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Birdies at each of his two closing holes has secured Tasmania Golf Club PGA Professional Nick White a place at the PGA Professionals Championship Final at Hamilton Island in September.
White, a qualifier at the 2019 Championship Final, finished one stroke clear of resident professional Matt Docking at Royal Hobart Golf Club on Sunday at the Tasmanian PGA Professionals Championship but it took until the very end of his round to edge in front.
A cold and blustery day with a few showers made the start challenging for all players but with Royal Hobart in superb condition they soon found their groove, White’s birdies at 11, 12, 17 and 18 in a round of 3-under 69 ensuring a return to Hamilton Island.
Docking too earned a place in the field at the Championship Final with his round of 1-under 70 with Scott Priest and Scott Laycock sharing third place with rounds of 1-over 73.
Immediately following play the Annual State Meeting was held with Docking becoming the new Chairman of the Tasmanian State Committee, taking over from Steve Frith who stepped down after nine years as Chairman. Simon Weston was also elevated to Vice-Chairman.
Rounding out a big couple of days, Docking then backed up on Monday to win the 14th Doug Murray Tasmanian PGA Foursomes at Claremont Golf Club, pairing with Laycock to win by five shots.
Played over 27 holes, Docking and Laycock completed their round at 2-over 107, the teams of Bryce Gorham and Peter Freeland and Darren Spencer and Ty Ebdon sharing second place at 7-over 112.
Wembley Golf Course General Manager Josh Madden intends to tap into the knowledge base of PGA Professionals at the grassroots level to help drive the game forward in his new role as Member Director of the PGA of Australia.
Madden’s addition to the PGA Board was confirmed at the recent Annual General Meeting and provides a direct connection between the PGA Professionals delivering the game across the country and the highest levels of decision-making within the PGA.
Golf has experienced an explosion in popularity in the past 18 months and Madden is adamant that if we are to maintain that level of interest and continue to grow then the input of PGA Professionals will be vital.
“Retention and engagement are going to be so important in the next few years to capitalise on the growth that we’ve seen,” said Madden, the 2020 PGA National Management Professional of the Year.
“We have a really great opportunity to grow right now and I’m confident that PGA Members are the key providers in this space.
“If we can engage and help people to enjoy this great game no matter the version they try first – whether it’s mini golf, the driving range or par 3 courses – we have a great chance to shift our participation numbers.
“If we can get people to enjoy this great game half as much as PGA Members do then we’ll be looking good into the future.”
A full member of the PGA since 2008 having completed the Membership Pathway Program at Surfers Paradise Golf Club, Madden spent eight years working for the PGA itself including close to three years as the State Manager for Western Australia and South Australia.
A member of the WA committee for the past three years, Madden believes that there is insight within PGA Professionals that only comes from working at the coalface.
“I’ve worked internally for the PGA and I know how dedicated the team are but, when you aren’t doing it day in day out in the pro shop priorities change, and I now totally understand that,” Madden said.
“We need to listen to the members because they see and feel the marketplace and what customers are hearing and experiencing.
“Before the surveys are collated the PGA Members behind the counter and on the lesson tee know what’s happening. The difficulty is listening to that undercurrent and providing strategies that can work in regional areas, public golf and then private courses.
“It’s not easy, and we are bound to make mistakes trying to encompass everyone’s needs. That doesn’t mean we give up, we just have to keep refining the offering and keep learning and pushing.”
Although he has his own ideas and philosophies that he wants to bring to the boardroom, Madden said a key aspect of his role will be to bring to light the wonderful initiatives being instituted by PGA Professionals throughout Australia.
“I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas so I really try to listen and learn from all of the Members that I talk to and make decisions based on good information,” he added.
“We all have different career perspectives and experiences which shape our thoughts and the way we interact. I know my career experiences are unique and I hope that my perspective is able to make a difference.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge and really hope I can help.”
Michael Draper completed the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program with distinction at the end of 2020. On January 1 this year, the 2019 Western Australian PGA Trainee of the Year started work as the Head PGA Professional at Albany Golf Club at the state’s southern tip.
