Cassie has wanted to play in America from the time we started working together when she was just 14 years old.

There are elements of her game that we have worked on to make that possible but, more importantly, we had to work out what worked best for Cassie so that she could play her best golf.

Part of that process has been becoming comfortable in doing things differently.

Some players will tell you that they play their best golf 10 weeks into a stretch on tour.

That’s not Cassie.

In her last year as an amateur, I told her that I thought four to six weeks in a row was her max.

Now, the bulldog in Cassie compelled her to spend 13 weeks straight in the US last year for her rookie year on the Epson Tour and it took its toll.

She feeds off the energy of being around family and friends. That’s what makes her happy, and her happiness is our No.1 priority.

We decided that in her off weeks, she would fly home, put the clubs away for a short period and spend time with family and friends before ramping up practice for the next stretch. Be a 21-year-old and go back refreshed.

It’s not really the done thing but you have to be willing to go against the grain and do what’s best for the player.

Only then will you bring out their best.

Daniel Morrison is a PGA Professional with 20 years’ experience. He played on the PGA Tour of Australasia from 2006-2012, founded the Twin Waters Golf Academy and was an Acushnet club fitter from 2013-2015.

Every week that David is playing on Tour, we know that the greens are different, the speeds are different and the surfaces are different.

I’m big on making sure that the ball rolls end over end so that is an element of David’s putting that we will check every day.

Loft of the putter, shaft lean and ball position can all impact how quickly the ball begins its true roll so we will make whatever adjustments we need to get that ball to roll correctly.

Ideally, that true roll will happen as soon as possible off the putterface and I will monitor it by taking a video of the first couple of feet after the strike.

There’s a simple way that you can check your roll.

Head out to the golf course early when there is some dew on the ground and practice hitting putts from 30 feet.

You will immediately see when the ball starts to stick to the ground and roll properly.

Move to a different spot, play with your hand position and ball position, and try to get the ball rolling end over end as soon as possible.

Make it a complete putting drill by picking a spot on your intended line and see whether the line that the ball leaves through the dew travels over it or not.

Rolling the ball correctly on the target line is a great start towards making more putts.

Based at Spring Valley Golf Club in Melbourne, Martin Joyce is the High Performance Director for Victoria and National Coach for Golf Australia and has been a PGA Member since 2005.

If you can’t get a four-year-old to put their clothes away, brush their teeth or contain their toys to one section of the house, how do you expect to teach them the intricacies of the grip and proper takeaway?

Quite simply, Kasey doesn’t even try.

Not straight away, at least.

A PGA Professional offering junior programs at Lane Cove for the past 17 years, Kasey dedicates herself to bringing beginners into the game and giving them the grounding to want to stay.

Her youngest golfers are in the Peewee Program for 4-to-6-year-olds, some of whom suggest more experience in golf than you might expect.

“They tell us, ‘I play golf all the time’,” says Dive.

“They think they know how to play golf because they’ve played it on the Wii or Nintendo Switch.”

Kasey doesn’t overload her enthusiastic newcomers with technique or theory; she provides the opportunity to hit balls in a game-based environment that is constantly evolving.

There is an element of repetition to build fundamentals but done in such a way that the kids don’t even know they’re learning.

“If you’re trying to build the perfect swing or the perfect set-up straight away, they’re not going to take it in,” Kasey explains.

“They just want to hit the ball.

“Let them hit it, let them make mistakes and if you see an element of frustration, that’s an avenue to step in and offer some advice that they’ll actually listen to.”

Kids are hitting balls in their very first lesson at Lane Cove, with games focused initially on short shots building into longer swings and then, ultimately, time on the golf course.

The success of Kasey’s program shines through in that there are now teenagers attending the Saturday squad classes at Lane Cove who began in the Peewee Program.

And for those who shudder at the thought of teaching young kids how to play golf, Kasey says her students have taught her how to be a better coach along the way.

“It’s finding how to relate to each child,” she explains.

“If they’re showing signs of not wanting to be there, then that’s not their fault. That’s on me.

