GAVIN KIRKMAN | 52 | PGA OF AUSTRALIA CEO | MELBOURNE
WHERE did it all start for me? I grew up and was educated in Boonah, a small town in south-east Queensland, before I studied management and finance on the Gold Coast. Not long after that I completed a course on all aspects of golf business with ClubCorp in Dallas, USA. More recently I completed the AICD Governance Course in Melbourne.
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My first job was in a sports store before I gained experience in various sports facilities. I coached squash and played it professionally until 1987 when PGA professional Denis Brosnan gave me an opportunity to work in the golf business. I held down senior management roles in facilities including Royal Pines Resort and Lakelands Golf Club on the Gold Coast before I became the Queensland PGA’s executive officer for six years. I have spent the past six years working at the PGA national office. To say I’m honoured to be appointed as the CEO of the PGA of Australia is a huge understatement.
“You cannot work within golf and with our PGA professionals
and understand the game in total unless you play it.”
The Kirkmans have a little bit of a history with golf. My grandfather, William Kirkman, was the best golfer in our family, playing off plus-3 and competing in events in Brisbane prior to World War II. Four generations of Kirkmans have played competition golf at Boonah Golf Club – William, my father Brian, my eldest son Mitchell, and yours truly. My wife Sonia was the first female to graduate from the Griffith Uni and PGA IGI Diploma and Resort Management degree and now runs a consulting business and distributes an international female clothing range.
My cousin Andrew, who is now the general manager at The Lakes Golf Club, is someone I am very proud of. His skills and style of management are progressive and modern. I love how he manages private clubs with this approach while still maintaining the traditions. But who is currently the best golfer in the family? Andrew and Sonia … in a playoff!
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My father, who passed way in 1987, introduced me to the game at Boonah Golf Club in 1975. Because he worked a nine-day fortnight, every second Monday my older brother (Michael) and I played with Dad. We used a 5-iron and putter and we learned to feel our way around the nine-hole layout. I became passionate about the PGA when I caddied for my father in the Boonah Pro-Am and his pro was Peter McWhinney. What a day! I got some tips, learnt some new skills … and words.
I have been fortunate to have been given leadership responsibility throughout my career. For me leadership is about listening to all your stakeholders, forming strong working and commercial relationships and building trust. In my case that has been with my staff, the membership and the partners with whom we do business and on whom we rely. We need to be progressive and innovative. We need to invest … create an environment and culture on what we do as an association. If we understand our partners’ needs and how our staff and PGA professionals think and behave, this will lead to productivity in the workplace and development across all areas for all PGA professionals and our sport.
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I love working with people and enjoy helping people reach their potential. I also enjoy developing and being involved in great events or what I like to call great “experiences” – lessons, retail, tournaments, education and programs relating to golf – and this is done through service, detail, planning, innovation and the one-percenters.
A good leader provides direction and vision. You must have both the short term goals well set within the parameters of a five-year plan. The Holden Scramble is a great example of what can be achieved if you have good vision. And it is clear from recent meetings with two international PGA CEO’s that thinking nationally, even globally but acting locally in our game is critical. I have had six leaders as bosses in my career and I can say they are still friends and are still available to me for a chat about the game and to provide advice. I am fortunate.
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I love playing golf, whether for work, with my mates or for fun with my family. My eldest son and youngest daughter both play very nicely. My current handicap is 10 and I have been a member of Huntingdale Golf Club in Melbourne for nearly three years. I feel if you are going to be a leader within the golf industry you must find time to play our sport, whether it be nine holes, 18 holes, mini-golf or even just hitting balls at the range. I believe you cannot work within golf and with our PGA professionals and understand the game in total unless you play it. I need to know what our PGA pros do and be in regular contact with all aspects of the game and consumer behaviours.
The late, great Arnold Palmer objected to hats being worn indoors. I feel many Australian clubs are moving with the times and the new regime of club managers are making inroads with the modernisation of etiquette. I fully respect and love the traditions of the game and we need clubs to uphold what their membership requires. However, the next generation of golfers will want a new model and I think the signage and welcome messages at facilities should be like at Wembley Golf Complex or Emerald Lakes Golf Club that highlight “everyone is welcome”. This can only assist in balancing the game and experience to the age demographics and breaking down some of the current barriers. I am still with Arnie on the “no hats indoors” call. Maybe I’m a little old fashioned…
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What can we learn from other sports? Cricket, netball and tennis are doing a great job with innovative formats and programs and are making changes to meet society needs. As an industry we need to look at what we can do as a sport and I feel the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth was a good start – with excellent results. Personally, I’m a huge NRL fan and follow the Queensland State of Origin team along with the Melbourne Storm. They both have a great leader in Cameron Smith – someone we can all learn from with the way he conducts himself.
