Seeing a parent leave the house early to go to work, getting home late, hours of toil in between. Working on weekends when other parents are watching their kids play junior sport. These are just some of the many sacrifices PGA Professionals make, and it is not a job for everyone.
But if you love golf – truly love it – then suddenly a career spent working within golf clubs, helping others to get better and building your own business sounds like a dream come true.
There are a number of aspiring PGA Professionals following in the footsteps of their devoted parents, with a number of second-generational PGA Pros undertaking the PGA Membership Pathway Program to become an accredited expert in golf.
And there is a common denominator; a love of the game.
“My entire childhood was spent annoying Dad and all his staff because I never left the shop,” recalls Jesse Egea, who has commenced the PGA Membership Pathway Program under his father Andrew at Wolston Park Golf Club in Brisbane.
“School holidays I would go out as early as Mum would let me leave the house until as late as she would let me come back.
“Dad’s had a good career and a good life and loves the industry so it just made me think that this is what I should be doing.”
Like Andrew Egea, Virginia Golf Club Director of Golf Brett Maxwell is embracing the possibility of one day having two children join the PGA Professional ranks.
Son Zach boasts a growing amateur resume that includes a runner-up finish at last year’s Queensland Amateur while daughter Zoe has chosen to begin the Membership Pathway Program under her father at Virginia.
Admitting that Zoe was initially unsure of what she wanted to do when she finished high school, Brett simply opened the door to opportunity and let Zoe make her own choice.
“I never pushed it but obviously with me working in the golf industry they were always around golf and the golf club,” Maxwell says.
“They played all their other sports and I told them that if they wanted to pursue their golf I’d certainly help.”
“Zach is very adamant that playing is for him but if that doesn’t work out I could see him doing a the PGA Bridging Program and getting into coaching as well.”
There’s also Jessica Cook, who finished Year 12 at the end of 2017 was determined to see whether a life in golf was what she really wanted.
Obsessed with the game from an early age given her father Paul Cook was the long-time Head PGA Professional at Woodford Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast, Jessica used a gap year to see what else might be out there.
“When I realised that my mind could not get away from the golfing side of it, that was the sign that this was what I really wanted to do,” says Jessica, who is completing the PGA Menbership Pathway Program under John Victorsen Jnr at Wantima Country Club in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.
FEATURE IMAGE OF: Brett and Zoe Maxwell
