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We’re delighted to be welcoming Ian James to the 2022 Golf Business Forum/PGA Expo as a key speaker.
An expert in golf retail and golfer engagement, Ian is passionate about establishing real-word connections and relationships within communities and the range of benefits this can provide to PGA Members, individuals and businesses.
Ian has more than 30 years of experience working at all levels of the corporate industry and will deliver unrivalled insight into influencing customer behaviour, purchasing patterns and creating brand loyalty.
For the past 15 years, Ian has been imparting his knowledge to those in the golf industry via his company Real Tribe. In his role, Ian is driven to help increase participation and engagement and his ideas will inspire you to maintain meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with golfers.
We are also excited to announce that Ian will also deliver EXCLUSIVE content to PGA Members at the Expo. lan will help you discover how to engage and align with golfers and facilities, maximising your financial impact.
Secure your tickets to the 2022 Golf Business Forum/PGA Expo now.
In his 56th year as a PGA Professional, Denis Brosnan remains one of the most enduring and influential figures in Australian golf. Unsurprisingly, his fascination with the properties of a golf club began at an early age and continues unabated to this day.
At qualifying for The Senior Open in July this year, Brosnan was simultaneously product-testing and trying to play his way into the field at Gleneagles.
With the yet-to-be-released but R&A-approved Brosnan Golf B77 driver in his bag, Brosnan bettered his age but failed to qualify, shooting 74 at Glenbervie Golf Club.
It was a triumph in every other sense of the word, taking great pride in the performance of another product that carries his name and revelling in the opportunity to play the game amongst friends he has known for half a century.
“It wasn’t available to the public, but we had R&A approval for it, so I used it and it worked really well,” Brosnan says of the B77.
“Before we get it ready for the public I’ll work on it, hit it, test it, put it in the bag, have a couple of rounds of golf with it, see what I think.”
Touring the Brosnan Golf warehouse in Brisbane’s northern suburbs is enlightening not just for the scale of the operation that sends containers of golf equipment around the country on a daily basis but the passion of the man behind it.
You sense that as he speaks on the latest release he is ruminating on what is next; as one container leaves the warehouse he proudly watches on as the next set of custom-built golf clubs are expertly constructed.
It has been this way since the establishment of Brosnan Golf in 1977 and which has expanded over the past 45 years to include 16 Golf World retail stores in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
And it all stemmed from an invitation as a 12-year-old to work in the Virginia Golf Club pro shop with Ted Cates, one of the founding members of the PGA of Australia.
“Ted was interested in making golf clubs, so I became interested in making golf clubs,” Brosnan adds. “I’d be there grinding and polishing golf clubs at a young age.
“Ted was way ahead of his time in so much as that he was casting way back in probably the late 1950s. He was casting putters, brass putters, and alloy woods, and of course I’d be in the pro shop grinding and assembling them.
“That was a great life experience for me. In later years, when I decided to get into manufacturing golf clubs, it gave me a terrific grounding.”
After a few years of working in the shop at Virginia Golf Club, Brosnan was put forward to begin his PGA Traineeship under Fred Anderson at Oxley Golf Club.
Not only did he continue to build clubs but the 17-year-old soon showed an affinity for sales.
He completed his PGA training under Frank McCarthy Snr at Jindalee Golf Club, spent a few years as the PGA Professional at Caboolture Golf Club and was recruited to become the PGA Professional at Redcliffe Golf Club in 1967.
Brosnan’s wife June – who passed away in 2016 – also worked in the pro shop at Redcliffe and would prove instrumental not only in the founding of Brosnan Golf but in the company’s success over the coming decades.
Although locally-manufactured golf clubs are less prevalent today, when Brosnan Golf entered the market they were going toe-to-toe with the likes of Dunlop, Slazenger, Spalding and PGF. Rather than being intimidated, Bronsan revelled in the competition.
“You might have said that’s a very competitive marketplace but I didn’t mind that at all,” he says.
“I came out with a product that I believed was brilliant, it was priced right and I was able to get the support of a lot of the golf pros in golf shops around the country.
“All of that put together meant that we could succeed, as we did, and we sold quite a lot of equipment. And I just kept doing it.”
