Louie Chan talks to Gary Gilchrist during his first week in HK training with the HKGA squad as the newly appointed national team coach.
Louie Chan: What will be your coaching philosophy as the new HK Team Coach?
Gary Gilchrist: When you look around the world of sports, it’s such a team effort. You got basketball teams, football teams. Even individual likes professional golfer, everyone has a team around you. It’s impossible to do it on your own. So, I think that for me is exciting because when I meet all the coaches here, I feel that if we are all on the same boat as a team, we could do so much together, so it’s like Ducky (Tang) brings certain things into the team that Tim (Tang) doesn’t. And everybody brings something new to the team. Ducky has been around for many years. And he has put his heart and soul into golf in HK. He has seen all the pluses and minuses. He’s been helpful to me like everybody else to share their vision. The first foundation for me is to build a team and make us feel all confident in our system of training. And how we take these young boys and girls from the ages of 10 to 12 years old, which is your foundation to your 15 to 18, which are thinking about going to college. Some are thinking of turning professionals. Giving them a development plan and giving them the vision to do something special for their country.
LC: Any new plans and changes in the training system?
GC: Since I’ve been here, I see an enormous amount of talent. However, I think the biggest challenge here is you have to find a place to train them. A lot of countries have their own training facility. There’s only 5 golf courses and 8 driving ranges in HK. I think in the next 5 years, HKGA has to think about where we can take these students to our own facility to train them. Or where we can feel comfortable to train them. Without training, you ain’t getting better. Like the Swedes, Norwegian and Danish, they train their team coaches for 20 years. I think in the next 8 to 10 years, we can do some amazing things.
In America, I have to build my own facility. Most country clubs don’t have practice and good short game facilities. Even you have invested the money, you will get the result in 5 to 10 years. And you will see most of your good players leave and go training in China, Thailand, leaving in America, Canada and other countries.
You have to come up with a better plan to compete with the best. Otherwise, it’s like the eagle playing with the chicken. You will just be got eaten. With the talented kids in HK, you need to choose what tournament they go to play. Not one person can change the face of HK golf. If I think I can do it then I’m lying. So, when I got to meet Ducky, Tim and other coaches, I got excited. Because we got a lot of talent, knowledge and experience among us. The better we get together as a team, then we got more credibility from different golf courses when the kids are able do something bigger in the world of golf. The doors will open more and more. So that’s our goal.
I have met the Committee, and everyone seems really motivated and excited about doing something different. I am also excited to be part of it. It’s been an honour for me to train a national team. I love it.
LC: You had lots of success with Asian players. What are the similarities and differences between the local talents and other Asian players?
GC: Asian cultures are very high on academics and discipline. So, the kids I’m around are very well-mannered and disciplined. And they are hardworking. Their parents have a high standard for them. Some people may say their parents are hard on them, but I rather have parents are hard on me when I am young. So, I can be successful when I am older. To me, being hard on a positive way is the intention all about for them to be successful.
Just think about when you go to college in America, who are the smartest student? Most of them come from Asia. In American culture, you can dress anything you want to go to school. The kids think they can say and do whatever they want. And the parent believes that would create success? They are dreaming.
LC: How often will you come to HK as the national team coach?
GC: This is my first time I have ever come. We will have continued training, and the coaches will come to Atlanta then come back. No.1 is to work on the ranking system but to find the tournament the kids can go to play.