There can be no more rapid ascension but Draper credits the mentorship of long-time Albany Professional Ian Redmond, General Manager Dan Northcott and his background in the WA Police Force for making a smooth transition into the top job.
An outstanding junior soccer player who played for Fremantle Spirit with dreams of being elevated to the Perth Glory A-League squad, Draper graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Sports Administration at the time of the GFC in 2008.
Unable to find employment in a slumping economy, Draper spent three years in a graduate tax accounting role before he and his wife spent 18 months doing voluntary work at a children’s home in Cambodia.
When he returned to Perth, Draper joined the Police Force and after six months at the Academy was stationed in Albany, a twist of fate that has led him to become the local golf club’s Head Professional.
“By the time I moved to Albany in 2015 I was playing off a 5 handicap and won a couple of club championships,” Draper recalls.
“All the stars aligned really. Ian Redmond was looking to take a step back so I approached Ian and the pro shop manager in 2017 for a position and they agreed to take me on as a trainee.
“With my police background and a uni degree they knew I wouldn’t have a drama with the academic stuff as long as I applied myself and so I started in January 2018.
“If I wasn’t in Albany I don’t know that I would have been able to do it and be where I am now.”
Like his training for the police force, Draper’s promotion was discussed early in his commencement of the Membership Pathway Program.
Given the breadth of knowledge of both Redmond and Northcott and his own life experience and education, Draper felt fully equipped to transition from trainee to all of the responsibilities that come with being a PGA Professional.
“You need that mentorship as a police officer because they basically throw you in at the deep end. There’s only so much you can learn in six months at the Academy,” says the now 34-year-old.
“One of the things that I was really fortunate with was that I firstly had a mentor in Ian who had been in the game a while so he was really helpful for any questions I had in regards to assessments.
“And then I had Dan, the pro shop manager who moved into the General Manager’s role during my traineeship, who had worked for Mizuno Golf as a state rep in WA for 20 years so the merchandising and the sales aspect of the traineeship.
“It was like it was all covered. I had a mentor close to me for every aspect that I could possibly need.
“It helped that I was a mature-age trainee – I was 30 when I started – so a Head Professional role wasn’t going to be as daunting as it might be for a 21 or 22-year-old coming straight out of a traineeship.
“It was always pencilled as part of the succession plan and I’m lucky in that both Dan and Ian are around so I can go to them at any time with any questions I might have.”
Applications for the 2021/22 Membership Pathway Program will be open in July. Head to pga.org.au for more information.
Former Ladies European Tour player Bree Arthur has shown that her game remains sharp by taking out the NSW/ACT PGA Professionals Championship at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club in Sydney on Tuesday.
Currently the Golf Operations Manager at Royal Canberra Golf Club, Arthur was a three-time winner on the ALPG Tour before spending six seasons in Europe and called on all of that experience in tournament pressure to win in style at Twin Creeks.
Measuring 545 metres at its maximum, the par-5 ninth shaped as a daunting finishing hole for Arthur but she made light work of it, holing out for eagle to close out a round of 5-under 67 and a one-stroke victory that secures a spot at the PGA Professionals Championship Final at Hamilton Island Golf Club in September.
“Really pleased with how I played given I haven’t had too many opportunities to play in the past few months,” said Arthur, who moved from Royal Sydney to Royal Canberra in February.
“It was a bit of a surprise to hole out for eagle on the last hole of the day and to get the win in the end.”
In somewhat extraordinary circumstances the runner-up also came from Arthur’s group, Bathurst’s Dylan Thompson posting a 4-under 68 to also grab one of the 12 spots in the field at Hamilton Island.
Nathan Miller, Larry Austin and Paul Maiolo rounded out the top five but there was a five-way playoff necessary to determine the final two qualifiers for Hamilton Island.
Benjamin Stowe, Nelson Turner, Kurt Stegbauer, Luke O’Carrigan and Andrew Welsford returned to the first hole for the opening hole of the sudden-death playoff with Stowe’s approach shot to a foot ensuring he got the first of the qualifying positions.
With O’Carrigan eliminated at the first hole Turner, Stegbauer and Welsford advanced to the par-3 second where Turner’s shot to 10 feet and subsequent birdie earned the Avondale Golf Club professional the 12th and final spot.
