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In the third in our series sharing insights from the PGA Professionals guiding the Aussies playing this week’s US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park, Grant Field updates us on the state of Cameron Smith’s game and why his mentality is so well suited to playing well in the majors.
Life in general is all a bit different at the moment but for Cam, a Major week is not all that much different from any other tournament week.
And that’s the way we want it. It shouldn’t vary dependent on the event that he’s playing.
If there is a difference at all it might be that we get to the course perhaps a day earlier than we otherwise would to try and get some more time out on course but that is not the case this week.
Our stance is to try to make it as normal as possible given the circumstances. You do understand that it’s a bigger event – you’re not trying to get away from that fact – but the actual preparation is exactly the same.
I’m sure Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy doesn’t go into a grand final demanding more of his players than he would every other week of the season.
If we do what we know works then we’re more likely to get the outcome that we’re looking for.
No question that being there as a coach is more beneficial than watching on from the other side of the world but this is what we’re faced with at the moment so we’re trying to do our best.
When you’re at the tournament you’re viewing not only what the shot’s doing but his body language, what’s going on with the group and the conditions.
The biggest thing for us as a team right now is communication and we’ve got that happening.
During the early part of lockdown the communication perhaps wasn’t as clear as it could have been but we have established more of a routine now.
I’ll speak to Cam on a Monday night his time as a debrief from the week before and then we’ll do a range session on Tuesday. His caddie Sam Pinfold will have the camera while Cam’s on the range, Cam will have his headphones on and we’ll talk through the swing.
Sam will also send swings while we’re working and just make sure that we’re on top of what we’re trying to be on top of. If there’s anything else that needs to be seen to then we’ll do that and if he needs anything else during the week then obviously I’m here if he needs me.
Getting to the tournament on Monday you’ve got three days of preparation so it’s the same preparation, the same understanding.
You will spend some time looking at how the ball is reacting around the greens and in the bunkers but tee-to-green, most of it is in front of you.
I’d like to be able to say that there’s a magic formula but there’s not.
Cam is really good at not wasting energy. He does his work and he’s done. He’s not hanging around at the golf course or trying to arrange practice rounds with certain guys.
Cam is good at conserving his energy so that he’s still as fresh as he can be at the back-end of the week. That’s hugely important.
It’s not about doing more these weeks; it’s about doing the right amount and not wasting energy because there is a lot of other noise that can eat into your time at a Major.
As coach you can do a little bit of research on the golf course but it’s not the same as being there. The good part is that Sam and Cam know what they’re doing. I’ll have my own thoughts and if I feel like there’s something I can add I’ll always get on the phone but if it’s an uneducated guess I’m not going to throw it out there.
If you’ve got a good caddie that you trust and the caddie has done a lot of research getting all the numbers, if he can tell the player where to hit it then that’s all some players need.
There are others who have people who research more about where most birdies are made from certain holes and past trends but Cam is not one of those players.
It depends on what time he tees off but I’ll try and follow Cam’s rounds as much as I can but I’m also mindful that I need to sleep.
Weeks like this don’t help my sleep patterns, that’s for sure. I do tend to wake up and check my phone during the night to see how the guys are going.
I always go through every round post-round with Shot Tracker. It gives you a little bit of an idea of what the players are doing and then have the conversation about what happened on certain shots.
You might see trends on certain shaped holes and because you’ve got an idea about their patterns and what their tendencies are you can get a head start on trying to find a solution.
As for Cam’s game right now, it’s definitely getting better. As the week went on in Memphis last week he felt better and definitely feels like he’s heading in the right direction.
I spoke to Sam after the second round about a couple of the tee shots and a lot of it was around certain shaped tee shots. We talked a little bit about strategy and it looks like they were better the last two rounds.
He spoke to his sports psychologist Jonah Oliver and we spoke Monday morning and he’s quite happy with where it’s all trending.
That’s how we want him to be feeling when going into a Major championship.
