More than 250,000 new golfers have flooded onto courses and driving ranges throughout the country over the past 18 months and a major focus now is to how to keep them engaged.

Brandon Rave’s theory is simple; get them playing better as quickly as possible.

A nominee for the 2020 Victorian PGA Game Development Professional of the Year, Rave coaches predominantly at the Melbourne Golf Academy due to the imminent closure of the Bulleen Driving Range where he has coached previously.

With travel to China where he has established golf academies and worked to enhance the golf coaching available in China becoming difficult, Rave channelled his energies into helping growth sectors that were suddenly emerging.

He has written a coaching curriculum for the Fairway Birdies women’s group – a group established to help women new to golf get from the driving range and out onto the golf course – but it is the accountability he places on his students that is producing results.

Rave knows that golfers who play better play more often and that it takes an element of hard work and dedication to get there.

“I give all the ladies homework and videos to do, even if it means that they buy one golf club and practice their takeaway position 50 reps a week before they came to the next class,” Rave explains. While his methods may not be for everyone, Rave found that the  retention was higher for the ladies that actually did the drills. And, believe it or not, they got better by practising.

“In other sports, that’s just the norm. The expectation is that you practice twice a week, work with your coaches and take steps as an individual to get better,” Rave adds.

“In golf there seems to be this assumption that because anyone can play it should be easy to be good.”

People play golf for so many varied reasons however Rave believes if you want results you need to be accountable.

“What I’m trying to do is change the mindset of coaching. That you can be assertive at the right times because ultimately you need to know that there is accountability in sport,” he says.

“We can set up social cohesion and everything but then the environment we’re going to set up is a social one. There’s going to be some accountability in the training.

“You get the most satisfaction out of that when you see improvement and you put in the work. That equals retention in my opinion.”

Eschewing traditional beginner clinics, Rave is convinced that by adopting such an approach that the attrition rate of those who start and those who continue on to be golfers embedded within the industry is reduced significantly.

“We found that there’s been better retention, people who go on to join a club, buy golf equipment and get real lessons,” Rave says.

“They’re the ones who will likely stay in the game and influence their daughters and their friends in a genuine way.

“My job is to get them into the game and get them to stay in the game.

“If you have 30 ladies in various groups a few might say that he was a bit of a tyrant but they will also acknowledge that they improved a lot using my methods.

“They’re the ones I want to keep in the sport.”

PGA Professionals are skilled in coaching all levels of golfers. Go to the PGA Find a Pro website to find a Professional in your area. Give them a call to discuss your requirements and find individual or group instruction suitable for you.

Rather than trying to get everyone who attends a lesson to swing like Adam Scott, PGA Professionals understand that outside of some basic fundamentals that everyone’s ideal swing is one that is uniquely modelled to their own physical characteristics.

Few understand that better than Peregian Golf Course PGA Professional Katelyn Must.

A promising amateur with dreams of playing professional golf around the world, Must suffered dislocations of the L4 and L5 vertebrae while doing deadlifts in an effort to get stronger.

She remains passionate about competing and continually striving to improve as a golfer but such a setback opened her eyes to the opportunity to move into coaching and to help others also fulfil their potential.

Must’s own experience dictates that a person’s physical make-up is a critical foundation for the way they will swing the golf club and it begins as soon as they walk through the door.

“I always look at someone standing in front of me or even as they’re walking towards me, watching how they walk, how they move,” Must explains.

“Then I would be looking at their length of limbs, those kinds of things. If they roll on the outside of the feet… I’d be looking at everything of how they moved before they even swing the golf club.”

Of course, there’s not a golfer alive who doesn’t want to own a swing that makes playing partners swoon.

But for every Minjee Lee there is a player that finds success without following the model swing. Must takes steps to guide golfers into the swing that is going to work best for them.

“I’ll put them through a series of tests but I’m not necessarily telling them that this is what they need to be. But I’m showing them. They’re learning themselves,” says Must.

It is this connection between a person’s physical and mental performance that Must finds most engrossing.

And if that means convincing them that a picture-perfect swing might not yield the results they are seeking, how to shape their thinking to embrace the swing that is perfect for them.

“I really love the mental aspect of coaching, the subconscious and conscious mind,” says Must.

“Would you prefer a swing that looks good or one that is going to help you reduce your score by three or four shots every round? All of a sudden, they’re choosing the one that gives them three shots less.

“You’ve shifted their mind from what they believed they needed, to a place of where you want them.