“You’ve got to find a way to engage with them to capture their interest.

“You should be able to bring in every single child and find a way for them to love the sport.”

A PGA Professional since 2003, Portelli was one of the first to complete the 20-hour All Abilities Accreditation course that is a joint initiative by the PGA of Australia and Golf Australia.

Seeing an opportunity to expand his coaching business and bring a whole new realm of golfers into the game, Portelli completed the course in 2016. Shortly thereafter he reached out to local disability organisations to offer golf as an activity.

One of those to take up the offer was the Sale and District Specialist School, a school that caters specifically to children aged 5-18 with an intellectual disability. The school brought more than 40 kids out to Maffra Golf Club to try golf, including a boy with cerebral palsy who was confined to a motorised wheelchair.

As kids moved forward to try their hand at golf, the boy found himself at the back of the class, until Portelli asked the teachers whether he might like to try, too.

“They sort of looked at me blankly like, Oh, I’m not quite sure how this is going to work,” recalls Portelli, who has been coaching at Bairnsdale Golf Club for the past four years.

“I asked him first if he was able to have a go and he could communicate with me in what I would say was fairly non-verbal. He would grunt and nod to let me know he understood what I was saying.

“I pushed an alignment stick into the ground, put a rubber driving range tee on top with a ball so it was probably three feet off the ground.

“We used one of the bigger-headed All Abilities kit clubs which he could hold with his right hand and put a hoop out five metres out on front as a target.

“I got him to swing the club and hit the ball towards the target. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

“You could see the teachers react like, Oh cool, he can have a go. He can participate.’”

Given close to a decade of experience coaching All Abilities golf it is just one example of how Portelli is not only changing the lives of those he coaches, but also those who are witness to what is possible.

Seb McCormick is a Special Olympics athlete that Portelli has coached for the past two years at Bairnsdale Golf Club.

McCormick has represented both Queensland and Victoria in Special Olympics competition and regularly plays in the member comps at Bairnsdale.

The relationship between Portelli and McCormick has developed so much in the past 18 months that where Portelli would once get only one word answers to his questions, now when they play the coach struggles to get a word in.

“He just yaks to me now the whole time. He just talks to me the whole time,” says Portelli.

“He’s completely come out of his shell. He loves his golf, he’s always excited to be there.”

So excited is McCormick to be at the golf club that he has told Portelli that he is getting a job there; news that he hadn’t yet shared with his parents.

“I’ve learned too, that he can be quite creative sometimes,” Portelli adds.

And when Sebastian rips a drive 180 metres down the centre of the fairway, it’s not only a thrill for coach and player but a demonstration to members of golf’s enormous reach.

“There’s a lot of members that know him now and will say g’day to him,” says Portelli.

“It’s opened up those members’ eyes that people with those disabilities can get out there and play golf.

“We can make it possible.”

To find an All Abilities accredited coach near you, visit www.pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/

That, along with her willingness to experience every aspect of the wide-ranging golf industry, has seen her rise to the role of Director of Sport at one of Australia’s most prestigious clubs.

Four years into her career as a fully qualified PGA Professional, Odgers has been heading up the sporting operations at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club since September 2023.

“I knew I wanted to be somewhere that is busy,” she says of finding the right work environment.

“I love meeting people, interacting with members and the whole social side of the role appealed to me.

“And that is what I get here at ‘PK’. The variety is great.”

Although her rise has come quickly and brings with it extensive responsibility, it has been a relatively seamless transition for Odgers, who demonstrated an aptitude for hard work as soon as she became a PGA Professional.

Splitting her time between Woodlands Golf Club and Peninsula Kingswood, Odgers was working 50-hour weeks; predominantly as a golf coach at Woodlands and in her first administrative role at ‘PK’.

“I was certainly flat out, but I wanted to keep doing both,” she reflects.

“I had just set up a women’s program at Woodlands and we had 50 women come through for the first year and a similar number register for the second.

“I wanted to be there to help see it through and I was also doing 30 hours a week here at ‘PK’.”

