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Three of the PGA’s longest serving members were honoured as more than 700 years of membership gathered at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club for the annual 50 Year + PGA Member Afternoon Tea.
Recognising those PGA Members in Queensland who have had at least 50 years of PGA Membership, some of the icons of Australian golf were in attendance to acknowledge milestones achieved by Les Wilson, Gary Wright and Brian Jones.
This year marks the 70th year of membership for Wilson while both Wright and Jones bring up a half-century as PGA Members, PGA Immortal Charlie Earp, PGA Chair Rodger Davis and Life Members Randall Vines and Paul King among the attendees.
Although border restrictions and health concerns prevented Jones and Wilson from attending, Davis said it was important to continue the tradition of acknowledging such distinguished service to the game in Australia.
“At every level these three PGA Members have represented the game and their professional with the greatest of distinction,” Davis said.
“The strength of the PGA lies within its membership and to have Gary and Brian both reach 50 years and for Les to bring up 70 years are milestones that as an Association we should celebrate in the highest possible fashion.
“I’ve been fortunate to know all three of these gentlemen for the majority of their careers and I feel very honoured that I was able to present Gary with his certificate in person.”
There is a certain level of proficiency you need as a golfer before embarking on a journey down the PGA Membership Pathway Program.
There is a playing test to pass before you begin, and to become a fully-fledged PGA Professional, there is a standard you must maintain for the three years of your study.
So it should come as little surprise that the vast majority of PGA Associates have aspirations to play the largest tours in world golf when they begin.
It wasn’t so long ago that those with professional aspirations could not play tournament golf until first completing their time in the pro shop, but the modern tendency is for elite amateurs to jump head-first into the cut-throat world of qualifying schools and tournament invitations.
But there is an option in between, and it provides a pathway to the best tournaments in the world without the anxiousness of having nothing else to fall back on.
Hailing from Geelong, Deyen Lawson understood early in the second year of his time under Steve Brody at Curlewis Golf Club that if he wanted to be an elite tour player he had to start practising like one.
The results were almost instant.
He won the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian trainee championships and in 2015 won a total of 10 times, including the Rich River Trainee Classic and CPM Southern PGA Trainee Championship.
The following year he notched three top-10 finishes in the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia events, played the China Tour in 2018 and by 2019 had a full card on the European Tour.
“I knew that by the end of the traineeship I’d know what I wanted to do,” reflects Lawson, who is currently ranked 551st in the Official World Golf Rankings and playing predominantly on the European Challenge Tour.
“You get an idea over the three years whether you want to play or coach or manage. It really shows you what you want your life and career to look like.
“Midway through the second year of my traineeship something clicked in my practice and realising that after the three years I wanted to be ready to go and play.
“I had an opportunity in my second and third year to get into a financial position where I could play for a couple of years without worrying about money as such. Give it a real crack and if worked out, good, and if it didn’t I’d go down the coaching route.
“My brother was doing his traineeship at the time as well and he said at the end of the Vic Trainee champs in 2015 that it was the first one that I’d won because I worked harder than everybody else, not because I was more talented than most of the guys that were there.”
When the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of much of the 2020 European Tour season, Lawson returned home to Australia and began coaching under Todd Sleep at The Glades Golf Club on the Gold Coast.
Coaching remains an active interest that he is likely to explore further when he has finished playing and may have inadvertently cost him a breakthrough PGA Tour of Australasia win earlier this year.
“My coach Darrell Brown has said not to help anyone because I know too much and then it will screw you over,” Lawson admits.
“I helped Andrew Evans a few weeks before he won the Queensland Open. He only took $10,000 out of my pocket, but that’s OK.
“He’d missed six cuts in a row and I was on the putting green by myself at about 5 or 6 at night and he was just watching me.
“We spoke about how terrible he’d been going and he asked me to take a look at his putting.
“You see a guy on a putting green grinding and he was down and out with his golf. It was as though he was about to break down, and we’ve all been there.
“It was just a mindset with his putting and his routine and one thing with his grip and set-up. It was keeping it simple and then a few drills.
“It was slightly a technique thing that then turns into a mental thing which is normally something that can creep in for a good player.
“He went out a couple of weeks later and won… and I came second.