“By asking a lot of questions you can get down to more of the nitty gritty of what they’re actually wanting.”

PGA Professionals are experts in helping you find the swing that will allow you to play your best golf! Book a lesson with your local PGA Professional at pga.org.au.

Beginning the final round with a two-stroke advantage under cloudy skies and the constant threat of rain, Hook added to his course record of six-under 65 on Thursday with a round of one-under 70 at Links Hope Island on Friday, enough for a two-shot win.

Par at each of his first seven holes was the steady start Hook was hoping for and when he picked up a birdie at the par-5 eighth hole edged further clear of the field.

When the chasing pack needed Hook to falter he responded with more nerveless golf, completing a bogey-free round with 10 straight pars and a handy buffer as he played the final hole of the $30,000 championship for Australia’s PGA club and management professionals.

Mt Coolum’s TJ King (70) finished in outright second but given he had qualified earlier in the week through the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program, third-placed Matthew Guyatt (68) earned the second exemption into the Australian PGA at Royal Queensland Golf Club from next Thursday.

Hook’s victory and PGA berth were all the more unlikely given he wasn’t even in the field a week ago, grateful for all the messages and support he has received the past two days from his home club.

“It’s hard to believe I am standing here with the trophy. I wasn’t in the field until last week and felt really fortunate just to be playing let alone winning,” said Hook.

“All of the members at Pacific Dunes Golf Club have been amazing and the number of messages and calls have been overwhelming.

“I wasn’t sure if we were going to get out onto the course over the last couple of days given the impact of Cyclone Seth but the ground staff at Links Hope Island did an amazing job to prepare the course and all of us PGA Professionals are really grateful for their efforts.

“To be going to Royal Queensland Golf Club for the Australian PGA Championship is quite surreal.

“I have made the cut two out of the last three PGA’s that I have played so hopefully I can keep up the form heading into next week.”

A former Japan Tour player, Matthew Guyatt is now the Assistant Professional at Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane and despite picking up birdies at the 16th and 18th holes thought he and finished shy of a start at the PGA.

“I was really disappointed looking at the leaderboard after my round not knowing that TJ was already in next week’s field,” said Guyatt.

“To hear the news that I am into the PGA Championship in my home-town of Brisbane the week before the Queensland PGA Championship at Nudgee Golf Club is amazing.”

The PGA thanks each of our partners who have helped bring the PGA Professionals Championship to life in Acushnet, Club Car and Coca Cola Europacific Partners.

Not that it made any difference this particular Wednesday morning.

Most PGA Members live for the golf industry and on his day off Shaw was picking up a new benchtop to be installed in the pro shop and had an afternoon of paperwork scheduled for later that day.

It’s a familiar tale for most PGA Professionals throughout the country but highlights the demands on time and the diversity of attributes necessary to keep a golf club’s golf operations running smoothly.

Shaw’s connection with the membership at Flinders runs deep.

He completed the PGA Membership Pathway Program under fellow PGA Professional Gavin Coyle at the club and plans to remain the club’s Professional for the foreseeable future.

“Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday we’re doing a lot of important coaching of our golfers,” says Shaw in an acknowledgement of the importance of coaching in assisting golfers with their enjoyment of the sport.

“I try and coach all day on a Monday if I can, which is generally from 9am until 5 or 6pm.

“We introduced a beginners program called Pathways to Golf which has been very popular.

“It was a group setting designed for people that had never touched a golf club before in their life and has gone above and beyond our expectations. We are at the point where we run two classes on a Monday, Friday and Saturday.

“That’s 36 brand new golfers entering the game and has certainly been an achievement for myself and the club.”

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The positive influx of new golfers has put further pressure on a timesheet already being stretched to its limit and which has required constant adjustments by Shaw according to ever-changing COVID requirements.

The role of the PGA Professional also sees fitting days with equipment companies such as Callaway Golf, TaylorMade and Wilson Staff, and stock within the pro shop that requires regular consideration as part of the overall business.

“There’s  something at the club, in the Pro-Shop and in the coaching activities that keeps me on my toes all the time as a PGA Professional,” Shaw admits.

“You’re always trying something new and something different to help our golfers enjoy the sport more, have more fun or play better. And if it doesn’t work, then you put a line through it and try something different.

“I find it very difficult to sit still. This whole job and how it all pans out keeps you busy,” he adds.

“I certainly wouldn’t want it any other way.”

PGA Professionals all around Australia are the heartbeat of the sport and custodians of the game. Find your local PGA Professional for everything golf at pga.org.au.