We can use the example of bowls for consideration as a sport and business model because of the way it made changes not only to its format and dress code, but also its ‘back of house’. Bowls Australia has worked very hard at improving its facilities and its governance model with a national focus and delivery. This paves the way for stronger relationships with commercial and government partners at a federal and state level that can then engage the local government and community.
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My existing knowledge and relationships within the PGA of Australia should help me settle into my new role. I have a very strong work ethic and I am very much results-driven. I would say my other strengths would include strong and transparent governance to the membership and our Board, with the assistance of our chief operating officer and company secretary Stu Hergt. Together we will continue to deliver in this area. Regular consistent communication is key to a progressive association.
Events and education management is a passion of mine and this is how we will promote the game and generate player pathways. We have a very innovative and dedicated team at the PGA that now delivers 300 pro-am tournaments, the Australian PGA Championship, Fiji International, World Super 6 Perth, Holden Scramble, education programs both domestically and internationally and the list goes on… The other key strength I will bring to the PGA will be relationship building. I feel as a sport and organisation we need to develop and, more importantly, maintain strong commercial and government business relations across all sectors and grow confidence in the strength of our association and the game through collaboration and trust, which comes from strong delivery and growth. I feel we have a strong team that will deliver in this area, too.
The ultimate PGA Professional boasts a well rounded combination of qualifications, education, achievements and experience. We have over 2,800 vocational and tournament members. Many have excelled. I like to emphasise to all our members and potential members that the PGA is their association, that it is there to serve and lead. I like to borrow from the immediate past chairman Mark Gibson his often said quote that the model PGA Professional is one who “dares to teach and never ceases to learn.”
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I have been very fortunate to spend quality time with great PGA professionals such as the late Norman Von Nida and Kel Nagle, the first PGA Immortal Peter Thomson, Peter Senior, Ian Baker-Finch and many more. They all demonstrated greatness on the course but also how important it is to be great off it. This is why many of our players are strong role models and our behaviours as a sport hold great integrity. Our current chairman Peter O’Malley leads by example in this area, demonstrating the importance of creating relationships while on tour with fellow pros, corporates and industries not only within Australia but overseas.
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In life we should not fear mistakes. We all make them. In hindsight in my previous role I would have introduced the current Membership Satisfaction Survey, which has proved so valuable, earlier. It has now been in place for two years with an uptake of over 70 percent of members engaged. This great two way communications tool has set new benchmarks and given our team the data we need to continue to improve and grow services and programs. Our members need to engage with their association proactively across all areas. Like any profession, continuous education is critical and it has taken us time to develop more online modules but we now deliver regular webinars for our members. PGA professionals play, coach and develop the game better than anybody and with that our team will continue to promote and work with the industry to have our members recognised. We need to work more on marketing our vocational members and their programs along with our current stars playing on our PGA Tour of Australasia and on many tours globally. The Australian public and golf consumers need to meet and learn more about our PGA professionals, like they do in other codes. When I look into the future I would like to see members of the PGA of Australia be the strong leader in all aspects of golf, including business and management.
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Australia’s PGA Trainee Program remains a worldwide leader in its field primarily because of its stronger playing assessment, which is the toughest globally. Our graduates are very good golfers and play at a level that will allow them to understand every aspect of golf, regardless of their career pathway. We are recognised by many sports on the quality of this program and are one of the few sports trainee programs that is “work-based” and where our PGA trainees are indentured to PGA members who have been accredited through a regulated training module. The PGA Trainee Program is delivered through an e-Learning platform that is state-of-the-art and keeping up with educational trends recognised globally.
