Their daughter, Kristalle Blum, was the inaugural winner of The Athena in 2021 and is making her way in professional golf so when they took over the operations at North Haven in 2016 their plans came from a place of care and understanding.

They understood that at a public golf course, the perception that any member of the community might not feel welcome had to change.

They understood that this would cause consternation within the existing small but passionate member base who might resist change, but they knew it was necessary.

“Golf clubs to Graham and I are our home and our family,” says Burton, North Haven’s Golf Operations Manager who also coaches at nearby Penfield Golf Club.

“That’s how we treat every single one of them we’ve ever worked at and hopefully the people that come in feel that.

“Consequently, it’s about the experience they have when they get here. If we can put on things such as the Hangover Cup – a par-3 18-hole event on New Year’s Day – that’s gone from 24 players the first year in 2017 to being oversubscribed with 48 this year, it just creates this wonderful atmosphere around the club.

“When we took over, not everyone liked what we were doing. But even if they leave you get so many new people coming in that want what you have created.”

In the past two years the biggest growth sectors within the North Haven membership have been in women and the 25-to-40-year-old male category.

The appeal is not so much the nine-hole course lovingly cared for by Graham to the north of Adelaide that sits by the edge of St Vincent Gulf but the people found within.

“They just never realised what a club and what golf could offer them,” Burton says of the young men who have hung up the footy boots in favour of a 5-iron.

“You’ve only got a short lifespan as a player in footy but they have found something that has been able to take its place. They didn’t realise how competitive it was and they’ve loved the competitive side.”

The latest engagement initiative was Graham’s baby and again proved popular with the North Haven membership.

A popular event at golf clubs throughout the UK, the inaugural Greenkeeper Revenge Day gave North Haven’s golfers the competitive outlet and fun environment that they crave.

“The Greenkeeper’s Revenge certainly got more interest than I was expecting,” Burton conceded, Graham setting up all manner of weird and wonderful challenges including one hole in a bunker, a green littered with pull buggies and even one hole protected by a toilet seat.

“We’ve started a nine-hole women’s comp. The women could always play with the fellas in their normal comp day but they didn’t have anything just for themselves.

“That’s certainly proved popular. Even though we might only have a dozen women, we had no women, so a dozen’s great. We’ve gone from having no members to 35 women members in the past two years.

“We’ve just got to keep pushing it. We’ve just got to keep pushing the barrel, and every time you feel like you’ve hit your head up against brick wall, you just step around it and go again.”

If your club is in need of some fresh ideas, talk to your resident PGA Professional about ways in which the club can foster a fun and inclusive environment for all levels of golfers. Visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/

When Colin Holmes devised an indoor fitting centre at Narooma Golf Club on the New South Wales South Coast, it wasn’t a way to play with the latest golf gadgetry but rather provide a complete suite of professional golf services to regional golfers rarely catered for to that degree.

The Golf Tech Centre run by Holmes at Narooma is the only one of its type between Sydney and Melbourne. It allows for Holmes to provide lessons in any weather, utilise technology to provide feedback on swing mechanics and to conduct club fittings that ensure each golfer has the correct equipment for their specific needs.

The Tech Centre has been in operation for the past eight years and given Holmes the ability to deliver anything that his members may need but also provide a service to other golfers in the region.

“I do have a lot of people who now get lessons or come down whenever they want clubs from far and wide,” says Holmes.

“I’ve heard people from way out west or Canberra or all over the place in the state as well, just because they know what I do, they know how I do it, and, for whatever reason, like the way I do it.

“I’m teaching a lot of people that are not from Narooma, and I’m club-fitting and selling clubs to a lot of people that aren’t from Narooma itself.

“I thought it was the only way of showing someone you’re an actual professional in the trade. If you’re just saying here’s a club off the rack, hope for the best, you’re not really retailing. You’re not really selling yourself as an expert in the industry. Whereas to me, this was the only way that you could actually show people you were actually providing professional service.”

Central to the Tech Centre is a GC2 launch monitor and simulator with supporting video cameras that can capture the player from three different angles.

Holmes has recently incorporated a mobile Garmin launch monitor that he can use on the club’s outdoor range, further adding to his ability to provide the right guidance on swing mechanics and possible equipment adjustments.

“What I’m finding with some people is that they’re making a bad swing because of the club that they’ve currently got and that you can actually make a change in their swing by getting them to use a different club,” Holmes explains.

“That’s where I think it’s important as the PGA Members to actually push people into the right equipment.

“When I club fit, I don’t push a brand. Once I get their spec, then I’ll just give them every club that I can build in that spec and say, “Okay, let’s just look at the data,” and it all gravitates towards something they want.

“If you can put a club in their hands that does fit versus a club in their hands that doesn’t, they can immediately feel a difference.

“They can’t often explain to you why, and I don’t need them to explain why, but they can see and feel the difference.”

Wherever you are, PGA Professionals can assist you with not only your swing but in ensuring the equipment you play is best suited to your needs. To find your nearest PGA Professional visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/.

With her attention focused solely on establishing a playing career, Lim’s perception of the MPP was that it was little more than a back-up plan; an option when your preferred options ran out.

She spent four years at Ohio State University but persistent back injuries meant that a life on tour was unlikely.