At the heart of Brosnan’s decision to enter the equipment manufacturing sector was a belief that Australian conditions required golf club construction that was more durable than those that were imported from overseas.
“I thought for maybe two or three years that a lot of the golf clubs that were coming into Australia from overseas were poor quality zinc heads or die-cast heads,” he explains.
“Our conditions were far harsher than a plush, American golf course, and the golf clubs were not standing up. So I thought, I can do a lot better than this.
“I was always interested in what a club looked like and what it would do, the type of shaft it had, even from a young age. The fact that you could finish a golf club, it could look fantastic, and it would perform really well. All of that came into it, even as a 12-year-old, 14, 15, 16-year-old working in the pro shop.
“How far does it go? What will it do? What’s the shaft like? Is it square or hooked or open? I was always interested in that and performance, performance, performance.
“Our very first model was the Taipan with a cavity back, large sweet spot, wide sole, easy to hit. We sold thousands of them. People loved them.”
In the 24 years he worked out of Redcliffe Golf Club, Brosnan continued to run the pro shop at Caboolture and would often teach at Beerwah, Bribie Island and Woodford.
It was during one of his junior clinics at Beerwah that he met a young man by the name of Ian Baker-Finch.
“He was a junior up there and was part of the program that we used to do, but he had so much talent,” Brosnan recalls of the 1991 Open champion.
“He hit the ball very well. I made sets of golf clubs for him and he was good. We’re still friends today; he’s a great guy.
“Wayne Grady, exactly the same. I sponsored Wayne on the tour for a long time and he had some terrific wins using Brosnan golf clubs.
“He won the German Open using a set of Brosnans. His very first Pro-Am that he ever won, he used a set of Brosnans, the Tour Classics.
“We had the Wayne Grady Signature clubs later, but he predominantly used the Tour Classic, and then later a model called the Tournament. He was a brilliant player.”
Due to celebrate his 77th birthday in December this year, Brosnan continues to be active in every aspect of the business while also finding time to play as many events on the SParms PGA Legends Tour as he can.
It is an intoxicating mix that he shows no sign of giving up any time soon.
“It’s a question that people ask me all the time, ‘Are you going to retire?’,” Brosnan concedes.
“I’ve got two very good friends that are my age or a little older that have not retired, that are still very active in their business.
“We talk about it and we come to the conclusion, well, no, maybe we won’t. I’m at a point where I’m happy doing what I’m doing. I’m happy to continue running the business and doing what I do and playing a lot of golf.
“You’ve got to love golf. It’s more than a job – it’s a career. It’s a love.
“For me, golf is something that I enjoy. I love playing, I love the people, I like the friends. People like Randall Vines, Tom Linskey, Lloyd McPharlin, these are guys that I met in the ‘60s and have been friends with ever since.
“Golf is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle.”
We chatted with James Single, PGA Professional since 2011 and Head Professional at Port Macquarie Golf Club in New South Wales, to get his reflections on a career in the sport he loves.
What have you learnt about the game recently that sticks out for you?
“Just how underestimated the social side of the game is. The connections that players make while on the course is vital to growing memberships and facilities should do what they can to encourage social events in conjunction with the game.”
Having been involved in the game for a long time, what is your most memorable golfing experience?
“Mixing with PGA Touring Professionals Gavin Coles and Peter O’Malley as a junior in Bathurst was a very exciting experience and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them do what they do on the course and it is something that I will remember for a long time.
Other than that, I really value spending time with family and friends on the golf course away from business. It is a great chance just to enjoy our surroundings together; that’s the best thing about golf. It’s not just the game we play, it is who you play with and share that time with that makes it the best game ever.”
You have a wide-ranging job as a PGA Professional, what’s your favourite part of your job?
“I love getting out of the Pro Shop and teaching people to play the game of golf. The thrill I get from teaching when I see a student hit a shot that they thought they weren’t capable of hitting is fantastic.”
What barriers do you think we still need to break down to get more Australians playing more golf, more often?
“I believe course access is certainly a barrier; clubs are leaning heavily towards membership and competition play as opposed to social play. I think it’s important that we open up social play as much as possible.