Qualifiers for Championship Final
Bree Arthur
Dylan Thompson
Nathan Miller
Larry Austin
Paul Maiolo
Jordan Widdicombe
Gregory Bayley
Jordan Mullaney
David Paddison
Jack Wilson
Benjamin Stowe
Nelson Turner
Booming. Resurgent. Unprecedented.
Golf’s popularity explosion the past 18 months has been described in a number of different ways but Oatlands Golf Club General Manager Sam Howe is focused on turning golf’s COVID-19 induced boost into long-term prosperity.
Research has shown that membership and participation numbers have increased significantly throughout the country the past 12 months and the experience at Oatlands in Sydney’s northern suburbs has been no different, Howe now turning to PGA Members to ensure the “sugar hit” isn’t followed by a crash.
With the help of Ian James at Retail Tribe, Howe is adopting the mantra at Oatlands of using PGA Professionals as the club’s CEOs – Chief Engagement Officers – and is already seeing that translate into a more stable membership.
“The upside for golf in COVID was completely unexpected at the beginning but we were already working towards improving our team of PGA Professionals,” Howe says of Oatlands’ engagement and retention strategy.
“When I started at Oatlands almost three years ago the club had one PGA Professional. We now have five PGA Professionals working here, an Associate Professional and a PGA/IGI diploma graduate.
“We had that ideal configuration just as COVID struck and then suddenly we had a captive audience of golfers with money that they would potentially to put into travel now able to spend it on golf lessons and more time on the golf course.
“We have seen our engagement with the golf professionals – which we measure very closely – increase 1,000 per cent on pre-COVID levels.
“PGA Professionals recognise that the health of the golf club membership equates to healthy lesson revenue. They are willing to do more than just stand on the tee and coach to play their part in building a strong, healthy golf club.
“Sometimes they just need the green light to do it and having a PGA Professional as the General Manager they perhaps feel more inclined to come to me with ideas that will not only increase their revenue from lessons but add value to the golf club as a whole.”
Having completed his traineeship at Muirfield Golf Club, Howe pursued playing for five years before taking the Head Professional position at Glenmore Heritage Valley Golf Club in Sydney’s west.
A management position at a bar and restaurant chain in the UK expanded Howe’s business acumen and after three years as the Director of Golf at Bonnie Doon Golf Club he began searching for opportunities to move into golf club management.
That journey began at Woollahra Golf Club before working as the Assistant Manager under Cathy Neagle at Elanora Country Club, Neagle’s encouragement ultimately convincing Howe to apply for the job at Oatlands in January 2019.
A vocal proponent of having PGA Professionals in management positions at golf clubs, Howe has no doubt that expanding Oatlands’ presence of PGA Professionals combined with the COVID burst has strengthened the club’s position.
“The club was very good at attracting members but the attrition rate was very high,” Howe concedes.
“COVID increased participation to the level that the club was able to – and had to – make some decisions around capping the membership to make sure that the members that we did have were able to get bookings.
“We thought in a best-case scenario we might reach those membership caps in a six-month period from when we implemented it in October last year and we reached our caps in six weeks.
“As a result of that we have seen at our recent renewal that ended on March 31 a 30 per cent decrease in the resignations forecast and we’ve got quite a few plans in place to try and improve that even further in the year ahead.”
Knowing that data shows members who engage in lessons are far less likely to resign their membership in that same year, Howe brought his staff out from behind the counter to actively engage with the members.
And take an active interest in the enjoyment that members are experiencing when they come to the club.
“Now that we have six PGA-affiliated staff members we can actively engage with a far broader cross-section of our membership and reduce the risk of them resigning,” says Howe, the club adding Jason Park and Paige Stubbs in part to improve communication with the large Korean membership and the female members within the club.
“We have now engaged Retail Tribe to implement a program in conjunction with our golf pros that will see each assigned care groups that they are responsible for making contact with and tracking that engagement.
“That will enable us to more easily identify who are the most at-risk members of potentially resigning their memberships and address that accordingly.
