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Deyen Lawson will use the framework of some of the best players in world golf as he makes a temporary return to the teaching ranks under Todd Sleep at The Glades driving range on the Gold Coast.
With the resumption of the European Tour schedule continuing to be a fluid proposition, Lawson has decided to put the traineeship he completed at Curlewis Golf Club in Victoria to good use, assisting Sleep in the shop and making himself available to give lessons.
With his first lessons booked in this week with Glades members and juniors eager to learn from a European Tour player, Lawson will highlight what the finest swingers of the golf club have in common and how golfers at every level can incorporate those elements into their own games.
“Being around a lot of really, really good players, none of them swing it the same but there are a couple of things in either set-up or impact position that 99.9 per cent of really good players do,” said Lawson, who earned a European Tour card at Qualifying School in 2018 and was tied for 10th at the 2019 Australian Open.
“If someone isn’t doing that I’ll try to see why they’re not doing that and keep it simple to try and get them in that position, whether it be through grip, set-up or something else and then take it from there.
“I’ve always been pretty good at communicating. I think I’m reasonable at reading people too and the way they like to learn when it comes to the golf swing.
“Some people are visual, some people are mental, some people like seeing their swing, some people don’t. I’ve had five years of being around coaches and some of the best players in the world and everybody is different.
“There are so many different ways to be taught and with the golf swing there is no one right way.”
Determined to return to life on tour as soon as it is safe to do so, Lawson will continue to work on his own game in between commitments at the TS Golf Academy.
Manning the shop on Sundays and available to give lessons during the week, Lawson said even with his practice schedule it is a workload that he is used to.
Having begun his traineeship under Drew Robertson at Curlewis, Lawson’s responsibilities grew prior to David and Lyndsay Sharpe buying the club and, despite the hours, now values what it taught him about the inner workings of a golf club.
“Ever since I was 15 I worked two part-time jobs or was doing my traineeship or played full-time so I felt like I needed to do something,” Lawson said of his decision to get back in the shop.
“Last year I was in Europe for 33 weeks and played six or eight events here and in between you’re practising. For me to go back to work one day and do a bit of coaching, it doesn’t really feel like that much.
“At the start of my traineeship I was doing Saturdays and Sundays from 6am-6pm.
“When Lyndsay and David Sharpe bought the club I went from doing Saturdays by myself from 6am-6pm with 200 in the comp to be able to do what a trainee should do.
“There was around two months where we didn’t have a manager or a Head Professional so I was kind of running everything and doing silly amounts of hours. It was good in the sense that I could see how everything at a golf club works.
“Then when Lyndsay and David took over, who have a lot of successful businesses, it was good to be able to see the way they operate and why they have so many successful businesses.”
As for taking on a position as a Head Professional himself in future, Lawson didn’t rule it out completely but has his sights set on a return to the tour, whenever that might be.
“I can’t imagine it,” Lawson said when asked whether he will return to Europe this year. “Maybe this time next year.
“Until players from every country can travel it’s hard to see how you could have an event.
“If you’re from Italy and you’ve got status but you’re not allowed to travel then you can’t really have a tournament. That’s not fair on them.
“I wouldn’t say no (to a Head Professional position) but at the moment I love playing and I love competing.
“I know where my game stands and there’s still a lot I would like to fulfil in playing.”
PGA Professional John Collins knows the important influence golf can have on people.
Desperate to find a way to ease the struggle on communities beset by drought in 2018, Collins packed up a ute sourced by the PGA of Australia, took Assistant Professional Chris Crooks along for the ride and gave nine remote Queensland communities access to a PGA Professional, if only for a day.
Like many, Collins’ regular workload as Head Professional at Brookwater Golf and Country Club near Brisbane has been impacted by the restrictions enforced amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The Brookwater driving range has been closed and the number of lessons he has been able to give limited but one day of teaching reminded Collins of the importance golf plays during such a stressful time.
The CEO of a private hospital needed the opportunity to think about something other than COVID-19; a 4-year-old unable to participate in junior clinics was desperate for a fix of his new obsession while another PGA Professional now devoid of tournaments to play in simply craved the benefits of some productive practice.
“It just hit me one day,” Collins says.
“For the CEO of the hospital, coming to see me was just as much a chance to clear his head as it was to improve his golf swing.
“He was being bombarded by all the coronavirus stuff at work so his lessons with me were a way to get his mind off that.
“The 4-year-old I had that day would normally be coming to the junior clinics which of course had to be stopped. His mum and dad decided that because he loves golf so much that a couple of one-on-one lessons would be not only be good for him but also give the parents a break for an hour or so.
“The third person I saw that day was another golf pro who would normally be playing for a living.
“The three lessons that I had in a row were so different but golf was the one common thing that they were all deriving some enjoyment from.
“Golf means quite a bit to many people but all in different ways.”
Collins too has had moments of realisation.
As many golf courses have struggled to keep up with the demand of people wanting to play first in groups of two and now four in most states, the driving range at Brookwater has for a number of weeks provided Collins with a vastly different work environment.