I also believe that we need to do all we can to get more women playing the game. For a long time we have known that encouraging female participation is one of the best ways to grow the game of golf, so we need to do everything we can to get more women and girls out on the fairways as soon as possible.”
What is one piece of advice you would offer to a new PGA Professional?
“I would advise a new PGA Professional to keep learning and developing their knowledge around the game of golf. There is so much information available to us and we are only just scratching the surface of what we know, even long after we become a PGA Professional.”
To find your local PGA Professional, click here
Golfers nationwide are discussing the possibility of their clubs housing goats and sheep, composting and implementing other environmentally-friendly measures since discovering Eastern Sward Golf Club’s ecological experiment.
The story on the south-east Melbourne based club’s biodiversity journey was published by Melbourne newspaper The Age late last month and other clubs want to know how they can follow Eastern Sward’s lead.
PGA Professional at the club Garth Cusick, who is driving the project where former farm animals roam the non-playing areas and composting bins surround the car park alongside superintendent Shaun Lehane, has been bombarded with expressions of interest from across the country.
“People have asked about lots of things,” Cusick said. “Whether it be using the animals to reduce the costs of managing their sites. Or we like the idea of reducing the chemical use or it’s been ‘it’s simply a feel good story, how do we get animals on our site?’.
“The interest has been humbling. People have also asked ‘do you need more money to continue?’ and ‘we like what you’re doing, how do you do it? Could you do it for us?’.”
The positive responses come while the experiment is still in its early days.
He is happy to share his ever-growing knowledge as he is fully aware of the amazing possibilities the project may create.
“What we’re doing is looking at expenditure, longevity of the practices and managing the asset which is the golf course,” Cusick said.
“It is of no use keeping that information to ourselves.
“This work can save clubs money, improve their practice and most importantly bring more people to golf courses because they are not just playing golf, and that’s good for the game.”
Attracting and retaining more people to golf has long been Cusick’s passion.
After working in the industry for three decades, he won Golf Australia’s Visionary of the Year for the month of July for his work bringing Chinese-Australian women into golf through his business The International Golf Academy Australia, which is based at Eastern Sward.
His desire to keep growing the sport led him down the microbiological path.
Following a chat with Lehane on how they could decrease the club’s expenses and increase cash flow, Cusick decided to study to explore various methods of soil management.
He commenced an online microbiology course with soil biologist Dr Elaine Ingham’s US-based Soil Food Web and has been studying 15 to 20 hours per week for the two years since.
“I wanted to contribute. I’ve been coaching the game for 30 years, but I didn’t think it was enough,” Cusick said.
“For the overall longevity of the game, I believe we need to protect the boundaries we play on. We have some ultra clever people building some impressive structures with amazing functionality.
“Can we focus it so that it is more natural, politically correct and cheaper? Yes. Hence, the study and luckily what I’m studying is 20 years of knowledge already in the agriculture sector. I’m bringing that knowledge to this site. I didn’t invent it, I’m just copying what others have told me.”\
His research brought him to the idea of introducing animals to the non-playing areas.
Passersby on neighbouring Thompson Road are often perplexed to see sheep and goats gathered around the Eastern Sward Golf Club sign, but they have proven to be a game-changer.
Before the 160 animals – who either come from the Strong Hearts Animal Sanctuary, which rehomes animals surrendered by farms, or the RSPCA rehabilitation program – were introduced to the course, the grass in the non-playing areas was nearly head high and a fire hazard.
Now, it is kept short at no cost.
“Originally the staff managed 23 hectares and by using the animals, we have fenced off ten hectares,” Cusick said.
“The animals manage those ten hectares and the same budget is now used on 13 hectares. We’ve intensified the energy rather than spreading out. Consequently, we’ve had significant change and we think between $10,000 and $12,000 we would spend on those ten hectares on staff, machines, maintenance and fuel.
“So we’re not having that as excess, we choose to improve our playing surface. Our course is not at 100% capacity and we want more people to come and play.
“We are not having six levels of cut, we’re down to three. We have green, fairway and tee, and rough. That means less machines required, less on and off machines.
“Our golf course now is 75% fairway, 25% rough and we are aiming to have a 90/10 split this summer. That’s a big change that the members can see. It plays faster. They are enjoying the round and we’ve used that energy and money to focus more on our greens and green surroundings.