A busy time, it helped Odgers develop the skills she needed to succeed in the industry, and proved to those at Peninsula Kingswood that she was ready to take the position as Director of Sport.

A wide-ranging role, ‘PK’ boasts two championship golf courses, a gym, pool, tennis courts and a bowls facility, meaning that no two days are alike for Odgers and her team.

“I am only nine months in, so now moving into winter I am keen to keep looking at what we can do with all of the facilities that we have on offer here,” she says.

“Ultimately, it is about ensuring our members and visitors understand what they can do and how they can maximise it.

“Whatever it might be, there is always something different to focus on,” she explains. “Just recently we have had club championships, the culmination of the Pennant season, as well as regular corporate days to accommodate.”

A lot to balance, Odgers notes that while there is plenty to learn, she takes confidence from her already bountiful experience and grounding as a PGA Professional.

“I did not expect to be in this position so quickly, but I am finding out that I was already doing lots of these sorts of things before in my role as an Assistant Professional,” she adds.

“Now it is about learning and taking on extra responsibility – whether that is retail or the financial side of the business, I am keen to embrace it all.”

Also keen to keep getting more women into golf, Odgers believes programs like the one she established at Woodlands – and a similar one that is thriving at Peninsula Kingswood – are essential.

“The growth in the women’s game has been the biggest change I’ve seen whilst working in golf,” she explains.

“Having a female PGA Professional presence is so important when new women come into the game, and I am proud to help play a role there.

“I do still love coaching and would love to keep doing a bit here, to help those women who are new to golf.

“As always, it is just about balancing out those priorities.”

First when he picked up a club as a 12-year-old, and then again almost three decades later when he played a round with a corporate client and was inspired to make golf his career – first through the PGA Institute and later the PGA Membership Pathway Program.

That willingness to shift and follow his passion after more than 20 years working in banking and health insurance has been a truly rewarding one for Bashforth, who is now dedicated to growing the game of golf in Queensland.

“I took a risk,” he reflects. “At more than 40 years old, I sold my property and went down to the Gold Coast to complete the PGA Institute program.”

Although Bashforth didn’t set out to become a PGA Professional initially, the quality of his game stood out while he was completing the Institute program – and enrolling in the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program became a reality.

“Again, I took a bit of a risk. I completed the PGA Institute course and then secured a traineeship at Riverside Oaks Golf Club in Sydney,” he adds.

A mature-age student, Bashforth remembers feeling a bit uneasy initially, but was buoyed by the diverse and engaging content he was learning.

Moreover, with a solid grounding in finance and corporate processes, he found the business side of the Program relatively straightforward.

“I knew where I wanted to head with it all so learning all of the golf-specific side of things was wonderful,” he says.

“From club repairs, to coaching, you feel like you learn everything there is to know about golf.”

Equipped with that raft of knowledge, and ready for a new career, Bashforth graduated as a PGA Professional in 2019.

On the move again, he headed back up north to accept a role as Assistant Professional at Gladstone Golf Club.

It was there that Bashforth first discovered a love for coaching and introducing newcomers to the game.

He took on the role of offering Get Into Golf – Golf Australia’s official beginner golf lesson program – there in 2020. After moving through COVID, he took the program to the next level.

“I was offering two two-hour sessions on Sundays, with the motivation being to try and get more women involved in the game up here,” he reflects.

What initially started as clinics on the range morphed into on-course action, as Bashforth helped participants to take the next step.

“We ended up running nine-hole shootouts for women. We would get the beginners and the members all together.

“Not many clubs could say that they would be getting 40 or 50 women out on the course all together. That was really cool.”

Bashforth’s passion for Get Into Golf has continued since a recent move to Bundaberg Golf Club.

There, he implements a similar model to the one he established at Gladstone, and the club and community are reaping the rewards.

“We are now seeing more and more women at the golf club,” he smiles. “Whether that is on the range, on the course, or even buying clubs in the shop, it is really good to see them following it through from the clinics.

“Some are even joining up as members of the club, which is fantastic, and certainly a driving force behind what we do.”