“The big difference for me has been the solitude at the driving range,” he explains.
“It’s only me and the person I’m giving the lesson to on the range so when I go and pick up all the balls it can be really quite eerie.
“Normally there would be a dozen, 15 people on the range and the noise that comes from them all hitting balls so for it to be completely empty has been really quite surreal at times.
“That’s when it hit me that this was a very different time.”
The steps that have been taken as a nation is allowing a sense of normalcy to return.
The staged relaxing of restrictions will allow for clubhouses to seat up to 20 guests in Step 2 with that number to grow to 100 in Step 3, the states left to determine when those steps will be taken exactly.
Golfers have become accustomed to playing with flagsticks in, tidying bunkers with their feet and skipping the post-round handshake and Collins believes it is difficult to predict what the ‘new normal’ will look like for Australian golf clubs.
“I can’t see how anything will change too much,” says Collins.
“What will be interesting is how quickly we will go back to shaking hands after a round with your playing partner.
“I wonder how quickly that will return.
“Also, will people continue to go straight from the 18th green to the car park or because they have been starved of it will they take the time to have a drink in the clubhouse when they’re finished?
“Perhaps they will value that a little more and do it more often.
“That could go either way.
“It appears that plenty of people have been able to play golf these past few months so hopefully clubs continue to be busy as things open up more and more.”
PGA Professionals throughout Australia are assisting those with vision and hearing impairments to get started and play their very best… and becoming better coaches in the process.
If you do it the way you’ve always done it, why would you consider doing it any differently?
And if you had to, where would you start?
That’s the scenario that PGA Professionals who coach those with vision and hearing impairments must first face in order to help those golfers improve in a way that caters to their specific needs.
A joint initiative between the PGA of Australia and Golf Australia, the PGA All Abilities Coach Accreditation has been developed to give PGA Professionals additional training and resources in providing support for those golfers with physical, sensory or intellectual disability.
The All Abilities Championship held in conjunction with the Australian Open for the last two years to great success further highlights the opportunities afforded by golf.
Championships for those suffering vision and hearing impairments have been conducted in Australia and around the world for decades yet there are many who may be interested in playing golf that the game is yet to reach.
For those who have been active in this space the rewards don’t only come from seeing individual improvement but the professional development often associated with it.
Currently based at North Adelaide Golf Course, PGA Professional Gavin Fontaine first began working with vision-impaired golfers while at Collier Park Golf in Perth and leant on some drills he had conducted with elite junior golfers.
“Working with state junior players, we would hit lots of balls where we would look straight ahead and hit balls to encourage them to maintain their height,” Fontaine explained.
“I’d also get them to close their eyes and get them to hit shots.
“When your eyes are open you don’t have the awareness of what you’re doing as well as when you actually turn the lights out. You pick up more of the awareness of where your club is and how your body is moving.
“Working with vision-impaired golfers has taught me a lot and improved my coaching as well. You can take it for granted working with someone with good vision but when it’s a vision-impaired person you’ve got to be on your toes all the time.
“As long as they are physically flexible and strong you can achieve a lot with them. And if you get that type of person in terms of physical ability they probably learn faster than somebody with good vision.”
PGA Professionals Lee and Peter Harrington at The Golf School at Palm Meadows on the Gold Coast have helped to guide Glen Nicijewski to the title as Blind Golf Australia’s ISPS HANDA Australian Open champion at Collier Park in September 2019.
Not only have they adapted their coaching styles to suit Glen’s needs but also the equipment that he uses.
“We’ve been coaching for a long time and there’s no doubt that you can get a bit stal giving the same fundamentals and the same old drills,” Lee conceded.
“When Glen came along we both realised that we had to look differently at the way we coached because you can’t demonstrate to someone who is vision impaired. You can’t show them and you can’t use video so you gave to adjust the way you coach.
“That not only makes you a better teacher for the average golfer because I can teach three different ways but it also challenges you as to your approach to coaching.”
“It’s about getting the equipment right as well as what you say but you’ve got to adjust both.
“We’ve found one-length clubs for vision-impaired golfers are gold and we advocate that. Even for people who are visually impaired but can see a little bit, that depth perception is really difficult.
“Every coach should get in front of someone who can’t see because it makes you think about how you use your words and what you say.
“It’s evolved us as coaches which has helped us in our teaching.”
Since the introduction of the All Abilities Coach Accreditation the numbers of PGA Professionals to complete the training has skyrocketed, but there is plenty of room for more.
Working in the disability space writing sporting programs for the New South Wales State Government prior to undertaking the PGA Trainee Program at Elanora Country Club, Lachlan Foulsham was one of the first Professionals to sign up for the All Abilities Accreditation seminar conducted in Adelaide three years ago.
His passion for golf and helping those with a disability has led to his current role as Operations Manager for Empower Golf. Foulsham travelled with the Deaf Golf Australia men’s, women’s and senior’s teams to the World Deaf Golf Championships in Ireland in 2018 where the men’s team were crowned world champions.
Like teaching those with vision impairments, communication is key when working with deaf golfers.