Lim spent some time away from the game, reconnected by doing an internship as a strength and conditioning coach at Precision Athletica at Sydney Olympic Park and was State Manager for a Golf NSW team boasting Stephanie Kyriacou, Doey Choi and Kelsey Bennett and which won the 2018 Women’s Interstate Series final.

There was a six-month stint working in the pro shop at Castle Hill Country Club at which point PGA Professional David Northey raised the idea of what was formerly the PGA traineeship.

“A lot of my friends that I played junior golf with, when I went to college they did the traineeship at that time,” says Lim, who is currently employed as the Golf Operations Supervisor at Terrey Hills Golf and Country Club.

“Back then the perception was that if you don’t end up playing, you do the traineeship. And that’s kind of what I thought as well.

“But doing it actually changed my view.

“You can continue to play, you can work, you can study and there are so many different avenues that you can go through.

“But back then I didn’t know that you could go in those different directions.”

Lim studied Sports Management at Ohio State and has gravitated towards pro shop operations since completing the Membership Pathway Program two years ago.

Prior to beginning the MPP Lim had been given a lot of the responsibility for invoicing at Castle Hill and spent the majority of the program learning the ins and outs of golf shop operations as well as advancing Castle Hill’s junior program.

She maintains a passion for coaching but has found an affinity for the administrative aspect of keeping the golf operations at a golf club running smoothly.

“I really enjoy working in the shop, as well as coaching,” explains Lim.

“I pretty much do all the invoicing, shop management, stock and things like that. And then the other quarter of my work is teaching.”

Now forging a career in golf that she didn’t originally envision, Lim is now playing a part in encouraging other talented golfers to undertake the Membership Pathway Program.

She points to the success of European Tour player Deyen Lawson as proof that you can continue to pursue a playing career but now knows that the breadth of opportunities in golf is far greater by completing the MPP.

“Now because I’ve finished, some of the juniors that I’ve met I have mentioned the Membership Pathway Program,” says Lim.

“I tell them my story and then they realise that the program is not what they thought it was.

“Initially I didn’t know what was in the program. I just thought people did it and then you just get stuck in the shop and that it’d be boring.

“That was my initial thought but it’s actually really fun.”

The PGA Membership Pathway Program provides a platform to gain varied and valuable training and education within golf. To register your interest in applying for the MPP click here.

When I was young my idol in terms of coaching was John Jacobs, the British coach who always talked about impact, that was his first thing. The only thing that matters is good impact and as long as you can get it repetitively then your swing will work for you. That’s still true today.

Becoming a PGA Professional was always something that was in the back of my mind as a future job. I was friendly with some local professionals bac in the north of England, played a fair bit of golf with a few of them and I could see that as something that I could gravitate towards. I’d always been greatly interested in swing technique and even at that age I studied the golf swing endlessly, probably to my detriment in terms of my golf. I didn’t come to Australia in 1974 with that intent and purpose, I just came to Australia to see what it was like.

I started my traineeship with Jock Borthwick at Lake Karrinyup in 1975. I was introduced to him by an old professional called Charles Jackson who’d actually had come out from England. He could see that I was very keen and I was at a bit of a loss of what to do so he introduced me to Jock, gave me a recommendation and Jock met me on the verandah of Karrinyup one day. He asked me to go out and hit a few balls with him and he said, “You’ll do, you can start Saturday.” That was how I started.

I went from Karrinyup to Hamersley Golf Course where Pat Tobin who was a long-standing member of the PGA who is still going today, was the Head Professional and had the lease. We taught, we repaired clubs endlessly and of course dealt with the public. Pat was a really good bloke to work for. He was very fair, he worked us fairly and was a pleasure to work for.

Then I applied for the job at Wanneroo when they decided to enter into a proper PGA agreement Initially we were in a big shed on the driving range, just my wife and I to begin with. She would help me out on Saturdays and Sundays, out there picking up range balls with me in the 40-degree heat. Eight months after we started they built the pro shop that is still there today.

After a couple of years I got asked to join a partnership with fellow PGA Member David Breen who had the contract to Wembley Golf Course. That was the busiest club in town then and of course it’s even busier now they’ve done some marvellous changes there.

From there I went on to the WA Golf Club and I was the professional there for about two-and-a-half years and after that the job at The Vines came up. There really wasn’t another resort at that point and the one thing I didn’t have was experience in hospitality and resorts. We were there from before the course opened, getting everything set up, and I was there for the first two The Vines Classic tournaments.

Two years later the job at Lake Karrinyup was advertised and after going through the interview process got the job and stayed there for the next 29 years.

Looking back over the years I didn’t play that much golf while I was doing all those jobs. I played only casually and didn’t give much thought to it, which sounds crazy, but as I said, I thoroughly enjoyed the work of a professional.

I do have a little regret that I didn’t do more with that, that I didn’t play more golf. But in a busy club I always found it hard. You’re working in the shop and then suddenly you’ve gone out onto the first tee and hit it and off you’d go. If I was doing it again, I probably would’ve maintained my game a little more and played a little bit more but at the time it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. I felt I did the right thing for my jobs.

To find the PGA Professional who can guide you through your life in golf visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/.