International PGA Professionals' Blog

Growing the Game in the Baltic States

This week's contributor to the PGA Professionals' International Blog is PGA Professional William Thursby.  William recently concluded two years of work in the small Baltic nation of Estonia, where he was the only PGA Head Professional in the country.

When I first visited Estonia in December of 2003, I never would have imagined playing golf in one of the Baltic States, let alone living and working as a golf professional.  Next thing you know, and a few years later, I was the Head Golf Professional and Director of Golf at the Estonian Golf & Country Club.

Still today, there is only one PGA Professional in the country.  Golf in Estonia just broke through the Baltic ice sometime in the early 90’s, but didn’t really catch on until after 2000.  The golfing population of around 2,500 active golfers has grown significantly in the past 5 years. They are a very ambitious bunch!  In the middle of summer, when daylight hours of “white nights” extend into the early hours of the morning, you can find golfers coming off the course and even still on the range at midnight.  Soon after I moved to Estonia in March of 2008, I learned that if there isn’t snow on the ground, there will be play, regardless of temperature. One of my students, Villu Poldmae, told me, “there is no bad weather in Estonia, only bad clothes.”

Working overseas was quite an experience for me.  The people at the EGCC made the work visa issue really easy on me. I would simply fill out some paperwork, then go pick up the work visa and my Estonian ID card.  One of the most amazing things to me was the language barrier…there wasn’t one.  Before I got to Estonia, I wondered, “how am I going to communicate on the lesson tee?” Because each of the eastern European countries has their own language, they all use English to communicate among each other. This was quite a relief!

Because golf is a relatively young sport in Estonia, the golf culture is somewhat uneducated.  I was the first “Head Pro” in the country, and the responsibilities of an assistant pro were unheard of before I arrived.  This is something that should be defined by any professional considering working in this area. Another issue is handicapping. There seem to be a lot of “ego” handicaps, and this can cause problems when it comes to tournament pairings.  The EGA handicap system is something I feel really needs to be addressed in order to keep players in check.

Y.E. Yang Wins the Season's Final Major – The View from Korea

This week's contributor to the PGA Professionals' International Blog is PGA Professional Jeong O. Rim of the North Florida PGA Section. Jeong is the PGA director of instruction at the Teddy Valley Golf & Resort Golf Academy in Korea. She has been featured in numerous Korean golf publications such as Golf Herald, Golf View and Seoul Economy Golf Magazine and also appears on air for SBS Golf Channel. She annually provides a winter training camp based in Florida for promising Korean junior golfers. Teddy Valley, located on Korea’s tropical Jeju Island, includes a world-class hotel, golf academy and spa facilities along with championship golf.

Since it was around 7:00 a.m. when Yong-eun won the PGA Championship, I did not see his victory on live TV but saw the news with great pride. Immediately after his victory, I received several calls from my friends who were aware of Young-eun's Jeju heritage.

Korea is very proud of its many successful sports stars. Jeju Islanders considered the victory as their very own and lived vicariously through Young-eun's special moments and speak of it as if they had actually played. There was non-stop media coverage of the victory and Jeju Island is still filled with banners of congratulations from the airport to golf facilities. Images of the championship victory abound and Mr. Yang's family hosted a very large victory party for the islanders.

The effect of Yong-Eun's victory has been most profound on my junior players. The belief that they too can succeed with the likes of other Korean golf professionals on the world scene is more prominent than ever before. Because Korea has had so much success around the world in women's golf, we have almost come to expect greatness from our many female touring professionals. Most Koreans would agree that with his highly successful track record, K.J. Choi would have been the more likely victor at a major championship on the men's tour. Young-Eun's historic win has elevated the hopes of an entire generation of golfers. Because of the prestige that the PGA Championship brings, my junior golfers are more excited than ever about the winter training program I have created which gives them a chance to visit and practice in Florida. They realize what an opportunity it would be for them to work with other PGA Professionals and utilize the great practice facilities at places like the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.

It is not easy for a Korean player to succeed on any international golf tour. The sacrifices are many. Although very popular and more accessible than ever before, golf is still a difficult sport for many to participate in. Yong-Eun, like so many others, has sacrificed many years on the Korean PGA tour, the Asian Tour, the Japan PGA tour and others before finally getting to the world stage - the 91st PGA Championship.

Cyrus Janssen on What Attracts Players in China

The contributor for the inaugural PGAmagazine.com PGA Professionals' International Blog is PGA Professional Cyrus Janssen. Cyrus is a PGA golf instructor at Sheshan Golf Club, a private club located outside of Shanghai, China. The club will play host to the first World Golf Championship event held outside the U.S. from November 5–8. The $7 million purse is the largest purse of any tournament in Asia.

The market here in China for custom fitting is very strong because of two areas: Technological innovation and the introduction of 3-D custom fitting. 

In Asia if you can be on the forefront of technology you will succeed. The Chinese love technology and if you can show them a 3-D model of their swing and how their current clubs are not properly fitted they will be very inclined to fix that problem with the purchase of a new set. It’s all about brand and image in China, so customers not only buy whole sets of clubs, they usually also buy the golf bag, shoe bag, and hat of their club company as well. Chinese golfers tend to be very loyal to their club manufacturers of choice.

Although most of the world is experiencing the hard realities of the financial crisis, China seems to be the country where “luxury brands” can prosper. Golf clubs are definitely considered a luxury product because golf is still an elite sport in the eyes of many in China and because of the large luxury taxes in China, buying a new set of golf clubs will sometimes cost double the price of what a similar set in the US would run for. Golfers in China just like to have the newest and greatest clubs and are very prone to buying new sets of clubs without any real motive.

I also spend more and more time these days on travel. We are currently exploring opportunities to take our membership on visits to Thailand, Dubai, and Florida for the upcoming winter season.

You may not be aware that for many years tough visa restrictions always plagued mainland Chinese from traveling outside the country. Nowadays wealthy mainland Chinese have usually immigrated to a new country and in the process acquired a new passport allowing them to enjoy such travel. In my 2.5 years in China, our golf club has organized and taken a group of 15–20 members to Scotland each year to play the top links courses. These trips usually last 7–10 days playing 5–7 rounds of golf. Playing at St. Andrews or Carnoustie is a dream for many golfers, but the Chinese view this as a once in a lifetime experience.