“Communication is the big one. In fact, it’s probably the only one,” said Foulsham.
“How do you get around that communication and then apply coaching techniques in a way that are going to be understood?
“As soon as I was asked to coach and manage the Deaf Golf Australia teams I signed up to do a 12-week Auslan sign language course which definitely helped.
“The visual is key with people with hearing impairments.
“With a standard lesson you tend to talk a lot. In a lesson with a deaf golfer you’re showing a lot and explaining through motion rather than words.
“The important thing to acknowledge with hearing-impaired golfers is that the level of hearing impairment can differ and whether or not someone wears a hearing aid that can allow them to pick up sound.
“All these things change the level of communication required and how you’ll apply different techniques.”
Foulsham also accompanied the Australian wheelchair team to the world championships last year and if there’s one area in which he would like to see improvement is the number of PGA Professionals stepping forward to assist these representative teams.
“I’d really like for other golf professionals to see how good the opportunities are and how exciting they can be for the individual PGA Member,” said Foulsham
In addition to more Professionals gaining their accreditation, Lee Harrington highlighted the need for greater education for the people who caddy for All Ability golfers.
“The golfer is only as good as the caddy so it’s an education as much for the caddy as it is for the golfer,” said Peter.
“Golf is the best sport for people with a disability because it’s a stationary ball sport. You’ve got all this time to set up.
“You’re not reacting to something, which is hard for most disabilities to be able to cope with.
“We’re in a unique position in that respect and if we can make that transition for people to come into golf even easier the entire industry will benefit.”
When Thaxted Park Golf Club Head PGA Professional Cody Sherratt returned from the trip of a lifetime to Everest Base Camp in March, little did he know that he was about to go from the top of the world to complete lockdown.
Yet the mandatory downtime due to COVID-19 has allowed the South Australian-based Professional to reflect on an experience like no other.
When the chance to undertake the Base Camp trek arose in 2018 Sherratt didn’t hesitate. Keen to take on what he describes as the “optimum challenge” that would take him well and truly outside of his comfort zone, Sherratt had 24 months to mentally prepare for the trip before flying into Kathmandu.
Following months of training Sherratt traded his clubs for trekking poles for 12 days of traversing a rough, barren but stunning landscape in often below-freezing temperatures at an altitude that challenges even the fittest participants.
Needless to say, it was a fair way from the fairways of SA.
“It was a bit overwhelming but also amazing. From the get-go the scenery is just phenomenal with mountains on either side of you,” Sherratt reflected.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect but it came around so quick. There are so many things that you don’t really think about that play a role in doings these types of things but we were fortunate that the whole thing went pretty seamlessly.
“I was glad I accomplished it and I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself a bit better as well, what I can and can’t do in regard to challenging myself.
“It was just a good feeling to be able to do it.”
While walks up Mount Lofty in Adelaide and lower body training aided in his preparation for the Everest hike, Sherratt admits little could have prepared him for the rigorous 144-kilometre expedition he faced once landing in the Himalayas.
“We flew into a little town called Lukla which is regarded as the world’s most dangerous airport,” said Sherratt.
“So even flying in there up in the mountains, just straight away I was happy to land and get off the plane in one piece.
“It was zero or minus one in temperature and the altitude was about 2,800 metres so straight away you do have a little bit of shortening of breath.
“Throughout the journey we got all types of weather conditions. It was always cold in the morning but then we had some beautiful days where it got to two or three degrees with the sun shining. Then there were a couple of days where it was basically a snow blizzard and walking eight to 12 kilometres where you can only see a metre or two in front of you.
“At night time it would get anywhere from minus 10 to one night we had minus 18. That was when I knew it was something that I probably didn’t prepare for, that type of cold.
“I wear contact lenses and I took my contacts out that night and when I woke up the next morning my contact solution had frozen over. My contacts were ruined so I had to wear my goggles that day.”
As the group edged closer to base camp, 5,380 metres above sea level, altitude sickness began to take its toll but with a day’s worth of hiking left until their destination Sherratt was determined not to give up.
“I was taking some tablets but I got really crook on one of the nights. I had a severe headache and was throwing up,” he recalled.
“We had about eight kilometres to go before we got to EBC. The leader, Jimmy, was saying that potentially you could get a helicopter back and as soon as you start coming back down the mountain the air is higher in oxygen and you feel better straight away.
“But for me this was two years in the making and I thought, I’m just going to push through it. And I’m glad I did it and went the whole way and made my way back again in one piece.”
While Sherratt admits it’s unlikely he will take on an expedition like this again he is grateful for the experience and the lessons he takes back to everyday life.
“It’s pretty cliché but we’re very fortunate here in Australia and in Adelaide with what we have,” he said.
“My patience is something that I need to work on but being able to do the trip and be patient and understand that you’re not going to get things done in five seconds… Things take time and that’s how I probably need to look at things with work and life in general as well.
“Again it’s a bit cliché but I hope it might inspire a few people. If I can do it potentially anyone else can do it as well. If it inspires some juniors here at the club to pursue their goals that would mean a fair bit.