Grant Field is the Director and Head of Coaching at Pelican Waters Golf Club and has been nominated for Queensland Teaching Professional of the Year each of the past three years. In addition to Cameron Smith Field works with European Tour player Maverick Antcliff and is the head coach for both Golf Queensland and the Queensland Academy of Sport.
In the second of our series highlighting the PGA Professionals guiding our Aussie boys at this week’s US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park, Denis McDade reveals what he and Marc Leishman are working on early in the week and the ideal mindset he hopes to take into the opening round.
The start to Marc’s season was as good as he’s ever had but it just hasn’t quite clicked since coming out of lockdown.
Almost without exception when his game drops off a little bit it will be an old pattern or habit that he’s reverted back into that we need to correct. And normally he will recover pretty quickly.
For example, earlier this year we did some work on his set-up and basic pivot and he was off and running.
The amount of communication during the week of a Major will depend very much on where Marc’s game is at.
This will be a little bit more of a coaching week than normal given that we need to tidy a couple of things up but it won’t be a heavy coaching week because of where Marc and I know he needs to be Thursday morning teeing it up.
Because I’m in Stage 4 lockdown here in Melbourne my role early in the week will be identifying what the one or two minor issues might be because he does feel like he’s pretty close to where he needs to be.
We’ll do a live FaceTime session early in the week. Marc will tell me a time that he’s going to be on the range and his caddie, Matty Kelly, will hold the phone. Marc will have his ear pods in, there’ll be some discussion back and forth and we’ll send a little bit of video.
If it works best to do it at 2am here in Melbourne, then I’ll get up at 2am and do it then.
I need to find a way to make some subtle changes without altering the way he plays his best golf which is being external and reactive. That’s the challenge for me.
If there’s a change that needs to be made, how do we implement that without him becoming internal and thinking about his swing all the time?
If he’s on the first tee on Thursday thinking about his backswing or anything like that, that’s not how he’ll play his best golf.
The task initially is to find the little thing that’s dropped off, do a little bit of work on the range and then take it out to the course.
Marc plays his best golf when he reacts to his image of what he wants to do with the shot. The image of the shot almost creates the movement. If he starts delving into trying to create positions, that is quite internal and totally at odds with the way he plays his best golf.
Once the tournament starts I’m there as a resource to bounce ideas off and act as a cheer squad.
There will be a text message exchange each day but it’s not War And Peace. ‘How was your warm-up? How’d you play? How’s it feeling? Any concerns? Anything I can help you with?’
After each round I’ll look at ShotLink data but often the stats don’t give the complete picture of how he’s playing. The shot he’s trying to hit or the shot he’s struggling with. It certainly provides some baseline figures and then we take it from there.
Marc is at stage in his career where he’s quite autonomous and self-reliant and I’m there as a support.
I will do very little this week in terms of strategy given that I haven’t been on-site at TPC Harding Park but he has and he really likes the place.
Marc nuts out golf courses pretty darn well. If I’m at an event occasionally he’ll ask my thoughts but he and Matty Kelly do a great job around all of that.
The good thing going in is that this is a place that he likes so strategy and comfort with the venue won’t be the issue.
This is one that he’s had circled for a while.
Denis McDade is the Director of Coaching at Yarra Bend Golf and in 2017 was voted as the Australian Coach of the Year. In addition to five-time PGA TOUR winner Marc Leishman, McDade coaches tour professionals Matthew Griffin, Marcus Fraser and Ashley Hall.
Ahead of the first major championship of the year – the US PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco – we asked some of our leading PGA Professionals what goes on behind the scenes when preparing a player for a major championship.
Today Gary Barter shares the challenges of coaching Matt Jones remotely during COVID-19, how the practice regime changes and the one part of Jones’s game that needs most attention prior to Round 1 on Thursday night.
There’s no doubt about it, coaching remotely is not as good as being there. Not even close.
Normally I would go over to the US and spend time with Matt six or eight times a year and we FaceTime on the other weeks but it is definitely not as good.
I spoke to Matt on Monday morning and he said that he was 15th overall in putting last week in Memphis, top-five overall in driving but that his iron play let him down.
