Peter Clark won’t have members at Minnippi Golf and Range in Brisbane; his task will be to get newcomers to fall in love with golf as quickly as possible.

A PGA Professional for more than 30 years, Clark (pictured) completed his PGA training under Allan Cooper in WA but after more than 20 years in Europe returned to Brisbane in 2014 to continue his career.

In February this year he was appointed as the Operations Manager for Minnippi Golf and Range, the first new public course in Brisbane in more than 70 years and which opens to the public on Saturday followed by a family fun day on Sunday.

Devoid of a traditional club member model, Minnippi is laying out the welcome mat not only to existing golfers but those who have an interest in playing but not known their entry point.

Clark believes that turning beginners into golfers comes down to coaching… and getting them out onto the course as early as possible.

In addition to individual, junior and group coaching, Minnippi offers the opportunity to ‘Play with a Pro’ and fast-track each person’s golf education.

It was during his stint at Golf Club Westwoud in The Netherlands that Clark saw first-hand how quickly people improved with on-course lessons when the club’s driving range was shut down for good.

“Every lesson that I did was on the golf course and people learned 10 times faster than they did when they were hitting golf balls on a range,” Clark explains.

“If you go on the course, you can learn so much more in an hour than you can in four hours on the range.

“It was a bit of an eye-opener.”

Clark and his team will also conduct four-week coaching programs designed to turn beginners into confident golfers.

Each four-week program covers one of three levels that will give each person the skills and competencies they need to play a round of golf, the basis of the lessons drawn from Clark’s more than three decades in the game.

“We follow the process that I have always believed in which is there are seven shots of golf to learn. If you learn those seven shots, then you can play golf,” says Clark.

“It’s a very easy way to get started and get into the game of golf.

“Being a PGA Pro for over 35 years now, you build a program up and you see what works and the fastest way to get people up and running from scratch to a good player.”

Designed by Paul Reeves and Phil Ryan at Pacific Coast Design, the golf course itself will also play an important role in introducing new people to the game.

The floodplain on which the course was built meant that green sites needed to be raised, the designers using railway sleepers not only as support bases to the putting surfaces but also as replacement faces to traditional sand bunkers.

The configuration also allows for golfers to play three, six, nine or 18 holes, the flexibility attractive not only to those new to golf but people who struggle to squeeze golf into their busy lives.

“We’ve already had a tremendous amount of people just booking three holes, which has surprised us because it is such a new concept,” says Clark.

“We threw it out there and people seem to be keen to take up that option.

“People are really time poor now so if you finish work at 5 o’clock you can park your car and go and play three holes.

“The course has been designed with a very open mind about the future.”

But if you think expansive tee boxes, generous fairways, large greens and a complete lack of sand bunkers makes this course a pushover, Clark is adamant that good players will enjoy Minnippi just as much as the newbies.

“Just over 6,000 metres, so it’s a pretty tough golf course from the back tees,” Clark adds.

“The ball doesn’t run very far and we have a Slope rating of 130, which is quite high, so a pretty challenging course.

“You’ve got to hit some great tee shots and if you hit your tee shots well you’re hitting into raised greens so anything left or right of the green is going to hit the side of the greens and kick away.

“If anyone can break par around here they’ve done a great job.”

For more information on Minnippi Golf and Range visit minnippipublicgolfcourse.com.au.