“We’re very focused on making sure that this isn’t just a sugar hit but a long-lasting upside for the club and changes the trajectory of the club for many years to come.”
Bree Arthur’s earliest memories of playing golf are of clinics with up to 30 like-minded kids, nine-hole competitions and skills challenges that may or may not have included flop shots over the hedge adjacent to the putting green of her home club.
“We were just there to have fun,” Arthur recalls.
It is that type of environment that Arthur is helping to foster in her new role at Royal Canberra Golf Club in the nation’s capital.
A former tour player in Europe, Arthur began the PGA of Australia Bridging Course in early 2018, starting her life as a coach first at St Michael’s Golf Club in Sydney before spending three years at Royal Sydney Golf Club.
She was appointed as Royal Canberra’s Golf Operations Manager in February this year and has been quick to contribute to the club’s beginner clinics and in April hosted a Women’s Golf Network event.
Given the surge of interest in golf over the past 18 months, Arthur believes establishing connections within the club is critical in turning beginners into regular golfers.
How do you try and make sure beginners have a positive first experience with golf?
I think it’s important to have an inclusive mindset, have the attitude that this is a sport for everyone whether you’re male or female, young or old. A key initially is to make the game as easy as possible so they enjoy it because it can be a difficult game to learn. Make them feel included and that this can be a very fun game as well as being competitive and challenging.
How effective are group clinics in making the game fun for beginners?
A group environment is definitely a popular way for women who are new to the game. By participating in a group clinic they have the chance to do it with friends or meet new people and it’s far less intimidating than walking into a club by yourself for the first time. It’s like joining a new gym. You feel a bit intimidated and you are less likely to want to go so these group sessions provide a social outlet as well as learning the fundamentals of the game. That makes people feel more welcome and more inclined to keep coming back and hopefully one day become members.
How does your coaching method change when working with a group as opposed to one-on-one lessons?
Keep it simple and don’t get too technical. If you get too technical you lose them straight away. I find relating golf to other sports is really effective. Most new golfers have played some type of sport previously so you can relate the skills in golf to other sports they have played. Tennis, baseball, softball, they all have similar rotational movements that can form a good base for learning golf-specific skills and positions in the golf swing.
What does Royal Canberra include in its introductory program to welcome new golfers?
For our women’s program some of the women’s committee come along to meet those who are participating and make them feel welcome. If they do then become members they’ve got some friendly faces already within the club who they can perhaps have a game with. Someone they feel comfortable talking to and asking any questions they may have. Also after each clinic we provide drinks and canapes in the clubhouse so the coaches and participants can mingle and that’s also really important in making that first experience a really positive one.
The PGA’s Women in Golf Network provides opportunities for beginners and advanced golfers to learn more about the game in a fun group clinic environment. Conducted by qualified PGA Professionals, the Women in Golf Network is aimed at inspiring more women to play golf. To learn more, head to pga.org.au/play/
The great coaches know a good swing when they see one.
They also know to leave well enough alone rather than impart advice that may serve to confuse their player rather than make them better.
Throughout all his work with the likes of Steve Elkington, Michael Campbell and Jan Stephenson that would enable them to become Major champions, Alex Mercer delivered a simple philosophy to the golf swing and trusted the player to deliver.
It took just one meeting with Sydney teenager Austin Bautista for Mercer to deliver a pearl of wisdom that the now 24-year-old continues to use to forge his way on the European Tour.
After spending two years working around the globe with humanitarian aid organisations, Bautista returned to golf at the start of 2020 and quickly began to re-establish the credentials that saw him selected in the NSW State team alongside Dylan Perry and Blake Windred and take out the 2016 NSW Amateur.
After recording a handful of wins on mini tours in the US, Bautista was given the opportunity to play in the South African Open on the European Tour last December, carrying with him the golden nugget of advice shared by Mercer years earlier.
“I saw Alex Mercer once and he gave me probably the greatest golf lesson I ever received,” Bautista recalled.
“He changed my grip a little bit and said, ‘You’ve got the mechanics to play well, all you need to do is play more.’”