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Like most people in the game, I have my pet peeves on the fairways. Slow play, not getting relief from divots, seeing par events in a Saturday competition and hearing golfers complain about golf course superintendents doing annual course renovations. This is best practice and proactive maintenance on your club’s behalf. Be patient … and thankful. But I am very excited about the R&A’s proposed modernisation of the rules and changes. If they’re reading this, relief from a fairway divot definitely needs to be brought into play. As for slow play, time penalties should be introduced if you do not keep up or meet the time specified. The new proposed rules have plenty of opportunities to see pace of play improve. At club level, the “hit when ready” policy should continue to be encouraged at all times.
Perks of my job? Well, I was in Augusta in April to witness Masters champion Sergio Garcia achieve his dream. In fact, I got to sit on the practice green with more than 100 officials and be part of the green jacket ceremony. It was a very special moment that I will personally cherish for a long time. I have been fortunate to play with some of the greatest Aussie players of all time in Peter Senior, Ian Baker-Finch and Wayne Grady, along with other sporting celebrities like cricket great Ian Healy, basketball legend Andrew Gaze, Formula 1 icon Nigel Mansell and the King of rugby league, Wally Lewis. I also once played 18 holes with rock legend Alice Cooper and what a great experience that was – never judge a book by its cover.
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Who’s Australia’s greatest professional golfer? Greg Norman made a huge impact to the business and growth of the game in Australia from the mid-1980s and we all enjoyed the halcyon days. We also had the greats like Grady, Baker-Finch, Senior, Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby, Scott Hend, Marcus Fraser, with plenty more following. You can never forget what “The Von” did with two of our greatest, Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle. They put Australia on the map in world golf and when we speak about greats, Karrie Webb does have a playing record second to none. We were blessed to have Jan Stephenson, Jane Crafter and Rachel Hetherington flying the flag internationally for so many years, too.
What is really exciting is the new age of the professional golfer, led by Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman along with Minjee Lee. We are in good hands with our professional talent and we need to work closer with all our members playing globally to ensure we are marketing not only our players inside the top-50 rankings, but all players who are flying the Aussie flag around the globe.
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So what’s next for the PGA of Australia? Greater emphasis on providing member benefits and greater focus on ensuring opportunities, job security and success for our members at every level are key to my vision for the future. I want to see the great brand of the PGA continue to grow in statue and relevance in Australia. We will continue to innovate the game and create events that will see all demographics follow golf. We will work strategically with our partners, knowing that some of our golf tournaments are now part of the entertainment business. While we will maintain the traditions of some events, we understand that to attract the younger audience we need new, innovative formats.
One exciting innovation for the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia is PGA TV, our live streaming platform featuring some of our state PGA championships. We are streaming the last round of some of these tournaments for free. This will help provide greater access for golf fans to Australian golf tournaments but also assist us in growing and promoting tournaments, partners t and, of course, the players. The Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship was the second tournament behind the Victorian PGA Championship to have the final round live-streamed on PGA TV. This initiative is being well received by golf fans and drawing plenty of commendations from our industry partners.
Through PGA TV we also have another platform to promote the benefits of a PGA professional via the 28-Day Challenge. This major marketing initiative for 2017 has seen 907 golfers signing up and more than 15,000 individuals visiting the Find a PGA Pro website since the program’s launch.
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Attracting the big names Down Under is always a challenge and of course we’d love an open chequebook to do so. We really love having our Australian players come home and we hope Jason Day will be able to join his fellow Aussies later this year. For their flair and popularity with all demographics, I’d love to get Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas to Australia. And there’s always room for Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els. We will continue to do what we can to make our tournaments appealing for golf’s biggest names.
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Is working in golf as glamorous as it seems? Yes, and after 32 years it is very easy for me to go to work each day as I work in sport, with PGA pros, visit beautiful courses that sit within the green space and promote health benefits for a game that is inclusive for all, not to mention being a game you can play forever.
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How would I like to be remembered in my time as CEO? I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me, but hopefully as somebody who made the PGA a more diverse association and be a partner that all government, commercial and industry partners look up to for leadership, advice and delivery and promotion of the game. I hope to be part of the leadership of golf that brings the peak and state golf bodies closer together and I hope to increase engagement with all the PGA membership and have them working together. I hope to continue our growth of player pathways with all tours globally and have the PGA Tour of Australasia recognised by players. I would like to see more PGA of Australia members support and engage with “their association” and see a more balanced representation with females playing golf at all levels – coaching, administrating and leading the game in all areas on and off the course. Excuse me while I get to work.
