In China, the thrust is more on individual performance via tournaments rather than interprovincial competition.
The government paid players with Overend coaching six days a week, eight hours daily.
But his portfolio is broad, taking in basics such as swing to fitness, travelling and time management.
"I was helping them improve their English as well so it's all things wrapped up as one," he says, adding Oliver Luo, 16, a four handicapper, was living with him, wife Kirsty and their two children, Spencer, 9, and Piper, 7, and is here to finish his last three years of schooling.
"They are building slowly in China but, basically, essentially the rich can play so it's a relatively small community."
In his time there, one female teenager from the province turned professional but it takes about five years for players "to come out the other end".
The amateurs diligently "beat balls" but tend to struggle to adapt to "different things".
He juxtaposes that with budding talent here and what is lost not just in translation.
"Kiwi kids do things automatically because they are used to making decisions but, in China, kids have to be told."
The Chinese learn to play shots on a downhill slope but the following day will execute the same shot on the flat.
"Their coaches and parents sort things out for them and they do it but golf doesn't work that way."
All that, of course, has broadened Overend's horizon, as it were.
Needless to say, the Bay is godsend for the Overends.
"I'm loving it. The family's just come down and we've bought a house in Napier.
"Coming here is like Nelson where the climate is a lot similar," he says, already enjoying a "sense of belonging".
While it's important to accept golf for what it is - a sport in decline - it's equally imperative that coaches provide a platform for people to enjoy it.
"That's the huge challenge. Golf is sometimes hard so people don't stick to it."
Keeping things in perspective at the top end is crucial for the starry-eyed Y generation of fairway tamers.
Overend points out in the USPGA, European and Japanese tours only 375 jobs exist and anyone not good enough is bound to miss out.
"There are probably more rocket scientists than golf pros making a living out there."
A late bloomer, he didn't play golf until his late teens but his talent was never in doubt, becoming a scratchie within two years before turning pro a year later.
The prospect of competing with other pros who lived on the course daily wasn't appetising and neither did a "self-absorbing" nomadic existence.
"To make that [playing] decision you have to be completely selfish."
It's a case of flying half way around the world to play or remaining with your wife and kids in a related field.
Taking the coaching pathway was a no-brainer.