A two-year stint without touching a club the year after turning professional was not exactly what Mercer had in mind but Bautista believes the self-belief instilled in him by Mercer, Sydney-based PGA Professional Shane Puckett and his father has been key in taking his game to a higher level.
“I had another coach who I saw three or four times by the name of Shane Puckett and he was very similar,” Bautista added.
“He said, ‘I love the way you’re playing, I love the way you’re swinging, just keep doing the same thing and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.’
“Those were the type of guys that I really liked and my Dad is that way as well. Always telling me that I’ve got everything I need to make it.
“I’ve never had someone that I was going to see for advice tell me that I need to change anything drastically and that’s helped me to have the self-belief that you need to be successful.”
Based at Bonnie Doon Golf Club at the time, Puckett recognised the talent and rare confidence within the diminutive teenager so when Bautista approached him in 2015 for assistance suggested only minor adjustments.
“His technique was already exceptional. When you looked at the basic fundamentals of his swing they were all really, really good,” Puckett explained.
“The main things we worked on were a couple of little things with his set-up, with his leg action – making sure he had a solid base – but for him it was knowing that he could hit the shots that he needed to hit.”
The two-year hiatus from the game has allowed Bautista to return to professional golf with greater perspective. Volunteering in Third World countries and war-torn Israel makes any bogey easier to take yet Bautista maintains the greatest of ambition.
Tied for seventh at the Austrian Open in April, Bautista wants to be a PGA TOUR winner and top-10 player in the world within the next two years. For a player with only conditional status on the Forme Tour in Canada this year they are ambitious targets but Puckett isn’t prepared to bet against it.
“I’ve never met anyone like him. When he talks it’s hard not to believe him because he just has that conviction about what he does,” added Puckett, who today splits his time between coaching at The Ridge in Sydney’s south with his role as a Sales and Support Manager with Golf Genius Software.
“The way he goes about what he does, you can’t teach that. And the more you watch him the more you realise you just have to get out of his way.
“That’s your focus when you’re helping him because he just needs to reaffirm what he believes in. That’s all he needs.
“There was just no doubt in my mind that if he kept playing he was going to make it.
“He can get to where he wants to get to because he has that belief and attitude.
“I’ve never seen a golfer like him mentally.”
Speak to your local PGA Professional to help refine your game or visit click on the ‘Find a PGA Pro’ tab at pga.org.au.
TJ King has earned his first trip to the PGA Professionals Championship National Final and a ticket to Hamilton Island after claiming victory at the PGA Professionals Championship of North Queensland.
King fired a bogey-free round of 5-under 66 to take a two-stroke win over Patrick Joseph and Peter Martin at Mackay Golf Club.
After receiving 52 millimeters of rain prior to the event, the layout provided an additional challenge for the seven PGA Professionals competing for the two qualifying places on offer.
“The course played a bit longer today than it did for the Pro-Am on Friday because of the damp conditions,” said King.
“There wasn’t any run out there today so I knew with my length that I had to take advantage of that.”
King is excited to travel to Hamilton Island this September where 50 PGA Professionals from around the country will compete for the title of PGA Professionals Champion for 2021.
“I have never played at Hamilton Island but I have heard a lot of great things about the course,” said King.
“I hit the ball pretty high so I will need to practice hitting it low for the next few weeks as I believe it gets pretty windy over there.”
Patrick Joseph will join King in September after beating Peter Martin in a playoff for the final qualifying place.
“It’s great to be going back to Hamilton Island,” said Joseph. “The finals are a great event and I really enjoy the Hamilton Island layout.”
To view the final leaderboard from the PGA Professionals Championship of North Queensland, visit pga.org.au.
As he reflects on 70 years as a Member of the PGA of Australia this year, Brian Huxtable reveals the twist of fate that led him to golf and the extraordinary people he has met along the way. With Tony Webeck
My first exposure to golf was as a caddie at Riversdale Golf Club when I was 10. It was during the War; in 1944 I started to caddie at Riversdale. I knew one other fella who used to go there sometimes and he said there was a bit of money in it. Nobody had any money so I went… and never stopped. I’d work Saturday afternoons and Sunday and earning nearly half of what Dad was.
