Now the Head Professional at Golf Central near Brisbane Airport, Stephenson completed the MPP under Michael Faraone at Mornington Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula in 2019 yet with various Victorian lockdowns has been restricted in his time on the tools.

But after accepting the opportunity to move interstate and take up a Head Professional role in October, Stephenson is in the process of taking on an Associate that he will head guide through the program.

“I was only a couple of months into being a PGA Professional and then we got sent into lockdown,” Stephenson explains.

“Now I’ve come up here into a pretty awesome role and now have the opportunity to pass those skills and experience and knowledge onto someone else.

“That’s pretty exciting. I never would have thought I’d be doing that. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been out of the system for that long but I do feel like I’m equipped with the skills to train someone else.”

Stephenson’s passion for helping people first manifested itself by working in the fitness industry, only joining the Membership Pathway Program at 24 years of age.

An enthusiastic junior at Berwick Montuna Golf Club, Stephenson had six months to improve his playing proficiency before beginning the program. But once he had done that, he found all the skills he needed to work in the golf industry were waiting for him within the MPP.

“You get that real sense of industry-relative experience that you can’t get anywhere else,” Stephenson adds.

“Because the Pathway’s run and designed by PGA members, whenever we would meet up they would all have the same stories.

“Things like groups of 10 joining up and cars being driven over greens, things that you come to expect from working in a pro shop and which happen more often than you think.

“We would be given examples of all these things but they would also provide you with the tools to deal with that particular situation.

“You just don’t know what’s going to walk through the door on any given day but the Membership Pathway Program gives you the skills and knowledge to deal with anything.”

At his core Stephenson remains committed to helping people get the most out of their golf.

In addition to identifying swing faults and ways in which a PGA Professional can help someone to play better, Stephenson’s eyes were opened to the importance of equipment specifically tailored to the individual.

That combined with his understanding of physiology and physical limitations has enabled him to develop a well-rounded methodology to his coaching.

“The greatest thing that I learnt over the years was identifying the most common faults of a golfer,” said Stephenson.

“Someone comes along with a 40-yard slice, we know that it’s club path left, face open, something like that, but we don’t have the full explanation.

“We might have one explanation or reason for why that might be happening but as you learn and progress you learn things about the equipment. You learn things about the body and its limitations, or injuries. Then you go from having maybe one understanding of the concept and maybe one remedy for it to understanding that the slice may be coming from one of five or six different things and having five or six different remedies for that.

“Golf’s just got unlimited variables and that’s what makes it so great and so challenging at the same time.”

Your chance to pursue your dream job in the golf industry can come to life through the PGA Membership Pathway Program – the industry’s leading development program for a promising career in golf.  For more information visit www.pga.org.au/education/academy/membership-pathway-program/.