“Our course is easy off the tee and the closer you get to the hole the more difficult it is. We’re entry level. People come here to learn the game.”
If a golfer hits their ball over the fence into where the animals roam, there is a simple local rule of taking a free drop inside the playing area.
Cusick gathers the balls, and returns them to the clubhouse, when he visits the animals to either check on them or gather microbe-rich manure for composting.
The animal manure has not had any artificial inputs and is perfect to add to his composting systems.
By extracting the microbes from the compost using an ‘aerated tea’ method to transfer it in water to the chosen. The local microbes support natural plant growth and are the key to the reduction of chemical use.
The club is conducting this experiment in conjunction with Dr Mary Cole, a well-known academic, plant pathologist and soil microbiologist, to provide peer reviewed data on process, methods, cost and outcome.
Cusick’s long-term vision is to use compost on the golf course instead of pesticides and fertiliser, and while working towards that goal, he has built an incredible rapport with the animals.
He knows them all by name, but he has a special bond with the ‘Little Boys’ in particular.
They are four goats – who are not so little anymore but the name stuck – who were the first to arrive to Eastern Sward and have called the club home since they were six weeks old.
Some of the members have a similar connection with the animals and community involvement is a huge factor in the project.
When they shear the sheep at Eastern Sward, they donate the wool to the Tooradin Knitting Club – in the town on Western Port Bay – and educating people on what can be done with their natural resources is a massive part of the club culture.
“This golf club is more than just people walking on the course to play,” Cusick said. “We can teach them how the life cycle of plants works, why plants grow, why trees grow, how compost is used, what is compost.
“Having alternate interests is also important for club members.”
For now, Cusick’s focus remains squarely with continuing to evolve the project at Eastern Sward. Although, he cannot help but be excited by the prospect of his visions coming to life elsewhere.
“We are lucky to sit here in a live experiment where Eastern Sward Golf Club have given us their course to test these theories,” he said. “We are not inventing processes, we are modifying existing processes to suit the site.
“The model we have here can be picked up and taken to any other golf club. That’s the dream, but right now I’m focused on this club.”
Dominant singles performances from both Jamie Hook and TJ King have earned Team Australia second position at the inaugural Four Nations Cup in South Africa.
Trailing the host nation by 3.5 points at the start of the Sunday singles, the Australian team of Hook (Pacific Dunes Golf Club), King (Mount Coolum Golf Club), Murray Lott (Victoria Park) and captain Matthew Guyatt (Gailes Golf Club) accrued 7.5 points from the 12 on offer on the final day.
Team Canada won an incredible nine of their 12 matches to take top spot with a total of 20 points, Australia second on 16, South Africa third with 14 points and New Zealand fourth on 10 points.
The younger members of Team Australia, Hook and King were superb all week.
A recent graduate of the Membership Pathway Program at Mount Coolum, King won all three of his matches on day one and remained undefeated head-to-head, winning all three of his matches on Sunday.
He won all three of his matches by the same margin, defeating Kevin Stinson (Canada), Dongwoo Kang (New Zealand) and Pierre van Vuuren (South Africa) 4&3.
Hook was also a convincing winner in each of his three matches.
The reigning PGA Professionals Championship winner accounted for South African Calvin Caldeira 6&5, defeated New Zealander Brad Shilton 4&3 and edged Canada’s Pierre-Alexandr Bedard 3&2 for a Sunday sweep.
The old boys also contributed to the final day points spree.
Guyatt fought all the way to the final hole to get the better of South African Dane Vosloo while Lott earned a half point with a halved match against New Zealand’s Pieter Zwart.
Australia is scheduled to host the Four Nations Cup in 2023, providing even greater incentive for those contesting the PGA Professionals Championship at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in Melbourne from October 10-11.
Final standings
Canada 20.0
Australia 16.0
South Africa 14.0
New Zealand 10.0
Team Australia will need a dominant last day of singles after adding just one point to their tally in two rounds of fourball matches on day two of the Four Nations Cup in South Africa.
The host nation will enter the final day at Kyalami Country Club near Johannesburg on 12 points and with a lead of 1.5 points from Canada, Australia in third position on 8.5 points with New Zealand fourth on five points.
