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DRIVE YOUR CAREER FORWARD WITH ROOKIEGOLF.COM

Facts

  • Golf has become a glamour sport –
  • Played by millions – All over the world
  • All ages
  • All classes
  • Watched by millions more
  • Involves over 30 nations in international competitions
  • Golf is the biggest sport in the UK - with four million participants
  • Golf Industry in the UK has developed rapidly over past decade
  • Increase in pay and play courses
  • Increase in commercial complexes with driving ranges,
  • leisure facilities and hotels
  • Large number of initiatives being developed to promote golf among juniors.
  • The more initiatives that are developed, the greater the need for people to coach, etc.
  • Lot of lottery money coming into golf –
  • This will provide more opportunities for juniors from all backgrounds to take up the game
  • All these developments are creating greater job opportunities in coaching, development and management.


 

GET ON COURSE FOR A CAREER

Find out:


MAKING A LIVING FROM GOLF

Every year hundreds of talented amateur golfers consider a career as a golf professional and wonder whether they have what it takes to be successful.

There are two main types of Golf Professional, the Tournament Player and the Club Professional. They have their own separate routes into the profession.

Tournament Players – these are the golfers with outstanding skills, the elite players, who specialise in tournament playing. They have no day-to-day club responsibilities. Their income comes from prize money and sponsorship.

To become a Tournament Player, you must first obtain a qualifying card.

Competition for these cards is very intense.

Just how hard is it to be a golfer?

Apart from being pro golfers, Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia all have two things in common: they’re very rich and adored by millions of fans worldwide.

Given that, it’s not surprising that a lot of people want to follow in their footsteps. And now that golf is the biggest sport in the UK with four million participants, just how do you make it?

Well, it’s not easy. Players have to qualify for the European Tour (40 tournaments competed by Europe’s top golfers). In September last year 500 golfers entered the first stage of the European Tour’s qualifying school at five different courses, with the aim of being one of the successful 35 to be invited to join this year’s Tour.

According to John Edgington, pro at the Warren Golf Club in Essex, it isn’t even easy to make it to the qualifying school.

"The basic problem is money," he says. "This is the first time I’ve tried to qualify as it’s only now can I afford to. At my last club, as a pro, I was earning just £45 a week. It costs £832 alone to enter the qualifying school for the European Tour."

If successful, he’ll still have £50,000 to find for the cost of travelling, but then he’ll be in with a shot of winning the huge prize money on offer (a Tour win can often mean a prize in excess of £150,000).

(Thanks to the Daily Telegraph for allowing us to include the above article from T2 – its paper for teenagers)

For further information on this career route contact:

PGA European Tour
Wentworth Drive
Virginia Water,
Surrey
GU25 4LS

www.europeantour.com


Club Professional – Club Professionals are attached to a specific Golf Club. They concentrate on teaching golf, repairing clubs and selling golf equipment. The Pro’s shop is at the heart of most clubs. Most of the playing activity is centred around the club professional, so the work is very demanding, with very long hours during the golf season. However, if you are dedicated and prepared to work hard, the work is very rewarding.

There is only one qualification route to becoming a club professional and that is through the PGA Trainee Diploma Programme.

For full details of this programme go to our Qualifications section.

What Else Can You Do?

Perhaps a professional’s life is not for you.

Maybe you don’t want to give up your amateur status ?

There is a wide range of golf-related occupations that will allow you to make a career from your hobby and still continue to play as an amateur:

Greenkeeper – the greenkeeper’s role is absolutely vital to any golf club. It is becoming a very popular career choice, and there are a wide range of training courses available. See College courses section.

Some more golfing careers that you may want to consider:

  • Caddie
  • Coach
  • Custom Club Maker
  • Development Officer for golf (English Golf Union and the Golf Foundation have national/regional development officers. Local authorities also employ development officers to promote different sports)
  • Golf Club Steward
  • Golf Course Architect
  • Golf Photographer/Sports Photographer
  • Golf Writer/Sports Journalist
  • Physiotherapist
  • Sports Presenter for t.v. or radio
  • Sports Retailing – in one of the specialist golf stores such as American Golf, or in the golf department of a general sport’s store.

AND with the development of sports web sites there will be a range of careers with Sports Internet companies.

COMING SOON...

Rookiegolf will be bringing you more information on all these careers, including:

interviews with people in the job
qualifications needed
advice
contact details.

See our current job profiles in the people in jobs section.


People in Jobs | Qualifications | College/Uni Courses
Scholarships | Work Experience