“He mentioned me afterwards on his Instagram but I told him not to tell too many people.”
Thinking back, Khan Pullen can identify a few indicators that suggested this week was going to be Cam Davis’s week.
There was the window of time that allowed sports psychologist Neale Smith to spend two days with Davis at his home in Seattle working on how to remain calm under pressure.
There was a significant adjustment in the Titleist van to the face angle of his driver from 8.25 degrees to 9.5 degrees that would allow him to stay on top of the ball and confident through the downswing… and subsequently hit more fairways.
Then there was Kramer Hickok’s near miss a week earlier in an eight-hole playoff with Harris English at the Travelers Championship, the pair becoming good friends whilst playing the Canadian and Korn Ferry Tour together a few years ago.
And then there was Davis’s lust for revenge.
Having missed the cut in his two previous starts at Detroit Golf Club, Davis sent his coach back in Sydney a text message that was laced with fierce determination: ‘I’m going to get that course this week.’
A 26-year-old who spent his junior days at Roseville and then Monash Country Club on Sydney’s north shore, Davis did on Sunday in America what many had been expecting since he won the 2017 Australian Open over Jason Day and Jordan Spieth.
Davis’s breakthrough PGA TOUR title came in dramatic fashion at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, firstly playing his way into a three-man playoff with some late-hole heroics and then overcoming four near misses to secure the win on the fifth playoff hole.
The shot-making was breath-taking; the putts that skated by time after time heart-wrenching.
Yet behind it all Davis put into practice the mental training he and Smith had been honing for two years until victory was his.
“That’s the most composed under pressure I’ve ever seen him,” said Pullen, who became Davis’s coach when he was 16 shortly after inviting him to a Golf Australia talent identification camp in Melbourne during his time as National Coach.
“His body language, not over-reacting to shots, the rhythm of his walk and his patience through that playoff was the best I’ve ever seen.
“That was the final little hurdle for him to win, having that composure when it really, really mattered.
“You don’t hit it that well if you’re not that composed and mentally you’re not in the right spot, especially in those situations.
“It was pretty amazing to watch.”
Following the Memorial Tournament in early June, Davis didn’t touch a club for two weeks before picking them back up again a week ago and inviting Smith to spend the weekend working on his mental approach.
Smith is a proponent of establishing routines for players to come into a shot and then a routine to leave it and Davis admitted that he leaned on that as the tournament reached its crescendo.
“We did a lot of work on just routine, and that sort of stuff is really what you fall back on,” said Davis, whose previous best finish on the PGA TOUR came with a third-place finish at The American Express in January and is projected to rise from 134 to No.67 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
“I don’t really have any experiences in the past that kind of prepared me for it. Australian Open back years ago now was similar in that I didn’t really know where I stood when I was coming down the last couple of holes and I was able to hit some good ones and get across the line.
“I wasn’t thinking about that, though. I was just thinking about all the things that I had done all this week leading up to that point and just tried to keep it going.
“It was just putting all that stuff on repeat.
“There’s definitely room for nerves to set in if you do start kind of letting your mind wander, but I felt like I was really deliberate and did a good job of that. That kept me going all the way through each hole of the playoff and at the end of regulation as well.”
Recognising that his charge had got off to a nervy start, Pullen thought first that a bogey at the par-3 ninth might stall his progress and then a three-putt bogey from 36 feet at the par-4 16th might have ended it for good.
But his brilliant bunker shot and exquisite execution on the 72nd hole brought to the world’s attention what Pullen first saw a decade ago.
“He always had this x-factor about him,” Pullen added.
“I caddied for him in a match at the Interstate Series and being inside the ropes with him you could really tell his passion for the sport. He just really loved to play, loved to compete.
“And he just had this little x-factor about him that I thought really separated him.”
As for how this will change Davis’s life, his coach has one simple request.
“Hopefully he’ll get Cam Davis more than Cam Smith now because they still get that wrong half the time,” Pullen said.
“Hopefully he’s formed his own identity now.”
For graduates of the PGA Membership Pathway Program and their indentured professionals, 2020 presented some challenges that didn’t come with a roadmap to navigate.