In the third round of fourball matches the young pairing of TJ King and Jamie Hook added to Australia’s tally with a 2 up win over the Kiwi pairing of Jared Pender and Pieter Zwart.
Veterans Matthew Guyatt and Murray Lott went down 4&3 to Brad Shilton and Dongwoo Kang before the afternoon matches failed to produce any points.
Hook and King pushed the South African pairing of Calvin Caldeira and Dane Vosloo all the way to the 18th hole before falling 1 down, Guyatt and Lott making it to the 17th hole before succumbing to Pierre van Vuuren and Duane Kuen 3&1.
The Four Nations Cup will conclude on Sunday with a second round of four-way singles matches with plenty of points on offer in each group.
Four Nations Cup standings
South Africa 12
Canada 10.5
Australia 8.5
New Zealand 5
Click here for scores from all four rounds to date.
Wins in all three of his singles matches by Mount Coolum’s TJ King has put Team Australia in a strong position after day one of the Four Nations Cup in South Africa.
A coming together of PGAs from Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand, the inaugural Four Nations Cup is taking place at Kyalami Country Club north of Johannesburg, the home team taking a 2.5-point lead into day two.
South Africa accrued 10 points across the first two rounds, Australia tied for second with Canada on 7.5 points and New Zealand on 3 points.
The veteran pairing of Matthew Guyatt and Murray Lott made the perfect start with a 2 up win over Canada’s Pierre-Alexandr Bedard and Branson Ferrier as King and Jamie Hook went down 2&1 to Kevin Stinson and Gordon Burns.
The afternoon matches were four-way singles matches and it was King who came to the fore.
He accounted for Kiwi Brad Shilton 5&4, defeated Bedard 4&3 and edged South African Duane Keun 2&1 to secure three crucial points for his team.
It was a productive session too from Jamie Hook.
Hook defeated Canada’s Branson Ferrier 2 up, got the better of New Zealander Jared Pender 2&1 and halved his match with South African Dane Vosloo to add 2.5 points to the tally.
Lott got the better of New Zealand’s Dongwoo Kang 3&2 in his only singles win on day one while Guyatt went down in each of his three matches.
Rounds three and four on Saturday are betterball matches with Hook and King to play the New Zealand team of Pender and Zwart and Lott and Guyatt facing off against Shilton and Kang in Round 3.
Click here for scores and standings.
The Aussie quartet feel that they have adjusted to the altitude in Johannesburg ahead of day one of the Four Nations Cup at Kyalami Country Club in South Africa.
Representing the PGA of Australia against PGA Professionals from South Africa, Canada and New Zealand, the team of Matthew Guyatt (Gailes GC), Murray Lott (Victoria Park), Jamie Hook (Pacific Dunes GC) and TJ King (Mount Coolum GC) have spent the past two days adjusting to the conditions and formulating pairings.
They have chosen to pair veterans Guyatt and Lott together and Hook and King for the fourball betterball matches against Canada on Friday that will kick-off the annual competition from 3.08pm AEST.
Day one will conclude with four-way match play singles matches to be followed by two rounds of betterball on Saturday and then the winners will be crowned on Sunday following a second round of singles matches.
The Aussie team completed their preparations with a practice round on Thursday, captain Guyatt confident that they have made the necessary adjustments to be competitive over the coming three days.
“Altitude has been a great challenge for all of us to try and figure out how far the ball is going,” Guyatt admitted of playing in a city 1,753 metres above sea level.
“We think (it’s going) around 11 to 14 per cent extra so just working out all the math around that.
“There’s a massive premium on tee-shot positioning on this golf course because if you get yourself off-line or into the rough near the tree-line the recovery shots are very difficult to find the putting surfaces.
“It also forces you to hit into spaces where pin locations are very, very difficult to have a crack at.
“Fairways are important and the boys have done a great job the past couple of days in figuring all that out.
“The boys have gelled together exceptionally well. We’re loving the time that we’re spending together, it’s been awesome.”
Winner of the PGA Professionals Championship at Links Hope Island in January to secure his spot in the team, Hook is feeling more and more comfortable with each day on course.
“Hard to get the judgement and trust of the distances but getting there and feeling more comfortable with it,” he added.