Proud to have seen the golf landscape change from what he describes as “not massively inclusive” when he first started out, Bashforth is glad to work in an industry that welcomes everyone.

“Now the audience we attract to the game is vastly different. People are showing up to driving ranges to give it a go and see if they like it,” he smiles.

“That’s a wonderful thing and so important for golf to grow.”

For more information on entry points into a career in golf, visit www.pga.org.au/education/

Host venue, The Western Australian Golf Club, was in immaculate condition and the greens firm and fast, presenting a complete challenge to the 22 PGA Professionals in the field.

A run of three straight bogeys early in his round had Barr on the back foot but he recovered with four birdies on his inward nine to shoot 2-under 68 and win by two shots.

Carramar Golf Course Professional Greg McClurkin shot even-par 70 with Perth Golf Centre’s John Boulton third at 1-over 71, the trio among the seven players to qualify for the PPC National Final at The Heritage Golf and Country Club in Melbourne from October 22-24.

Barr was fourth at the 2023 National Final and hopes to improve on that to play his way into the Australian team to travel to Canada next year.

“I played at Heritage last year and finished fourth,” said Barr.

“I know that you can actually get a chance to represent Australia for the PGA so if I can play well there again, you never know.”

Starting from the 10th tee, Barr picked up an early birdie at the downhill dogleg par-4 12th but dropped to 2-over with a three-hole stint on the bogey train immediately following.

Two-over through 10, Barr made a terrific birdie at the par-4 second and then pressed home his advantage with further birdies at four, five and eight for a two-stroke win.

“I was a bit rusty,” Barr conceded.

“We haven’t played for a few weeks since we were in Broome for the Pro-Am and I struggled.

“I got off to a great start, but then struggled with three consecutive bogeys.

“I felt like the world was against me a bit but managed to pull together on the back nine.

“Made a nice birdie putt on the my 17th hole to get to 2-under and at that point I knew that I was in the lead.
“Made a nice two-putt on the last hole, which is a challenging par-3 here at The WA Club, and I’m really pleased about qualifying and the chance to represent Western Australia.”

As the top-three finishers, Barr, McClurkin and Boulton are all exempt for the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder WA PGA Championship in October while Barr also earns a spot in the Nova Employment Australian PGA Seniors Championship in November.

Playing at her home club, Nicole Martino was the winner of the women’s qualifier with Travis Lord, Darren Garrett, Michael Draper and Mostyn Farmer also exempt for the National Final.

Final scores

Born into a golfing family, Sarka’s father – himself a PGA Professional – owned and ran a driving range facility in the Czech Republic. 

“I spent every day there from the age of five,” she recalls. “I got quite good and spent a couple of years in the national squad as a junior.” 

A prodigious talent, Sarka fell out of love with the game when matters of performance began to take precedence over enjoyment. So, after a phone call to the national squad, she put the clubs down for a decade, and began the hunt for a different challenge. 

“I wanted to move away from home; to go somewhere I would need to learn the language and test myself,” she says. “I came to Australia because it is so far away, and I couldn’t just go home when I got uncomfortable.” 

After completing a Cert III in Fitness and working in restaurants Down Under, Sarka found her way back to golf, this time with a renewed perspective as a 25-year-old. 

“I was working at Barnwell Park Golf Club in Sydney, and they encouraged me to join the Membership Pathway Program (to become a PGA Professional),” she recalls. 

“I always had a dream to be a good player, but often in that early time in Australia, I felt a bit of an outsider – that I didn’t belong. 

“That changed once I started teaching golf. I found that I really enjoyed it and found it very fulfilling.” 

Since graduating as a qualified PGA Professional in 2023, Sarka has been dedicated to sharing the joys of golf with more women than ever before. 

Having worked at the innovative GolfSpace facility in Sydney – where she was responsible for boosting female engagement – Sarka wanted to challenge herself further; accepting a role as Teaching Professional at Education City Golf Club in Qatar. 

Home to three golf courses and a state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence that includes a 3D Gears system, Trackman technology and a SAM Balance Puttlab, Sarka feels at home. 