In Victoria in particular, various periods of lockdown meant that there was a physical disconnect between Associates and their workplace, but Director of Golf at Kingston Heath went out of his way to ensure that Lachlan Kenny and the golf operations team were actively engaged throughout.
“During lockdown Justin was always very active in making sure that we had something to do or could be involved with any changes or processes made from an operational perspective and also club perspective,” explains Kenny, who completed the PGA Membership Pathway Program at the end of 2020.
“Whilst everyone was locked up so to speak, we were working quite diligently throughout that lockdown period.
“From a support point of view, he always made sure that all of us had the ability to stay connected which was a massive boost.”
The mentorship that is a feature of the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program was crucial in Kenny’s career development.
His father Andrew has been the General Manager at Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast and Heritage Golf and Country Club in Melbourne and his family are close friends with former ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia player Heath Reed.
When Kenny moved to Melbourne to advance his playing career he sought the counsel of Ben Bunny at Ranfurlie Golf Club and found a mentor in Burrage at Kingston Heath who would provide clarity around his career prospects within the golf industry.
“Heath always taught me to work hard and if I was going to give something a go to give it my all,” Kenny explains.
“Ben Bunny at Ranfurlie was always a shoulder to lean upon and run ideas past, especially while I was looking at playing. He was a great coach and definitely helped with my coaching to membership.
“Justin has been at Kingston Heath for 18 years and really invested his time into me, ensuring that if I had any questions or concerns to voice that to him.
“That’s where the communication side really came to life with myself. If there was an issue, rather than stewing on it, to talk it through. He was always very supportive with any ideas or challenges that we had in the workplace and how we could work through those.
“Those three as PGA Members were definitely big mentors for myself.”
Recognising that staff turnover at Kingston Heath is minimal, Kenny and Burrage began evaluating opportunities elsewhere when a twist of fate opened the way for a return to where Kenny’s traineeship had begun.
Another Melbourne lockdown delayed his start date by a week but the doors open again Kenny will be employed as the Golf Operations Manager at Settlers Run Golf and Country Club.
“Throughout the last year I worked out that I wanted to transition out of playing and into club management and golf operations,” said Kenny, who began the Member Pathway Program at Settlers Run before moving to Kingston Heath with the club’s full blessing.
“Towards the end of my traineeship I sat down with Justin and we talked through the avenues I wanted to work into and openly discussing areas that I can work into outside of Kingston Heath.
“I knew from a little way out that a move was necessary and he was fully supportive of talking through the pros and cons of each avenue that I wanted to go down.
“The opportunity came up at Settlers Run where I originally started my traineeship and I jumped at it.”
Courtesy of his mentors along the way, Kenny now understands how he wants to impact the facilities he works at throughout his career, starting at Settlers Run.
“Whatever which operation you are in, a level of attentiveness and service has no price,” says Kenny.
“It’s all down to effort and making sure that members and anyone attending the club feels welcome. “I’ll still learn how to deal with people management but it’s taking ownership of everyone’s accountability to ensure that anyone waking through the door is going to have an enjoyable experience.
“Hopefully that will help to grow the game of golf.”
South Australian Chris Duke has earned a shot at a second PGA Professionals Championship Final victory after taking out the PGA Professionals Championship of SA at Glenelg Golf Club on Monday.
The national champion at Hamilton Island Golf Club in 2016, Duke’s round of even-par 71 was good enough to secure a one-shot win from Glenelg’s own Connor Chant with Samuel Hughes in third spot with a round of 2-over 73.
With his win Duke secured his sixth appearance at the Championship Final where he not only won five years ago but also held a one-stroke advantage going into the final round in 2018.
The Championship Final will be played at Hamilton Island Golf Club from September 3-5 and South Australia will be represented by Duke and Chant while Michael Clough has secured automatic entry into the 2021 Australian PGA Senior Championship at Richmond Golf Club in November after taking out the over-50 seniors category with a round of 4-over 75.
As the daughter of a PGA Professional, Chantal Hodson knew little more than golf in her formative years.
When she and her brother Reece would return him from school when Bruce was the Head Professional at Kangaroo Valley Golf and Country Club in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, the golf course was their playground.
Even when the family moved to Bathurst in the Central West of NSW, Bruce built a range on the property so that golf was always on hand.