“The game’s good. Getting better and better as we keep playing. Need a couple of putts to drop and I think we’ll be right where we want to be.”
Although TJ King is threatening to pull the course to pieces with his prodigious length, placement and positioning shapes as the recipe for success at the parkland layout ranked inside the top 25 in South Africa.
“Placement is key off the tee and knowing your game,” said Lott, the senior member of Team Australia.
“Having respect for some of the holes is crucial but I think all of us are at a skill level where we probably do that anyway.
“Unless we hit it 400 like TJ King.”
Prior to the two practice rounds the Australian team was contemplating pairing youth and experience in each group, ultimately deciding that complementary games might be more effective in the betterball format.
Lott was Guyatt’s short game coach when he was playing on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and in Japan, the pair’s history together also including appearances at the Queensland Foursomes Championship.
“‘Muzz’ and I have played a fair bit together over the years,” said Guyatt.
“We’ve played some Queensland PGA Foursomes together and he was my short game coach when I was playing on tour so we know each other’s games quite well.
“You want someone that knows you well and knows the right things to say at the right time, press the right buttons.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together working on my game. He knows it extremely well so we’ll certainly be a nice pairing and get along exceptionally well, which sometimes in matches is exactly what you want.”
As for the all-important Sunday singles, Guyatt is leaning towards a premonition that Lott had while en route to South Africa.
“Murray had a vision on the plane on the way over that I was filming TJ having a putt to win the tournament on the last green on Sunday,” Guyatt added.
“We’re going to honour that vision and premonition and let TJ play in the one spot on Sunday.”
For Four Nations Cup scores and draws click here.
Four Nations Cup – Day 1
Betterball Matches AEST
3.08pm Jamie Hook/TJ King (AUS) v Gordon Burns/Kevin Stinson (CAN)
3.17pm Murray Lott/Matthew Guyatt (AUS) v Pierre-Alexandre Bedard/Branson Ferrier (CAN)
Singles Matches (Four-way Match Play)
Murray Lott (AUS) v Pierre van Vuuren (SA) v Gordon Burns (CAN) v Dongwoo Kang (NZ)
Matthew Guyatt (AUS) v Calvin Caldeira (SA) v Kevin Stinson (CAN) v Pieter Zwart (NZ)
Jamie Hook (AUS) v Dane Vosioo (SA) v Branson Ferrier (CAN) v Jared Pender (NZ)
TJ King (AUS) v Duane Keun (SA) v Pierre-Alexandre Bedard (CAN) v Brad Shilton (NZ)
Over nearly a decade, Glenn Paul has worked in a range of roles as a PGA Professional. From being a Head Professional, a General Manager, to embracing a journey as a specialist coach, Glenn’s rich blend of experience allows him to help everyone on their golfing journey.
Now part of the innovative GolfBox Academy, working across Joondalup and Osborne Park locations, Glenn takes great pride in being a PGA Professional.
“For me, it is pretty much everything,” he says. “Having the opportunity to give back – not just to our Membership but to golfers in general is something I’m pretty proud of.”
The GolfBox Academy – the coaching and club-fitting arm of the Western Australia-based golf superstore, GolfBox – gives Glenn the chance to work alongside fellow PGA Professionals Gavin Reed and Ben Percival, to give golfers an all-encompassing golfing experience.
“It’s more than just retail,” he explains. “We give customers the chance to get information on their equipment from a PGA Professional at the same time as they get advice on their game.”
One of the significant employers of PGA Professionals in Western Australia, Glenn views the GolfBox Academy as something of a one-stop-shop for golfers.
“We strive to give the customer a great fitting and coaching experience, as well as a great retail experience,” he says. “So, we’ve got both ends of the stick covered.”
Glenn and his team are committed to providing an engaging and cutting-edge environment for all golfers when they walk through the doors at the GolfBox Academy. Employing a range of coaching tools and keenly embracing technology, golfers are given an immersive experience under the watchful eye of PGA Professionals.
At Joondalup, golfers hit into a large, curved simulator screen, but the real innovation begins once the ball has been struck.
“We use GC Quad and Foresight technology,” Glenn explains. “Together, they form a great tool from a data point of view to understand what the golf ball is doing.”