“I fell in love with the facility immediately,” she says. 

“There is so much practice space and even a fully private studio to allow for Muslim women to have lessons in privacy.” 

It is an environment that allows Sarka to pursue what she describes as “a mission to help women feel more empowered through sport”. 

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The busiest of the teaching professionals in just her third month, Sarka ran a campaign targeted at women and girls in February, which reached more than 200,000 people. 

“The main thing for me here is to get more local Qatari women through the door,” she says. 

“We want to build a community of women golfers. 

“Helping people to feel like they can belong, create connections and motivate each other, that is what it is all about.  

“And if they want to go a step further and take the game more seriously, we have the resources here to help them do that, too.” 

A noble mission, Sarka understands how it can feel on the other side and wants to ensure more people get a rewarding experience within golf. 

“I remember how it felt when I was new to the game,” she adds. 

“It can be intimidating, and I want to help people through that experience and instead let them dream on about what is possible in golf. 

“At the moment, this makes my heart full, and it is my absolute priority.”

Applications for the next intake for the Membership Pathway Program open on Monday, July 1. For more information or to apply, click here.

Yet when she began the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program straight out of high school, pitting her game against some of the best in the world was the furthest thing from her mind.

“I had no intentions of playing whatsoever,” said Vogel, who grew up playing junior golf at Cobram Barooga Golf Club and began the MPP under PGA Professional Michael MacGregor at her home club.

“I originally did it just to be able to either coach or be in a pro shop.”

For some who enter the MPP, playing is not the No.1 priority.

They see an avenue to be able to build a career within the Australian golf industry but, as Vogel discovered, taking the path to become a PGA Professional does not signal the end of your playing days.

Through weekly PGA Open matches, Vogel found that her game developed so much with regular competition that it fuelled her passion for playing at a high level again.

“Through the Monday matches I started playing really well and I thought maybe I actually do want to play as well on the side,” she added.

Emma Ash was a star junior growing up in Adelaide but recognised early the difficulty in forging a career in golf purely through playing.

A two-time winner of the SA Junior Amateur Championship, Ash appeared destined for the LPGA or Ladies European Tour until her brother’s interest in PGA education opened her eyes to the career paths that were available.

“It was always that I wanted to play, but as I got older and I got more realistic in life. I realised that there probably wasn’t the likelihood of making a career out of playing,” said Ash.

“I thought there was a big gap in coaching, particularly female coaching. From my experience as a player, I was never exposed to a female coach other than Fiona Pike and Anne-Marie Knight.

“I wanted to follow those footsteps and try to provide opportunities for more young girls in that coaching stream.”

After six years of concentrated work in the coaching realm, Ash made a return to the WPGA Tour of Australasia at the start of 2024.

She began with a victory at a rain-shortened Melbourne International and, like Vogel, made the cut at the Women’s NSW Open at Magenta Shores Golf and Country Club.

With her coaching business performing strongly, Ash is able to tee it up without the financial pressures that others may be feeling.

“It just makes it easier. I’m not playing for a cheque each week,” she said.

“I’m playing just because I enjoy the game, just want to have fun and I’m still competitive.”

Vogel, who was sixth at Webex Players Series Murray River and top-30 at the Vic Open, attributes all of the playing opportunities she has enjoyed the past 12 months to her PGA grounding.

“I’m very happy that I went through that direction. I certainly don’t think I’d be here without it,” said Vogel, who also played the Australian Women’s Classic at Bonville in April.

“I definitely recommend it. The assignments take a bit of time but you have plenty of time to do it whilst you’re out here playing.

“It’s good to have something away from playing as well to be able to focus on and to go back to when there are no tournaments.”

A new addition to the Membership Pathway Program is a dedicated ‘Playing’ stream, designed to not only provide qualifications but the foundation needed to mix it with the elite of world golf.

“They’re playing full-time on the LET and it’s good to see what they’re doing with their games,” Ash said of her LET experience.

“I encourage anyone to do the MPP just to give you more opportunities within the sport.”

To express your interest in starting the PGA Membership Pathway Program click here