Encouraged by her father and sick of following Reece around as he played in junior golf tournaments, Chantal started playing competitively, making such an impression that by 14 she was invited to play Junior Pennants for The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.
After completing school her father hooked her up with an old mate in Bill Exten at New South Wales Golf Club but midway through her three-year traineeship Chantal could feel a shift in the path she wanted her career in golf to take.
“When I was doing my traineeship I had the opportunity to coach quite a bit so I was really at a crossroads for a long time in what I wanted to do in terms of coaching or going down the management stream,” says Chantal, who is currently employed as the Manager of Golf Operations at Royal Sydney Golf Club.
“It was a really hard decision because I like both so much and there’s obviously such a huge market for a female coach in the current climate.
“That’s the beauty of the trainee program. You’ve got so many different avenues that you can take and work out exactly what you want to do.
“It was a hard decision for a long time but once I got the job at Royal Sydney it was pretty clear that I wanted to move into the management side of things and progress down that line.
“I certainly had a couple of different options up my sleeve and been lucky enough to work at a really good club and in a position to progress and move forward with my career.”
Given her father’s 50-year association with the PGA, it was a pathway with obvious appeal for Chantal once she completed schooling in Bathurst.
“At the time I’d come out of school and played so much golf that I was actually a little bit burnt out,” Chantal explains.
“At a younger age I probably just assumed that I’d go overseas and play on tour but when I thought about the trainee program – Dad always spoke so highly of the PGA – it just seemed to make sense.
“I worked casually at Antill Park under Bret Chappell for a year and then the position came up at New South.
“At that time Bill was running the business within a big club and he ran that business really well. HIs 2IC had just left so I was lucky to be given quite a lot of responsibility early and progressed in my role quite quickly.
“I had the opportunity to coach and I was part of the launch of the cadet program and was on the committee for that when it started and helped facilitate and coach that.
“I was lucky enough to have access to coaching and Bill had the confidence in me to give me the time to coach and the time to practise and play.
“We had a great working relationship and he gave me the leeway to teach and I had a fair bit of responsibility which was good for my growth.
“I’ve been quite fortunate with my career and the timing of it all.”
Although Chantal has gravitated toward the management area of the golf industry, she doesn’t want to ever lose direct connection with the game and the people that play it.
“Director of Golf at a private club is the goal,” Chantal says.
“Management is the domain that I found my feet in but I love the relationship with members and always want to keep that.
“The ability to go and play golf, do the odd clinic and coaching component, club-fitting, all that sort of stuff I still really enjoy and that close relationship with golf.”
Applications for the PGA Membership Pathway Program open on July 1. For more information, visit pga.org.au/education.
Two weeks ago, ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner Brad Kennedy was informed that he was exempt into this week’s US Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Here Kennedy’s coach and Sanctuary Cove PGA Professional Michael Jones explains what has happened since and their hopes and expectations for a strong showing. With Tony Webeck.
It was a big change when we found out. Brad went from playing the Japan Golf Tour with a start at The Open Championship to being exempt into the US Open and another likely start at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational. He might even play a couple of Korn Ferry Tour events while he is in the US. It snowballed rather quickly and we’ve had a fair few conversations about preparation and how to stay fresh.
I spoke to Brad on Tuesday morning and Torrey Pines is set up pretty challenging, as you’d expect. Fairways that are 22 yards wide, rough that is two-foot thick and where the ball drops to the bottom. It’s one of the tougher courses that Brad has played but we’re putting a game-plan together for how best to tackle it.
At any big tournament the big danger is running your race before it even begins. Preservation of mental energy is crucial so that you can get to the first tee on Thursday with some energy on board. These kinds of tournaments are the highest level we have in golf so if all your wits are not about you it is hard work. The key is stay healthy and mentally fresh while he works on his game.
Around a course such as Torrey Pines the short game is a very important component along with hitting the fairway. Finding the fairway is going to be the No.1 priority because Brad said that if you’re in the rough, you might as well just grab a wedge and hack it out.
Coming from Japan to the US Open, obviously the golf course is a lot different. There are a lot of people around and the golf course is set-up unbelievably well. The greens are immaculate and the fairways look like they’ve got vacuum cleaners on them. He said it’s pretty easy to work out that this is one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world.
