From First Swing to Success

What attracted you to the role you now have with the HKGA?

Actually, I never really had the ambition to work for a Golf Association or Federation and always worked ‘privately’ with my own Academy business and if you asked me 3 years ago I’d be in HK working for the GA I would say you’re mad! But as I spent more and more weeks on Tour I realized that development was where my passion lay – I feel very comfortable coming here and very much enjoyed everything so far with the GA team, its committee and the players. My wife is from Japan and she loves it here so that always helps…

What does the role involve, and what are your goals - short-term and beyond?

I think the role primarily involves 3 parts - the first part is working with all the stakeholders on developing a strategy that offers opportunity to players at all levels in HK - from taking their first swing to success as an elite player.

The second part is creating a coaching curriculum and then training the coaches who will deliver this curriculum. We are instigating a new HKGA Coach Certification Program and want to involve the best coaching talent in HK in GA programs and look that we all continually grow our coaching skills together.

The third part is being involved with directly coaching the players - at all levels. Obviously speaking Cantonese with the Golf for Schools program is beyond me, but I’ve been coaching at all stages of the Player Funnel as much as I can. I’ve been at tournaments in Europe with the players, recently with 13 players at the SE Asia games in Singapore, and then coached the Men’s team at the Eisenhower Trophy in Mexico before attending the Asia Pacific Amateur in Korea with Matthew Cheung and Leon D’Sousa early October.