“It reinforces that no goal is really that silly if you can put your mind to it and get it done.”
As he prepares to pass the baton of Head Professional at Avondaale Golf Club to his son Ben in July, PGA Professional Mark Paterson reflects on a soccer career cut short and the life in golf that fate provided for him.
Soccer was my no.1 sport as a kid growing up. I suffered a knee injury when I was about 16 and couldn’t play for 12 months so I went out and caddied for a mate of Dad’s at Waratah Golf Club in Newcastle every Saturday.
I got injured playing soccer again when I was 18 and that’s when I decided to give golf a go. I started the PGA Trainee Program in 1980 under Peter Porter at Newcastle Golf Club. The requirement first from my parents was that I had to complete my HSC. I did that so I had something to fall back on but luckily 40 years on I haven’t needed it.
When I finished the Trainee Program I competed on the proam circuit and did well but back in those days there just wasn’t the level of professionalism that there is now. If I was starting my golf now I’d probably try to be a tournament professional but back then there wasn’t the practise or fitness associated with it. They’re real athletes now.
After completing the Trainee Program at Newcastle I had two years as the Assistant PGA Professional under Lindsay Sharp at Bexley Golf Club, was the Head PGA Professional at Moree Golf Club for three years and then came to Avondale in 1988. I learnt a lot about the business side of being a successful Club Professional under Sharpy and then going to Moree was a great learning curve with great people. I loved my time up there.
Ben has been a junior here since he was 12 and he’s now 32. People have seen him grow from a young junior into an elite PGA Club Professional.
Ben was an elite amateur until he was struck down with Leukaemia when he was 17 years of age. That put an end to his tournament play but he’s been in remission for a long time now. As parents, watching that was probably the worst time of our life for myself and Robyn; you never want to see your kid go through that.
Ben was like me, he loved his soccer. He was a rep soccer player but at 14 he came to me and said that he preferred golf. At that point he was almost a scratch marker. There was no doubt he would have been good enough to be a tournament player. Life takes you in different directions though and now he’s going to be the Head PGA Professional at Avondale.
We’ve always got on really well but teaching him was hard. Like any young kid, he wanted to be brilliant overnight. There were blues on the practice fairway for sure. If he played bad it was always my fault because of something I’d told him.
“If I was starting my golf now I’d probably try to be a tournament professional but back then there wasn’t the practise or fitness associated with it. They’re real athletes now.”
Teaching has always intrigued me. I developed my teaching style by going through all the pages of instruction from all the top teachers and drew out the common denominators. I went to a lot of seminars, I spent time with Gary Edwin, I spent time watching Gary Barter teach to see that I was on the right track. It was predominantly self-teaching and even at 60 I still love reading about the golf swing. Teaching has certainly been my passion.
Because I’ll still be teaching the odd lesson at the club the only thing I’ll miss is being able to do what I love every single day. The reward will be watching Ben take over and knowing that he’s deserved it and that I’ve left the club that I love in good hands.
I was in the state soccer team with Craig Johnston and he went on to play for Liverpool. No doubt I thought I was as good a soccer player as he was and you wonder what might have been. But life took me in a whole different circle and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve been one of the lucky ones.
In this year’s intake of PGA Trainees in Queensland there are three in particular with an excellent understanding of the opportunities that lie ahead.
The reality is that it could have gone one of two ways.
Seeing a parent leave the house early to go to work, getting home late, hours of toil in between. Working on weekends when other parents are watching their kids play junior sport. These are just some of the many sacrifices PGA Professionals must make, and it is not a job for everyone.
But if you love golf – truly love it – then suddenly a career spent working within golf clubs, helping others to get better and building your own business sounds like a dream come true.
In this 2020 intake of PGA Trainees in Queensland three will become second-generational PGA Pros at the completion of their studies, two of whom are undertaking the Trainee Program employed by their fathers.
Prior to applying encouragement was offered and realities discussed but in all three cases there had to first be a common denominator; a love of the game.
“My entire childhood was spent annoying Dad and all his staff because I never left the shop,” recalls Jesse Egea, who has commenced the Trainee Program under his father Andrew at Wolston Park Golf Club in Brisbane.
“School holidays I would go out as early as Mum would let me leave the house until as late as she would let me come back.
“It was awesome.
“Dad’s had a good career and a good life and loves the industry so it just made me think that this is what I should be doing.
“I’d never really had that feeling, of really wanting to do something, and this was it.”
“I’ve never pushed any of my kids to play golf but the two boys, Jesse and Taj, are both right into it,” explains Andrew, who completed the Trainee Program under Bob Werrell at Wentworth Golf Club in Orange.
“Jesse was loving his golf and got down to a 7-handicap around the age of 13 but he’s always loved rugby league as well. He was missing his mates and missing footy so he went back and did that for 10 years.
“It was when I got the job here at Wolston Park four years ago that he got back into golf. He was studying Commerce at Griffith University and I asked him whether he wanted to come and work with me in the Pro Shop. “That got him back around the golf industry again and three years later he’s in the first year of the Trainee Program.”