Going into Harding Park, if you’re driving it well and putting well and he’s a great chipper of the ball, if we can get his irons going well he should be in good shape.
For players at this level, it can be a little thing like distance control. He said last week that he hit his irons solid out of the clubface but he couldn’t control his distance. He felt that some would go 12-15 feet too far and then if there was some wind he might go down from a 9-iron to a wedge because they were coming out a bit hot.
He said that when he got purchase on the ball the ball would jump a little bit.
Players can get spooked by little things that we wouldn’t think you would even worry about.
As a regular golfer, hitting an 8-iron to the middle of the green seems great but if he’s hitting an 8-iron 30 feet past the hole, that’s not too good.
It wasn’t that he was suddenly missing greens or anything like that, it was more around distance control and trajectory with his irons. That’s what he was concerned with. He just couldn’t hit his numbers. I know what that means.
A golf swing is a bit like a Rubik’s Cube. All the sides can be messed up but if you’re good at it you can solve it pretty quickly, as long as you pick the right way to do it.
With Matt, I’ll probably have four or five things that we’ve worked on in the past – whether that’s five years or four weeks ago – and he’ll grab one or two of those things and be good to go.
Matt has reference points and different feels and cues that he uses. I’d be surprised if by Wednesday I haven’t given him something that helps him feel better about his iron play.
A Major week is a different week, there’s no doubt about it, and you can see why the experienced guys tend to do well.
Matt’s definitely got better at managing the week because it is very tiring. Long practice rounds, more press than they normally do, the anticipation and with course set-ups that are pushed to the limit you have to concentrate on every shot for the whole five hours that you’re out there.
The experienced players are really good at limiting their emotional intensity early in the week. It’s about keeping your arousal level low, doing the work, planning out the course and getting ready to go with as little amount of wasted mental energy as possible.
Course strategy in a Major is a lot more exacting so your ball-striking is under the microscope even more. Your trajectory, your distance control, even working out how the ball is going to jump out of the rough.
Ordinarily, if I sat down for dinner with Matt in preparation for a Major there would be a lot more talking about the golf course than there would be at a normal tour event.
You will still have your normal range work and the normal conversation about how the player is feeling, what they’re happy with, what they’re not happy with but on the golf course there is a lot of conversation around strategy.
You’re also really loading up on your short game for a Major. Chipping, putting, bunker play and all the different types of chip shots they might face.
Majors are won on your capacity to recover and keep yourself in the game so when you do hit the good shots you make the birdies and you don’t throw them away on the next hole.
While they are the best players in the world and they know what they’re doing, they’re still not preparing for perfect golf. They’re preparing for the time when they might slightly miss one or end up in the wrong spot that’s not going to put them in a position where they can’t recover.
That’s the non-tangible that the great players have, the capacity to navigate their way around if things aren’t going correctly.
Some players will come in with their ‘A’ game, some with their ‘B’ game and some with their ‘C’ game and it’s about working out how to get the job done with the game you have that week.
For Matt it’s about getting mentally right to perform. He’s got the game, there’s no doubt about it, and he loves the golf course.
Once we get a little bit of work done early in the week I expect he’ll play well.
Gary Barter is the Director of Teaching at The Australian Golf Club. In addition to two-time Australian Open champion Matt Jones, Gary coaches tour players such as Dimi Papadatos, Jake Higginbottom, Blake Windred and Stephanie Kyriacou.
In a virtual broadcast, the winners of QLD Golf Industry Award were announced last night with Links Hope Island, Atherton Golf Club and KDV Sport amongst those who were recognised.
Coordinated by the PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Golf Course Superintendents Association of QLD and Golf Management Australia, the awards were broadcast in a unique setting online with the same original purpose – to recognise those who had excelled in 2019.
Including a visit from reigning Australian PGA Champion Adam Scott, the virtual awards night saw winners from as far north as Atherton and Cairns Golf Clubs, representation from Central QLD including Bundaberg and Rockhampton Golf Clubs as well as those in South East QLD.
