You don’t know Ron Chopper, yet we all know Ron Chopper – or at very least a golfer just like him.
Ron is the quirky alter ego of Cottesloe Golf Club teaching pro Matthew Heath, who was voted the WA PGA Club Professional of the Year in 2020 but is becoming better known for his online videos featuring his fictional sidekick than his well-earned accolades. Ron has taken on such a life of his own that Heath says, “I may as well change my name to Ron as no one calls me Matt anymore”.
If Ron Chopper remains a mystery to you, search for him on Facebook. Yes, Ron has his own Facebook page, where he is described as “your favourite everyday golfer”.
Like several newer aspects of golf, Ron was born from COVID. At Heath’s former club of Pinjarra, the general manager was seeking to circulate a message to members about the new playing guidelines and how the pro shop would operate under pandemic-led restrictions. Not content with simply sending a bland e-mail, Heath decided to jazz up the message with a video.
“I thought, Maybe I’ll just act it out, try to make everyone laugh. Because it was a terrible time,” he says. “So I just put on a hat and went through what to do when you come in, in regards to scanning in and walking straight to the tee and leaving your cards in a box. I just acted it out and put it on the Facebook page and it just blew up. The PGA [of Australia] used it to promote golf again… and then I got more requests to do another video and be this bloke.”
And so he did. Now there are dozens of videos on the dedicated Ron Chopper Facebook page.
Ron is recognisable for his ubiquitous straw hat and partially pink shirt but became more notable for his antics, which every club pro in the world must relate to, just perhaps not rolled up into one golfer. Across the growing range of situations Heath has devised for Ron are pro-shop arrivals, lesson interactions, rules queries, pro-am nightmares, ambrose-team shenanigans and plenty of general golfer quirks on display.
In some videos, Heath plays himself as a secondary character with some classic, hilarious moments with Ron. He’s careful not to be too critical of club golfers, yet even the stuffiest of members would get a chuckle from Ron’s zany ways. Part of the genius of Ron is we all know another golfer with at least one of his traits. Heath simply put them all together and brought them to life in one imaginary golfer. Besides, Ron’s bad habits are a little like slow play: we all admonish it but no one ever admits to being a culprit, so there is no direct criticism of a single golfer. However, some have joked to Heath that they don’t want to talk to him anymore lest he use them for ‘Ron material’.
“There’s no malice in it,” Heath says, “but I am getting a lot of messages from guys who run pro shops and club pros who obviously wanted to vent this whole time and they’re using Ron as an avenue to do that. All these pros just wanted to let people know what it’s like to be in the shop seven days a week and this is how they’re doing it.”
Such is the breadth of the internet, Heath has received praise from around the world plus ideas about what Ron might do next. One country club in Spain was so enamoured with the idea, it offered to host Heath anytime he might happen to travel there. He’s also had golf companies asking to be featured, whether subtly or not, in his videos.
If there’s one nitpick, Ron’s golf swing looks much too refined for a true ‘chopper’. But when you’re a professional golfer like Heath, that’s not something you can easily disguise, despite the number of tops, duffs and woefully errant shots Ron executes in the clips.
“When you give a golf lesson, you sort of have to show people what they’re doing wrong,” Heath explains, using his deliberately topped shot as an example. “Just from coaching, I developed that shot quite well, and I can definitely do that on command more than hitting a straight shot… which is a bit sad!”
Next up could be instruction videos. Heath says the messages given will be informative and accurate, but just delivered “the way Ron would give out tips”.
We can’t wait.