Like Andrew Egea, Virginia Golf Club Director of Golf Brett Maxwell is embracing the possibility of one day having two children join the PGA Professional ranks.
Son Zach boasts a growing amateur resume that includes a runner-up finish at last year’s Queensland Amateur while daughter Zoe has chosen to begin the Trainee Program under her father at Virginia.
Admitting that Zoe was initially unsure of what she wanted to do when she finished high school, Brett simply opened the door to opportunity and let Zoe make her own choice.
“I never pushed it but obviously with me working in the golf industry they were always around golf and the golf club,” Maxwell says.
“They played all their other sports and I told them that if they wanted to pursue their golf I’d certainly help.
“Zoe was a little bit unsure of what she wanted to do but in her last year of school thought this was the direction that she wanted to go.
“She would still like to play tournaments but I think in particular she will do quite well in the coaching side of things. “Even before becoming a PGA Trainee she was helping out with the juniors and now I try and have her involved in the junior clinics which she seems to enjoy.
“That’s the benefit of the Trainee Program for Zoe. Zach is very adamant that playing is for him but if that doesn’t work out I could see him doing a the PGA Bridging Program and getting into coaching as well.”
When Jessica Cook finished Year 12 at the end of 2017 she was determined to see whether a life in golf was what she really wanted.
Obsessed with the game from an early age given her father Paul Cook was the long-time Head PGA Professional at Woodford Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast, Jessica used a gap year to see what else might be out there.
She picked up glasses at local clubs, worked in childcare and even served as a party supervisor at the local 10-pin bowling alley but day after day, no matter what she did, her mind always came back to golf.
“At the end of a hard day’s work I just wanted to go to the range or go and play golf,” says Jessica, who is completing the Trainee Program under John Victorsen Jnr at Wantima Country Club in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.
“When I realised that my mind could not get away from the golfing side of it, that was the sign that this was what I really wanted to do.”
But despite her family connection, it took Jessica two attempts before she was selected to begin the program.
A handicap hovering just below the cut-off mark of 6 meant that Jessica’s first application in 2019 was denied but she returned a year later with renewed vigour and a Golf Australia handicap of 0.6.
“I was disappointed of course that I didn’t get selected but I took away from the application what I had learnt,” Jessica says. “I knew what was expected in interviews, I knew what was expected in the playing aspect and I took that into the next year and got selected to be a PGA Trainee in 2020.
“When I didn’t get into the Trainee Program the first year the PGA called Dad and let him know what was going on and why I didn’t get selected. That made me feel very welcome within the PGA, creating that family-based atmosphere in letting my dad know what was going on.
“We had a chat about whether I wanted to go ahead and do it but missing out just gave me the extra motivation to want to keep going and do it.”
Parent and child; employer and employee; student and teacher.
There are a number of different dynamics at play when a son or daughter chooses to undertake the PGA Trainee Program under the supervision of their parent.
Jessica Cook recalls the odd silent car trip back from Woodford Golf Club after practice sessions under the tutelage of her father Paul and Brett Maxwell understands exactly the type of liberties that could be taken by having his daughter work for him at Virginia.
“We had that discussion early on, that when we’re at work I’m her boss, not her dad,” says Brett.
“That’s how it’s got to work. She respects that and even early on if she forgets that I’ll point it out and then it’s fine.
“Zach also works in the club part-time in between tournaments and I tell them that if I’m not around they have to listen to our other PGA Teaching Professional and not make up their own rules just because Dad’s not in the shop.
“It’s definitely something I’m conscious of though and trying to stay on top of.
“At this stage it’s working fine and putting that on the table straight up helped to set those ground rules.”
At 27 years of age, Jesse Egea has already spent three years working under his father Andrew at Wolston Park.
It’s given him something of a head-start on knowing what to expect as a PGA Trainee as well as establishing a clear working relationship with his dad.
Although he wasn’t bestowed a designated job description until officially beginning in the PGA program this year – “I was essentially the right-hand man to the head pro” – Jesse has helped to manage the pro shop in addition to assisting with junior clinics.
He and the boss get on fine and he has no doubt that golf has strengthened their relationship throughout the years. “It was always something we shared. I’ve got such a good relationship with Dad and a lot of that is due to the fact that we spent so much time together when I was growing up,” says Jesse.
“I was essentially at his work every day playing golf. Every time I hit a bad shot I’d be pestering him wanting to know how to fix it. He would have spent countless hours helping me when I was young. We would have spent a stupid amount of time together growing up.
“It’s certainly made us pretty close.”
When Paul Cook’s time at Woodford recently came to an end, it provided the silver lining of allowing him to watch Jessica play more often.
With the support of her father and also John Victorsen Jnr, Jessica has already begun thinking about how she can influence the next generation in her career as a PGA Professional.
“I would absolutely love to get into coaching young girls,” says Jessica, one of four female Trainees in the Queensland class of 2020.
“As a junior at Woodford I was the only junior there with no other girls around. I’d spend my days at the range on my own. “It was only when you’d go to the Glasshouse Mountains and Sunshine Coast days that you would see other girls and start to make friends.