Former Golf Club General Manager Don Gregory was presented a Service to Golf Award for his longevity and impact on the golf industry and in a pre-recorded acceptance speech, was humbled by his award.
“I feel very proud that many of the juniors at clubs I have been at have gone on to a career within the industry and in particular the management of golf clubs, and I am very honoured to be acknowledged in this way,” said Gregory.
KDV Sport took out the hotly contested Junior Golf Program of the Year Award with their Director of Instruction Richard Woodhouse also announced as Coach of the Year. Woodhouse had an outstanding year with many of his students including Daniel Nisbet and Brett Rankin recording victories in 2019, and was proud to win his third QLD Golf industry Award.
“Thanks to each of the athletes and players who are the reason I work so hard to assist to reach their potential and I feel very humbled to win this award given the accomplished group of finalists,” said Woodhouse.
RACV Royal Pines Resort Superintendent Lincoln Coombes won the Superintendents Achievement Award with his fellow Superintendent Ben Tilley recognised for his significant contribution to Golf Course Superintendent’s Association of QLD and the wider turf industry.
Links Hope Island and Atherton Golf Club took out what many call the top honours of the night with their Golf Club of the Year Awards. Atherton Golf Club’s award for Golf Clubs under 400 members was magnified when their Superintendent Brendan Clark also won the Environment and Safety Excellence Award. For Links Hope Island it was recognition for a year that saw the club increase green fee revenue by 25% as well as continue their reputation as an accessible facility staging several events for the surrounding community.
Keperra Country Golf Club was also a multiple winner with long term member Leo Scott winning Volunteer of the Year and Michael Dash winning the Golf Club Staff Member of the Year award for his professionalism and enthusiasm to continually innovate to ensure the club continues to evolve.
A full list of all of the winners can be found below:
| Award Name | Winner |
| Services to Golf Award | Don Gregory |
| Junior Golf Program of the Year Award | KDV Sport |
| Golf Supplier of the Year Award | Coca-Cola Amatil |
| Game Development Professional of the Year | Mick Murnane |
| Coach of the Year | Richard Woodhouse |
| Coca-Cola Club Professional of the Year | Paul Orchard |
| Management Professional of the Year | Tim Porter |
| Tournament of the Year | Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro-Am |
| Metropolitan Tournament of the Year | GC Celebrity Pro-Am |
| Regional Tournament of the Year | CUB Ocean Shores Pro-Am |
| Legends Tournament of the Year | Brookwater Pro-Am |
| PGA Pro-Am Series Sunshine Swing Order of Merit Winner | Brett Rankin |
| On Platinum PGA Pro-Am Series Sunshine Swing Rookie of the Year | Jay Mackenzie |
| QLD PGA Trainee of the Year | Cooper Eccleston |
| QLD PGA Trainee Order of Merit Winner | Charles Wright |
| Toro Apprentice of the Year Award | Tom Bath |
| Living Turf Superintendents Achievement Award | Lincoln Coombes |
| Superintendents Industry Recognition Award | Ben Tilley |
| E-par Superintendents Environment and Safety Excellence Award | Brendan Clark |
| Golf Club Staff Member of the Year Award | Michael Dash |
| Golf Club Board Member of the Year Award | Mark Schutters |
| MiClub Golf Club of the Year Award | Links Hope Island |
| Inside Golf Manager of the Year Award | Matt Bolton |
| Male Amateur Golfer of the Year | Jed Morgan |
| Female Amateur Golfer of the Year | Cassie Porter |
| Junior Female Amateur Golfer of the Year | Cassie Porter |
| Junior Male Amateur Golfer of the Year | Elvis Smylie |
| Volunteer of the Year | Leo Scott |
| Golf Club of the Year (Under 400 Members) | Atherton Golf Club |
| PGA IGI Excellence in Golf Education Award | Robert Lane |
Watch the full awards broadcast here:
The Queensland Golf Industry is excited to bring you their very first ‘virtual’ Golf Industry Awards to be broadcast on Tuesday 14 July.
The PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Golf Course Superintendents Association of QLD and Golf Management Australia will come together to celebrate the achievements of the QLD Golf Industry in 2019, highlighting the contributions of the sport’s finest athletes, volunteers, administrators, staff, courses and facilities across the state.
Joining the broadcast will also be defending Australian PGA Champion and world number 10 Adam Scott who will give us an insight into being back in the Sunshine State during restrictions, and where we might expect to see him for the remainder of 2020.
We hope you will join us as we go live on YouTube and on PGA TV from 7pm AEST. Join the conversation and upload your celebratory snaps on your social channels using the hashtag #QGIawards.
Date: Tuesday 14 July, 2020
Time: Tune in live at 7pm (AEST) via the video link below
Where: Your home, golf club or with a group of friends anywhere via the pga.org.au on your phone, tablet or PC
Dress: Formal up top, casual down the bottom
A full list of all of the finalists can be found by clicking here with the below additional awards also being presented during the broadcast:
The Victorian Government has announced the tightening of restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire from 11.59pm on Wednesday 8 July.
Those areas will return to stage 3 restrictions. A list defining the Melbourne metropolitan area is located here.
Pleasingly, golf will continue to be played during this time, subject to conditions.
The Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, has announced that golf can continue to be played in areas that will be covered by stage 3 restrictions in 2-ball groups from Thursday 9 July.
Clubhouses must also close as of midnight 8 July, for all services other than take-away food and beverage.
The PGA of Australia and Golf Australia will communicate further information as it relates to facility operations, including coaching, Pro-Shops, driving ranges, warm-up areas and other related activities as soon as possible.
We are continuing to work with the government on understanding further ramifications of stage 3 restrictions on golf clubs/facilities.
State borders may still be closed but Sanctuary Cove will this week reopen its facility to the public in another sign life is slowly returning to normal.
When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill and forced the majority of Australian golf clubs to close their doors even temporarily, Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club management devised a way to provide their members with an outlet while in lockdown.
The decision was made to make both The Pines and The Palms golf courses – currently ranked No.44 and No.71 in the country respectively by Australian Golf Digest magazine – purely members only.
Health and safety protocols were put in place to ensure members were protected as best as possible and maintenance procedures continued at their normal operation to deliver a playing experience that few facilities in Australia can match.
Although they have been kept on the outside looking in for the past three months, social golfers can now return to play The Palms course from this Thursday where they will find the 2011 Ross Watson redesign at its pristine best.
“If I was a member of the public, I’d be taking advantage of playing The Palms this week for sure,” says Sanctuary Cove Executive General Manager and PGA Professional Paul Sanders.
“It’s in outstanding condition, the best I’ve seen it in eight years. Full credit to Course Superintendent Paul McLean and his team. The way they have got this golf course to mature over the past eight or nine years has it at its absolute peak.
“The TifEagle greens are absolutely amazing.
“Anyone that plays there during this period is going to have a great experience.”
Spoiled by having unfettered access to both golf courses since mid-March, membership numbers at Sanctuary Cove have never been stronger.
The club reported a June intake the likes of which they have not witnessed in many years and Club President Mick McDonald last week unveiled a sculpture of Arnold Palmer by acclaimed artist Liam Hardy that now welcomes golfers to the first tee on The Pines.
As golf has proven attractive to people unable to participate in other activities during restrictions, Sanders, the management team and board have ensured that it has never been a better time to be a member at Sanctuary Cove.
“Word is out that it’s members only here,” Sanders says of the surge of interest in membership.
“The golf courses are both in outstanding condition and we’re investing heavily into our facilities including a $1.8 million irrigation project at The Pines. We’re very fortunate that through a really strong strategic plan that we’ve had in place for the past 60 months that we’ve been able to do that.
“What’s been great about the decision of the board to make it members only during this COVID-19 period is that it has really given the opportunity to members to make full use of the facilities.
“Whether that’s practise, competition play, social play, it’s a great opportunity for members to not only play The Pines but play The Palms whenever they like.
