The combination of a business degree and PGA training has put Corey Gerrard at the head of one of golf’s most respected brands
As he chaperones Bob Vokey to and from product testing during the week of the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, Corey Gerrard can’t help but catch himself.
In the moments between discussions centred on latest product releases, Gerrard wonders how it is that he came to be here. How a golf-mad kid from regional Victoria could conjure a pathway that would one day see him appointed as the global director of Vokey Wedges.
He tells graduates of the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program to not be afraid of diversions from ‘the plan’, yet, in some weird way, where he sits today at Titleist HQ in Carlsbad, California, is exactly where he always wanted to be.
Growing up in Swan Hill, four hours north-west of Melbourne, Gerrard was talented enough to be selected in Victorian junior squads. But as he dreamed of a life on tour, his parents directed him to first advance his education.
He was accepted to study law at Victoria University but, with a golf bug that continued to itch, Gerrard married up the timelines and devised a new plan. Rather than spend six years studying law, he would study for a Bachelor of Business at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga campus and then begin the three-year training to become a PGA member.
Playing remained a priority and after receiving the Norman Von Nida Rookie of the Year Award from the Queensland PGA in 2009, Gerrard set off to play mini tours in the US.
“I missed my first cut at like four or five-under and quickly realised that everyone’s really good at playing golf,” Gerrard recalls.
He returned to Australia and had stints at both Hyatt Regency Coolum and Twin Waters on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Working alongside the likes of Peter Heiniger, Grant Field and Steve Hutchison exposed Gerrard to the full scope of a PGA professional, but his transition into the equipment world was not entirely by design.
“In between giving lessons, I was kind of the accidental guy who was fitting product,” Gerrard adds of his time at Twin Waters. “I got to meet the Acushnet team and then a year or so later a job popped up in Melbourne to run the fitting centre and fitting network for Titleist ANZ. Within the first three months I was flown over to California and shown the ropes. That was when I realised that they’d given this job to a
guy that really had no clue.”
Self-deprecation aside, the combination of his university degree and “real-world” training through the Membership Pathway Program gave Gerrard the foundation to advance rapidly up the ranks, leading to his move to California in 2019 to take up the role as global product marketing manager for Titleist golf clubs.
“My PGA training opened my eyes to all these different jobs within golf that I had never considered,” Gerrard explains. “I still joke with people today that when I’m hiring, I look for PGA qualifications because I know they’re going to be a jack of all trades, that they put their hand up to do 15 different things at once and that they’re probably pretty good at all of them.
“The PGA brand is as strong as it’s ever been around the world because they know that if you’ve done that training, you’ve learned a lot, you’ve experienced something in the real world and it’s going to stand the test of time.”
And take you places you perhaps never thought possible.
• If you would like to explore the opportunities available through the Membership Pathway Program and PGA Institute visit pga.org.au/education
