I am definitely not alone in this, but I have spent countless hours

• hitting golf balls on the driving range

• chipping into circles

• doing putting drills, trying different strokes and grips

• reading golf books and watching YouTube

• taking golf lessons from some of the best PGA Golf Professionals

• and watching golf tournaments both live and on TV

I started playing golf at the age of 12 as a beginner, some people think that all Golf Professionals never start as beginners and are all freakish childhood prodigies of some sort.

That was definitely not me and to make it even harder, I actually made the decision to become a beginner again changing from left-handed to right-handed at the age of 19, two years after turning professional. So, believe me when I say I know how hard and frustrating golf can be.  

For the last 32 years, I have dedicated myself as a PGA Golf Professional, trying to become

THE BEST VERSION OF MY GOLFING SELF.

I’ve travelled to 34 countries playing tournament golf, Pro-ams and golf coaching trips.

Approaching the 30,000 hours of coaching in Australia, Asia and Europe to all ages, genders, and many different nationalities.

Starting my Golf Apprentice at the Famous Palm Meadows Golf Course on The GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA.

In my first year as a trainee Professional being involved with the biggest Golf Tournament in Australia, The Palm Meadows Cup. This exposed me to being around and watching first hand the best golfers in the world like Greg Norman, Curtis Strange, Ray Floyd, Jumbo Ozaki and many many more and having the opportunity to caddie for Graham Marsh.

Watching and observing from inside the ropes, listening to their coaches, watching practice rounds, locker room routines and media interviews.

Having gone to America to play in 1998 and 1999 I was also shocked to see that the mini-tour tournaments there were played from the forward tees to promote us to getting comfortable shooting low scores. Playing with fellow young professionals from all over the world seeing how each country prepared young players to become the best version of their golfing selves.

All of the exposure has helped me to understand what works and what doesn’t and back in the day I have had moments where I could get amazing practice results and hit perfect repetitive shots.

Sometimes even winning multiple major championships in a single day!

The biggest problem that I and many of my colleges experienced was going onto the golf course and playing like

A TOTAL IDIOT!

Seriously, “how can you practice so well and then just somehow totally lose your motor skills between the driving range and the first tee”.       

I have often thought of walking back to ask the group behind if they had maybe found my motor skills lying on the golf course somewhere.
Unconsciously It became my main goal NOT to embarrass myself whilst playing, even at a professional level. This of course did not help and playing defensively with fear and control does not seem to work either.

Over the years it has become obvious that most students regardless of their background would consistently turn up with the normal and reoccurring golfing problems, that I had also unfortunately experienced time after time.

Of course, all these separate issues were addressed in the relevant practice areas before hearing again about their inconsistencies out on the golf course.  

JUST three years ago (2018) something changed…... I started coaching at a golf course that did not have a driving range but only a small practice hole. We could do the basics there, but I found myself going out on the course with my students to PLAY ON THE GOLF COURSE or ON-COURSE LEARNING.

We started practicing all the 5 different GOLF SHOTS and not just a specific one.

What really works is practicing them under real playing conditions and hitting a second ball were needed to gain the awareness lacking the first time hence where the phase:

“HOW TO MAKE YOUR SECOND SWING YOUR FIRST”

The 5 GOLF SHOTS being:

THE TEE SHOT – Driver or fairway wood

2ND SHOTS – fairway woods, hybrids, and irons

Approach shots - PITCHING between 20 and 80 metres

Around the green - CHIPPING and BUNKERS

and (do not forget) on the green - PUTTING

The RESULTS were SIMPLY AMAZING and the TRANSITION that EVERYBODY started to make was INSTANTANEOUS!  

The added extras were that EVERYBODY started to:

enjoy their lessons more

get more golf course exposure time

understood better which shot to hit, when and why  

learnt to focus ONLY on the things that matter

learnt to melt all the technical ingredients into a real playing situation

and started playing their DREAM GOLF

  It must be the best-kept secret in golf that we learn quicker on the golf course than on the boring driving range.

The interesting thing to also note here is that the knowledge my students was hearing was exactly the same, but the EXPERIENCE was totally different.

Also introducing a WORKBOOK so that the students could JOURNAL and MAP their progress and writing down their SECRETS they were learning whilst on the golf course. This has been a huge success.

AND last but not least without ever feeling like an idiot on the golf course again!

This has been so SUCCESSFUL and showed so much INSPIRATION that I have thought I am NOT going to be left out and only coach golfers to reach their full POTENTIAL, but I am also going to play competitively myself again and continue on my path of being the BEST GOLF VERSION OF MYSELF.

The Australian PGA Legends Tour and other Professional tournaments will be my concentration in 2021