More than 200 guests gathered to honour the industry’s high achievers with Pritchard’s efforts in game development at Mount Osmond Golf Club earning recognition as the PGA Professional of the Year for the first time since 2016.

A PGA Member for the past 31 years, Pritchard has overseen the introductory programs at Mount Osmond with great effect.

Of the participants in Mount Osmond’s Try Golf program 75 per cent flowed through into becoming members at Mount Osmond, the Get Into Golf program has seen increased numbers and Pritchard has established an affordable school’s program that allows Seymore College and Glenunga High school students an introduction to the game of golf.

In addition to bringing new people into the game Pritchard continues to service the members at Mount Osmond to the highest of standards, conducting weekly member clinics as well as coaching the Mount Osmond pennants team.

Guiding the emergence of Japan’s elite amateurs into world golf earned Gareth Jones a second SA Coach of the Year (Elite Performance) nod.

Based at Glenelg Golf Club, Jones has done a remarkable job in improving the standards of Japan’s best amateurs as the national golf coach which is being reflected in their performances once they enter the professional ranks.

Takumi Kanaya has recorded top-10 finishes on both the European Tour and PGA Tour in 2021 to go with his three wins on the Japan Golf Tour the past 18 months while Nasa Hataoka had a win at the LPGA Tour’s Marathon LPGA Tournament and was runner-up at the US Women’s Open.

Mone Inami won a silver medal on home soil at the Tokyo Olympics and is currently 20th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and of the current Japan amateurs under Jones’s tutelage Keita Nakajima won the McCormack Medal as the No.1 in the World Amateur Ranking and Tsubasa Kajitani won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

Jones has also promoted the game by generously giving up his time to present to the SA Membership Pathway Program Associates at training school and was a keynote speaker at the Japan Olympic Committee Coaching Academy prior to 2021 Olympics to multi-sport Olympic coaches in Tokyo.

Like Pritchard, Sarah King devotes much of her energies to growing the game and her passionate and tireless work earned her the SA Game Development Coach of the Year along with the award for MyGolf Deliverer of the Year.

Since becoming a Full Vocational Member in 2019, King has had a focus on growing the game not only for Glenelg Golf Club but for South Australian golf as a whole.

In the past year she has conducted more than 200 MyGolf junior clinics, managed and run the women’s Try Golf program with 80-100 active participants with an amazing 50 per cent conversion to membership and is head of coaching for Glenelg’s pennant program and is a key stakeholder in Glenelg’s Junior Foundation program.

On top of offering her coaching services upwards of 50 hours per week six days a week at Glenelg, King also visits Sandy Creek Golf Club to provide golf lessons to those members who do not have a PGA member onsite to provide lessons.

King has also continued to further education by completing the Titleist Performance Institute Level 1 accreditation, Constraint to Perform – Training Human Skills, putting with JB Capto Coach webinar and Project One Putt and is currently studying for her TPI Junior certification, PuttLab certification and Bachelor of Psychology.

The other major award of the night was the Service to the South Australian Golf Industry award which went to 47-year PGA Professional Allan Telford for his outstanding efforts in growing the game throughout the state.

2021 SA Golf Industry award winners

SACGSA Graduate of the Year: Jordan Sherratt (Thaxted Park Golf Club)
Girls OOM Vardon Trophy Winner: Amelia Whinney (The Grange Golf Club)
Boys OOM Vardon Trophy Winner: Charlie Nobbs (The Vines Golf Club of Reynella)
Women’s OOM Vardon Trophy Winner: Amelia Whinney (The Grange Golf Club)
Men’s OOM Vardon Trophy Winner: Jack Buchanan (Glenelg Golf Club)
MyGolf Deliverer of the Year: Sarah King (Glenelg Golf Club)
PGA Club Professional of the Year: Ian Pritchard (Mount Osmond Golf Club)
GMA Excellence in Golf Club Management: Steven Freeling (Westward Ho Golf Club)
Service to the South Australian Golf Industry: Allan Telford
Country Volunteer of the Year: Diana Perkins (Naracoorte Golf Club)
Metropolitan Volunteer of the Year: ‘Wednesday Warriors’ (Mawson Lakes Golf Club)
SAGCSA Excellence in Turf Management: Stephen Pellatt (Blackwood Golf Club)
PGA Coach of the Year – High Performance: Gareth Jones (Glenelg Golf Club)
PGA Coach of the Year – Game Development: Sarah King (Glenelg Golf Club)