This prompted Barrett to engage a manufacturing company to create Easy Tee markers – in both nine and 18-hole kits – in a highly visible fluorescent pink and imprinted with a logo.

Since his first order, regional courses Mudgee and Wentworth golf clubs have placed Easy Tee orders.

“Eventually, our goal is to create a national Easy Tee Golf competition to really legitimise the idea and create excitement around it.”

To find out more about Easy Tee Golf or to place an order, visit easyteegolf.com.au or  e-mail [email protected]

Stats a great idea
PGA Professional Josh Marris has come up with an innovative solution to help golfers keep track of their game American businessman Robert Half once said acting on a good idea is better than just having a good idea. Australian PGA Professional Josh Marris would certainly back that statement up.

In 2012, while competing in PGA Tour qualifiers and mini-tour events, Marris was desperately seeking something to help track and analyse his golf stats. After relying on Excel spreadsheets and handwritten scorecards for so long, the advent of the Smartphone and mobile applications left Marris thinking: surely there’s an easier way to do this?

With no luck finding an app that provided the level of detail he was looking for, Marris decided to build one.

Teaming up with good friends, part-time tour caddie Brendon Forster and web developer Adam Luck, the trio got to work designing what they envisioned would become the best golf statistics solution on the market, for any golfer. With mobile apps firmly in their design blueprint, Get Real Golf Stats (GRGS) was born.

“I wanted golfers everywhere, regardless of their skill level, to have a tool that could identify trends, strengths and weaknesses, and analyse performance over time without having to use a computer,” says Marris. “I believe these insights are more powerful in the hands of instructors to use with their students. GRGS provides players with insights that tour stats don’t provide (unless you’re on the PGA Tour), and its point of difference is the easy access through our mobile apps and cloud storage.”

So what is GRGS and how does it work?

Capturing similar information to Shotlink on the PGA Tour, GRGS offers tour-level performance statistics for every golfer with the ability to connect, share and compare with others, in an easy-to-use mobile app and website. Every shot entered on
GRGS is saved in the Cloud so you can access your rounds and stats anywhere, and when we add in a new statistic or analytical feature, you’ll instantly see it.

“Although we have more than 20,000 courses in our database, we give you the ability to add your own course in less than a minute. This means you can use GRGS on any golf course in the world,” adds Marris.

Of course, no business solution can be a success without proven results and market support. Since the launch of the GRGS iOS app in February 2014, the company has partnered with several organisations including the LPGA Tour, Australian PGA and ALPG Tour. GRGS is now being used in 62 countries by more than 50 LPGA Tour players, 100 LET players and a host of golfers on the ALPG, Australasian, One Asia and Japan tours, US mini tours, collegiate and high school teams, not to mention fellow PGA instructors here in Australia.

“Web.com player Kyle Thompson put it pretty well in a recent Tweet when he wrote that GRGS is ‘like having my own Shotlink’. A couple months later he won the Bahamas tournament on the Web.com Tour,” says Marris.

Aussie LPGA Tour star Katherine Kirk is also a fan of GRGS. “It’s the best program I’ve used … and the easiest. Keeping stats is the best way to evaluate your game and see what areas you need to work on.”

Marris said the early success of GRGS was the result of being able to combine his PGA qualifications with his no.1 passion.

“It’s exciting to bring ideas to life and create something from nothing, and I’m lucky that I can combine it with golf,” he says. “I get genuinely excited about the feedback I receive from our users. When people go out of their way to let us know what they think about our software, whether good or bad, it’s satisfying because it tells me I’m on the right track.”

So what advice does Marris have for fellow entrepreneurial PGA Pros who may have an idea to get off the ground?

“Run with it! So many people have great ideas but few ever follow through with them,” says Marris. “Find a couple mentors or advisors who have experience in different areas of business, especially the areas you don’t have experience in. You’re an entrepreneur now. It’s going to be tough. Be tenacious. Stick with it. Learn from your advisors. Understand that everyone makes mistakes and that doesn’t mean you will fail.”

Marris adds: “I listen to the podcast ‘How I built this’ by National Public Radio and every entrepreneur interviewed has a story of struggle and failure before they made it big … even Richard Branson had ideas and businesses that weren’t successful.”