I’d never seen a course anywhere else so I didn’t realise Riversdale was considered a hilly golf course. That was the only one I knew! It was 18 holes, I knew that. I knew you had to hit it up the right-hand side of 17; you couldn’t hit left.
When I was 12 I caddied for a guy regularly on Saturday afternoons and he won the Club Championship after I coached him around having never played golf. He told George Naismith that if I ever wanted to use his clubs over Christmas I could borrow them. So I started playing the odd nine holes using mens clubs at 12 years of age.
I went from no golf at 13 to comfortably breaking 80 at 15. All of us kids learnt by caddying. I’d never hit a golf shot and here I am clubbing the bloke who won the club championships. On the last hole he wanted to hit a certain club and I said, ‘No way!’ I gave him his 7-iron and said, ‘This is the club.’ I’d never played a game of golf in my life!
There were only two high schools in those days and because I lived in Mt Waverley, Dandenong High was impossible to get to so I’d catch the train into town to go to school. But they wouldn’t take me because I was under age so I had to go back and do Year 8 again. In March or April that year George offered me a job in the shop so I raced home on the bike and told Mum and Dad, ‘I’ve got a job!’ I was only 13 at that time and became probably the first assistant pro that had never played 18 holes. By the time I was 17 I was good enough to be in the PGA.
The biggest job I had when I started at 13 was buffing the clubs. In those days every set of clubs had to be buffed on a buffer after the play. Winter time you’d first have to wash the mud off and then buff them, and there were 250 sets in the shop. And I was it.
We would make clubs up. We’d start off with heads, shafts and leather grips, nothing else. George was a master clubmaker and I got the job of filing the head into shape. It was a real art. Pros in those days were very important to golf clubs because there weren’t any golf sports stores; the only place you could get a golf club in the first five years I was at Riversdale would have been through a pro shop.
George was from the wooden-shaft days and he could make a club feel real good. He was absolutely flat strap making up wooden-shafted clubs because you had to know where to shape the shaft itself. You had to make it so that it could move a bit so it was a real art. They were artists.
I had a stroke of luck. George played in Sydney and brought home another trainee by the name of Peter Thomson. I improved more by watching Peter than anything anybody told me.
I played in assistant pro tournaments and when I turned 14 I won my first money up at Heidelberg. We were handicapped at the start and I started off on 20-something and didn’t do very well. The second tournament my boss wrote that I had improved and couldn’t have the same handicap, which didn’t suit me at all. I then went to Heidelberg and was off 17 or something and we played nine holes in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. I shot par for the first nine and walked in and said, ‘Half of 17,’ and the bloke said, ‘You’re not getting that handicap son.’ And he dropped me back to about five. I didn’t even win the damn thing!
I was assistant pro at Riversdale until I was 20 and then went to Green Acres and stayed there for four years. Then I went to be the club pro at Yarrawonga, which was the first bush club up that way with grass greens. I had three years there and it was the right age for me to take some responsibility and do a bit of development.
I won quite a few pro-ams over the years and came second at the Vic PGA in 1966 at Huntingdale. It makes you think how close we were to being good golfers. Geoff Flanagan was the first person that ever broke 290 around Huntingdale over four rounds; my score in coming second would have won the first three Australian Masters tournaments.
Thommo came home to Melbourne to have a rest one year in the middle of the British season. They talked him into playing at Woodlands on Queen’s Birthday and he knocked me off there. I beat all the locals but Thommo was just a bit better.
After Yarrawonga I spent three years at Medway Golf Club and I was playing pretty well at that stage, playing in all the major events. I played in the same tournament that Jack Nicklaus played his first tournament in Australia at The Australian Golf Club. Alan Heil and I knew Gary Player who brought him out so we asked if we could walk around with him. We walked around for Nicklaus’s first nine in Australia. I realised then that I was never going to be a Jack Nicklaus. We’d never seen the ball go so far.
There was a hole at The Australian along the freeway – maybe the sixth or seventh – and it was two woods and a wedge for most players. Somebody might get up there on a helping day. Nicklaus had never used a small before and he hit a drive down to where God would have thought he was cheating. He hit a 3-iron that landed on the back of the green and bounded 40 yards over the back. He hit a 6-iron and cleared the green with that as well. So here’s a hole of some 575 yards and he’s cleared the green with a drive and a six.