“I first started working with John in November 2018 and in my first few months he started doing a few lessons at schools and asked me to come and join him and see how those group lessons work. “What I noticed over that time is that a lot of girls prefer to have another female around. I could give exactly the same instruction as John but it was like they preferred to hear it from me.
“I would love to think that in time I can encourage even more girls to get into golf and more of them to work towards becoming a PGA Professional themselves.”
Sounds as though we’re in good hands.
The COVID-19 pandemic has convinced six-time European Tour winner Brett Rumford to temporarily shelve this golf sticks for the study books.
While the golf world waits for the tours to fire up again, the West Australian confirmed he is joining the pro shop team at Wembley Golf Course to complete the PGA of Australia’s Bridging Program.
Rumford applied to the PGA of Australia to begin his next step and career transition from PGA Tour Professional to PGA Vocational Professional and said there was no better time to take the first steps.
“I’d like to use this down time as best I can to keep pushing myself, studying, learning and now preparing for the next phase in my professional career,” Rumford said.
“I’m not finished playing just yet, I’ll still head back out where I can, but this program allows me to remain in the game and give back as a coach/mentor and do something that I love.
“This transition has been at the back of my mind as I’ve had some injuries that have set me back across the last few years. I’ve had time to reflect on the next challenge, and ask the question, how do I grow and give back to the game that has given me so much?”
Rumford said he approached the PGA of Australia to learn more about their bridging program, the training, duration and qualifications behind it, and what it ultimately allows him to do.
“Once I complete the program I’d like to dip my toes in the water with some short-game clinics or master classes and help people improve their golf.”
And it appears Rumford fans may not have to wait long to get a lesson from their man. Wembley Golf Course confirmed via its Facebook page that “Rummy” is going to launch a short-game series very soon.
*This article was first published by Australian Golf Digest
Australia’s PGA Professionals are finding news ways to keep their game sharp while practising from home under lockdown restrictions.
From the helpful to the downright hilarious these videos from our PGA Professionals are a must-watch.
James Nitties
Renowned as a character on Tour, Nitties is known for his excellent accent skills in addition to his ability on the course. Based in the US, James utilised his time in lockdown to put a spin on the everyday practice session of a PGA Tour Pro.
Pro golfers during quarantine.. #hatersgonnasayitsedited #golf #funny @PGAofAustralia @PGATourAus @KornFerryTour @PGATOUR ?⛳️??♂️ pic.twitter.com/nz4HVFOYBq
— James Nitties (@JamesNitties23) May 5, 2020
Gary Barter
For months Gary Barter, PGA Professional at The Australian Golf Club and coach to many of Australia’s rising stars, has been sharing pearls of wisdom on his Instagram account either from his backyard, garage or even occasionally from the roof of the shed. You never know where he’ll be next!
Matt Jager
A successful Tour Pro and Teaching Professional at Green Acres Golf Club, Matt Jager has shared his tricks of the trade for practising when you’re on the road. While golf courses remain closed in his home state of Victoria Matt has shown how you can utilise even a small space to get the best out of your game. Also the importance of a good pair of slippers.
Kerrod Gray
If you follow as many golf accounts on social media as we do there is a good chance you already know the name Kerrod Gray. The industry-awarded PGA Professional has amassed a significant following on Instagram and YouTube by sharing golf tips and game insights relevant to any level of golfer. And while staying at home in Western Australia he has taken his innovation to another level.
Ali Orchard
Coming to you from her lounge room on the Gold Coast Ali Orchard’s at-home drills are helpful for players of all levels. If you can’t get to the course, Ali recommends putting your slippers on (just like Matt), finding some carpet and getting some practice in and she has some tips to help you along the way.
Min Woo Lee
He’s one of the biggest hitters on the European Tour and a bit of time away from the driving range hasn’t slowed him down one bit.
Adrian Boyle’s appointment as the next General Manager at Wakehurst Golf Club was as perfectly suited as it was unexpected.
A Wakehurst junior who completed his PGA Traineeship at Cromer Golf Club before spending 17 years as the Assistant at Northbridge Golf Club, Boyle joined Andrew Webster as an Assistant Professional two years ago.
On June 1 Boyle will effectively become Webster’s boss when he takes over from retiring GM Glen Hickey, a position he wasn’t seeking yet feels his history at the club and two decades in the golf industry gives him the ideal skillset to undertake.
“If you’d said to me three years ago that I was going to be the next General Manager at Wakehurst I probably would have laughed at you,” says Boyle, who completed his traineeship at Cromer in 2000.
“One of the reasons that they have employed me is that they realise I’m a Wakehurst person at heart and I’m here for the right reasons and want the club to be successful.
“It’s a nice change to have that attitude from a golf club.
“I’ve got a couple of friends who are general managers and I thought it was something that I would like to do.
“I’d had enough of being in the pro shop and I felt that in this role I could give a lot more back, that I can make a difference at the club and where it’s going.”