“The members have really respected that the board have made it members only during this period and we’re having 300-plus players every day of the week.
“If you’re coming into the club at the moment, you have wonderful facilities that you can call your own.”
By tailoring specifically to their needs, Royal Perth Golf Club has established a reputation in the west for providing an encouraging environment for junior girls.
When you’re starting from nothing, anything is worth a shot.
Stuck in a cycle shared by a great number of golf clubs, Royal Perth Golf Club was desperately searching for a way in which to expand their junior base, particularly junior girls.
Recognising that girls as young as six didn’t respond well to mixed groups of juniors dominated by boisterous boys who simply wanted to swing driver as hard as they could, Head Professional Brad Logan worked with Ladies Captain Kerry Hardwick and Vice-Captain Lyn Cook on formulating a girl-friendly program.
‘Pretty in Pink’ was launched 11 years ago and set Royal Perth on a path to becoming regarded as the club in Perth where girls interested in golf could go to develop their games.
“We thought there were a lot of girls who might have found playing with the boys intimidating so we set up a coaching program after school on a Tuesday during the school terms,” Logan explains.
“We went from having nothing to having 30 or so girls on a Tuesday. We had to start breaking them into smaller groups and have extra people down there helping me teach them.
“We had ladies get their Working with Children permit and then their Community Golf Instructor qualification just so they could come down and help these girls get started in the game.
“It’s continued to grow and grow and grow and because of the structure around it now with the MyGolf program it’s got to the point where I employ a PGA Professional as a junior coordinator just to look after the juniors.”
Through Golf Australia’s Vision 2025 mandate to increase the level of influence of women in golf at every level, delivering a ‘girls only’ MyGolf program became a key deliverable.
As a result, the PGA and Golf Australia, through the MyGolf program launched the MyGolf Girls in July of 2018 as a way of creating a welcoming environment for girls showing an interest in golf.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that some parents prefer single sex options for their daughters playing sport and other sports throughout the country have seen significant increases in female participation by offering female only participation opportunities.
Since 1 July 2018, 95 MyGolf facilities have promoted MyGolf Girls only programs with girls making up 24 per cent of total MyGolf participants in the past financial year.
Of the 4,665 girls engaged in MyGolf between 2018 and 2019, 375 participated in girls-only programs, a number that should continue to grow as word spreads.
“We were like most clubs in that we had no real system in place, we dealt with what was in front of us,” says Logan, with Royal Perth offering girls-only coaching on Tuesdays, boys-only coaching on Thursdays and a mixed group on Fridays for older, more advanced juniors.
“Once we had one or two girls taking part they brought their friends along so it grew in that way.
“We’ve now got two girls pennant teams where seven years ago we didn’t have any and there is an awareness around Perth that we do now have a strong junior girls program.
“There might be a girl with a low handicap playing elsewhere but if they don’t have the numbers to form a pennant team she might decide to come across to Royal Perth.
“Not every girl at Royal Perth has come through the Pretty in Pink program but by starting it 11 years ago we have created an environment where girls know that they are welcome here.”
The Queensland Golf Industry is pleased to confirm the date for the ‘Virtual Awards Night’ to be broadcast on Tuesday 14th July.
Coordinated by the PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Golf Course Superintendents Association of QLD and Golf Management Australia, the QLD Golf Industry “Virtual” Awards Night will acknowledge the achievements the finalists have accomplished throughout 2019.
Despite being postponed earlier this year, the QLD Golf Industry Awards Night will announce all of the winners of the respective awards of which will be broadcast at 7pm (EST) on Tuesday 14th July via www.pga.org.au.
With the success of the recent WA Golf Industry Awards Night which saw golf clubs and individuals gather to watch the evening, finalists are encouraged to watch the broadcast in groups (relative to gathering restrictions in place on this date) to celebrate their achievements. Physical awards will be presented to the winners of each award in the week(s) following the broadcast to assist in the additional promotion of their accolades.
