Nick McCormack’s dedication to juniors is having a lasting effect.
Kids have been coming to see Nick McCormack for golf lessons for more than 40 years. They arrive with an interest in exploring a burgeoning passion for the game; they leave with lessons that McCormack believes will guide them not only in golf but in how they live their lives.
Introduced to the game by his father in Goulburn, NSW, at age 13, such was McCormack’s instant affinity for golf that he began a PGA professional traineeship under Bob Payne and Noel Matthew at Kooringal Golf Club at the age of 16.
Prior to his father’s encouragement, McCormack had viewed golf as a sport for old men, yet he has devoted much of his 50-year career as a PGA professional to growing the game at its grass roots.
Among the initiatives he has driven in South Australia is the McCormacks Junior Golf Club for kids aged between 4 and 14, pushed for the inclusion of golf into the South Australian Public Schools Amateur Sports Association and with Jan Douglass helped to establish the golf academy at Henley High School in Adelaide.
Yes, he has seen his share of good players come through those various programs, but it is the skills the juniors take with them into their day-to-day lives that McCormack believes are most valuable.
“The game teaches you to be who you are,” says McCormack, who now does most of his coaching at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide.
“It also teaches them respect, honesty and discipline and brings the confidence out in some of these kids. Because most sports are team sports, golf teaches you that if you’re out there on your own and you do make mistakes, you pick yourself up and focus on the next shot.
“It teaches them to be a little bit more patient; understanding that it’s just a game and it’s not the end of the world if something happens.
“It’s building their character, understanding who they are and how they can develop themselves. Golf teaches kids all of that.”
The resilience that life requires is an element that McCormack introduces early in his coaching of juniors. He has seen the eyes of boys and girls light up when they hit a golf shot just right… and the sense of frustration and disappointment when they cannot repeat that feeling with every subsequent swing of a golf club.
“That’s what golf does. It lifts you up, drops you down, and then I’m lucky enough to be there to lift their spirits up to make sure it’s not going to be the end of the world,” McCormack says.
“Remember that it’s just a game, enjoy the company and be relaxed because the next shot might be a good shot and you can always recover. You don’t hit a bad shot and sit down and bawl your eyes out. You’ve just got to get up and get on with it.
“That’s always been a bit of a challenge to me, to try and put that across to those kids. It’s not the end of the world. If something goes wrong, you’ve just got to get on with the job of playing the next shot.”
Although he has been prominent in his dedication to fostering junior golf, McCormack acknowledged the fellow PGA professionals who have assisted along the way. From a chance meeting at a pro-am that led to Alex Mercer becoming a mentor, Jack Newton’s fundraising efforts to make McCormacks Junior Golf Club affordable for kids, hard-working regional junior co-ordinators and the tireless efforts of people such as Jan Douglass and her daughter Sarah Douglass-Norris, McCormack is living the lessons he has learned during the past 50 years.
“I’ve been very lucky that I’ve come across some lovely people. But that’s what golf does,” McCormack adds. “It’s a game that I feel is one of the best games that you could ever play as an individual.
“Fantastic game. And I still love it, even at 70 years of age.”
To find the nearest junior program delivered by a PGA professional to you, visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/