The traditional style of golf course in Japan is not overly long but the fairways are so tight you can barely fit a ball down them. At the Japan Open they set the course up next to impossible which by all reports is very similar to a US Open set-up. Brad likes to play a hard golf course. He excels mentally when he has to make sure his ball’s going exactly where he needs it to go. He doesn’t like when bombers can hit it 350 left or right and still have a swing.
Sherwood Country Club where they played the ZOZO Championship last year was a 7,700-yard golf course and not that different to Torrey Pines. He said in a text that they’re not going to hit you off the back chocks and put you in the hardest pins in rounds one and two but by round three or four all bets are off. If they shoot 6 or 7-under, that might be a winning score. I know the USGA won’t want to see too many 65s around there so it’s going to be a real grind and mental test. Brad’s very good mentally in his strategy and his decision-making is excellent.
Shishido Hills Country Club is a 7,700 yard golf course where they play the Japan Tour Championship and Brad’s played really well there including finishing runner-up in 2015. He plays really good par golf, gets the odd birdie here and there and is quite competitive. That’s going to be the mindset for this week and why the mental energy is going to be one of the most important factors.
On Monday afternoon he spent time on the putting green working on his speed control and touch around the greens. He says some of the pin positions that they will get them in will certainly test your nervous system. He’s heard that keeping the ball below the hole is a big thing at Torrey Pines; if you get above the hole the greens are pretty quick.
The big thing for Brad the past few years is that he has got used to playing in world-class events where the best are in attendance. Whether it be the ZOZO, the British Open, any of the big ones in Japan, it’s not new to him that Dustin will walk by or Louis is on the putting green. He’s seen them all before and to a certain degree he’s competed. He’ll be rising to the challenge that’s for sure.
As his coach, I’m just proud that he has got to this level of golf. You’re trying to get the person you’re coaching to the highest level they can reach. I caddied for Brad at The Open at Royal Lytham in 2012 and been to a few of the bigger tournaments but the US Open is one that I’m sure, in the back of his head, he was hoping he’d have the chance to play for the challenge and the severity of it all.
Two icons of Australian golf have been recognised for their contribution to the game in this country by receiving the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announced on Monday.
Revolutionary golf coach Gary Edwin and the late David Mercer were both recipients of OAMs for Services to Golf, due recognition for more than 120 years combined as PGA Professionals helping elite and amateur players to get the most out of their golf.
A PGA Professional since 1961, Edwin developed a methodology that became known as the Right Sided Swing and guided players to more than $100 million in career earnings… and counting.
Christened Gary Edwin Player, constant confusion and derision caused by the emergence of the South African great during the early days of his own playing career convinced the Australian to make his own name.
Taking inspiration from the swings of Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle and Ben Hogan, Edwin’s swing theory found success quickly, guiding the likes of Peter Lonard, Paul Gow, Rod Pampling, Nathan Green and Gavin Coles to the heights of the PGA TOUR and breathed new life into Peter Senior’s game when he considered quitting in the wake of his 1997 Canon Challenge win.
World Golf Hall of Famer Jan Stephenson is another Edwin disciple and the Gold Coast coach synonymous for his all-black attire has also worked with Major champions Ian Baker-Finch and Michael Campbell.
Pleasantly surprised by the nod – “They’ve been sending me e-mails for a couple of years but we never answered them because we thought they were hoaxes” – the 2006 Australian Teaching Professional of the Year said he has endeavoured to make not only players better but also fellow coaches.
“I got into teaching to make coaching better,” said Edwin, conceding that he was initially motivated to improve his own “horrendous” swing.
“I’ve had a little bit of influence on a lot of guys that now teach the game so that’s probably the biggest thrill that I get out of it.
“My two boys are good golfers and are in the industry with me so I’m very proud of that, too.
“Just generally trying to make coaching better and to help other coaches, because coaching golf isn’t easy.
“The game is so great for all of us. Socially, exercise-wise, the people we meet and seeing people get better.
“Coaches all feel better when they make people better and improve their golf. Improving people’s golf makes their life better, particularly if they play golf a lot.
“I’ve had a great life because of golf.”
