Wendy Dragojlo’s coaching philosophy is empowering young girls at The National Golf Club.
A goof leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”
PGA professional Wendy Dragojlo may have never heard that quote attributed to former First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, yet she embodies those qualities in her coaching at The National Golf Club.
The way Dragojlo has helped build the junior program at The National was recognised at the PGA Awards in November when she was named the MyGolf powered by Ripper GC Deliverer of the Year. If Dragojlo has her way, it is an award one of her juniors may one day go on to win.
As the MyGolf numbers have increased alongside the Australian Golf Foundation Junior Girls Scholarship program at The National, Dragojlo has gone beyond coaching golf; she is now developing the leaders of tomorrow.
“In September last year, we had a junior fun day and we asked our scholarship girls to become leaders for the day,” Dragojlo said. “We had multiple activities over the day and those older girls led the groups around the different activities.
“It was a great experience for them to grow within the sport themselves, but also to connect with the new players coming through and to be role models. I definitely see my role as being a leader and I’d like to think that I can hopefully pass some of those things on to the other girls.
“One girl who’s perhaps not the strongest golfer recently asked me about starting to volunteer or assist with some coaching. I thought that was fantastic, that the girls are thinking like that, because they’re thinking about potentially being leaders or coaches in the future.”
Praised by the families of those she coaches for her warm, engaging and inclusive coaching style, Dragojlo is enabling youngsters to fall in love with the sport.
Her method of achieving this is to make fun a focus for newcomers and to provide a space where they can develop new friendships. She believes this is particularly important when introducing girls to golf for the first time.
“That first experience is really, really important. Making it fun,” Dragojlo says. “No pressure on performance or anything like that. Just creating a game-style atmosphere and getting the girls to have fun together and connect with each other. Learn, become mates with each other and feel really comfortable. That’s a really big part for the girls particularly, but even for the young boys as well, connecting with each other and having fun.
“Having friends, building connection is a massive driver for staying in the sport, but also feeling that growth that you get back from the sport. So feeling like it’s an area that you are building yourself in, I think helps to feel like you still want to stay in the sport itself.
“Recently we had a new group of girls involved and just getting them to introduce themselves and talk about something that was fun from the last week. They’re getting used to speaking to the group and getting to talk about their week, opening up together and just really trying to get them to connect with each other.”
Whether you’re looking to get a junior started in golf or you want to improve your own game, your local PGA professional knows how to help. Visit golf.com.au/find-a-pga-pro to find the PGA professional closest to you.