Boyle is the latest in a growing trend of PGA Professionals moving into management positions at golf clubs. He believes that a Professional’s grounding in all aspects of golf makes them the ideal candidate to shape the future direction of a club.
“When it was announced that Glen was retiring I was having a discussion with a then committee member and she was wondering what business they were going to bring someone in from,” Boyle says.
“I spent five minutes explaining to her why I thought it was a golf person’s job but she had the belief that you had to bring in someone with a business background first and foremost.
“Having a PGA Professional with a golf background in my opinion is now more important than ever.
“Most Trainees who come out of the program are learning how to run a business and the PGA provides opportunity for further study in that area for those who want to go down that road.
“It’s really a no-brainer and I think more clubs are realising that it is really a golf job.
“A PGA Professional has that passion and love for the game and that not only comes out in the job but provides longevity as well.
“If I spend the next 20 years at Wakehurst I’ll be very happy.”
Attracting a younger demographic to the club and more female golfers is one of Boyle’s stated aims when he commences his new role in less than a month’s time, an objective he can target with mentors past and present that he can call on.
Since his days under Brad Wall at Cromer and Ray McGlinn at Northbridge to the past two years spent working alongside Andrew Webster and Glen Hickey, Boyle says he has been extremely fortunate with the quality of people he has worked under.
Hickey will only be a phone call away should he ever need some guidance while Webster will be a key ally in Wakehurst’s future growth.
“He still thinks he’s going to boss me around so that’s OK,” the former assistant says of his new working relationship with Wakehurst’s Head Professional.
“I bought my first new set of clubs off Andrew when I was 13 years old so it’s quite funny how it’s all worked out.
“When I missed out on the job at Northbridge two years ago Andrew offered me a position here at Wakehurst and as soon as I got back there it felt like going back home.
“It’s funny how it’s all worked out in the end.
“Andrew and I are very open and honest with each other. We know there will be times when we’ll butt heads but we also know we’ll be able to work together really well.
“I’ve seen the challenges that Andrew and the team face in the pro shop every day so if they ever need anything hopefully I can help in that regard.
“I know how everything works and I know all the staff so I don’t expect the transition period to be too difficult.
“There are ins and outs with contract negotiations and council stuff that Glen has been managing for a long time but that’s all stuff I can pick up and be guided through. Having Glen as a mentor is going to be very helpful.”
Perhaps the greatest adjustment won’t in fact happen at Wakehurst but in the wardrobe at home.
“Mike Mosher just sent me a picture of a suit the other day,” says Boyle, laughing.
“There won’t be too much tie-wearing going on but there will definitely be a bit of a change to the wardrobe.”
Image: Wakehurst Golf Club
The extraordinary story behind Australia’s newest 18-hole golf course and the people who built it.
It was a course that Wayne Perske had visited once before.
Residing in Brisbane as he forged a career on the Japan Golf Tour, Perske and his wife would sneak away from the bright lights of the city to the serenity of the tiny village of Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
It was only an hour’s drive but may have been another world away. The sleepy contentedness of the town left a lasting impression, even if the golf course that was being pieced together slowly by a hardy band of volunteers didn’t.
“I knew a little bit about the golf club; I knew that it was a long time coming,” Perske tells The Professional.
“I didn’t know the finer points, the politics and the blood, sweat and tears that went into it.
“I had played here many years ago when it was just scratched out. It wasn’t in great condition at that stage but I did enjoy the layout.
“I thought it could be something cool but never thought it would be. I just thought it would end up staying that way, a couple of blokes with hand mowers doing tees and greens. But it’s morphing into something way cooler.”
Perske’s sole win in Japan came at the 2006 Token Homemate Cup and 10 years later he left life on tour behind.
He dabbled in real estate, completed the PGA Professional Bridging Program to become a Full Vocational PGA Member and worked out of Golf Central in Brisbane before taking his family on a trip around Australia.
With one foot on the sand at Margaret River south of Perth and the other feeling the Indian Ocean lapping at his ankles, Perske received word that a job he had applied for prior to the car departing Brisbane was his.
“You can ask my wife; I said I’d never be a club pro. I just couldn’t see myself doing the role of a club pro day in and day out, but this place is different,” Perske explains of his decision to apply to be Maleny Golf Club’s Manager/ Professional.
“There’s a feeling here and I feel very passionately about the philosophy of the club. It really is the way golf should be moving forward.
“We always wanted to settle in Maleny and there’s only one job here for a golf pro.
“I didn’t expect it to be what it’s turned out to be.”
The Sunshine Coast was not immune from the severe lack of rain that gripped much of the eastern seaboard in the latter half of 2019 and facilitated a delay to Maleny Golf Club opening its completed 18-hole layout.
That ultimately happened on February 15, the latest milestone in a 20-year fight to make it a reality.
When Dr Max Whitten’s great-great-grandfather arrived in Australia almost 200 years ago, there was a space on the immigration form titled ‘Probable Usefulness’.
That would become the title of a book detailing the Whitten family ancestry and the mantra by which Max has mobilised the Maleny community.
Elevated to the position of president by default when the interim president moved to Victoria in 2001, Whitten stepped down in September 2019 with the end of a two-decade journey in sight.