Measuring the impact of David Mercer in his 68 years as a PGA of Australia Professional is next to impossible.
One of eight children – including brother Alex, another iconic figure in Australian golf – Mercer’s earliest introduction to golf was picking out balls to sell for pocket money at nearby North Ryde Golf Club and he began his traineeship in 1951.
In 1953 Mercer was appointed the Head Professional at Killara Golf Club and would spend the next 43 years endearing himself to every member who walked through his pro shop door.
While his putter would prove to be his Achilles heel, Mercer bested Open champions Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle to claim the Killara Cup shortly after becoming the club’s head professional, twice won the NSW PGA Foursomes Championship with close friend Len Woodward (1958 and 1967) and led the qualifying at Lundin Links to play his way into the 1973 Open Championship at Royal Troon.
After starting his traineeship under Alex Greg Hohnen completed his training under David and would become his business partner and ultimately successor at Killara, carrying forward his legacy of imparting a deep love of the game.
“He had incredible knowledge of the game, but lessons with Dave were centred around enjoying the game no matter what your handicap was,” Hohnen said on Mercer’s passing on September 12, 2020.
“He would tell people, ‘You’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of the game, you’re going to meet a lot of great people and you’re going to have a lot of fun’.
“Not everyone is going to be a great player, but as long as they enjoy their game of golf, that’s the No.1 priority.”
When the field gathered for the 65th staging of the US Open at Bellerive Country Club near St Louis, Missouri, columnists such as Alfred Wright from Sports Illustrated prepared for a parade of new wave of powerful punishers at what at the time was the longest golf course America’s grandest championship had ever seen.
“It was a bad week for the close-your-eyes-and-hit boys,” Wright would later pen.
After 45 consecutive years of American leaderboard superiority, it was a diminutive South African with a will as strong as steel and a gentle giant from Sydney five years removed from his greatest triumph who turned what would be 90 holes of championship golf into a two-horse race.
WHAT CAME BEFORE
Winner of the first of his four US Opens three years earlier at Oakmont Country Club, the accepted consensus was that the 7,191-yard Bellerive Country Club layout would play directly into the hands of “Ohio bomber” and recent Masters champion, Jack Nicklaus.
Requiring only the US Open trophy to complete the career Grand Slam before the age of 30, South African terrier Gary Player was never one to be discounted while Australia’s representation was led by the likes of US residents Bruce Crampton and Bruce Devlin and the 44-year-old Champion Golfer of 1960, Kel Nagle.
Although revered for his record in the Open Championship, Nagle had taken his game to North America with some success, winning the 1964 Canadian Open and finishing tied for 15th at The Masters in the months prior to arriving at Bellerive.
HOW IT UNFOLDED
When Nagle posted 2-under 68 in his opening round to assume the outright lead, golf’s earliest statisticians began thumbing through the record books.
No foreigner had prised the US Open trophy from American hands since England’s Ted Ray in 1920 while at 44 years of age and six months Nagle was on track to become the oldest winner in the championship’s history.
While former US PGA champion Jim Ferrier struggled to an 82 and promptly withdrew citing a bad back, Nagle used nous and shot-making to ride the gusty north-easterly winds to a one-stroke advantage from then amateur and future PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman and Mason Rudolph.
“I’m 44 and don’t expect to get any longer,” Nagle told The Morning Call newspaper.
“If the wind and the weather stay this way, maybe I can stay up there.”
It would be Player who assumed the lead at the halfway point of the tournament with a second straight round of even-par 70, Nagle’s 73 that included three bogeys early in his back nine saw him fall to a share of second, a shot behind Player.
While the expectation was that big hitters such as Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer would dominate, Player offered an explanation for the international look at the top of the leaderboard.
“The foreign players learn to hit the ball straighter,” Player said. “In our countries, we have all this rough that you just would not believe, and you have absolutely no chance unless you can hit the ball straight. So we learn to hit it straight first. Then we learn to hit it a little harder.”
Nagle and Player went back and forth in Saturday’s third round, Nagle’s score of 72 adjusted on the 18th hole when it was decided that he should have been granted a free drop in swamp area on the par-4 12th. The Pymble Crusher’s decision to play his original ball – with which he made bogey – and a provisional with which he made par proved to be a prudent one, keeping him within one of Player heading into the final round.