Combined with force plates that inform how each golfer is moving, Glenn and the team at the GolfBox Academy are able to gain an in-depth understanding of each player.
“With all of our technology, we are able to fast-track everyone’s improvement.”
Although he now thrives in the new environment, Glenn, like many golfers, understands there can be an adjustment period to moving away from the golf course.
“The transition can be a big one,” he says. “But from a game development perspective, to go into an environment where it’s neutral – there’s no distractions – has been fantastic.”
“We are able to have a look at exactly what the golf swing is doing without worrying about a range of external factors,” he explains. “From there, the instructional process becomes a lot more simplified for the students and for us.”
To that end, Glenn is finding that working at a facility like the GolfBox Academy allows him and fellow PGA Professionals the chance to expand the horizons of golfers, breaking the mould of how golf has been played in the past.
Where traditionally, golfers might not have thought it possible to teach feel, beyond hitting thousands of balls and grooving a swing, Glenn is quick to challenge that thinking.
“I am a big believer that with data and technology, you can actually teach feel because of that constant feedback loop,” he says.
More broadly, through his role at the GolfBox Academy, Glenn recognises and cherishes the responsibility of helping ever golfer he meets – and understands that this extends beyond the golf swing.
“Everybody wants to shoot a better score, but I find just as much joy in working with people who play the game for reasons other than being good golfers,” he explains.
“The game is invaluable for people’s mental and physical heath and helping people to recognise that excites me every day.”
When he was offered a job as the Head Professional at Pacific Dunes Golf Course in 2016, Jamie Hook made a deliberate decision to shift his focus from playing golf full-time to his new role working in the golf industry.
More than six years on, Hook’s dedicated service to the club and its membership remains front of mind, taking great pride in servicing the club’s burgeoning membership base.
Positioned in a thriving quarter of Port Stephens, Hook is focussed on growing golf at Pacific Dunes; running group golf programs, clinics for women and juniors, as well as corporate days to make the game more accessible to more players than ever before.
“I’ve got a responsibility to the membership,” he explains. “That’s everything from offering a well-stocked pro shop, growing participation for everyone and offering the best advice and service I can.”
While Hook’s focus might have shifted, his prodigious skill on course remains – something that has been highlighted by his recent strong performances.
Hook claimed a two-shot victory in the PGA Professionals Championship Final at Links Hope Island and followed it up the next week with a strong showing at the Australian PGA Championship where he made the cut and finished tied for 31st.
“I was never someone who needed to play all the time to be in decent form,” Hook explains.
“I knew I could still play and work, I just came to recognise I couldn’t dedicate my focus to playing full-time.”
Hook is once again looking forward to putting his best foot forward on the course as he represents his club, country and broader PGA Membership at the Four Nations Cup in South Africa from September 2.
It is a selection that continues a proud string of representative honours for Hook who has represented his state and district in the past, the opportunity to play in Australian colours a feat that is understandably a great source of pride.
“I started out wanting to be a professional golfer, but I never really thought I would get the chance to represent my country,” he says. “I really am very honoured.”
That sense of pride and genuine excitement is one that has been echoed by the membership at Pacific Dunes, indicative of the strong bond that Hook has been able to form in his role as Head Professional.
“My results and golfing journey have always been well received by the members,” says Hook. “That’s everything from a Wednesday competition, right through to the PGA Professionals Championship.
“It’s really nice. They support it all and definitely enjoy celebrating success with me.”
While that support will extend when he tees it up for Australia, Hook remains cautious of one thing.
“I consider a lot of the members to be my close friends which is great – but it does mean that they’re more than willing to let me know if they don’t think my performance is up to scratch!”
Regardless, Hook is confident that he and the team can put in a strong showing in South Africa where they will face off against PGA Professionals from South Africa, Canada and New Zealand.
“I know we are all looking forward to it and I’m sure once we get over there and see the Australian flags the competitive spirit will kick in,” he adds.
“I’m sure it will be a great week.”
Australia’s Four Nations Cup representatives were drawn from the top four finishers at the PGA Professionals Championship Final at Links Hope Island. This year’s PPC Final will be held at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in Melbourne from October 10-11.