A full list of the award finalists can be found below:
Golf Club of the Year
Golf Club of the Year (Under 400 Members)
Golf Supplier of the Year
Junior Program of the Year Finalists
Volunteer of the Year
Game Development Professional of the Year
Manager of the Year
Coach of the Year
Club Professional of the Year
Management Professional of the Year
Golf Club Staff Member of the Year
Golf Club Board Member of the Year
Tournament of the Year
Superintendents Achievement Award
Metropolitan Tournament of the Year
Regional Tournament of the Year
Legends Tournament of the Year
PGA Trainee of the Year
Golf Course Turf Apprentice of the Year
Superintendents Environment and Safety Excellence Award
PGA IGI Excellence in Golf Education Award
Other awards announced on the evening include:
As the PGA TOUR prepares to resume, Adam Scott has completed a nine-hole shootout against an old mate’s son who in a short space of time has gone from fawning fan to star pupil.
Currently ranked No.6 in the world, Scott has chosen a cautious approach to when he will return to golf’s top echelon, instead preferring the more relaxed routine that has entailed games with old acquaintances throughout the Sunshine Coast.
One of those was at Maleny Golf Club against former Japan Golf Tour winner Wayne Perske, a match Scott dubbed ‘9 Holes With A Mate’ that he broadcast live on Instagram to his 228,000 followers.
Scott announced on Tuesday morning via his social media channels that he would be playing nine holes at Caloundra Golf Club on Wednesday afternoon against Bailey Arnott, a first year at Iowa State University and the son of Caloundra Head Professional Tom Arnott.
Three years Scott’s senior, Arnott would allow Scott to tag along in early morning matches as juniors at Royal Queensland and during this COVID-19-induced hiatus has seen first-hand Scott’s generous nature.
Not only has he taken 18-year-old Bailey under his wing with regular rounds and a one-on-one training session at his home, Scott has spent time at Caloundra visiting with juniors and conducting clinics as well as providing a boost to a club member doing it tough.
The junior club champion in 1995 and a hard-hitting all-rounder in local cricket, Craig Grant suffered a severe stroke five years ago that makes verbal communication impossible.
It hasn’t stopped him however from establishing the Craig Grant Junior Golf Fund to help pay for junior clinics at the club and Scott popped in with Arnott in part to boost his spirits, and also to say thanks.
“Craig had a massive stroke five years ago,” Arnott explains. “He’s got two daughters, used to play off 1 and 2 and still sponsors my junior program.
“He is in full-time care now and Adam and I turned up at his house and spent 45 minutes with him having a chat.
“He can’t talk but to see the look in his eyes… he knew who was there and what was going on.
“It was really special.
“When the whole COVID-19 stuff started happening Adam offered to come and wash carts for me.
“We had to put half the staff off but we had two-balls, members only, and you could not move out here. It was check-in from 6am until 4pm.
“He rang to see how I was going and genuinely cared about what was happening.
“As the COVID stuff started happening, he rang me to see whether Bailey had been able to get back from the US in time because he was going to offer to fly him out if he was still at college.
“That’s just the type of guy he is.”
Despite the generosity that has been on show throughout his extended stay at home, Scott has been less than giving in regular matches with his former junior sparring partner.
Arnott estimates that they have played together two or three times a week over the past two months and despite all his riches, Scott has no hesitation in putting out his hand at the end of a round.
“Everyone says how nice he is but they’ve obviously never played golf against him,” Arnott jokes.
“He took $5 off me the other day. I got it out of my wallet and said, ‘You want this don’t you?’ And he said yeah and pocketed it.
“He and I played against (Ladbrokes Legends Tour regulars) Brad Burns and Glenn Joyner the other day and they beat us 2&1. They came ready to play, don’t worry about that. I think I let the team down that day.”
As for the lasting legacy Scott’s visits will have on the club, Arnott has no doubt the juniors will talk about the time they got to spend with one of the best players in the world for many years to come.
“It creates a whole new vibe amongst the golf club because he has been out here quite a bit,” said Arnott.
“The kids look up to me as the PGA Professional but it goes to another level when they know you’re mates with Adam Scott.”