Sunday looked set to be a South African procession and coronation of Player’s career Grand Slam until a dramatic twist in the tail in the final throes of competition.
Three strokes back with three to play, Nagle’s birdie at the par-5 17th – dubbed by Jack Nicklaus earlier in the week as “the toughest par 5 in golf” – and Player’s double-bogey at the 16th sent the crowd of 18,000 into a mix of stunned silence and excitable exasperation.
Player missed a birdie putt at 17 to regain the lead and saw a putt from 30 feet pull up just inches from the cup on the 72nd hole… in the exact same spot Nagle had missed just minutes earlier that would have won him the title.
The resulting tie sent the 1965 US Open into an extra day as the pair faced off in an 18-hole playoff in front of close to 7,000 fans.
Unfortunately for Nagle, the championship turned again towards Player when one of nature’s true gentlemen hit two female spectators as he played the fifth hole of the playoff.
“The fifth hole turned out to be the ball game,” Nagle told The Evening Standard.
“You have no idea how awful I felt after I hit that lady with my tee shot.
“I was never really in it anymore after that.”
Able to cruise home when he opened up a five-stroke lead with only two holes to play, Player would ultimately shoot 71 to Nagle’s 74 and promptly returned his $25,000 prize money to the USGA with instructions to give $5,000 to American Cancer Research and to use $20,000 for the promotion of junior golf.
“The people of the United States have been so wonderful to me that I wanted to do a little something in return.”
WHAT FOLLOWED
The fourth of his nine Major championships, Player was unable to win the US Open again in his career, winning the Open Championship twice more (1968, 1974) the Masters twice more (1974, 1978) and a second US PGA Championship (1972) to round out one of golf’s truly great careers.
A five-time winner on the Australasian circuit in 1965, Nagle would continue to be a dominant force well into his 50s, finishing tied for second at the 1975 Australian PGA Championship at 55 years of age.
He had success on the seniors circuit in the UK and twice won the World Senior Championship, defeating the American Seniors Championship winners Julius Boros 4&3 in 1971 and Charlie Sifford 1 up in 1975. Nagle also took Sam Snead to 41 holes in 1973 before falling to the American legend.
In July 2007 Nagle was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame and in 2019 he was named a PGA Immortal.
Nagle died on January 29, 2015 at 94 years of age.
A full member since 1980, Mark Gibson was recently awarded Life Membership of the PGA of Australia. Here he reflects on his beginnings in the game, his greatest influences and the two mantras that have served him well.
I’ve had a pretty long career as a PGA Professional and when you see the people that are the icons of the game – the people that motivated you, that mentored you – they’re the people who have been awarded Life Membership. You’re in a group of people who I would consider have been very special to golf and to receive that honour did choke me up a little bit. When you look at someone like ‘The Von’, or Kel Nagle, ‘Thommo’, Charlie Earp, Alex and David Mercer, they’re very special people who have contributed so much to the game so to be held as a peer of theirs is an incredible honour.
I started caddying for my dad when I was about five. I used to push the buggy for three holes, sit on the bag for a couple and then push it a bit further. My mum was born in Edinburgh so she had golf in her family and she gave me a voucher for a lesson for my sixth birthday. Before I left for school that morning I asked her to organise it so that I could use it that day. I came home from school and she took me out to the golf club and a PGA Member by the name of Reg Want was our Professional at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club.
Mr Want was a great player. Today he still holds the record for the most wins in the Queensland PGA so here I am in 1964 having a golf lesson with a guy who was brilliant, well mannered, well dressed… He was an inspiration. I couldn’t have been more excited by meeting someone. That was my introduction and he was the perfect mentor.
Mr Want’s first apprentice was Charlie Earp and I was Reg’s last apprentice. Even when I went to visit him about three weeks before he passed away and I had my own business by then, he was still Mr Want.
