Stacey Koppens is an NZPGA trainee professional at Fairview Golf Club. Photos / Rebecca Mauger
Playing social golf has never been enough for Stacey Koppens.
''I was driven, I wanted to be a professional golfer. Nothing else really filled that gap.''
But the Tauranga golf professional could not find the pathways and opportunities to further her career as a woman in golf.
Now she's able to do something about it as a Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) trainee professional playing and learning at Fairview Golf Course.
She's one of a handful of women doing the PGA traineeship in the Bay of Plenty. The programme teaches trainees all areas of golf including retail, club management, events, coaching, game development, repairs and maintenance. Stacey's mentor and coach is Andrew Gurney.
Stacey's focus and ultimate goal is to get more women and children into the sport.
''I get a real thrill about getting new people into the game.
''Not having the pathway to go forward and the recognition and the support is lacking for some of our girls. I went through a struggle as a young person with little opportunities for women in golf. It's better now though, but I would like to see more women having those opportunities.''
Stacey has been swinging golf clubs since the age of 4.
She begged her father to join the local golf club at age 8 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming an Auckland representative and winning the club bronze, then silver ladies club championship all by age 13. She has played both men's and women's pennants teams and has won club multiple championships.
She spent time in the United States with a view to playing golf at universities — but it wasn't for her.
''But when I came home I realised I couldn't really play social because I was so competitive. So it was a bit of a release playing in men's pennants.''
Stacey worked in outdoor education and real estate and had two children with husband Andrew. She quit real estate and considered returning to golf.
''I said to my husband, I can still play golf. I might go and do this. I went out and played and was just two over the card so I thought 'yeah, I can still do this'.''
Stacey did the PGA gateway programme before traineeship.
''It's hard, the apprenticeship is full-on. Because you're working in it and studying in it and playing, there's 20 games a year you have to play. It's busy.''
Coaching others planted the seed of getting more women into golf, and professional golf.
''A lot of intel came from coaching my mum — even though she was always around playing golf with Dad, she was uncomfortable at times and unsure what to do — she had a lot of questions.
''The golf club can be a very intimidating environment.
''It can be hard to know what to wear, what am I supposed to look like, what if someone tells me off? What if I don't have the right shoes? Who do I talk to if I have any questions?''
Stacey has a vision to organise short, sharp, fun engaging community events to make the game accessible.
She points to when she created a social four-hole golf outing for women.
''They were like 'four holes? I have time for that,' rather than 18 holes. And remove a lot of the rules so that they can play their own game of golf.
''You can tee it up, if it's in a bad place, don't worry you can just kick it out and actually, who cares? So just removing some of those barriers.
''Being that friendly face you turn up to helps a lot. And wear your leggings and your active tops and sneakers ... bring some balls and tees if you have got them otherwise don't worry ... it just changes what you're turning up to.''
Stacey's biggest goal would be to have a female pro-am — rather than male and female — and would aim to bring down the costs.
''We have amazing professional women in this country and I think that we should showcase the ambassadors, they get overlooked.''
Refer to Stacey's website www.staceykoppensgolf.com which also offer female online retail store Golf Girl.