Following Medway I was at the public course at Waverley for 16 or 17 years but the hours became too much and I got the job at Kingston Heath. My wife at the time wanted to go back to the Murray so I went up to Barham for quite a few years. Then my son became a pro and he was in Darwin and wanted some help with the teaching in the area. I couldn’t handle the heat so I got a job as the pro at Eden on the South Coast and spent about eight years there.
Golf was at its absolute peak during my time at Waverley. We had golfers every day and I was giving up to 100 lessons a week. All the pros were the same at the public courses, we were starting golfers off all the time. I can still walk down the street and someone will yell out, ‘Hey Huxtable! I started golf at Waverley with you.’ If a person started and then got going you would recommend they go and enter a private club and join up. We were the feeder grounds for the other clubs in the area.
You had a process for beginners and they had to learn not to sway. Most people used to go sideways and try and lift the ball; you had to teach them to stay in between their feet and rotate. I think I was one of the first people to ever use that word in relation to the golf swing. I got sick of the word ‘pivot’. When I’m teaching now I still use the word ‘rotate’. It’s the best way to get people going.
I shot 69 around Southern one day and there was an 80mph wind blowing. Johnny Kennedy was the bloke I played with and he said it was the best round of golf he’d ever seen. I won it by about eight shots and they reckon I’d cheated. It was just one of those days when everything fell into place.
The average person who lasts at golf is usually a pretty nice person. I’ve got thousands of friends all through golf. We’ve got that mateship because it was a smaller pro game back then and the PGA pros were the top of the tree. There were very few tour players. If I was 22, 23 I could have been tempted to go away and have a go of being a tour player but I enjoyed the club life, the actual life I was leading in a pro shop.
Image: Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort
Less than 12 months after suffering a serious head injury that threatened his future in the game Matthew Guyatt has secured his place at the PGA Professionals Championship National Final at Hamilton Island in September with a course record round at Victoria Park in Brisbane.
In the last PGA Professionals Championship of South-East Queensland that will be contested at Victoria Park before its closure on June 30, Guyatt tied the course record of 10-under 55 with a bogey-free round featuring 10 birdies.
A two-time PGA of Australian Trainee of the Year, Guyatt is currently the Assistant Professional at Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane’s northern suburbs but knows he is lucky to be playing golf at all.
Not long after being appointed at Nudgee, Guyatt suffered two large gashes to the top of his head in a freak accident while playing basketball at home with his son Jack.
It took close to four hours for doctors to stitch his head back together and a full recovery took weeks but Guyatt knows the damage could have been far greater, grateful to be out competing and playing the game he loves.
“I am lucky to be here at all let along walking and therefore to be back playing competitive golf is a blessing,” said Guyatt.
A mad supporter of all Brisbane sporting teams, Guyatt is now one of 12 Queensland players who will represent their state at Hamilton Island in September.
“I have heard so much about the tournament and am looking forward to the chance to represent Queensland alongside my fellow PGA Professionals in what will be my first time being eligible to play the event,” he added.
For winning, Guyatt receives return flights to Hamilton Island for the PGA Professionals Championship National Final and also an exemption to play in the Queensland PGA Championship.
Also winning exemptions into the Queensland PGA Championship and qualifying for Hamilton Island are Redland Bay Golf Club’s Paul Hayden and Hervey Bay Golf Club’s Chris Taylor, who both recorded 6-under par rounds of 59. As the leading individual over the age of 50, Taylor also wins an exemption to play in the Australian Senior PGA Championship later in 2021.
The 12 players from the PGA Professionals Championship of South East Queensland to have qualified for the National Final are: Matthew Guyatt, Paul Hayden, Christopher Taylor, Murray Lott, Brenton Parrish, David Merriman, Matthew Rogers, Jacob Freeman, Garrett Skinner, Christopher McCourt, Lachlan Ritson and Craig Goodall.
View the final PGA Professionals Championship of South East QLD leaderboard at pga.org.au.