When I was 11 he asked my dad whether I could have the day off school to caddy for ‘The Von’. The Von was playing Coolangatta-Tweed with three businessmen and we got to our 17th hole, which was the eighth and he said, ‘Son, get a dozen balls out of my bag.’ So I pulled out a box of Penfold Aces on the tee of this 143-yard par 3 and he said, ‘Give me a 9-iron.’ He hit a 9-iron onto the green. He said, ‘Give me an 8-iron.’ He hit an 8-iron onto the green. Seven-iron, 6-iron, 5-iron, 4-iron, 3-iron, 2-iron. ‘Son, get me the 4-wood.’ The 3-wood. Driver. He hit 12 balls with 12 different clubs and every single one of them finished on the green. I was awestruck.
I started my traineeship at the end of 1975 and I have met so many inspirational PGA Members. People you can admire, people who are motivational. We are blessed with the stock that we have of PGA Professionals. The role that they played in getting me motivated, I have to pay it forward. I have to do the same thing for the young kids that I encounter.
Mr Want was going to retire so he asked me to stay on as his Assistant for the last 12 months of his career. When I finished with Mr Want, Charlie Earp rang me and said he needed me to come and work for him for a period of time because he wanted to go overseas for an extended holiday with Margie the following year. So I went and worked for Charlie for 18 months or so. My first pro job I went to Gladstone in Central Queensland and was there for almost five years. That was the toughest joint I’d ever been to in my life. Then I went and worked with Ian Triggs at Keppera for just over a year and then I got the pro’s job at Pine Rivers north of Brisbane and was the pro there for five years. From there I went to Caloundra and was the pro there for five-and-a-half years.
It was during my time at Caloundra that it became clear to me that I wanted to teach full-time. I was doing a lot more teaching than I was being a club pro and I just knew that I wanted to teach full-time. Then I came back to Royal Pines as the Head Professional for five years from November 1994, I went to Lakelands Golf Club for seven years and then in 2006 came back to run the teaching facility here at Royal Pines, and I’ve been here ever since.
I love teaching and every lesson I give I try and give it so that it’s the best lesson that person’s ever had. Whether they’ve had previous lessons with me or not, I want the lesson they have with me today to be the best lesson they can have ever.
I always wanted to teach because I’d been inspired by Mr Want and by other people who were great coaches that I’d run into. I went to a camp that was sponsored by Rothmans and Ron Luxton was the coach that was employed by Rothmans. I always wanted to coach and it crystallised a little bit in early ‘76. I went to my first trainee event at Coomera Golf Club and I had a 7.10am tee time. Being your first event you don’t want to get penalised for being late to the tee so I walked down to the first tee with the group in front of me. This guy walks onto the tee and hits this tee shot with a sound that I’d never heard and with a ball flight that I’d never seen. And that was Greg Norman. The immediate thought to me was, Christ, I hope I can teach good. I’d never even fantasised about hitting it that good.
There are two things that I live my life by. I’ve got a saying on my desk that says, ‘Those who dare to teach, must never cease to learn.’ I’ve lived by that every day since it went on my desk in 1990. The second one is, ‘People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.’ If kids know that you genuinely care about their future and their golf, I don’t ever have an age-gap problem. There have been challenges with a few of them but I don’t think I need to change what I’m doing to deal with them.
The PGA of Australia has given everyone the opportunity to have the knowledge to be a good teacher but I do think a lot of it comes back to your ability to communicate it. I enjoy teaching people who are new to the game, I enjoy teaching club golfers that want to improve because they’re the ones that really enjoy the game.
One of the greatest things you can do as a coach is to listen. I don’t only ask students what they want, I watch their reactions to what they’re doing. That’s pretty important. You’ve got to keep your eye on the student and read them. They’ll give you the best information without even mentioning it.
I had seven weeks of lockdown last year where I didn’t get to come to work. I said to my wife when I went back that I don’t think there’ll ever be a time when I don’t do some coaching. The wife and I travel well together and there are a million places we haven’t been yet but I’m always going to want to teach. I’m always going to want to get out there and enjoy it. After that seven weeks I knew there’d never be a time when I don’t coach.
I’m not helping people as much as I’m helping the game grow. It’s the game that I really love. I want people to enjoy the game and let’s be honest, is there any greater way to make a living than sharing the game that you love in the fresh air and sunshine of the Gold Coast knowing at the end of the day you’re happy to go home, knowing that in the morning when you wake up you’re happy to go to work? Tell me I haven’t got it better than most.