He has only stepped so far as the vice presidency at this stage and concedes there were times when establishing an 18-hole golf course in Maleny faced seemingly insurmountable odds.
“In 2010 we had a meeting with council officers. They wanted us to shift some tees because of the wetland, which also meant a green had to be shifted,” Whitten recalls.
“I said, ‘If that’s what you want, we’re pulling out.’ “They backed off at that point but there have been plenty of other obstacles.
“In 2018 we had only $225,000 from Council to build the last six holes. I put in a bid to Sport Australia for $200,000, I put in a bid to State Government for $150,000 and $35,000 to the State Gambling Fund.
“On Christmas Eve I got knocked back by all of them. I kept that to myself until after Christmas.
“Because of the demand, there was a second round of grants issued by Sport Australia for those who had missed out. In February I got a call from our local politician who said, ‘I’ve got some good news for you, you got your $200,000.’
“There were a few occasions where it got tough but I used to tell people to go home and get some sleep and I’d lie awake and worry about it.”
When course construction began in March 2014 the club hired former Headland Golf Club course foreman Mick McCombe to oversee the works and he quickly bought in to the Whitten philosophy of ‘probable usefulness’.
Initially, McCombe was it. But now with only two full-time greens staff under him, he has harnessed the power of an army of volunteers to perform a variety of tasks, including mowing fairways and greens and building rivetted bunker faces with 80,000 mats of unwanted synthetic turf cut to size by hand. They even built him a maintenance shed.
“We had a plumber, we had a builder, we had a tiler, electrician, they all came and did their bit for nothing. It was incredible and saved us so much money,” recalls McCombe, who was awarded the AGCSA’s Excellence in Golf Course Management award in 2016 following the completion of the initial nine holes.
“When I first started I told Max that I couldn’t deal with so many people. He said I had to train people to train people. That’s always stuck with me.
“I taught guys how to run mowers and now they’re teaching their mate to run that same mower. “All I’ve got to do is to try and direct that energy.
“It’s really turned into something different than what I thought it was going to be.”
Free of pretention and built from the ground up by those who will grace its fairways for the foreseeable future, Maleny Golf Club is a triumph not simply for the golf that it has created but the people it has united.
A 20-year labour of love that has endured many days of frustration and sleepless nights for those driving the cause forward, it is now a golf course with a collection of holes placed delicately within the existing landscape, farmland that was bought for the people of Maleny for use as community recreation.
It is this caveat in such challenging economic conditions that shapes to be Maleny’s greatest strength.
A walking trail surrounds the course and leads directly into the charming township, the course itself has been used as the host venue for the Queensland and National Cross Country Championships and abutting what will be the second fairway is the Maleny Bridge Club, public park and future site of playing fields and equestrian centre.
The golf club is even open at night for the use of astronomy buffs eager to use its elevated locale – and minimal light pollution – to look deep into the dark sky above.
Originally engaged by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council to incorporate a golf course design within what was the Maleny Community Precinct masterplan in November 2009, course architect Graham Papworth soon become aware of the challenges the Maleny Golf Club had faced over the previous decade to simply reach that point.
“Under normal circumstances someone would have given up on that job,” Papworth says matter-of-factly.
“They had so many obstacles in their road in terms of approvals and conditions that were put on the project but Max doesn’t take a backward step.
“He was definitely the driving force behind that course.”
Save for some sites in Japan not suited for golf in the first place, the Maleny golf course boasts the most dramatic topography that Papworth has ever worked on.
Responsible also for the designs at Noosa Springs and Lynwood Country Club among many others, Papworth had budgetary and environmental restrictions to navigate yet had just enough space and landscape features to design 18 dramatic, fun and visually pleasing golf holes.
“There is just enough difference in shapes and enough room to be able to effectively utilise the ridges and then the flatter parts of the cross slopes and some of the valleys,” Papworth adds.
“If it was a little bit smaller you’d struggle to fit 18 holes but it was just big enough to do that.
“We couldn’t afford to do much in the way of earthworks but we didn’t really want to because the ground was generally such that we were able to work with the existing contour, especially the green sites. Most of those sit on the natural ground.
“That’s what made it quite as different and as picturesque as it is, just being able to flow with the contours that are there.”
The completed Maleny course opens with a mid-length downhill par 3 before a broad, sweeping par 5 on the western-most side of the property.
A wonderful opening trio is rounded out by a short par 4 with three distinct green sections before moving on to a three-hole pocket in the south-west corner.
The front nine closes with a lengthy roller-coaster par 4 and holes 11 and 12 play either side of a wetland that adds to the Scottish highland feel the club is trying to create.
Long rough well wide of the playing corridors will enhance that links look and deliver what will ultimately be a golf course the people of Maleny will have to share with golfers from far and wide fond of the game’s earliest traditions.
“It is the way of the future, a shorter golf course that requires a lot of strategy,” Perske offers.
“We get quite a lot of people telling us that this has the potential to become the jewel of the Sunshine Coast.
“I can certainly see that happening.”
